Recently in Performances

ETO Autumn 2020 Season Announcement: Lyric Solitude

English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.

Love, always: Chanticleer, Live from London … via San Francisco

This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).

Dreams and delusions from Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper at Wigmore Hall

Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.

Treasures of the English Renaissance: Stile Antico, Live from London

Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.

A wonderful Wigmore Hall debut by Elizabeth Llewellyn

Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.

The Sixteen: Music for Reflection, live from Kings Place

For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.

Iestyn Davies and Elizabeth Kenny explore Dowland's directness and darkness at Hatfield House

'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’

Paradise Lost: Tête-à-Tête 2020

‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’

Joyce DiDonato: Met Stars Live in Concert

There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.

‘Where All Roses Go’: Apollo5, Live from London

‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields 're-connect'

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.

Lucy Crowe and Allan Clayton join Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO at St Luke's

The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.

Choral Dances: VOCES8, Live from London

With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.

Royal Opera House Gala Concert

Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.

Fading: The Gesualdo Six at Live from London

"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."

Met Stars Live in Concert: Lise Davidsen at the Oscarshall Palace in Oslo

The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes.

Precipice: The Grange Festival

Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance.

Monteverdi: The Ache of Love - Live from London

There’s a “slide of harmony” and “all the bones leave your body at that moment and you collapse to the floor, it’s so extraordinary.”

Music for a While: Rowan Pierce and Christopher Glynn at Ryedale Online

“Music for a while, shall all your cares beguile.”

A Musical Reunion at Garsington Opera

The hum of bees rising from myriad scented blooms; gentle strains of birdsong; the cheerful chatter of picnickers beside a still lake; decorous thwacks of leather on willow; song and music floating through the warm evening air.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Performances

Sondra Radvonovsky as Sister Angelica [Photo by Robert Millard]
22 Sep 2008

Puccini's Il Trittico at Los Angeles Opera

A few seasons back, Los Angeles Opera invited William Friedkin to direct a double-bill of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.

G. Puccini: Il Trittico

See body of review for cast lists

Above: Sondra Radvonovsky as Sister Angelica [Photo by Robert Millard]

 

The Bartok featured a spare set with ghostly lighting effects and puppets, and ended with Samuel Ramey's Bluebeard garroting Denyce Graves's Judith onstage with her flowing red scarf. Later, in his manic Schicchi, the bird puppets from the Bartok made a reappearance, linking the two productions.

In contemplating a full staging of Puccini's brilliant (if unwieldy in terms of length and staging requirements) Il Trittico, LAO decided to dispense with Friedkin's earlier Gianni Schicchi but to ask the director to create productions of the first two parts of the triptych, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. For the comedy, Placido Domingo realized a long-held desire to employ Woody Allen. This show opened the 2008-09 season, and as seen on Sunday, September 21st, it proved to be a successful venture, although with a striking difference in directorial approach between the two Friedkin sections and that of Allen.

Santo Loquasto's designed traditional sets for the first two operas, impressively scaled and detailed. Friedkin had a cramped front stage area for Il Tabarro, once Michele's barge has drawn up to the wharf. Without the option of theatrical effects, Friedkin proved to be a rather routine stage director, with nothing very imaginative in his handling of the actors. Licitra's Luigi stuck his thumbs in his belt like a member of the Lollipop Guild, and Mark Delavan's Michele looked ready to kill someone from the moment he barged off his barge. Anja Kampe, however, portrayed a truly touching Giorgetta, vital if not obviously young, and sensual without deserving the harsh judgement of her husband when he suspects her of adultery. Matthew O'Neill slightly overplayed the comedy of his drunken Tinca, if enjoyably so, but both John Del Carlo (actually luxury casting for such a small role) and Tichina Vaughn as the husband and wife Talpa and Frugola made an interesting dramatic contrast to the sordid triangle at the heart of the drama.

Besides taking the acting honors, Kampe also sang with a feminine power that suggests she should look into some other great Puccini roles. Licitra is finally gaining control of his spinto instrument, although when it came time for his final big moment on the folly of jealousy, his voice didn't ring out with quite the volume he had mustered earlier in the evening. Delavan had all the gruffness needed for the darkness in Michele, but the sad and lonely side that might evoke some pity hasn't developed yet. Friedkin did find a way to suggestively link his two operas, as he had done before: this time, when the songseller appears, two nuns join the crowd.

