The Amore Opera: Small, Beautiful, "La Traviata"

 That's Amato, That's Amore!

For over sixty years, the Amato Opera was a mainstay of NYC opera--a place that cultivated young talents, fostered the art and craft of opera, and entertained opera lovers.  But once it closed, just a few years ago, New Yorkers lost--momentarily--a tradition that had been around for more than half a century.  One of the Amato's successors, the Amore, has proven to be a delightful option for those of us interested in experiencing opera on a more intimate scale.  And so, when I first had the opportunity to attend an Amore performance, I was pleasantly delighted by it.  Perhaps, it was seeing and hearing the quality of its burgeoning singers, getting a chance to perform such master works; or perhaps it was the cozy feeling of its theater, and the proximity that the audience could have with the performers.  In some way, it was like stepping back in time, to an old city theater, dark and dusty, yet full of life and a strong sense of commitment to the operatic genres.  The singers, musicians, stage crew, administrators, and the whole community of the Amore were delightfully friendly--from the moment I walked into the opera "house" (theater), to the intermissions, and the finale.  It was a treat to meet and speak with those who put the production together, to speak briefly with the director and conductor, and to interact with the musicians.  It isn't often--especially in NY--that one can cultivate that intimacy in such productions, especially operas, where we the audience are walled off from the performers, set in our seats, as mere observers.  Though, of course, it is understandable: could one imagine if the entirety of the Metropolitan Opera audience descended upon an exhausted post-performance Bryn Terfel or Deborah Voigt!  Nonetheless, it is a great opportunity for those opera enthusiasts out there.  So if you're ever in NYC and have the chance to experience the Amore, go for it.  For it is surely a night you won't forget!

Erik Satie on Wall Street--840 Times

As the summer solstice rolled in, so too did a number of intriguing activities around the globe.  One such series of events was to turn this old pagan festival into a music making day all around NYC (and other global towns).  I'd been invited to partake in one musical interlude in Central Park, but missed it as it was during my lunch hour, and I'd been busy at work during the day.  But there was another, which I somehow came across, and found completely intriguing: a global performance of Erik Satie's mesmerizing and haunting little (and grand!) piece titled "Vexations," which is marked to be repeated 840 times!  Among a dozen or so performances in some of the world's great cities, the NY performance was held just on Broadway and Wall Street, from early Thursday morning till sometime before midnight of the same day--whenever the 840th repeat was to take place.  A trio of percussionists took turns majestically divining the piece from their vibraphonic instruments, like earthy priests evoking spirits from a forest--right in the middle of the world's financial center!  The music is highly meditative, and done in such a location felt like prehistoric chimes echoing from the bottom of a chasm into the upper spheres!  Ayano Kataoka, Amy Garapic, and others performed this work with steadiness and poise, making for a truly unique musical event.  We look forward to their upcoming performances.

Amor & Pscyhe by Opera Feroce (Morningside Heights)

When I say "delightful surprise," I really mean it.  And there was never more delightful a surprise than when I literally stumbled across a hand made poster stuck to a telephone pole a few months ago in Morningside Heights, just outside of a Youth Hostel on 106th Street--advertising a chamber opera inside the hostel!  It turns out that a local group called "Opera Feroce" was putting on a baroque opera pastiche called "Amor & Psyche."  This wonderfully small, and magnificently talented group came together and put on one of the most amazing chamber operas I've ever seen!  I was so surprised--perhaps because of the venue and perhaps because I wasn't really sure what to expect--that I left the event in awe of the work, the musicians, and the singers...all simply amazing individuals and performers. 

In short, three singers, Hayden DeWitt, Alan Dornak, and Beth Anne Hatton, bring together a magically twisted tale of baroque intrigue, love, and life, through characters, who make us laugh along the way.  The accompanying micro-orchestra of Motomi Igarashi (viola da gamba), Vita Wallace (violin), and Kelly Savage (harpsichord) plays with great skill and finesse.  And together, the group works in a very precise and beautiful way.   We look forward to more of their concerts, especially in November with plans for a performance of "Amor & Psyche" at the Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

Riverside House Party: Music of Mark Enslin

Mark Enslin: Composer and More...!

I hope that a tradition will emerge from this reporting of small venue musicales, whether in NYC or elsewhere.  Specifically, I hope to begin introducing the musically-interested world to regionally disparate composers and musicians.

