Tuesday, October 31, 2023

WNO Premieres "Grounded", an Opera With Too Many Messages

The world premiere of Grounded reaffirms Washington National Opera as a leading producer of quintessentially American works.  Composed by Jeanine Tesori to the libretto of George Brant, based on his own award-winning play, the opera deals with travails of a female F-16 pilot, whose career gets derailed after pregnancy. It is not hard to imagine the drama this could cause in the life of an ambitious air force officer. But for the creators of Grounded this was not enough. Their opera tackles a myriad of other topics: the evolution of the American military, the changing role of women at home and at work, the pros and cons of using drones in war and allowing IT and surveillance technologies to invade our lives. It concludes with an anti-war message and perhaps others that may be missed in the crowd.


The curtain rises to the sound reminiscing the buzzing engine of an approaching airplane before it blends with orchestral music. The opening scene with a triangular formation of fully uniformed airmen, with one point of the triangle facing the audience, looks promising. A soaring mezzo rises above the male chorus and the squad leader steps out. It takes a while to realize it is a woman, who rose to the rank of major after a number of successful air raid missions. Her persona suggests she has made every effort to look, talk and behave no different than any of her male counterparts. It is hard to pick her out from the rest of the servicemen when the group gathers in a Wyoming bar during a home leave. Even her approach to romance and sex is so masculine that the idea of a local farmer being attracted to her beggars belief. And yet, he claims he likes her best in her uniform and calls her my "flygirl."

Emily D’Angelo as F-16 fighter pilot in WNO's opera Grounded

After this one amorous encounter, the pilot, her name is Jess, discovers she is pregnant. At this point, one would expect a dramatic turn in the opera, perhaps a confrontation with her commanding officer, but Jess (portrayed by Emily D'Angelo in her WNO debut) respects the rules and retreats to Wyoming to inform her one-night-stand (OK, maybe there were two nights) Eric of his impending fatherhood. She expects rejection, but Eric is thrilled, and within minutes we see their daughter Sam grow from a baby to a school-age child. Jess resumes service stateside and works long hours on duties that do not include flying (DNIF). The husband takes over the parenting role. Jess misses her F-16, or Tiger as she lovingly calls it, and the blue sky into which she melds during her flights. 

After about eight years, judging by the daughter's age, the star pilot is summoned by her commander and ordered to resume bombing missions. But this time they will be conduced remotely from a trailer in the Nevada desert.  Jess objects to joining what she calls the "chair force" where she would spend her days staring at gigantic computer screens and perform tasks better suited for a teenager proficient in video-games. The Commander says this is where she is needed and where she will have "war with all the benefits of home." Jess and her family move to Nevada and Eric gets a job in a Las Vegas casino.


 Split scene with Jess at home with Commander above,
photo Scott Suchman


This would have been a good time to end Act I because with the new assignment Jess's life will change drastically. But Act I plods on with  Commander extolling the virtues of a $17-million Reaper drone, which she and her assistant, Sensor, will use to pinpoint targets thousands of miles away.  

The bomber jet pilot disparages the windowless craft that she sees as soulless and blind, but her young assistant points out, that the drone actually has an eye - a camera trained to the ground where it picks up images of moving targets. After initial boredom with her chair job, which consists of scrutinizing grey pixilated images, Jess gets bouts of excitement from her remote-controlled strikes. But the images of dead American soldiers are traumatizing. Even blasting suspected terrorists causes pangs of conscience. Soon the reality and her imagination begin to blur. The appearance of her alter ego Also Jess (portrayed by splendid soprano Teresa Perrotta) is a clear sign that her mind is unraveling. 

In the second act Jess is clearly suffering from the PTS disorder. She is rattled by surveillance cameras in the shopping mall and paranoid about being watched every step of the way like she watches her targets in the hostile territory. Instead of the sky blue she is craving, everything around her seems grey. The Nevada desert becomes no different than deserts thousands of miles away in Syria or Afghanistan. At home she collapses from physical and mental exhaustion after a 12-hour shift, and cannot find comfort with her family. In bed with her husband she splits into Also Jess who is present physically and real Jess whose spirit drifts away.  The threat of death has been removed, but not the threat to her well being. In one scene she wipes the invisible blood from her hands like Lady Macbeth. After a year in the trailer, she is assigned a high-profile mission, but is unable to accomplish it after seeing her daughter's face in the image of a foreign girl running toward her father, who is the target. Jess sabotages the order to strike and is court-marshaled. 

