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“Here, finally, is not merely the music on the Internet, but the music of the Internet…”
Zachary Woolfe reacts to Nico Muhly‘s Two Boys in the New York Times.
Cher Public
- MrGuy1804: You are right on the money. I was not terribly impressed with any of the singing. There were a few... 12:29 AM
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Totally missed that in a cursory look at today’s paper. I enjoy Muhly’s music, despite the fact that he’s adorably cute.
So many words and still no real idea of what this “opera” is and how it works in performance.
Well I can clear up one thing for you there, QPF. It is decidedly an opera, and not an “opera”. In terms of how the libretto is structured, there are things going on that I don’t think I’ve ever encountered in opera before, specifically the non-linear narrative thing, and the fact that scenes of dialogue between characters can commence in one setting and end up in another during their course, but that’s been going on in films for decades so is not new in and of itself, and thanks to a very skilful production, it works, everything that should be clear at any given time is clear.
How it works in performance? Much like any other opera does, I’d say. The piece deals with subject matter that is new, or mainly new to opera, for sure, and experiments with form, but the audience experience is still one of characters on stage acting out and singing a story. The problem I had with the piece itself was just one of musical language. I think the NYT review overstates the extent to which the minimalism is evolved. In important aspects, it is pretty staunchly minimalist, and the lack of any kind of variety particularly in terms of rhythm was a problem for me. As a friend pointed out, the word setting is quite lugubrious- no lines are ever thrown away or uttered with any kind of special urgency, they almost all come out at the same pace. I do agree with the reviewer’s remarks about character too, I think. All the emphasis is on the story, and personalities do not really develop or get revealed.
Still, it is a very thought provoking and involving piece. I think that for an opera to hang around in the repertoire it probably needs to have roles with more character introspection and development, so maybe this won’t, but it is still a strong piece and one very worth seeing.
Oh! You saw it last night!
Curious that the three American papers raved, whilst the UK papers were, kindly, much more ‘mixed’.
NYT: “Serious and radiant”
FT: “Orchestral accompaniment… has the quality of a soundtrack”
WSJ: “exciting new musical language”
Telegraph: “dreary and earnest rather than moving and gripping”
WashPo: “impressive… deserves its place at the Met”
Guardian: “plodding and amorphous”
Seen and Heard put it in its crudest form, but with the exception of ZW and the guy who wrote in the Post, the steady, monoshaped (is that a word? it is now!) vocal lines seem to have been a big problem.
I was curious whether Muhly, who seems to work best in small, contained forms, would be able to carry a full evening’s work- any thoughts?
Yeas from The Observer, Daily Mail, Opera Britannia and Independent.
Respect Cocky, but I went on Tuesday night and was bored out of my skull after five minutes. I forced myself to stay to the end but I have rarely seen or heard a less action-packed drama/score. Nice choral writing, as Woolfe suggests, when it comes. I think the question is not: “Will it be a success at the Met?” but “Will it actually get there?”. Maybe Gelb could hand it over to NYCO to perform in a smaller theatre. It was half empty on Tuesday. The balcony was closed and they had to give tickets away, despite a couple of four and five-star reviews. Among those present, I was clearly in a minority, at the end, but I’ll be amazed if this “opera” has wings. Dramatic oratorio would be a better description. Staging looked elegant, though. Excellent work by Michael Yeargan, but that’s no surprise.
Yep, Yeargan’s entire colour pallette from mid-grey to almost-black was used. Stunning.
I gather you haven’t seen much of his extensive and distinguished work.
Looking again at what I wrote above, I realise that Muhly is bigger news in New York than he is yet in London, so presumably the Met thinks they can get an audience, perhaps a younger one than usual. The FT is spot-on with the remark about a “soundtrack” – it sounded like background music. Mind you, I think ENO will have trouble selling Detlev Glanert and Wolfgang Rihm next season, though perhaps not Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee.
