Met's Rigoletto gives new meaning to term 'Bel Canto'

Story by Dwight Casimere

Photos: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera’s remounting of Giuseppe Verdi’s wildly popular opera Rigoletto was a veritable feast for lovers of the genre. The production, over its course, will feature five artists in their Met debuts and four singing major roles with the company for the first time. The opening night cast offered some blissful moments along with an element of suspense that only a night at the Met can offer.

The storyline of Rigoletto presents a cautionary tale regarding the sin of coveting and the punishment that awaits the vainglorious. Class, politics and morality are set on a collision course in this Bel Canto tour de force.

The title character, Rigoletto, Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli, as the hunchbacked court jester, is at the center of this conflicted universe. He and the Duke of Mantua, Italian tenor Francesco Meli, are quickly at odds when it is discovered that Rigoletto is harboring a mistress. There is no mistress, of course. The woman is Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter, sung by German Soprano /Christine Schafer, in a spectacular performance. She is later abducted by the Duke, prompting Rigoletto to contract a ‘hit’ on his employer with the unscrupulous Sparafucile, in a deliciously menacing performance by Italian Bass Andrea Silvestrelli.

Over the course of the opera, Rigoletto learns a brutal lesson; that the pendulum of revenge is a scythe that cuts both ways. The story of Rigoletto illustrates the adage that evil only replicates itself and those who try to emulate the behavior of wrongdoers wreak havoc upon their own lives.

There are substantial political overtones to the plot of Rigoletto. Verdi wrote his masterpiece just as the flames of the revolutions that raged across Europe in the late 1840s, had died. In many ways, the plot and sub themes mirror those of the great social commentator and novelist Victor Hugo, whose The Hunchback of Notre Dame of 1831, and play, Le Roi s’Amuse, published in 1850, parallel the themes of Rigoletto.

Meli is a talent to watch. He has a dramatic flair and supple voice that soared, even above a slight wobble in a few lengthy passages, brought on by a lingering cold. An announcement was made from the stage at the beginning of the third act that Meli was “indisposed” due to a cold but “has graciously consented to perform for the remainder of the evening and asks the audience for their indulgence.” In spite of the “indisposal,” Meli acquitted himself rather well in the famous aria that followed, “La Donna e mobile,” the one that made Pavarotti famous.

Ataneli, in the title role, was spot on throughout the evening, lending a vocal energy to the final note of the aria “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata” at the end of Act II that elicited sustained ‘Bravos’ from the audience. This was truly Bel Canto (Beautiful Singing) in every sense of the word!

Disney's The Lion King rears regal head in Chicago once again

by Dwight Casimere

Chicago-From moment the audience enters the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago’s Theatre District, they are immersed in a mythical African wilderness setting. An announcer’s voice intones the usual cautions about using cell phones and cameras during the performance, but ends by speaking in the African ‘click’ language of the Xhosa. That’s the signal for drummers, stationed in the corner boxes, dancers, and singers, in costumes that double as life-sized puppets, to descend upon the theatre from every direction, eliciting head-snapping gazes from the audience. The singers, dancers and actors represent various inhabitants of the jungle. Those not wearing puppet costumes wave kites that resemble exotic birds or wear tribal masks that could rival anything in the Field museum.

The Lion King has dazzled audiences around the world winning more than 70 major awards worldwide, including the 1998 Tony and the 1999 Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. The fact that it has already played two sold-out runs at the Cadillac Palace Theatre speaks volumes. The show continues its current run through November 27 before moving on to Norfolk, Durham, Providence, Rochester, Toronto and Dayton through July 10.

Director Julie Taymor achieves a masterful level of visual alchemy with her seamless melding of African art and Broadway craftsmanship. Her stunning use of anthropomorphic costumes at once imbues the characters with animal traits and infuses them with a human soul.

The music is a fusion of American pop and the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa thanks to the score by Elton John and Tim Rice, with additional material from South Africa’s Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Director Taymor and Hans Zimmer. The centerpieces are the Academy Award-winning song “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and the haunting ballad, “Shadowlands.”