Tabarro1.pngIl Tabarro: Anja Kampe, Salvatore Licitra [Photo by Robert Millard]

Loquasto's convent for Suor Angelica had one somewhat original touch, a grated entrance for the appearance of the Principessa, which also provided a dramatic exit after her character has delivered her devastating news to Angelica and gotten the desired signature on a legal document. Larissa Diadkova not only had all the imperiously dark tones for the role, but also a forbiddingly dark visage from the rear, as she walked away from her prostrate niece. Otherwise this was Sondra Radvanovsky's show, and she triumphed. Her huge voice didn't float the highest notes, but her threading down of the volume had the desired effect. Radvanovsky's Angelica appeared sad from the start, so her suicidal impulse made sense, but the singer also did well by the tricky moment when Angelica realizes she has committed a mortal sin and begs Mother Mary to save her. Here, Friedkin went full out, with a Mary figure in flowing robes descending from the rafters, as the son of Angelica appears from the chapel. Freidkin even had another sister appear to witness the miracle. That went over the top for your reviewer, but the amount of sniffling and sobbing in the audience provided evidence that it worked for many.

After two settings presented much as they might have looked at the opera's debut, Loquasto, for Woody Allen, went for an updating of Gianni Schicchi. We were somewhere in mid-20th century, in a huge room with a metal-works circular stair leading to a loft with no ostensible purpose. There was almost no bare space for an actor to sit, with knickknacks and housewares strewn everywhere, not to mention the spaghetti noodles still in the pot where the will would be discovered (and that spaghetti, dangling from the will, became a classic running joke that went on past its effective date). Allen has directed for the stage before, and his films tend to be more talk than action as well, so it may not be a surprise that he proved more adept than Friedkin at moving the singers around and getting individual performances from each of them. Jill Grove filled out (amply!) a truly malevolent, and ultimately murderous, Zita. Andrea Silvestri's muscular bass pushed other voices to the side as his former-mayor character strutted around the stage. Best of all, Allen found a way to make the two lovers interesting. Saimir Pirgu not only sang with the sort of hormonally-charged tenor voice needed for Rinuccio, but managed to be quite funny as well. Even better, instead of being an airheaded "daddy's girl," Jennifer Black (subbing for Laura Tatulescu) slunk on stage as a very physical Lauretta, with hips to kill, and if they don't work, a stiletto in her garter. But Allen didn't have to end the opera with the two youngsters getting down to business, or "up" to it, at the top of the circular staircase.

Schicchi1.pngGianni Schicchi: Thomas Allen [Photo by Robert Millard]
At the heart of all this farcical nonsense was Sir Thomas Allen, dropping trou with the best of them as a Sicilian underworld figure, in a dark pinstripe suit, black "wife-beater" t-shirt under his silk dress shirt, all topped by an imposingly shined and buffed head of black hair. Sir Thomas didn't hold back, and as should be, once he strutted onto the scene, all eyes were on him. But if only he could have talked his director out of the misbegotten concept just before curtain, when the enraged Zita reappears and sends Schicchi to Hades with a knife thrust. Here special credit must go to the young actor who portrayed Gherardo and Nella's son, Sage Ryan. This blonde tyke got thrown around the stage a lot, and when he cried over the dying figure of Schicchi, we shared his regret more than enjoyed any intended comic twist.

Since he came on board 2 seasons ago, James Conlon has made himself beloved here in Los Angeles, and the dynamic energy and sensitive shadings he provided these three great Puccini scores are typical of his fine work with the now first-rate LAO orchestra.

Il Trittico makes for a show of Wagnerian length (almost four hours on Sunday), but with as many merits as this production offered, it should figure in the repertory more prominently than it does. LAO now goes onto Madama Butterfly, for the third time in about 5 seasons. Your reviewer hopes this Il Trittico makes a comeback before Cio-Cio-san does.

Chris Mullins

Cast Lists
Il Tabarro
Michele Mark Delavan
Giorgetta Anja Kampe
Luigi Salvatore Licitra
Talpa John Del Carlo
Frugola Tichina Vaughn
Tinca Matthew O’Neill
Song Vendor Robert MacNeil
Suor Angelica
Sister Angelica Sondra Radvanovsky
The Princess Larissa Diadkova
Sister Genovieffa Jennifer Black
The Monitress Tichina Vaughn
The Mistress of the Novices Catherine Keen
The Abbess Ronnita Miller
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi Thomas Allen
Rinuccio Saimir Pirgu
Lauretta Jennifer Black
Zita Jill Grove
Gherardo Greg Fedderly
Nella Rebekah Camm
Simone Andrea Silvestrelli
La Ciesca Lauren McNeese
Betto Di Signa Steven Condy
Marco Brian Leerhuber

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):