The most disappointing thing for me was the inability to get underneath the skins of the characters – for a piece about multiple identities, the ability to be released and revealed by masquerading as another identity was not explored in musical or dramatic terms – I waited in vain for some sort of musical resolution at the realization at the end that the multiple characters were one, but it all continued in the same vein without any sense of progression or culmination. The opera seemed to be dying from the very first bars. I do think there were some passages of engrossing music, but they weren’t signposted or put in relief to make their effect.
I get worried when I read that he finds John Adams’ work an influence in the dramatic/operatic arena, as I get the same sense there – these post-minimalist operas are like pageants – we get shown things but are rarely permitted a glimpse of an insight into what it feels to be in a predicament – and that’s what marks out the interesting operatic composers, Britten, Janacek et al. There was ripe opportunity in this subject matter for that, and I did sense that Muhly was attempting it, but it was all so downbeat, it came across as uninvolving and not illuminated by the music – all the expertise in performing and direction couldn’t atone for this.
Precisely – the opera is basically undramatic and musically one-or-two-dimensional. Nixon in China was and remains a success because it is a cute subject and there is an exuberance about the music that suits the slightly tongue-in-cheek dramatic handling of the subject matter. All of Adams’s subsequent operas have been bogged down by Sellars-inspired weighty subjects, mostly lacking humour, and his music simply doesn’t have the depth and importance to enhance those subjects. It’s all essentially likeable, accessible background music. Enjoyable as far as it goes. Having heard so much about Muhly’s music, I was shocked at how dull and unvaried the score of Two Boys is. It’s interesting that Jonathan Dove’s Flight is his biggest success to date – also a comedy, with serious under and overtones – and perhaps more like Nixon in China than any of Adams’s other operas. Ah well, we’ll see how The Death of Klinghoffer fares in its ENO revival next season. Perhaps the time is ripe for reassessment after the acclaimed Penny Woolcock film. And, Belfagor, you’re spot on about post-mimimalist operas being like pageants. I’ve always assumed that Handel’s Giulio Cesare was one inspiration for the characters and dramatic structure of Nixon. But who knows?
You make a very interesting point in your closing- that some recent operas perhaps owe more to Handel than Verdi.
I disagree violently with the idea of “likeable, accessible background music”- but chacun son gout.
Curiously, the more I think about it, is I think Adams’ best work is also his intentional oratorio- El Nino.
But when Handel does it he brings characters to life – there’s nothing in the fabric of his music to do this, no weaving of leitmotivs, no telling harmonic changes and combinations of themes. It’s just – as my granny would have said – ‘the cut of his jib’(!) of the vocal lines that illumine emotions. Or maybe he had a talent for exposing the human condition – that indefinable something.
Regina, you are on to something with the glib and comedic working best with the constraints of post-minimalism – Dove is very skilful but very lightweight emotionally, though he has a nice turn of melodic phrase at times – but much better in comedy than in those awful portentous TV things he did…
Muhly is interesting, as he (personally) gives good copy and is undoubtedly very bright, personable, and the blog is entertaining. What a shame this evident vitality doesn’t seem to inform the music he writes, though I don’t think he’s untalented. And an indictment of the culture industry that this is what it takes to build a career – what hope is there for a tongue-tied some maybe borderline Asperger’s case who can’t present themselves or connect with the right people, who is undoubtedly buried away somewhere writing for the passion of it, with the divine fire – does such a person get discovered eventually? Or some prickly sod who doesn’t fit into the grant-giving soundbite dilettante culture – think Berlioz versus Meyerbeer – or the non-appearance of Janacek until he was so old –
oooh er i’m turning into an old fart I am……….
“…what hope is there for a tongue-tied some maybe borderline Asperger’s case who can’t present themselves or connect with the right people, who is undoubtedly buried away somewhere writing for the passion of it, with the divine fire – does such a person get discovered eventually?” …Schubert
Schubert – exactly!! Mussorgsky maybe……….
Martin?, mayhap.
http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/Singlebook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdatarq=0810877619
Belfagor, that arbiter of operatic taste, and punctilious guru on all things musical, Norman Lebrecht, seems to think its some kind of masterpiece. Probably because he met the composer at some point and decided he was his best mate.
oh my – a faulty oracle he!!