Among the more imaginative examples of Taymor’s arresting art are the dancers in Act One who glide across the stage, representing the tall Savannah grass of the Serengeti Plain.

Among the actors, Tony Freeman steals the show as the prim and proper horn billed bird “Zazu” and Syndee Winters as the loyal lioness “Nala”. She delivers a heart-rending, soulful vocal performance that becomes the musical’s gravitational center . Dionne Randolph is awe-inspiring as “Mufasa,” the great warrior and ruler of the Pridelands and J. Anthony Crane is deliciously sardonic as his nemesis, the cunning “Scar.” His portrayal recalls the persona of the late Yul Brynner. Adam Jacob’s broad-shouldered athleticism and luminous voice elevates the role of Mufasa’s son, Simba, the lion prince born to be king, to the level of a virtuoso performance.

Disney’s The Lion King creates a universe of dazzling sights and sounds and gripping human emotions. It draws in the audience and holds them until the final drumbeat echoes through the theatre. Leaving the Cadillac Palace, one can still hear the sound of distant drums and the wind blowing through the tall Savannah, beckoning a return. For tickets and showtimes, visit www.BroadwayinChicago.com.

Chick Corea at Chicago Symphony Center: Jazz Master at "Work"

by Dwight Casimere

Piano and keyboard master Chick Corea is the type of inventive artist who keeps you on the edge of your seat. His Symphony Center Presents concert featuring sidemen and collaborators Christian McBride on Bass and Brian Blade on Drums, proved that point brilliantly. Blade and McBride are highly regarded jazz artists and bandleaders in their own right. Harris Bank sponsors the Jazz Series.

Corea’s concert spanned time, musical genres and composers, from the classical compositions of Alexander Scriabin to his own explorations of the avant-garde with pit stops along the way to incorporate the be-bop era jazz of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk and the blues, which is the birthplace of Modern Jazz. The sixteen-time Grammy Award winner showed that why, at the age of 69, he remains one of the most innovative modern composers working on the concert stage and the undisputed leader among keyboard virtuosos.

Born of Sicilian and Spanish parentage and steeped in both classical and early jazz music in his formative years, Corea put jazz fusion on the musical map with the creation of his landmark band Return to Forever in 1971. His opening composition payed homage to both his early explorations into jazz-fusion and a nod to his Spanish roots. It was appropriately titled, “Homage.” What followed were some probative readings of the musical literature of the distant past that incorporated the difficult, but lyrical runs and chord progressions of Scriabin. The work showed the relationship between the free-form nature of jazz and the controlled chaos of forward-reaching classical composition. “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs,” provided the opportunity for Corea to stretch out and show the depth of his musical knowledge and the nuance of his playing. His resurrection of an early Thelonius Monk tune, “Work,” showed his ability to improvise while working within the framework of an unorthodox chord structure and melodic progression. There were some exquisite moments of interplay between Corea and drummer Brian Blade that showcased the latter’s almost lyrical style of playing. He elevated the capability of his instrument beyond that of a mere timekeeper, to become a true collaborator. The late Max Roach must have been smiling in jazz heaven at the sight of his musical son in action.

Christian McBride’s composition, Sister Rosa, dedicated to Civil Rights pioneer Rosa Parks, captured the blues and soul spirit that was the bedrock of that era and the inspiration behind the music that spawned a New America. Corea cut loose with some brilliant jazz/funk musings that recalled his early musical mentor, the jazz performance and composing genius Horace Silver. Blade’s composition “Alpha and Omega” showcased the latter’s abilities as drummer and composer. The meditative mood of the peace prompted a hushed silence from the audience. Its tone bordered on reverence, no doubt reflective of his childhood, listening to Gospel music in his native Shreveport, Louisiana where his father is a Baptist preacher. It was a transcendent moment.

Corea brought his performance to a blazing conclusion like Secretariat, of current movie fame, crossing the finish line. “Fingerprints,” and his encore, “Isotope,” allowed the audience to revel in the intricacies of his pianistic inventions as he wove complex tapestries of sound with his nimble fingers. His crossover technique and filigreed arpeggios would make even the most accomplished classical pianist stand up and take notice.

