Opera in NY

According to the Bel Canto Society, there are more than fifty organization in NY that perform opera, and if you think that is a lot, reflect that in 1989 there were around 80.  (I just lost the exact number.)

Anway below is a list of some of the less well-known companies we have run into--just in case you want to try something new:

American Opera Projects
Amore
Amato
Brooklyn Repertory Opera
Bronx
Chelsea
dell Arte Opera Ensemble
Empire
Gotham
Light Opera of NY
Morningside Opera Brooklyn
New York Lyric Opera
New York Opera Forum
Opera Company of 
Opera Feroce
Opera Manhattan
Opera Moderne
Opera Oggi NY
Opera Worksho
Pocket Opera of NY
Regina
Vertical Players
Village Light Opera
Williamsburg Opera

Plus the music schools and the obvious candidates

Le Donne Curiose

Le Donne Curiose by Ermano Wolf-Ferrari was a new work, new composer, new venue for us.  First sung in German in 1903 and then in Italian in New York in 1912, it is a light piece presented with some charm at the Players Club in Manhattan.  The Players Club is an interesting venue, of course, with pictures of its members past--Edwin Booth, John Barrymore, Peter O'Toole--everywhere you look.  However, in the end the venue defeated us.  Rarely for us we left at the second intermission.  The room is flat and was  very crowded so that even though we had "preferred theater seating" as opposed to unpreferred or the pricier "Prohibition package" (the theme of the evening was the 1920's with costumed audience to match), we could not see the singers most of the time.  In addition there were no surtitles so audience members who do not understand sung Italian were clueless.  Those who did understand, however, appeared to enjoy the humor.

The plot concerns a group of women who want to know what goes on at their husband's club and plot to get in.  You can sort of write the scenes yourself.  Self-satisfied men at the club.  Women are curious.  Men rebuff them.  Women plot to get the entrance keys.  And so on.

Light, sort of fun, not worth sitting at the back for.

Opera Moderne is one a New York's many small companies performing less known works with charm.

Arms of the Middle Ages

It seems that the arms department of the Metropolitan Museum willbe a hundred years old next year, and the displays will be redone, but without closing the galleries.  Arms and armor was one of the first five departments formed, and the collection particularly the Euopean medieval and Japanese collegections has always been outstanding.

The Met has a movie made in the 1920's (before sound) showing how armor was put on, how a fully suited man could get on a horse by himself, lie down and get up contary to the way it has been portrayed in the movies.  Nothing less would have been practical. 

Armo has also affected our language.  The example I remember is that  the places where armor pieces came together  were called points. When you put on weight and had to loosen, you "stretched a point."

We learned all of this in a course we are taking which features talks with curators and trips behind the scenes.

Age of Transition: Byzantium to Islam

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has recently opened galleries dedicated to the Art of the Arab Lands (formerly the Muslim galleries).  We have not seen them yet, but they are reported to be marvelous.  One thousand items are on display (and twelve thousand are in storage).

In March 2012 a new show will open dedicated to art of the 7th-9th Centuries, a time when the Arab lands were under Jewish,  Orthodox Coptic Christian and Muslim influences with the Muslim culture becoming dominant.  This is sometimes seen as a dark age, but was actually extremely vital.  The David Plates (currently under the stairwell) will be a part of the exhibit as well as fabrics, and artifacts from many countries, God willing, as they say.  It seems that although the arrangements have been made, we have since had the Arab and new governments may be in place.  Meanwhile the Russians lost a lawsuit in American courts which they claim had no jurisdiction.  As a result Russia is not sending any art for American exhibits at present.  It seems the catalogue is complete--the exhibit may or may not be. 

Regardless, the MMA does a wonderful job, and this is a period of vigorous and interesting change.  The show should be well worth our time and worth planning ahead for.

Relatively Spaking by Coen, May, Allen

Relatively Speaking, three one act plays by Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen is pleasnt evening of theater. 

Ethan Coen, of the Hollywood Coen brother who have made fifteen movies, goes first with the slightest piece, a set of two two character scenes, one between a prisoner with anger issues and his therepist, the second with his parents before he was born--or how he got that way.  Nice acting, crisp drama, but the slightest of the three.