Never sure, though, whether he’s wilfully faulty in order to be provocative or whether he just can’t get the right end of a stick!
“Muhly is bigger news in New York than he is yet in London …”
Are you sure about that? I’ve certainly seen at lot more, and over time, about him in London media than in New York. And, revealingly, his opera had to try out in London before it could be shown in New York.
And I agree with the John Adams remark. I’m worried that too many of these people are giving us staged oratorios. Dr. Atomic had none of the deep interaction of character that is the meat of opera. Even in bed, the couple looked at the audience, recited poetry to it, and hardly noticed each other.
Well, I’m not sure, but there are a lot more newspapers in London chasing the same stories, and there had been a lot of advance hype about Muhly and Two Boys. I love the idea promulgated by the Vicar of Nerva Nelli that anything American in London is disparaged in favour of Brits. Birtwistle is internationally acclaimed and commissioned as a composer of concert music, if not opera, while Dove and Adès have had as many negative reviews for their operas in the UK press as positive ones, just like Muhly in fact where the ratings have ranged from 1* – 5*. Unlike the US critics, it seems, ours don’t appear to review on the basis of nationality. You’ll look hard to find admirers of Vaughan Williams’s and Walton’s operas among the current generation of mainstream writers, but don’t let that spoil a good bit of snide prejudicial sniping.
Atomic was dragged down with such a terrible libretto. And it pained me to agree with it, since I practically venerate Adams, but Adamo’s takedown of Atomic was acidic and, sadly, accurate.
I got into a raging argument with another Parterriano (no prizes for guessing), although we were really on the same page, about the state of contemporary libretti. We either get oratorio style scenes (though I don’t consider Nixon to be same) or Cliff’s Notes of Great Literature (or film).
I sing the praises of Flight further down, and perhaps one of the reasons it works is because it has a tight libretto. And I think The Tempest- here I diverge from HH a bit- works because the writers took ownership of their source material to make it their own (sacred Shakespeare, no less).
(just to be clear, I’m not trying to stir some vast global Yanks v Brits critical conspiracy. I always find it fascinating when critics seem to see a different show from one another, and in this case doubly so since there seemed to be a geographic divide)
Clearly this young Yank is not a patch on Birtwistle, Dove or Ades, let along RWV or Walton. Scandalous to waste solid British resources on such twaddle.
More tea Vicar?
Any Horlicks to be had?
Clearly Bovril is the beverage of choice for those considering
weighty topics like Regioper and pregnant divas and the fall
of the house of Steel. Meanwhile, today’s Pasatiempo, the
weekly arts magazine of the Santa Fe New Mexican, has
unusually good musicology and a very literate discussion of
Gounod’s ‘Faust,’ which opens the Santa Fe Opera tonight
(and also Boheme which opens tomorrow night).
It is written by James Keller, the well-known arts historian
and commentator, and is many cuts above the usual. SFNM
has done especially attractive layouts and visuals for their
opera pages.
Last night many areas in and about Santa Fe finally had
a bit of rain — sprinkles off-and-on for about an hour,
hard rain in some areas. It was enough to clear the air,
help dampen some forest areas and generally lift the mood
of Santa Fe, which has been very much down in the dumps
due to drought and forest fires. The opera has had to
hire high school gymnasia for rehearsals in recent weeks
due to bad air and the chat has been how the environmental
problems might cripple the al fresco opera performances.
However – things are looking up, more rains will come, so
don’t cancel your Santa Fe plans. The Faust production is
said to be somewhat ‘modern,’ but not deconstructed.
So buona ventura to the Santa Fe Opera, at last doing the
the great classic Faust, and with a decent cast, and superlative
conductor (Chaslin) ***
there are things going on that I don’t think I’ve ever encountered in opera before, specifically the non-linear narrative thing
That’s old hat in European avant-garde pieces like Pintscher’s L’Espace Dernier, Staud’s Berenice or Bruno Mantovani’s L’Autre côté to name just some recent examples.
the fact that scenes of dialogue between characters can commence in one setting and end up in another during their course
Die Soldaten, 1965.