His was concertizing of the highest order. For the listener, it was an opportunity to watch one the marvels of the music world at the peak of his form. Chick Corea, as he approaches his seventh decade in life, continues to create music that defies classification.

NY Philharmonic head begins season of adventure

by Dwight Casimere

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America

New York-New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert opened his second season with a program that showcased the strengths of his orchestra and provided the framework for a virtuoso performance by one the music world’s most enduring and beloved soloists.

Itzhak Perlman played Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor for Violin and Orchestra with Perlman providing the delicious treat of playing the original cadenzas, written by Mendelssohn and adapted by violinist Ferdinand David, for whom the piece was originally written.

The program opened with a sparkling rendition of Richard Strauss’ landmark tone poem, Don Juan. From the bracing opening bars, Gilbert was in full command. The urgent tempo was tempered by Gilbert’s skilled control; pulling back at just the right moment to allow the solo bars of the first violin to sing forth with uncommon sweetness. What followed was a lush flowing of romantic lyricism in which one theme seemed to melt into the next. Woodwinds sighed as French horns punctuated the transition from opening theme to crescendo then on to the ensuing recapitulation.

I recently saw a presentation of this work under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas with his New World Symphony in Miami, in which scenes from the 1948 Errol Flynn movie, The Adventures of Don Juan, played on a screen at the back of the stage while the orchestra performed. It was interesting to note how perfectly the music dovetailed with the action on screen although neither had been written with that intent. How prescient of Mendelssohn to visualize the dramatic import of his music.

Itzhak Perlman is a force of nature on the concert stage. His boundless energy and impeccable technique make for a formidable combination that not only captures the ear but brings insight to the music. His playing is like watching a fireworks display on the Fourth. Although I have heard the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto many times, I have never heard it quite like this. It was played with an urgency that made it seem that it had been written expressly for Perlman that very day with the ink still drying on the manuscript pages. In his playing of the difficult triple stops near the end of the cadenzas, he went beyond blazing technique to cut to the soul of the music, thus elevating the listening experience. This was music-making at its best!

Gilbert rounded out the program with the works of two modern composers who each, in their own way, reflected the same innovative spirit of Strauss while incorporating groundbreaking musical ideas of the past; Henri Dutilleux’s Metaboles, composed in the early 1960s and Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes of Carl Maria von Weber composed during the early 1940s.

First of all, let me admit that I absolutely LOVE the music of Carl Maria von Weber. Of all of the great composers, he is the most neglected on the current concert stage. It still puzzles me how a composer with such fluid expression and cohesiveness of ideas could escape under the radar of music lovers today. The fact that one of the most influential composers of the 20^th Century chose to create an homage to his body of work should tell you all you need to know about this early creative genius.

This was the piece in which Gilbert & Company truly sparkled.
His interpretation bristled with energy. The various sections, woodwinds, horns, percussion and the occasional sweeping glissando of the harp created a vortex that propelled the piece to its thoughtful conclusion. The use of little heard percussion instruments, such as tenor drum, tam-tam, tubular bells and wood block added to the dimension and texture of the work.

Alan Gilbert is showing his propensity for the daring that challenges listeners to go beyond their preconceived notions of what constitutes Classical music. It is a music that knows no boundaries and is only limited by the amount of exposure audiences have to it. I am certain that over the course of his second season, Gilbert will rectify that problem.

Met Hoffmann explores complex love quadrangle

by Dwight Casimere

Photos by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

New York—After a stupendous Opening Night Gala performance of a new production of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold, the Metropolitan Opera forged into the second night of its opening week for the 2010-11 season with a scintillating production of Jacque Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann). This is the Met’s 250^th performance of this masterpiece.

Originally premiered in Paris in 1881, the work is modern in every way, with a challenging score and an equally demanding story line. It also features daring music that at once showcases and tortures its singers and musicians. The opera is presented in French with English titles that, at the Met, are located within a tiny screen on the back of the seat in front of you.

