The season is now over and again
OTSL can congratulate itself on an outstanding season of four excellent opera
productions, including another wonderful premiere of Shalimar the Clown. I had
the opportunity over the last month to experience all 4 productions and here
are some brief comments about each of them.
Ariadne
auf Naxos is an opera that I have seen online several times, but never live
and never in English before. This
infectious Richard Strauss opera works so much better live. The antics of the commedia del’arte troupe
along with the excessive hand-wringing from the traditionalists in the first
act capped off by the lovely “combined” performance of the second act all
worked together to make this a riveting and enjoyable experience. And add to that the fact that it was
performed in English. Now, I am not
usually in favor of performing opera in English, and prefer the original
language. In fact, I feel that often performing
an Italian opera in English is like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but
in this case it worked great. There is
so much dialogue and there is so much going on that it would have been hard to
follow in German. Plus the translation was pretty good and not groan-worthy.
(wish I could say that for Boheme and Macbeth, which simply did/do NOT work in
English - IMHO). The final element of
this great production was of course the cast and orchestra. The orchestra for all of the operas is the
St. Louis Symphony and their playing was exquisite throughout the season
(especially in Shalimar!) R. Strauss is not a walk in the park for the
orchestra but they played the score brilliantly and the conductor infused much
energy that kept everything moving at a nice pace. The cast was across the board excellent (this
is true for all 4 operas – not a weak link in the bunch!) For Ariadne
I felt the stand-outs were So Young Park as Zerbinetta, A.J. Gluekert as
Bacchus and then the incredible Ken Page (otherwise known to theater-goers as
Old Deuteronomy in the the original Cats production)
as the Major-Domo. I had not realized that until later but while viewing was
completely taken by his performance. I
doubt I will ever experience another opera performance where one of the standout
stars was a non-singer in a non-singing role, but he was simply
outstanding. What a great idea to cast
him, he BTW is a St. Louis native, so it was a kind of homecoming I suppose and
he was warmly and enthusiastically received by the audience. I doubt that Ariadne will ever replace Rosenkavalier
as my favorite R. Strauss opera, but this was a terrific performance and a
joyous way to begin the season.
La
Boheme is perhaps one of the best loved opera of all times. Many people who never go to the opera have
nevertheless seen Boheme. Among opera lovers it is interesting to me to
read comments about this opera, for they tend to go from adoration to intense
dislike with a strong dose of “I’m so tired of it.” And I myself have sometimes found myself at
times in the “tired of it” camp, until the downbeat and then I am engaged. It is not only a beautiful score, but it is
an incredibly well constructed score.
And for me the 2nd act is a perfect gem and perhaps one of
the great accomplishments of late 19th century Verismo opera. There is always a lot going on in the 2nd
act and then it all is finished off with the onstage band marching across the
stage. And it is here I’ll begin my
reflections about the OTSL production. There was simply too much on and off
stage movement in this act which didn’t seem to have any purpose. If it was to simulate the flow of the crowds
on Christmas Eve in Paris it didn’t work for too often the chorus would leave
the principals alone on the stage only to reappear just in time to sing and
then disappear again. That just didn’t
work for me. I wanted to crowds to be
teeming throughout the act. That said
the ending was great. I always love the
band and this was no exception. The kids were great and the Parpignol (Eric
Ferring) was easily one of the most memorable voices in the cast – what a
beautiful voice and he only basically sang one note! The cast were all young singers and were all
very good. I especially loved the Mimi
of Hae Ji Chang and the Rodolpho of Andrew Haji and they had good chemistry. She was especially effecting in the last act. And the Shaunard of Sean Michael Plumb was
another standout, what a beautiful voice.
Lastly, opera veteran Thomas Hammons sang the joint roles of
Benoit/Alcindoro and he was terrific and then (on the Wednesday I attended) he
turned around and took over the much more demanding and extensive role of
Shalimar’s Father in the evening performance of Shalimar the Clown. In
closing I will say that I did enjoy this performance very much. The singers all were very committed and sang
beautifully. I found myself wiping away
tears on more than one occasion, including the ending of act 2 which always
(for some reason) is an emotional experience for me.
Shalimar
the Clown in another in the series of commissions and world premiere operas
that OTSL has given to the opera world.
And this was for me a very moving and powerful experience. The libretto is based on a novel by Salman
Rushdie (he was at the performance I attended, which was cool!). The story moves quickly around the world from
LA to the small fictional village of Pachigam in Kashmir and back again to LA,
this was effectively represented in a series of excellent projections. The story deals with the issue of religious
conflict and hatred and how it is that so many young men are radicalized and
seemingly so quick to accept violence.
