Dark side of the moon
Gotham Chamber Opera presented Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna on Tuesday evening at the Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, in a production that took advantage of the museum’s NASA constellations and a multitude of other more economical yet impressive stage and lighting effects. Despite cramped quarters and inhospitable acoustics, the company made a strong case for the viability of this venue.
An appropriate feeling of uncertainty and discovery accompanied the audience through the darkened Museum of Natural History as we were led down one hall, then another, then to an elevator, then through antechambers and lobbies, before finally reaching the spacey landscape of the planetarium.
Even as the orchestra tuned up, it was evident that their sonority was choked by the deadened acoustics of the room, and the sound wilted like flora in an oxygen-deprived greenhouse. It seemed self-defeating to stage this work amid such logistical constraints, in exchange for the few benefits of having planetarium technology at the ready. Working with a small staging area, the performance was given essentially “in the round,” with audience spread widely around the cramped, domed auditorium. But imagination and musicality flourished in spite of these constraints.
Haydn’s opera is one of several in existence based on the libretto by Carlo Goldoni, the influential Venetian playwright whose works bear a beguiling yet piquant humanist message. The story concerns a plot by several youngsters of both high and low standing to win the hand of aristocrat Buonafede’s beautiful daughters. The fake astronomer Ecclitico, knowing Buonafede to be a gullible fool, sells him a phony trip to the moon by giving him a potion that that is really a sleeping agent. When he awakens, the youths put on an elaborate hoax, welcoming him to the “moon” and satisfying the whims of his wild imagination. Once he is putty in their hands, they secure his blessing to wed.
The inventive and impressively efficient staging, by Diane Paulus (of Broadway’s Tony-winning Hair) utilized a campy sense of sass and double-entendre that also had a winning spark of romance. Though she never stooped to dodgy, tasteless humor, she certainly relied on some flimsy gags, such as the anachronistic nightclub dancing that broke out in virtually every orchestral interlude. Still, there were cute innuendoes in the recitatives, and admirably balanced comedic hi-jinx with warm generosity and theatrical aplomb.
The outrageously complex physical blocking used three tall, rolling scaffolds to hoist the cast up into the audience’s line of sight, using the projections dome as a canvas. As supers moved the scaffolds, the costumed cast moved with a floating quality that perfectly matched Haydn’s lithe, buoyant phrases. Silly neon-lit costumes distracted a bit from the planetarium dome’s constellations during the Moon scenes, but acrobatic supernumeraries and complex set changes moved in jaw-dropping synchronicity with the lighting and projection work by Philip Bussmann.
Voices did not bloom in the unforgiving space, but neither were they distorted. Marco Nisticò, on loan from the Met, was a pitch-perfect comedic buffo and his dark, pliant bass-baritone shone well from top to bottom. Young tenor Nicholas Coppolo, somewhat strained in the higher register, created a stylish and dapper Ecclitico, showing both musicality and wide emotional range.
Hanan Alattar (Clarice) offered gentle but impassioned phrases of clarity and restraint. It was a pity that the padded room failed to flatter her seductive and elegant lyricism. So too Flaminia, sung by Albina Shagimuratova, who sometimes sounded thin and squeaky in spite of an impressive and bell-like coloratura top. Lisette, sung by mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, had the least presence of this uniformly young and light-voiced cast, but she hammed up her sexy French-maid shtick with comely enthusiasm.
Haydn’s opera was given in a cut-down 90 minute version without intermission. The evocative, yet economical and fleet score has moments of chiaroscuro that compare favorably with Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. Gotham Music Director Neal Goren led a tasteful if overly cautious reading, intuitively supporting his cast through difficult transitions made even trickier by the awkward layout of the theater. He was particularly successful in the finely-blended ensemble finales, momentarily filling the room with an impressively large and impassioned sound that did not lack for precision and style.