There are scenes in the opera that are absolutely sublime. Yet there are times when the story descends into crude reality, contrasting laugh-out-loud humor with parts that are just downright weird. The opera can be confusing to those who aren’t familiar with it because much of what we see on stage are events that unfold in Hoffmann’s mind. His identity splinters into several characters; some good, some evil. None are benign. Events play out both in the real time of the present and in the reflected memory of the past. Somehow it all comes together seamlessly in the skilled hands of Tony Award-winning Director Bartlett Sher and Conductor Patrick Fournillier in his Metropolitan Opera debut.

The top-flight cast left nothing to be desired. Singers scaled the heights of Offenbach’s loftily ambitious score. Even those that occasional stumbled on an errant loose rock or slippery slope along the way managed to reach the pinnacle of performance. Each performed at their personal best. Tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, who will also play the Duke the following night in the Met’s Rigoletto, proved to be a superlative tenor, capable of making Offenbach’s fiendishly difficult passages sound as if they were written expressly for his vocal range.

Russian soprano Hibla Gerzmava, is in her Met debut as Antonia.

After a stunning entrance in the opening aria of Act II, “Elle fui, la tourterelle,” which is set against an ethereal backdrop, her voice became a bit fragile in the upper register as she strained to reach some of the higher notes.

Albanian Mezzo-soprano Enkelejda Shkosa as Giulietta absolutely nailed a series of difficult trills in the love duet of Act III, “O Dieu! De quelle ivresse.” Paired with Filianoti’s creamy tenor, theirs was the type of performance that opera patrons pay the big bucks to see.

Earlier in the opera, soprano Anna Christy knocked it out of the park in her acrobatic singing role as Olympia, the robotic doll who is Hoffman’s first love interest. Mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey turned in an overall satisfying vocal performance in dual roles as Hoffman’s ‘ace boon ’ Nicklausse and The Muse.

The two male cast members, Bass Idler Abdrazakov as the Four Villains and tenor Joel Sorensen as the Four Servants, got a real workout in their multiple roles, but proved more than equal to the tasks. The costumes were an achievement worthy of an award and stood out as lead performers themselves as did the imaginative set design.

Dance and movement are as much a part of Hoffmann as the music and the choreographic team deserves as much applause and ovation as the performers. As always, Chorus Master Donald Palumbo did a brilliant job.

The sight of scantily clad bods on the Met stage has become almost old hat, so the oh-so-many boobs in pasties during the Act III party scene barely raised an eyebrow. The orchestra and chorus nicely performed the familiar lilting theme, “Amis, l’amour tendre et reveur,” with its cautionary lyric mocking the pleasures of the flesh.

Sadly, Les Contes d’Hoffmann turned out to be Offenbach’s swan song. He died before he had even completed the manuscript. One gets the feeling, however, that the composer poured everything he had into this wide-ranging work, even investing his own psyche into the tortured creative soul of his protagonist.

From an historical standpoint, Hoffmann is Offenbach’s last will and testament. In crafting what would become the final work of his career, Offenbach had hoped to reinvent himself as a serious composer by departing from his norm of lyrical theatre. Where his earlier works may have been light and satirical, Hoffmann was dark and sardonic. In many ways, it reflected the burgeoning modernity of his time.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann is not for the feint of heart or those with a short attention span. Characters emerge and disappear only to resurrect themselves in entirely different guises. The music, too, is dense, with melodies and orchestrations shifting in timbre and mood, starting with child-like nursery rhymes that descend into a disturbing miasma of contrasting tonal colors and asymmetrical rhythms. It’s a long sit, but the reward is the opportunity to witness a thoroughly engrossing evening of opera. A number of less-hardy souls left after the first act. What a pity. I found myself happy that I had stayed and wanting more.

Wynton Marsalis opens NY Philharmonic season with 'swinging' US premiere

Story and photos by Dwight Casimere

New York City—After a cursory orchestral reading of the Star Spangled Banner, which found this blogger bravely singing along, even if slightly out of tune, New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert forged ahead with the season Opening Night business at hand; the US premiere of Jazz at Lincoln Center Music Director Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony.