About a month ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mark Enslin, an extremely talented composer and wonderful individual who lives and works in Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Mr. Enslin works at the School for Designing a Society, and utilizes many of his talents in his position(s) there.  He is a "composer, performer, actor, activist, organizer, and teacher"...and much more.  We met at a House Party given by "What a Neighborhood!" (Vita and Ishmael Wallace) in Morningside Heights, and the two pieces performed were by Mr. Enslin.  One was a solo piano piece with spoken accompaniment, performed by Susan Parenti (also of the School for Designing a Society), called "Unentitled," which was an absolutely fantastic work of about half an hour, and had audience participation linked to its performance--it was a musical event + performative art event.  The second work was a piece designed for a "one-man-band" consisting of some 17 instruments, including such "invented" instruments as the "UtterBot," which can create a range of almost infinite pitches and inter-pitches through modulating the water level in the instrument.  It also included an instrument called the "Trombrella," as you might imagine--a trombone + umbrella.  These were both pieces that will long be remembered by the audience, and we hope that Mr. Enslin continues his excellent craft, as his work was much enjoyed by all.  And it is surely a craft that made many of those present think more creatively and constructively about music, sound, and art itself.

Elliot Carter: A Premiere at 103

(NB: That's not Mr. Carter in the photo, by the way  ;-)

Some amazing sights and sounds a few weeks ago at the premiere of a new Elliot Carter piece: first, Elliot Carter himself showed up at the concert premiering his work along with two other contemporary composers, and offered up some background to the work entitled by its parts "Two Controversies and a Conversation."  The work was a New York Philharmonic co-commission with Aldeburgh Festival and Radio France.  And as the website of CONTACT! noted..."Two Controversies and a Conversation is more compact in scale and intent than Carter’s pioneering Double Concerto (1961) and takes a different approach to the relationship between the soloists and orchestra."

The second delight, the piece itself by Carter seemed to emerge delightfully out of his atonal Phoenix: a career based on a harsh panoply of sound, deconstructing any semblance of tonality, finally arising in his 104th year with an atonality that no longer bludgeoned the listener, but invited and warmed him/her.  I was very happy to see this iconic composer in person, and hear him speak about the work, and his process.  And I can now see/hear why so many commentators are saying "your work after 90 is your best!"  Truly, he's polished it to a point that it is a suave and unpretentious compositional style, that isn't quite cliched (though, there is always that risk) as other atonal compositions.  The problem with many contemporary works is that their style, structure, and context often buries them in a gutter of unrecognizable modern atonality, so that for many untrained ears (and some trained!), baroque music all sounds nauseatingly the same--but at least it is not abusive on the ear.  Somehow, Carter has achieved something better, greater, and completely inviting, and we are happy for that, and for his continued contributions to contemporary classical music.

Chamber Operas: Bruce Saylor at Queens College

A Night At the Opera

Premiers of "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" and "The Image Maker"

by Bruce Saylor

New York City is an opera town, for sure.  And if you look for opportunities to see and hear and experience opera in New York, you'll likely find an opera playing at least three times a week in the city.  Perhaps only a place like Berlin could compete with the frequency of operas--at one a day.  But we are surely fortunate to have such opportunity in NYC.  What we are also lucky to have is a place where new operas can be performed.  Admittedly, this does not happen as often as some might like, but when it does, and those operas are great works, then we are given a treat.  

This was definitely the case in a recent production of two operas by NYC composer and professor, Bruce Saylor, whose works were performed at the Goldstein Theatre at Queens College on May 4-6. The operas "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" and "The Image Maker" were both a joint presentation of the Aaron Copland School of Music, the school’s Opera Program, and the Department of Drama, Theater and Dance.  They were conducted by Maurice Peress; with stage director, Lorca Peress. Sets and lighting were designed by Harry Feiner; costumes were by Sam Fleming; projection design by Jan Hartley; and choreography by Carolyn Webb, (CUNY Queens site).

First, I must say that I was completely thrilled to get a chance to see and hear this work.  I'd met Bruce some dozen years ago in Rome, Italy, while I was there for a year studying, and he was there with his lovely family, working and composing.  I'd heard some of Bruce's music before, which I really liked, but I hadn't heard anything extensive, such as an opera.  So, after all this time, I finally had the opportunity, and it wasn't an opportunity to be missed.  I'm glad that such great works as these were performed in Queens, which for many New Yorkers would seem to be too far afield; but having the works done here lends to the power and force that great opera and music can be and is made everywhere.  Indeed, if these operas had been performed in Manhattan in Symphony Space or at the NYC Opera, for example, the press would have been bigger.  And I think that at some point these excellent operas need to be performed more regularly for larger audiences.  

