The new Michael Gordon multimedia work Lightning at Our Feet receives its premiere tonight at the University of Houston. We are thrilled to have the composer in residence all week.
The Houston Chronicle's preview of the event can be found here.
HGO opens its 2008-9 season this weekend with that perennial pair, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. In February, Charles Ward of the Houston Chronicletook aim at HGO's selected repertoire and casting for the season ("Will HGO subscribers buy into new season?" - no longer available at their site):
"Houston Grand Opera faces a
big challenge with its 2008-09 season: persuading ticket buyers to pay
the usual price for an evening of opera choruses...Fully
staged, costumed and choreographed, it will feature selections ranging
from the have-to-have (the Anvil Chorus from Aïda [sic]) to the gorgeous but
unknown (a large swath from Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina) to bits
of Broadway. The rub? It will replace one of the
two operas HGO normally stages in the winter. That, it's easy to
predict, will rub some subscribers the wrong way."
Having spoken with many close acquaintances in the HGO orchestra and chorus, Chorus! has generated a
heap of excitement in the pit, and I, for one, am looking forward to it. The HGO Chorus is always a highlight of HGO's productions, so the performance as performance will be extraordinary, and Houstonians will get to hear at least portions of operas that will likely never be staged in their entirety in this city (Khovanshchina, War and Peace).
Ward aptly points out HGO's heavy reliance this season on HGO Studio alumni, which is indeed a double-edged sword. Of course, any big fan of opera would love "big names" coming to Houston for all of the productions. The singing of the alumni and studio members is always very good, often great, and sometimes mind-blowing. What I see as more of a problem is balancing out the casts more, a challenge which was apparent in the production of Cav/Pag.
First off, Houston got their star power in the force-of-nature that is Dolora Zajick. Her Santuzza was perfection and a distinct characterization of the role, a perspective she consciously thinks about, as mentioned in her recent interview with Ward: "Singing Santuzza is a challenge, Zajick says, because it's too easy to portray her as 'a simpering victim.' Zajick says she tries to show 'a tougher side — a slightly spiteful side,' to make Santuzza interesting."
Zajick's singing was excellent - her voice is glorious in all registers, she has amazing stage presence and is a very good actress. She simply sounded and looked amazing (and I didn't realize she was in her late 50s!). Fortunately, the rest of the cast stepped up to her standards, and the Mascagni opera came off more uniformly excellent in the singing department than the Leoncavallo. The voices were all there, and Brandon Janovich, in his HGO debut, was a brilliant Turridu, matching Zajick's vocal power and virtuosity. The only slight disappointment was the acting of Charles Taylor, especially after Santuzza reveals Lola's disloyalty - the rage in the vocal writing was wonderfully brought across by Taylor, but he actions didn't reveal anything - it was a stand-and-sing moment.
This left me a little worried for Pagliacci, where Taylor would be portraying Tonio, but he stepped up in the acting department. Admittedly, he was helped by a much more technicolor set and costume design. The problem with Pag seemed to be that there wasn't a "big voice" for the cast to live up to. Canio seemed to be just a tad too big a role for Vladimir Galouzine, who has a great voice in the low and middle register (I would almost mistake him for a baritone), but struggled with "Vesti la Giubba". A similar problem at the climax can be heard in his performance of the aria here:
Ana Maria Martinez, an HGO favorite, also has a beautiful voice, and looks stunning, but again, I feel Nedda is not a great role for her - she lacks the raw power that I like in this role. It's probably unfair to compare, but I always come back to Montserrat Caballe's RCA recording of the role, where she perfectly balances a beautiful and venomous quality in her voice.
Elijah Moshinksy's Welsh National Opera production emphasizes the contrast between the two operas. Stephen Walsh's review of a Cardiff performance describes the production perfectly: "Mascagni's archetypal gut-tearer was staged as an echo of post-war
provincial realism, complete with Sicilian village, backslapping,
wine-slurping chorus, and all the rest of the good old operatic
clutter. Leoncavallo's subtler piece represented modern production
values, bare stage but for a clapped-out lorry for the travelling
theatre, 1940s dress, and clever lighting."
I was left with mixed-bag feelings. I typically like Pag better. Musically and dramatically I think it's more satisfying, but in this performance, Cav was more enjoyable, largely due to the superior, even level of the singing.
I joined the artistic board of Musiqa, Houston's composer-led new music organization, this summer. We get a delayed start to our season tonight, after our first event was delayed by a certain hurricane. The program includes Thomas Ades' Court Studies, Eric Moe's Time Will Tell, Iannis Xenakis' Rebonds (B) and two works by Musiqa composer Rob Smith - his solo percussion Breaking Point and a new collaboration with Travesty Dance Group, Transparent. The event is at Zilkha Hall in the Hobby center at 7:30pm - more information at www.musiqahouston.org.
Alex Ross has a great summary of Messiaen centenary events around the country.
I'd like to add the six concerts in Houston that Rice University's Shepherd School of Music is presenting under the title "Music of Heaven and Earth". All concerts are free.
October 15 - pianist Brian Connelly performs Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus
October 20 - soprano Carmen Pelton joins Connelly in a concert featuring Poèmes pour Mi, Trois mélodies, and Chants de terre et de ciel
October 25 - students of the Shepherd School are led by Larry Rachleff in Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum; Connelly and Jason Hardink in Visions de l'Amen
October 29 - John Meier plays Les corps glorieux
November 16 - mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and Connelly perform Harawi: Chants d'amour et de mort
November 23 - Connelly performs selections from Catalogue d'oiseaux
Not officially part of the festival is organist Naji Hakim's two-day visit (October 7-8), with two recitals that will include Messiaen's works alongside Bach, Franck and the performer himself.