Clearly this young Yank is not a patch on Birtwistle, Dove or Ades, let along RWV or Walton
Poor effort there, Vicar, I’ll give it 4/10.
Birtwistle has a solid body of work from Punch & Judy The Mask of Orpheus > Gawain > The Second Mrs. Kong > The Minotaur; Dove’s Flight is terrific )a perfect NYCO opera, in fact), don’t know his other stuff and while I’m not that hot on The Tempest, Powder Her Face *works*. Even RVW’s Sir John in Love and Riders to the Sea are good pieces, though all the revisions in the world can’t save Walton’s Troilus and Cressida.
Scandalous to waste solid British resources on such twaddle
Quite.
Henry – you’re spot on about Troilus – on paper it always seems like one of those operas that ought to be a masterpiece but time and again in performance it proves a total dud. I reckon EMI got it right when they recorded only highlights from the work around the time of the world premiere (with Mrs Walter Legge replacing Magda Laszlo as Cressida). I’ve only seen it twice on stage and a couple of times in concert. I won’t slit my wrists if I never see or hear it again. Maybe if I had seen Janet Baker in the RO revival, but listening to the recording, I’m not so sure. It gathers dust on my shelves.
I saw Janet Baker as Cressida at ROH, and also attended some rehearsals thanks to my friend David Pountney who was assisting Colin Graham (this was a LONG time ago). She was of course incredible and incandescent — the piece does have some wonderful music, but somehow the libretto is stiff and stuffy and the whole thing doesn’t add up to much.
Judith Howarth – for Opera North – was less than incredible and incandescent, alas. A good artist, but nowhere close to JB’s league. Hard to think of a British soprano or mezzo who would make it worth reviving today. Sarah Connolly or Alice Coote, perhaps.
No reason why it has to be a Brit! DiDonato might make something interesting of it, as would Hunt Lieberson have done.
Yes, Armerj – now that would be inspired casting. Bravo! Jonas Kaufmann as Troilus! :p
the piece does have some wonderful music, but somehow the libretto is stiff and stuffy and the whole thing doesn’t add up to much
Agreed. I hate the character of camp-as-tents Pandarus, created by Peter Pears, the character is in a race with The Fiakermilli for my “most loathed opera character”.
Haha! Yes, the Fiakermilli is positively hateful
Even the idea of the Fiakermilli is pretty disgusting.
… and Calixto Bieito could direct — changing the name to Troilism and Crossdressa.
After the Kaufmann/di Donato TROILUS, with Villazon as Pandarus, let’s revive THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY.
Yes, Flight would’ve been ideal NYCO fare. I find it a bit John Adams lite, but still a fabulous newish piece (and how refreshing to have a new opera that is a comedy!).
there are things going on that I don’t think I’ve ever encountered in opera before, specifically the non-linear narrative thing
Darius Milhaud: Christophe Colombe
And after that (in rather conscious imitation), Ernst Krenek: Karl V.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever encountered’ != ‘it hasn’t been done’.
Shockingly, not all of us are familiar with ‘Christophe Colombe’, ‘Karl V’ or ‘L’Espace Derniere’.
Hard to believe, I know.
Just a friendly little pointer for those interested in such things, AJ.
Christophe Colombe is the first opera, to my knowledge, to employ flashbacks of the style popularized in cinema. Libretto is by the inevitable Paul Claudel. Given that, it’s not surprising the opera is a sort of “apology” in the classical sense – an interesting attempt to write an opera about historical reflection. Colombe’s voyage is seen both from his perspective and from the view of posterity. (Claudel, former ambassador to Brazil, tries to balance the social ills wrought by Colombus’ voyage with the “good” gained in winning the New World for Christianity). Krenek tried a similar trick with Karl V, in defense of the Holy Roman Empire. There, the retired emperor justifies his actions to his somewhat adversarial confessor.
Oh, and I suppose we should add Hindemith’s slightly earlier opera-lite “Hin und zurück” to this list…
I cannot believe this Colombe is still flying. Please clip its wings, or rather the final “e”.