This said, the operas themselves are masterfully written in every way.   "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" based on the story by Hawthorne and adapted by Barnard faculty Cary Plotkin, is now more than three decades old, but re-worked by the composer for this performance.  The first of the operas to be formed in the two-opera billing, we find its content to be reminiscent of the classical opera, where characters from the late 18th century, in the most Revolutionary War era manners, talk, and sartorial demonstration, show us the most human (and inhuman) sides of the operatic character: searching, suffering, and discovering the mysteries and miseries of life.  (A young man is in search of his "kinsman," but he cannot find him in the town that he is supposed to be in--then, he discovers that his kinsman is in fact a pariah, tarred and feathered...and sent to his fate.)  In some ways, the tale is very Kafkaesque, and both Plotkin's rendering of the libretto and Saylor's tonality are a perfect match.  The characters have a darkness, and the music not only echoes this, but penetrates their performance throughout the entire work.  The scenes, both outside and inside (such as in an old bar or ale house), were beautifully executed, and the performers all played their parts with stunning acuity, embodying the characters so that you really do think you're back in the 1780s--or, at least ready to bump into some creepy Salieri character at any moment!

The second opera, "The Image Maker," was a setting of the play by James Merrill, and had its World Premier at this performance.  Different in many ways from "My Kinsman...," "The Image Maker" is, nonetheless, and equally powerful and complex opera.  This opera is semantically "brighter" and "livelier" than the Hawthorne work, in many ways.  It is a work that is based in the Caribbean (and I must say that I'm happy to have found the opera picked up by "Caribbean Life" Online), and plays with many themes of religion, family, and relationships.  The image maker is a "carver" of statues, very particular, religious statues, and his life is drawn up into the relationships he has.  The musical construction of this opera is very evocative, with a magical and lyrical flute opening the work, pulling the audience and listeners into the very demonstrative, colorful, ornate, and complex world of the characters.  Perhaps one of the highlights of this work is the dance scene, complete with drums and a percussive accompaniment that is both raw and beautiful, but also perfectly powerful and suitable for this piece.  It reminded me of how ballet had once been banned in court operas, and how far things had changed in the last 220 years of opera making!  This is surely an opera that must be performed again.

I was very pleased with these performances--with all aspects of the works, including Maestro Peress and his musicians; and with the whole design, choreography, and direction.  The works were superb.  And I was completely drawn into the works, as holistic operations and experiences of the operatic milieu.  The accessibility of these works, especially as we continue to crawl into 21st century "musics" is refreshing, and I hope that Mr. Saylor and his musical and artistic friends are working on more operas...because they are necessary for the vibrancy of this city.

Schubert's Valentine

A Good Evening of Schubert (and Other!) Lieder

Every so often we find a delightful musical experience that radiates with everything we might expect or want from a 19th century setting.  And such a time was had this last Valentine's Day at New York's Merchant's House Museum on 29th East Fourth Street.  A few weeks before the performance, a good friend of mine, Roz Gnatt, who would be singing this evening, told me about the event.  I promptly went and bought a ticket for the evening.  I found on the MHM website, the following information about the concert:

Love in the Parlors - A 19th-century Valentine in Concert

The Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society presents its best concert yet! Lush, romantic vocal music of the world's great 19th-century composers performed in the Merchant's House Museum's Greek Revival double parlors. Singers Anthony Bellov, Rosalind Gnatt, Jane Rady and Dayle Vander Sande perform music by Rossini, Schubert, Liszt, Gounod, Mendelssohn, Strauss, Amy Beach and more. Feel the love!

 

 

 When the time came for the concert, I went downtown, and found the old home not far from NYU.  A few folks were waiting in line, including a young French woman, who worked as a photographer, and who was in town visiting relatives.  We chatted a bit, before the line queued up some more, and then we all entered.  The interior was quite delightfully arranged and decorated, and the chairs for the concert set in short rows all the way to the back of the double-parlor that had been opened to accommodate the musical space and audience.  The concert was excellent, as each of the four singers took turns, in solo, or groups, to sing from the masterworks.  

This was an excellent chance to see how small operations of musical performance work, and work well in New York.  The crowd was intimate, and the singers performed with great skill and vocal acuity, from the Schubert to the Offenbach.  Enjoying the space with other individuals so attuned to music, but also attuned to the space that music occupies, and the interactions that go on there--that is the most meaningful aspect of these evenings.  Part of the charm of the Schubertiade style of chamber music, in its most central "chamber" sense, is the interaction and participation of individuals on a more human scale--not in the behemoth castles of modern day orchestral houses.  So, for us, excellent singing and song added to the greatness of this evening.

Well done, Euterpeans!