A co-commission with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Barbican, London, the work is a wide-ranging musical travelogue through the history of American Jazz, particularly swing. It is a working musician’s view of the music from its roots as the illegitimate love-child of an enslaved African mother and a reluctant Euro-American father, through the back rooms of the Speakeasy's and Tin Pan Alley, to the basement cabaret's of New York's East 53rd Street and the Village to the Latin barrios of New York and Los Angeles and concluding with the sophisticated quasi-classical musings of Duke Ellington, Gunther Schuller, Gil Evans, Duke Pearson and others of the mid-to-late 20^th Century orchestral jazz movement.

This is the music that came kicking and screaming from its cultural womb at the dawn of the 20^th Century as portrayed in Marsalis’ raucous, highly percussive opening movement. Recalling the ragged beat of Eubie Blake and Scott Joplin and the searing solos of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, Gilbert, Marsalis and company traced the path of those first awkward steps to the present day.

Listening to Marsalis’ opening solo, played from the first trumpet chair, directly in front of Gilbert’s left hand in the second row of the orchestra, one is reminded that this is the music that transformed itself into the stomp of marching feet in Selma and which spawned the Civil Rights Movement. It was later converted to Hip Hop and became the soundtrack to the tidal wave of change that swept the nation’s first African American President into the Oval Office. (There were rumors that President Obama might attend the Opening Night concert, due to his recent arrival in New York City for the opening of the UN General Assembly, but there were no K-9s or Secret Service in evidence, sniffing around the Lincoln Center Plaza fountain to give any indication that he might materialize).

The rather lengthy musical excursion through Midwestern Moods, the Be Bop era of Manhattan and the Latin Jazz movement spawned by Tito Puente, the Escovido family and their disciples on both coasts and the intimations of classically-tinged orchestral jazz of the 70s through 90s and the burgeoning steps of free jazz, all made a well-stated case for the preeminence of this most American of music forms.

The final movement revealed moments that seemed ripped directly from the pages of Duke Ellington’s Black and Tan Suite, there were even intimations of Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite. Yet, there was careful reflection back to the days of Tommy Dorsey and an homage to the pre World War Two swing era, with a trombone solo that dripped with the longing of a soldier’s homesick love letters. Moments later, a lush baritone sax solo resurrected the spirit of Coleman Hawkins and the Basie era.

In his Swing Symphony, Marsalis was only exploring one aspect of jazz, the Swing movement, but his final solo, which let rip with some inventive riffs that leaped and soared to the rafters, sent a clear message that this is just the first chapter in a long musical biography.

McCoy Tyner Triumphs in Charlie Parker Tribute in Harlem

Story and photos by Dwight Casimere

New York-As jazz piano legend McCoy Tyner was escorted to the stage by his brother for the headlining performance of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, he appeared a bit tentative and feeble. A nearby drum consortium, apparently staging their own loud protest against the public intrusion on their ‘turf’ threatened to drown out the performance, as they had done the preceding musical acts, but that notion was quickly dispelled as Tyner unleashed the first notes from the Steinway keyboard. As he played his signature ‘hit’ “Blues on the Corner” he proved to be as thunderous and as commanding a presence as he was during his days as the lead pianist for the legendary John Coltrane quartet and subsequent global triumphs as a solo headlining act. “I’ve been fortunate in that my music has taken me across the world,” Tyner intoned to the crowd, to thunderous applause. As he launched into an hour-long recital that spanned his personal musical universe, he displayed the pianistic genius that recalled not only the piano greats of jazz, such as Bud Powell and Thelonius Monk, but also other modern musical giants from other genres. His use of modal scales and unorthodox chordal structures puts him more in the league of modern classical greats such as Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Bartok. At 71 years old, he is revered as a jazz icon with few peers. As a piano phenomenon, he stands alone. To this day, there has not been another performer to equal the breadth and scope of his Herculean powers at the piano.

Tyner’s performance was a compendium of his long and groundbreaking solo career. The force of his creative genius made the incessant annoyance of the drummers a mere apostrophe to the masterful musical thesis he composed to the delight of his attentive audience.