The second by Elaine May had divided results in our house.  I thought it the best of the lot--my husband hated it.  It involves a pathologically self-involved woman, the daughter of her nanny, the daughter's awful husband, and the nanny.  Marlo Thomas was marvelous as the selfish Doreen.  The others were also excellant, and the scenes has wit and flow.  More to the point--these people were memorable.

The last piece by Woody Allen did not work at all for me, but the friend in the next seat howled with laughter, and my husband liked it best. Woody Allen went to the trunk and pulled out every joke he could find and stuffed into a Honeymoon Hotel (actually a motel) in which a father runs off with his son's bride--that is something of a spoiler, and I apologize, sort of.  It is well-built into the scene.  But for me, nothing was there and entire characters could have been profitably removed.

Recommended bit not strongly.

Chnglish by David Henry Hwang

Of all the things we have seen recently I enjoyed this the most even though the reviews were not particularly enthusiastic.

Chinglish is obviously a mash-up of Chinese and English, and in this story about an Ohio businessman attempting to do business in China, misunderstanding is the point.  Much of the play is in Mandarin. All but the Ohio businessman spoke Chinese. Throughout the play dialogue is mistranslated in surtitles to hilarious effect.  There were those who felt it a one joke play and superficial.  I thought it marvelous and with a little significance to it.  The cast is fine especially the woman who plays the assistant to the Minister of Culture in our imaginary province.  But really, they were all really fine.

The author David Henry Hwang also wrote the very popular M. Butterfly several years ago and has an enduring concern with intercultural issue.

Highly recommended.

Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz

In Los Angeles, a family gathers for Christmas.  Never a good sign in the theater.  They are the parents, a couple in the mold of the Reagans.  The son, a successful television writer, the daughter who is recovering from time in a mental hospital, an aunt who is the traditional acerbic "truth teller."  Except that everyone is given a few deceptions and a few truths. 

It is an absorbing play with a wonderful cast, but I did not feel that it was a great play.  Stockard Channing is especially fine at the mother of the clan.

But unlike most things I write about--you can still see this one, and you probably won't be sorry.

Atys by Jean-Baptiste Lully

Atys by Lully with Les Artes Florissants and William Christie is one of those magical events which knowledgeable fans sign up for as soon as they get word of it--and they had better get word of it early.  Christie is an American living in France for many years and oft honored for his contributions to the revival of Baroque music.  Productions with this company are clever, original and of the highest quality.

Lully was an official court composer and is considered the father of French opera (which had interesting ramifications for composers who were not Lully.)  Atys was written to a story chosen by Louis XIV.

The story, with many ruffles and flourishes, concerns Atys who loves Sangaride who is promised to King Colonus.  Gods and especially goddesses interfere at will.  Confusion abounds.  Atys becomes a pine tree.  The plot is not really the point.  A tragical good time is had by all.

This, by the way, is considered an opera "comique" which indicates that the recitative was spoken rather that sung. 

I due Figar0

Two Figaros?  Wasn't one enough?

I due Figaro (or the second Figaro) is an opera with music by Saverio Mercadante and a libretto by Felice Romani written in 1826 and performed for the first time in America in October 3011 by the Amore Opera.

It is fifteen years after Susanna and Figaro marry.  Cherubino has returned from the war and wants to marry the daughter of the count, who, of course, loves him but is promised to an old fortune hunter.  Cherubino arrives at the court of the Count in disguise and claims his name is Figaro.  You can imagine it.  What--you're Figaro?  I'm Figaro! etc. etc.  Complications insure.

The first thing you realize is that this is not Mozart, but after you over that, it becomes fun.   It does not have a serious note in its score, but it is pretty and fun.

This is the Rill Speaking

This is the rill speaking (as it is on the program) is a one act opera by Lee Hoiby with a libretto by Mark Shulgasser based on work of Lanford Wilson presented in June at St. Peter's Church, Manhattan.  I am just a wee bit behind in my posting.  Operas in churches do not have the best sight lines and often not the best sound, but they do have intimacy, a cast of young and eager singers and an audience willing to try the unusual.  rill was written not as an opera, but close--Wilson wanted to just get the sound of people without thinking about how to stage it which is a very "musical" way to write prose.  There is a plot of sorts--family issues, growing up, but it is more of structure than a story.  It has a little of the feel of Our Town if you are old enough to remember that.

A satisfying evening.