Porgy and Bess: by George Gershwin

First up for the 2011-2012 season was Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Once again I was watching a "modern" opera with English lyrics. Unfortunately two big immediate strikes against it. But even without those two big biases I still didn't enjoy this opera.

I suppose I should start with the things that I liked though to be fair. I liked that we were watching the primary artists. There was no secondary cast so that was really nice. I enjoyed several of the artists individual performances Gwendolyn Brown (Maria) was magnificent and I always enjoy Gordon Hawkins (Porgy) even though this was not my favorite role for him.

My complaint with this opera was two fold. One, it sounded like a musical. When the overture began it had the flavor of a musical to it, so when the artists began to sing in operatic form it was odd and disconcerting to say the least. I kept wishing that either the music was different or the style of singing was different. Not something to fault any of the artists on. They did fabulous with what they had. It was a underlying problem with the opera itself rather than any individual performance. Two, the opera uses dialect which is important to the story line but completely bizarre to listen to. Imagine a person saying the line "I's loves you Porgy. I's yo' woman." But instead of hearing the entire sentence as words the last word of each sentence is a trilled opera note. Alarming and unusual right?

Finally, I just didn't really love the story line. Honestly. Many parts were interesting and I enjoyed the role of Sportin' Life. But overall it was just not my favorite.

Must See Rating: **

Die Zauberflöte: by Mozart

Die Zauberflöte (otherwise known as "The Magic Flute") was the final opera of the season. I had been anxiously awaiting this opera since it is the one and only opera I actually own and am familiar with. It has taken me all week to process the opera experience and now I finally feel semi-prepared to give my review.

Pros: I LOVED this opera. There is something to be said for intimately knowing an opera. And not just one or two famous arias but the entire thing. From the moment the overture started I was transported back in time to my bedroom. I am 17 years old and I am blasting this opera for all to hear at 6:15 am. It was amazing. The overture was handled masterfully by the orchestra. It was like I was listening to my recording all over again. Tamino was brilliant. Papageno was outstanding. OUTSTANDING. The staging and the costuming were both fantastic. It was everything I had hoped for and then some. Also, since I had only ever heard the recordings of the opera I was unaware that there was so much actual dialogue in between arias. It made the story so much more understandable.

Cons: I really only had a few items that marred the experience. The biggest one was the soprano who performed the role of the Queen of the Night was a bit shaky in the upper register during her aria O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn. She struggled a bit in her second aria Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (video is shown above) but overall it was better than the first. Possibly part of my perfectionism is the amount of times I listened to the recorded version. There was not going to be a lot of leeway allowed for it to measure up to my expectations.

My only other distraction was with costuming. Tamino's first costume so strongly reminded me of Prince Humperdink from the Princess Bride. It took me until halfway through the seond act to finally place why it looked so familiar. And Monostatos costume looked exactly like one of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Other than that it was practically perfect in every way.

Must See Rating: *****
This absolutely makes my list of good operas for first timers.

Getting Excited

The Magic Flute is coming up in just 2 and a half weeks. I am super excited. I have been waiting for a LONG time for this one. It is the only opera that I own on CD. It is going to be wonderful to see it played out. I just hope baby boy does well while I am gone. That is going to be the real trick!

Don Quixote: by Jules Massenet

There is one bad thing about the season tickets Penny and I have for the opera. And that is the performance we see is the next to last one of the opera's run. Which means if one of us gets sick then we have very limited wiggle room to reschedule. Such was the case with this fourth opera of our season. Penny came down with the stomach flu and was unable to attend. Fortunately my dear friend Joanna was available to take her place and give me some company in Seattle.

Don Quixote was actually a relatively short opera. We were walking out the door right at 10:05 which is absurdly early for most operas. However, being 9 months pregnant and crammed into a little seat is not the most comfortable so I was happy to see that it was relatively short.

Pros: Wonderful fast moving opera. Nice chorus numbers interspersed throughout the entire opera. There was a HORSE and a DONKEY on stage. No joke. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza both rode them multiple times throughout the opera. It was pretty amazing. I was very impressed that the animals did not balk at the lights or the noise or the person sitting on their backs singing VERY loudly. The orchestra was brilliant as well. I am guessing the opera must not be super complicated because they seemed sharp the entire time. But then again what do I know!

