My first visit to see an operetta by the six year old Chicago Folks Operetta was a most pleasant one. Their fabulous modern German operetta, in a rhyming translation into English by Gerald Frantzen and Hersh Glgov, is a fun time.
The last in the trilogy exploring the mythically mad Medea, Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Teseo brings Handel’s opera seria to wondrous new life.
Every principal carries their songs in character beautifully! While Sophie Gordeladze (soprano) is the voice of the state, she is also a sweet treat as Lusya. Sara Heaton (soprano) as Lidochka vocally conveys the skeptical female of the three and works very well with (baratone) Paul LaRosa’s Boris, the gadabout. (bass) Matt Boehler’s physical comedy plays with just enough of the required sleaze.
George Frederic Handel’s (1685-1759) first Italian opera composed for the London stage, Rinaldo, in 1711 was a spectacle that introduced Londoners to the joy of Italian baroque opera with its wonderful melodies and rich bel canto singing. The longer I’m exposed to the joys of opera, the more I admire the Baroque style opera with their exquisite singing that allows the performers to demonstrate their craft upon the melodious scores
Besides Verdi brilliant score, the voices sing with passionate emotions. Tenor Marcello Giordani commands the stage and soars to the heavens while Sondra Radvanovsky – a Chicago native- raises to the demanding role of Aida. She triumphs in her first time as Aida at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The audience cheered her performance! Jill Grove’s mezzo effectively demonstrated Amneris’ heartache and Gordon Hwkins strong baritone rules his scenes.
For those of us either unfamiliar or who hold only cursory knowledge of the opera, it’s sort of Mozart’s musical comedy. Overall it’s quite light and the morality of it is somewhat ham-handed, if classic: typical Sun vs. Moon, Light vs. Dark, Wisdom vs. Ignorance sort of stuff. Maybe (though not necessarily) some references to Free Masonry in there.
The story of Ariadne mirrors the theme of the overall play: namely, that when comedy is set side-by-side with tragedy, it will win; if Mozart were to face Wagner, Mozart would triumph simply by default; and Dionysus will prevail. Strauss surely had the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy in mind when he wrote this piece – after all, he is the composer of Also Sprach Zarathustra – and it shows. There is such interplay between comedy and tragedy – two sides of the same Dionysian coin – and between Apollonian form and structure and Dionysian chaos.
Modest Mussorgky’s only completed opera is not for the faint of heart; it is not for those who like the Italians and nothing else, the lyrical, the symphonic, the easy ones. Boris Godunov is a difficult piece, at once crass and deep, with, on the one hand, somewhat technically amateurish composition, and, on the other, incredible insight into not only how to musically convey the moods of the characters but how to convey the chaos and horror around them.
The famous sextet when Edgardo crashes the wedding between Lucia and Arturo, Chi mi frena in tal momento?, is rich with countermelody and contrappunto, the polyphony not just musical but emotional, with six people expressing themselves deeply and strikingly. When Lucia loses her mind, Il dolce suono…Ardon gli incensi is an absolutely astounding representation of madness in music. Pardon the plebeian expression, but it is mindblowing. And Susanna Phillips absolutely brings it home. A superlative performance, to any eyes.
And yet, although the overall effect of The Tales of Hoffmann is comic, Offenbach is a deft manipulator of emotions, and the very end of the piece is profoundly and deeply affecting. At the very end, Offenbach brings true, devastating weight to the opera, and leaves the audience with exactly the feeling he wishes.