Fair is fair. I have not slept well lately except at the opera so the comments below are not only sketchy but unreliable.
Underworld Productions Opera, another of those small NYC opera programs recent put on a truly clever program of operas (or 300 years of exploiting women, as the articistic director noted). Two one act operas, one by Handel and one by Ben Yarmolinsky examined male lust foisted upon unwilling females. Apollo attempts to seduce Dafne who turns into a tree to evade him. Clarence Thomas haresses (or doesn't, depending on your point of view) Anita Hill who becomes a law professsor. Is that the 20th Century equivalent of turning into a tree?
In any case Handel is lovely and the voices were good. Very simple production at the theater in the Riverside Church.
The Yarmolinsky was very good with contemporary instruments including keyboards and touches of the Supremes in the close harmony and many other musical references (at least for those fully awake) and even though the text was taken from transcripts--not my favorite writing technique--it managed to be colloquial and effective. Yarmolinsky felt sympathy for both main characters but expecially for Thomas, but in a Q & A before the opera noted that each was presenting an image that they wanted the public to believe.
Underworld Productions Opera, another of those small NYC opera programs recent put on a truly clever program of operas (or 300 years of exploiting women, as the articistic director noted). Two one act operas, one by Handel and one by Ben Yarmolinsky examined male lust foisted upon unwilling females. Apollo attempts to seduce Dafne who turns into a tree to evade him. Clarence Thomas haresses (or doesn't, depending on your point of view) Anita Hill who becomes a law professsor. Is that the 20th Century equivalent of turning into a tree?
In any case Handel is lovely and the voices were good. Very simple production at the theater in the Riverside Church.
The Yarmolinsky was very good with contemporary instruments including keyboards and touches of the Supremes in the close harmony and many other musical references (at least for those fully awake) and even though the text was taken from transcripts--not my favorite writing technique--it managed to be colloquial and effective. Yarmolinsky felt sympathy for both main characters but expecially for Thomas, but in a Q & A before the opera noted that each was presenting an image that they wanted the public to believe.
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