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On Monday evening David and I saw Lyric Opera's production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. The time period, for some reason, was set at the time of World War I, which made the libretto even more confusing than it would normally seem.
The cast was uniformly good but somehow it never excited me. It seemed a bit lack-luster.
Andrew Stenson as Ferrando has a fine tenor voice and sang with fervor.
Joshua Hopkins as Guglielmo was good but not exciting.
Alessandro Corbelli was reliable as Don Alfonso.
Ana Maria Martinez has a lovely voice with excellent high notes but her low range is lacking substance. Unfortunately, the role of Fiordiligi has a very wide range and the singer needs a strong low voice to bring the best to it. To quote Wickipedia: 'According to William Mann, Mozart disliked prima donna Adriana Ferrarese del Bene,
da Ponte's arrogant mistress for whom the role of Fiordiligi had been
created. Knowing her idiosyncratic tendency to drop her chin on low
notes and throw back her head on high ones, Mozart filled her showpiece
aria Come scoglio with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage.'
Ms Martinez did not 'bob like a chicken', but her low notes were not in balance with her lovely high ones.
Marianne Crebassa as Dorabella has a beautiful voice and sang very well but sounded too much like Ms Martinez. In their first scene together I had trouble figuring out who was who from the sound of their voices.
As Despina, Elena Tsallagova was excellent both vocally and dramatically.
The conductor was James Gaffigan, making his debut at the Lyric.
Last night, for my first outing since I returned from Puerto Rico (and the Flu), where I went to recuperate from November's brain surgery (!), David and I went to see I Puritani, Bellini's final opera at Chicago Lyric. It was a splendid production conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
The two super-stars of the evening were Albina Shagimuratova as Elvira and Lawrence Brownlee as Arturo. Both had the vocal chops to sing these difficult roles to a fare-thee-well.
Ms Shagimuratova has a beautiful voice, capable to handle the difficult coloratura sections of the role as well as spin a beautiful lyric line. She also can sing an amazing diminuendo on very high notes, of which there are plenty. She is a convincing actress to boot. This is a role that Caballe and Sutherland were famous for and she is right up there with them.
Mr. Brownlee has a very high tenor voice. This role requires him to sing high 'ds' and one very high 'f' above high 'c'. He did it admirably. His small stature was a bit at odds with Elvira but his singing was wonderful. Alfredo Kraus is famous for singing this role.
The rest of the cast included Alec Carlson, Anthony Clark Evans, Adrian Sampetrean, Alan Higgs, and Lauren Decker. All sang very well.
Forget the plot. As Anna Russell said 'In opera you can do anything as long as you sing it'. I miss her!
A very effective set by Ming Cho Lee and the opera chorus sang wonderfully well, as always.
This weekend I was back 'On the Town' for the first time since my brain surgery two weeks ago. David and I started on Friday evening at the Lake Shore Cafe with fabulous Dixieland Jazz by JJ and the Jazz Masters, with their wonderful vocalist Gina Gibson. They were all on a high!
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Then on Sunday afternoon we attended a spectacular presentation of Puccini's final opera Turandot at the Lyric Opera. David dropped me off at the door and went to park the car while I staggered in on my new cane.
A wonderful stage setting for the work by Chris Maravich. Sir Andrew Davis was the conductor.
As Turandot, Amber Wagner had the high notes and the power demanded for the role but lacked nuance and often screamed out the very highest notes.
Stefano La Colla was Calaf. He, too, had the range and volume for the part and sang with ardor.
The best singing of the evening was by Maria Agresta as Liu. Her lovely voice was expressive and balanced from top to bottom.
The rest of the cast all sang well and the chorus was superb.
Whenever I hear this opera I think about my personal favorite Turandot, Lucilla Udovich, whom John and I met in Rome in 1982. She had had to leave the operatic stage because of constant back problems, making it difficult for her to stand for any length of time. We asked her to sing for us when we visited her in her garden apartment. When I heard this voluptuous voice I said to her 'Lucille, you must perform!' She answered 'But I can't stand to sing.' I said 'Then sing sitting down'. And a year or so later when she and her sister Annie came to the USA, that is exactly what we did: concerts with her seated. We did a number of concerts together and she did master classes for my students at Harvard and in New Jersey.
Our times together were a high point of my musical life. Here from You Tube are examples of how the role of Turandot should be sung. Franco Correlli isn't bad either!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71KKTJ4-Yf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luvZWyBrwgc
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To finish off my first weekend out, we saw Red Velvet at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Written by Lolita Chakrabarti, it is based on the life of Ira Aldridge, a black actor who was thrust into the role of Shakespeare's Othello when the noted actor Edmund Kean collapses on stage at Covent Garden in 1833 London.
Ira has made a name for himself in the provinces but has not appeared in London. He is also the first black man to perform the role of Othello, the Moor, in London.
His reviews are very racist and the play closes after three performances. However he goes on to have a great career playing works of the Bard throughout Europe for the rest of his life.
As Ira, Dion Johnstone is very strong. A good actor with a large, resonant voice, he commands the stage. The other actors are equally good. Halina and Margaret Aldridge were played by Annie Purcell, Jürgen Hooper was Casimir and Henry Forester, Terence and Bernard Ward were played by Roderick Peeples, Connie by Tiffany Renee Johnson, Betty Lovell by Bri Sudia, Michael Hayden played Charles Kean, Chaon Cross was Ellen Tree, and Greg Matthew
Anderson was Pierre LaPorte.
The play demonstrates the racism of the British just at the time England was voting to free the slaves in their colonies. Thirty years before out own civil war.