This Gala fundraising premiere was attended by a star-studded and well-dressed crowd of older, tony elites mixed with downtown arts-scene denizens, all of whom arrived and departed in cheerful spirit. One hopes this success will serve their ambitions and spur more stylish and inventive productions of such high musical and theatrical quality.
It was one small step for space; one giant leap for Gotham Chamber Opera.
I wouldn’t say the acoustics were deadened. I’d save that word for Avery Fisher Hall (along with a few others unsuitable for print in a family blog – even a family as dysfunctional as opera lovers).
A better term to describe the planetarium might be “dry”. There is basically no reverberation (i.e. reverb) which makes for a different listening experience. The orchestra sounded strange as there was no wash of acoustic reflections to blend everything together. Similarly the singers had no reverb to help them out and add some richness to their voice. (It’s reverb which makes everyone sound better singing in the shower.)
The positive of this is if you want to hear what a professional singer sounds like, without the benefit of room acoustics, the planetarium is your place. Singers are all on their own, no place to hide, and one can hear how great a singer is (or isn’t). While not the most pleasant listening space (but not unpleasnt), it is a very, very revealing space.
FWIW, I thought Il Mondo della Luna was brilliant. I’d go see it again and hope they can perform it again in the future.
I have to disagree. I thought the experiment was an amazing idea but the actual realization of the idea was terrifically bumbled. I think all the voices and orchestra were completely compromised by the space of this theater. The orchestra was dry and scratchy and again Goren though inventive and innovative is a merely uninspired perfunctory conductor, think the male equivalent of Eve Queler. Therefore he had no idea how to bring true line and balance to the proceedings and he basically let the singers out to hang themselves. The Optical effects were stunning with the use of the planetarium and the NASA inspired costumes worked well.
I thought the direction of Diane Paulus was nonsensical, particularly the embarrassingly bad dance choreography which made a mockery of Ms. Shagimuratova’s very well sung aria and several duets and trios. It was in a word idiotic. It was the most inept, mockery of the story that you can imagine. It relied on kitsch and tackiness. Not a single character was more than a caricature of what could have been, I thought the best vocal performance of the evening was that of Baritone Timothy Kuhn whose role was the smallest it seems of any of the characters yet the voice was beautifully produced with no hint of strain. The women in general were quite strong. Hannan Allatar has an attractive dark timbre but is marred by a warble and over production of vibrato in the middle voice. Shagimuratova’s timbre seems very slim and narrow yet that was not the impression I had of her singing when I heard her in Houston. Marc Nistico and Mr. Kuhn both rang out true yet they were both the largest voices which helped in the dry acoustic yet they were also technically the most secure. The casuality of the evening was Nicholas Coppola who, while having an attractive tenor, was marred by having no real technical facility whatsoever and a complete lack of ability to manage his passaggio, cracked several times and riddled with tension at times the voice just stopped. It seems that a livelier accoustic would have helped but this exposed all the technical glitches in his current singing.
Now, that being said it was an interesting evening. The work itself is full of beutiful melodies and had it been given more thought and development it might have ben a better success. The question at hand is whether it is worth the ticket price adn I feel the answer is yes. It is a little performed work that despite the faults of the production is pleasing to the ear.
I paid too much to hear the current tragedy of a Tosca at the MET, and would have much preferred to hear and experience this.
squirrel, was it worth the price?
Oh dear, those background eyes in the photo in the NY Times review remind me of the unfortunate umbrella eyes in the Olympia act of Bartlett Sher’s unfortunate HOFFMANN production at the Met.
I am happy to announce that today is National Squirrel Appreciation Day in the U.S.
But surely most of us would prefer to hug another nice hairy little teddy bear in our beds!!!!
I second that emotion — motion — notion!
Welcome back my nut-gathering friend…I’ve missed U. Hoping that you are still bogarting that fedora.
Has Intendant Gelb ever gotten back to you about Les Huge-Nuts?
Oh excellent, I missed it.