Merci from your friendly neighbourhood pedant.
Guilty as charged….
M. croche, I’m full of admiration. In a few sentences, you summarized more useful information than many journalists do in many columns.
Shockingly, not all of us are familiar with ‘Christophe Colombe’, ‘Karl V’ or ‘L’Espace Derniere’
Defensive much? Who’s fault is that? Hint: not ours.
Hard to believe, I know
On this board, where the majority of people seem to think opera died with Verdi? Not hard to believe at all.
Hint: it’s ‘whose’.
I don’t think I was being defensive, was I? I had nothing to defend. I just thought it was a bit off for people to jump on CK with examples when he was talking about something that was new to him.
I’m not saying it hasn’t been done. I’m sure there are many more boring operas than Two Boys – I sadly missed The Story of Vasco at ENO, and David Blake’s The Plumber’s Gift was nearly as dreary.
I’ve written reams about this elsewhere, which I won’t rehash here, except to say that I almost entirely share CK’s opinion. ‘Two Boys’ is flawed, definitely, but it’s serious and interesting and well worth seeing.
I genuinely don’t see how it could be described as boring; there are some errors in pacing and a certain sameyness to the music (or, rather, as CK said, the musical language) but my attention was firmly held throughout.
And very good those reams were, too.
How kind, thank you.
It sounds like a strong first attempt calling for rewrite. The bad signs are the references to incomplete portraits of the characters, something missing in the plot and “Bartlett Sher” production. (Woolfe has weighed in the problems of the latter before.)
‘Strong first attempt calling for rewrite’ is spot on.
And I know Sher’s name is mud round here, but the incomplete characterisations really are the fault of the work itself, not the singers or the production. I don’t think the production puts a foot wrong.
Well that’s the great unfairness for contemporary composers really. We expect an Othello or Falstaff when they’re still on Oberto.
Haha! Ianw. Remember Peter Grimes, however….and Wozzeck.
To say nothing of the one hit wonders of Fidelio and Pelleas…
But they’re the exception rather than the rule.
(and you forgot Paul Bunyan)
and Boris Godunov was a pretty precocious attempt………
and Shostakovich too!
Oh at least I agree about that. The production was the evening’s saving grace as far as I was concerned and a surprise as I’d only seen his Met Barber (okay) and Salzburg Romeo et Juliette (pile o’ crap) before. I maintain that the score is negligeable apart from some nice choral harmonic writing. Rhythmically unvaried, melodically unmemorable – and we are talking about basically tonal music here – and intermittently interesting from the point of view of the orchestration. And the libretto is a stinker. With no characters to relate to, a bland score and a laughable libretto, I don’t quite see how this adds up to a serious opera, let alone an interesting one. Admittedly the idea of it was interesting on paper, but not in the theatre. Let’s hope for ENO’s sake that more people thought otherwise, like you Armerj – or their sales figures are Peking-Ducked.
I’m looking forward to Sher’s South Pacific! Even those who think his name is mud round here seem to have enjoyed that on Broadway.
This is the only Cher worth mentioning!
I am surprised and pleased to see so much appreciation of Jonathan Dove’s Flight here this morning. Boston Lyric did it back in 2005 with Brandon Jovanovich and other very good singers giving an excellent ensemble performance. I would definitely like to encounter it in performance again — it’s also just the sort of thing for Glimmerglass with its Young American Artists program.
Like most of Dove’s full-length operas it is too long, but it works in the theatre – he is good on light-hearted comedy and irony. His Pinnochio is slightly more ponderous as he tries to make it a second Hansel and Gretel but without Humperdinck’s sure-footed brevity. Didn’t Opera Theatre of St Louis also do Flight a few years back?
I thought Pinocchio was a good half hour too long and missed lots of opportunities for musical drama — as opposed to things happening on stage with music chugging along in parallel. It looked pretty, though.
“things happening on stage with music chugging along in parallel” is a good description of Two Boys, actually.
I suspected as much, cara Regina.
