E sempre Laura!
Our new correspondent Miss Laura Hope Cruisey finishes her report from Santa Fe.
Everywhere we look there is Nicole Cabell – so exotic! Wow! Very interesting looking woman; and her new arias CD is the most advertised classical record around, and it is getting good reviews. She was kind of a Mrs. Obama on stage as Musetta – slap them men around and tell ‘em off! Boy, I want her on my side! And if you want high B-naturals, she’s your gal.
Only problem is, when she’s not above the stave, she isn’t. Musetta’s little prayer in Act IV disappeared under the orchestra (as you know there is virtually no orchestra at that point). Miss Cabell, who has a huge mouth and beautiful teeth, is big in the recording studio, and not so big otherwise. Better direction might make her a better artist. Why do I think she needs to go back to the vocal studio and sing a lot of Mozart?
Other ladies: Keep your ear cocked for Katharine Goeldner, a really “together” package of solid mezzo voice, nice looks, excellent stage demeanor; she’s the real thing. Be aware of Susanna Phillips; tall, nice shape, from Alabama, and a spritzy, big lyric soprano voice that knocked the spots off Fiordiligi vocally, perhaps not otherwise – but there was that conductor problem.
The second cast of La bohème boasted a Mimi from Lucca, Italy, one Signora Serena Farnocchia. Not bad; and I was so grateful for her understated death scene. No histrionics, she just – died. Nice to hear Puccini in its native tongue. Maybe a little passagio problem with Sra. F., but I’ll not be picky. Also interesting was a nice looking young man named Alexander Vinogradov who has a lovely warm bass voice. He was too young to sing Colline, but the audience let him get away with it and so will I.
Later: I have had lunch and I ate some posole with a lot of green chile to make my tongue sharper. Here goes: I have to talk about Jean-Philippe Rameau’s comedy ballet, Platée. Surprise! It was the best (only?) show of the summer! M. Laurent Pelly, designer-producer from gay Paree, was the hero of the piece and he made it a romp, an intelligent one. You know the story about a “romance” between Jupiter and the frog-lady Platée, that really didn’t happen tho’ she thought so? It’s silly stuff, and without a clever tenor to drag the female frog role you are in trouble.
Happily Santa Fe had Jean-Paul Fourchécourt, a whiz of a comic actor. Singer? Hell, Ira Siff can sing the notes a lot better; frankly I wondered why they didn’t cast a counter tenor in the part? But, then, he/she has to be funny, and little M/M Fourchécourt surely was that. What an impressive, giving performance! I want to hear him again, but I can’t think of a role; maybe more French baroque?
A Liverpool limey named Harry Bicket (who conducts in all the big houses), was a whiz-bang music director for the Rameau. It was long, loaded with dance numbers, male near-nudity and all kindsa stuff, and was a damn good show. Too bad you missed it.
Well, that’s a hop-skip-’n-jump thru the Santa Faux season! I omitted a lot of detail, but this is already too long. Was this the worst season SFO has had in a very long time? Some have been saying that. Lots of talk around Santa Fe about the retirement of General Director Richard Gaddes, long associated with SFO, and much in the mould of founder John O. Crosby; yet he leaves after seven years. He just hired Edo de Waart as chief conductor to run the orchestra. Alan Gilbert, whom New Yorkers have heard a lot about lately, and who is just announced to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera next season (Dr. Atomic), left SFO at the end of last year. What IS going on? The new theatre is lovely, the money is plentiful, it’s summertime and the living is easy.
I’ll ask La Cieca’s distinguished readership a fantasy question: Should the SFO board make a deal with the San Francisco Opera board to take over and run Santa Fe as a satellite company, and meld their two distinguished young artists’ programs and shift the management away from New York (whence SFO has always been run) to The West? Think about it! And remember, you heard it first here (or did you?)
The production was very effective. It resembled NYCO’s WWI version but without the war as a character. Transitions were done efficiently: at the end of Act I, strings of lights were illuminated and raised. It was lovely.
I am so glad to hear the opinion of an operagoer on one of these things who doesn’t just say everything was fabulous. It gets so tedious to hear “Oh everyone was just wonderful.” Many summer programs have a resident toady on the local paper’s staff who just waxes ecstatic about everything (especially their premieres). Thank you Laura, and I hope to hear more from you.
Nicole Cabell was very effective and very much audible as Juleitte last year at Spoleto. I also heard her sing very well at a concert in Chicago. Neither venue was small.
That said, the recent CD proved rather disappointing. and the hype in that contemptable “New Sopranos” puff piece was unfortunate. But one should definitely not write her off, there is quiite a bit of talent there!
Interesting review-Platee was wonderful!
No one has mentioned DAPHNE! and Strauss is Santa Fe’s raison d’etre for me. Erin Wall looked and sang splendidly, and Kenneth Montgomery’s work with the orchestra was very fine. Meredith Arwady as Gaea sang very well the lowest notes written for contralto that I’ve ever heard. The production easily held me in thrall.
Tan Dun’s TEA: A MIRROR OF SOUL did not. Sure, the tearing and shaking of paper, splashing and dripping of water, and rubbing and knocking of stones was interesting but the characters and story were lame: There was no tea in the teacup and the book was fake, and she…died. What inadequate use of the fabulous Kelly Kaduce and Nancy Maultsby. I’m glad I saw it but it won’t happen again.
In LA BOHEME I was blown away by the conducting of Corrado Rovaris. It was the most spacious and Italianate reading I’ve heard, and the excellent Rodolfo, Dimitri Pittas, told me that Rovaris was a joy to work with.
08 season: Falstaff, Figaro, Budd, Radamisto, Adriana Mater (Saariaho). What do those of you who didn’t like this season think of the next one?
Wotan -
My sentiments excatly when it comes to Tan Dun or “Tan Don’t” as I have come to call him. A lot of smoke and mirrors that always adds up to less than the sum of it’s parts.
We heard Platee on opening night. What would otherwise be fairly good French baroque performance was continuously interrupted by a noisy audience. In fact, one woman in back of us (rear orchestra) repeated, “Ha Ha! This is so silly!”
Much of the subtlety of this opera’s music was interrupted by sight gags and an audience that didn’t know how to be quietly amused.
All in all, the production of Platee was like being distracted for three hours by frog suits, silly dancers, elaborate sets, and a rowdy audience. (After the performance, people said that they thought the opera was good, but how could they know? Were they listening to the music? They commented on everything BUT the music.) Maybe I’ll just get the DVD of the French production…
Like wotan, I was also enthralled by Daphne – and Erin Wall was outstanding from beginning to end. This is very difficult music to perform and the cast and orchestra rose to the challenge. Missed attacks in the orchestra or singers’ voices are too small? So what. I heard a very spirited performance of this opera, and I applaud the musicians who took the risks to make it happen.
Daphne was indeed a memorable production; Erin Wall was amazing and Meredith Arwady hit those low E flats with breathtaking ease. Seeing the spectacular sunset while the shepherds sang the hymn to Appolo took the scene into a realm all its own.
Daphne’s tree was in the hall where we heard Prelude lectures for the following two nights. The lecture on Platee was excellent, pointing out Rameau’s lampooning operatic conventions. We went to the early lecture which was packed and the second session was at capacity, so perhaps that explains why our audience was more attentive. Plenty of laughs but nothing covered the orchestra or the singers.
The dvd is basically the same production.