The opera begins at the end of the story – Shalimar (Sean Panikkar) has
been stalking the former US Ambassador to India, Max Ophuls (Gregory Dahl), and
has managed to get himself hired as Max’s driver. After arriving at his daughter India’s
(Andriana Chuchman) for a birthday celebration Shalimar murders Max. And then we go back to the village and get to
experience Shalimar’s long slow path from a sweet, shy Indian Muslim circus
performer to a hardened, hateful and bitterly vengeful, and particularly
violent murderer. Early on we meet
Boonyi (also played by Andriana Chuchman), the object of Shalimar’s
affection. But Boonyi is Hindu, so the
first conflict is set up – a Muslim and Hindu who are forced to marry because
they have been caught and blackmailed (or he tries to blackmail them) by a
slimy schoolteacher (brilliantly portrayed by Geoffrey Agpalo). The wedding itself is crashed by the Iron Mullah
(Aubrey Allicock) who comes to condemn the pluralism represented in this
bi-religion wedding. But the community
all join together to reject the hate and prejudice represented by the Iron
Mullah and to reaffirm that they are all of one community and that they live in
peace. It is one of the most moving
moments in the opera.
But it cannot last, Max the
Ambassador arrives and is smitten with lust by the young dancer Boonyi who runs
off with him and is eventually impregnated by him. His wife Peggy (Katherine Goeldner) keeps the
child and sends Boonyi back to her village, but she has now been declared dead
and finds herself an outcast. Not only
that but Shalimar is so filled with rage and that he has pledged to murder her
and Max. He joins the Islamic terrorist
insurgency where he distinguishes himself as one of the most ruthless and
bloody soldiers, even creeping out even the other terrorists because he is so
blood-thirsty. Eventually he makes good
on his vow. The village is destroyed by
the Indian army and everyone is murdered – another incredibly powerful scene is
the “Rape of Pachigam” the destruction of the village depicted by 6 dancers (3
men and 3 women) who act out a stylized by violent rape sequence. It was hard to watch but impossible to turn
away from – the music was particularly stunning here. Boonyi manages to escape the Indian army but
she meets up with Shalimar who is surveying the rubble of his home and taking
note of the bodies of his parents and family and friends. Shalimar murders her as he had vowed to do,
even though I had the sense that he did it almost with regret. Regret that then
fueled his determination to murder Max.
The ending of this opera is incredible.
The daughter of Max and Boonyi is a young Olympic archer named India
(who knows nothing of her past or of the sordid story that brought her to life)
but she finds herself facing off with Shalimar at the end, just as the lights
go out. I would like to read the ending
of the book to find out how Rushdie ends this story. I am confident that India
successfully defends herself, though it is left up in the air.
This was a powerful evening at the
opera. It is these kinds of experiences
that keep me committed to this art form. Opera has a unique way of drawing the
audience into the story through the music, and the music for this opera –
composed by Jack Perla (libretto by Rajiv Joseph) – was wonderful. I loved the score. The orchestration included both a tabla and a
sitar and utilized the winds in particular making the music both lush and stark
as the story required. I have heard that
a recording will be released and I am looking forward to buying it and
listening to it again. The St. Louis
symphony outdid themselves in performing this score. The chorus of young apprentices who also took
on a variety of small roles throughout the season also were especially terrific
in Shalimar. As for the leads, I said it above, this
was a terrific cast from the two principals – Sean Panikkar as Shalimar and Andriana
Chuchman as Boonyi/India. Both roles
require incredible acting chops and they both had it along with the vocal
skills to perform the roles. I would
have to list the entire cast in order to list the excellent performances, but I
have to at least point to Gregory Dahl, who was really outstanding as Max and
managed to convey this complicated man.
It would be so easy to play him as a “bad guy” but I loved that Dahl’s
Max was a very complex man, who is not bad, but not always good – who is self-giving
and at the same time rather selfish – kind of like all of us. And Katherine Goeldner was an effective Peggy
who while the ignored wife still manages to accomplish perhaps the cruelest act
in the entire story. And Finally Aubrey
Allicot as Bulbul Fakh, the Iron Mullah was terrifically and horrifyingly
effective.
Lastly I want to say that the
multicultural dimension of this work I found exciting and cutting edge. We do live in a pluralistic world and we need
to embrace and celebrate this. We need
to reject decisively those who would categorize and demonize other peoples and
cultures and recognize that we are all in this together and we need each other.
And the arts need to constantly model this and celebrate it. This is a great step in that direction. I truly hope to see many more productions of
this wonderful opera around the country and the world. It deserves it – but we need it!
I will post the final reflection on OTSL's Macbeth within the week.
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