I adore ‘Flight’, although I’m not wild about the libretto. But it’s immensely entertaining.
Yes. I saw ‘Flight’ a few months ago at the Austin Lyric Opera and enjoyed it greatly–but I found myself wishing for more sheer poetry in the libretto at several places.
Someone help me, I saw a production of Flight (I geuss the original) on Ovation TV and I had a hell of a time sitting through it. What did you enjoy?
I’m with you there. Dr. Atomic on the Metplayer was riveting compared to that TV Flight. Sitting through commercials didn’t help, of course. On the other hand I was apparently one of few who sat enthralled by Life is a Dream by Lewis Spratlan. That was poetry, even in modern translation–poetry that obviously inspired its actors, despite the vocal line’s dedication to the 12-tone scale. The orchestral coloration was vividly constructed, and, it also had the benefit of a set design that was both modern, old, and beautifully mixed.
Oh heavens no! I had an intense dislike of Dream, because I couldn’t understand how you could mess up such a good source play. Why was that girl clomping around demanding vengeance? What was the point of the pretenders to the throne? It felt like a bit of a mess to me, and a very long night in the theatre.
But you’re right about the set, and the singing was first rate.
Like I said one of few.
(Not enough opera to fit the source material, in my view, but no one is going to write long operas anymore)(I shudder to think of all the cuts to Griselda this year)
Glyndebourne did Flight really well a couple of years back too. Very entertaining, and quite moving in places, is my resulting impression after all this time.
Someone said above, with good reason, that there is a paucity of comedies among new operas. Of John Musto’s four operas so far, three are comedies. And, perhaps not so coincidentally, the newest one is being performed next season by the same Boston Lyric, and the sole non-comedy is being produced this summer at Glimmerglass.
Musto’s ‘Volpone’ is a lot of fun. I didn’t trek out to Wolf Trap to see ‘The Inspector’ but it wasn’t as well received by the critics (not hated, just more of a ‘meh’).
VOLPONE was his first opera — what, seven years ago? The “meh” for THE INSPECTOR was all aimed at the libretto, which is being cleaned up for Boston.
P.S., having said that about the need for comedy, my great soft spot is for the (mostly) non-comedy that Glimmerglass is doing this summer, LATER THE SAME EVENING.
Wow, you’re right- 2004. It was revived in 2007 which turned into the 2009 recording which made me think it was newer than it was (though, seven years is practically embryonic in opera repertoire).
Small correction: it wasn’t revived in 2007. It was a new production, and that’s the one recorded, though the premiere cast was probably superior (which didn’t keep the recording — Wolf Trap’s first — from getting a Grammy nomination).
This is a fascinating thread!
Can we have more like this, please: about contemporary works, the composers that are “in” and why, people’s opinions about various recent operas, the politics of getting (or not getting) commissions, and of getting (or not getting) repeat performances in different houses and in different parts of the world (because an opera that doesn’t get repeat performances is a dead opera), etc., etc… And if POSSIBLE, all of this not strictly limited to American/British works? In other words, why does contemporary opera tend to be so parochial?
I’m quite looking forward to Caligula and Jacob Lenz next season at ENO
I saw Rihm’s Dionysos in Salzburg last year – a truly awesome score, but the subject matter – Nietzsche – is pretty cerebral and not too accessible. But at least Rihm seems to tackle ambitious philosophical subjects and writes challenging music. It made me want to see his other operas. Only Lenz has been staged in the UK so far.
I have to agree with you about Dionysos, though I saw it in Amsterdam. Fantastic music and the production had some striking moments but I just couldn’t make myself care about an inarticulate genius beset by scantily-clad nymphs for two hours. I’ve heard great things about Jakob Lenz, though.
I endured JAKOB LENZ in Nancy some years back. Unrelenting– the title character starts out crazy and stays bonkers. Not without musical skill, but not an interesting musico-theatrical experience.
Sher’s SOUTH PACIFIC was indeed excellent, unlike his vile staging of WOMAN ON THE VERGE and his I-can’t -read-Italian-or-French-and-don’t-care opera ventures, each one worse than the last.