Cons: Was there a con to this opera? I don't know that there was. The biggest negative was that two women were singing the part of two men. But I am sure that was how it was supposed to be. I just find it irritating.

Must See Rating: *****

The Barber of Seville: by Rossini

Got to experience the brilliant Barber of Seville last night. It was funny and very well done. One thing I really enjoyed was the fact that the music was so incredibly recognizable. The above clip is a Bugs Bunny cartoon that uses the overture from the Barber of Seville as the backdrop. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give opera a chance.

Pros: Very fast paced fun loving opera with lots going on. Visually you are never bored and the set design was wonderful. Vocally it was a very fun opera to listen to as well. The first act is an hour and a half long, which is quite lengthy by normal opera standards. But the time goes quickly because of the recognizable score and the abundance of action within the plot.

Cons: Sadly the overture, which is incredibly familiar, was not played super tight. I don't know if the strings were having an off night or if they just needed to have another rehearsal or two. The section that was very obviously off you can hear in the above video at about minute 3:30. It should be dead on but they seemed as though one or two players were off. Of course I still enjoyed it but my dear opera companion Penny was quite disappointed. And after she mentioned it then I recalled it too. But it is the difference between a musician and an non-musician listening for sure.

Must See Rating: *****

Lucia di Lammermoor: by Donizetti

After the massive snooze-fest that was Tristan und Isolde, I was excited to see that we were going to be watching an opera this time around with some action in it. I am always much more interested in the operas with lots of action and a tempo that keeps things moving along swiftly.

Pros: There were some truly wonderful performers in this production. All the main characters were wonderful and the soprano that sang the role of Lucia was outstanding. There were also several duets that truly were audio perfection. The staging was quite wonderful and the chorus was great as well. Act 3 contains the famous mad scene where Lucia sings right after having murdered her husband. The aria is brilliantly written and it is done somewhat as a duet with a flute solo. Never thought of the flute and the soprano voice as being similar but I'll be darned, they go extremely well together. My mom would have called this a goose killer opera. Professionals would call it coloratura. I call it wonderful.

Cons: I really can't think of anything that I didn't like. It really was quite wonderful. Usually I have something that is not my favorite either but the pacing of the entire opera was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Must See Rating: *****

Tristan und Isolde: by Richard Wagner

I don't think there is any other way to start this post other than saying this is one SERIOUSLY long opera. Clocking in at 4:30 (including intermissions) necessitated the early start time of 6:30 pm rather than the usual 7:30 pm. Let me tell you all it was a good thing, because I was already dropping off to sleep at 11:20 when it finished.

Pros: The music really was quite lovely. It really was. There is a beauty in Wagner's music from the listeners perspective that is not easily duplicated. At first listen it seemed as though the overture was simple but then I stopped and really listened. While it was easy on the ears like a simple piece of music this was hardly simple! There were so many parts that it was insane! I mentioned to Penny at an intermission that the man must have been on LSD when he wrote the music because there were so many parts but yet they all flowed together perfectly. Also, Greer Grimsley (for all that his photo in the program makes him look like Fabio) has a perfectly lovely voice and was a pleasure to listen to. My only sadness was that he was not featured until Act III. It really was a shame. We also had a huge treat in that we got to hear the spendy performers. Most often we hear the understudies or those who have been cast for the alternate performances. So hearing the big guns was very nice.

Cons: I knew this one was going to be long. I really did. I also knew that it was maybe a bit sleepy with very little action. Which was very, very true. All of Act I was dialogue. And if you have never heard opera dialogue it is strange. It is kinda half sung half chanted. There were no true arias in the entire Act I. Totally bizarre. Act II had the most dispassionate love affair that I have ever seen. Obviously there is no going back and rewriting what Wagner has done but I find it disappointing that the staging was so stilted. This "love affair" didn't even have the lovers hold hands. They stood and sang with very little passion, more often then not, not looking at each other. Penny and I decided that if that was what a love affair was all about we would pass thank you very much! Since the artists that had been cast in the roles have performed it multiple times for multiple different opera companies I can't help but wonder if that is just how it is supposed to be performed. Bizarre at the least. Like a love affair of zombies.

All in all it was about as good as I expected. I went in with the expectation that I was going to be sleepy by the end of it and I was. I think I would enjoy it more if I stopped trying to read the dialogue and just closed my eyes and enjoyed the music. Although I might fall asleep, you never know.

Must See Rating ***