Brant's original play was an 80-minute monologue by an unnamed female pilot.  Using drone in wars was a relative novelty a decade ago and its impact on the soldiers was not understood. A piece focusing on the PTS disorder garnered great success in both US and European theaters. Tesori was impressed by it too and wanted to expand it into a full-scale opera, that would include characters mentioned in the pilot's monologue. Brant worked with Tesori to create a libretto with roles for those characters and scenes in which they interact. He added dialogues between the protagonists, mostly military personnel, and peppered their language with crude words for authenticity's sake. The result is a 2.5-hour long opera that wavers between engaging moments and weak spots. In the final scene, for example, the penalized pilot delivers a cringe-worthy warning (to Americans?), a sort of "Live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword" cliché, ending with the single word "boom", in hushed tones. Perhaps an echo of a real explosion reverberating in the pilot's mind?  

The music incorporates sounds of military trumpets, popular soldier tunes or country music to help set the scene. The score is full of likable passages that are in no way innovative, revolutionary or memorable. 

Apart from Jess, the characters in the opera are not adequately fleshed out. Eric (tenor Joseph Dennis) is more of an accessory to his wife, sort of like Mattel's Ken to Barbie. Bass Morris Robinson as Commander and baritone Kyle Miller as Sensor are more convincing in their shorter roles. 

Set designer Mimi Lien employed digital technology and more than 300 interlocked LED panels to create real and imaginary places in Jess's world: blue sky around her flying jet, evening at her Wyoming home, Nevada desert during her commute to work, a sonogram of her baby's fetus. The stage is split in two levels: the lower representing places on the ground and the upper showing the blue sky, military scenes or imagery from Jess's troubled mind. Advanced video technology enhances the sense of the environment and understanding of the pilot's state of mind. The sets and lighting work in concert with the sound for the best effect.


Pilot in the control room with Sensor and two observers, photo Scott Suchman

Grounded is an impressive undertaking, tackling issues that resonate with many Americans today. Have we enabled women to shine in any career they choose or is motherhood still an impediment? How do we advance at work in an era depending increasingly on robots, AI and digital technology better understood by younger people? How is our brain affected by never-ending involvement in wars, exposure to violence and shrinkage of meaningful interaction with family and friends? All of these topics are worth exploring, but not in one opera. With too many themes vying for attention, Grounded explores none in depth and fails to make a powerful impact. If it is to open next year's season at the Metropolitan Opera, it may have to undergo a major overhaul. 

Tesori is an accomplished and popular composer, best known for her musicals. She has found a staunch supporter in WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello, who has sponsored her forays into the opera. Earlier this year WNO presented Tesori's opera Blue, and on  Saturday, it opened its 2023-2024 season with much heralded Grounded. Later this year, the company will revive Tesori's holiday favorite The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me.  

Blue was a masterpiece in every respect: from the enfolding drama and convincing dialogues to well developed characters, excellent interpretations and great music throughout. Created in cooperation with librettist Tazewell Thompson, the award-winning work offered an insight into a personal tragedy of a black US policeman whose son was shot by another policeman. In Grounded, a bunch of hot issues are thrown together without a connecting thread or a clear and coherent message. Without impressive music, or sufficiently dramatic moments to lift the tedium of two long acts, an opera risks staying grounded forever.

There are five more performances of WNO's opera Grounded, with the last one on November 13.

Friday, October 20, 2023

Ask Your Doctor

It is well known that the United States spends more money per person on health care than any other country in the world. That does not mean that we have the best care and that we are the healthiest nation in the world. On the contrary: we have to pay huge insurance premiums, various extra charges generated by a visit to a medical facility,  the highest cost of drugs and other medical accessories, but still have lower life expectancy than other developed countries. The excuse we get from our health industry and the politicians who support it is that a lot of the money we pay goes toward research and that we do not have to wait for surgery, medical procedures and hospitalization as long as our neighbors in Canada and other countries with national health care. My own experience and those shared by DC area acquaintances picture a bleaker reality. 

"Ask your doctor" is an irritable phrase on the labels for traditional and alternative remedies, as well as advertisements for health accessories, exercises, and diet recommendations. The phrase often comes with a stock photo of a sympathetic doctor leaning toward a worried patient. Similar doctor-patient images appear on the home page of every health insurance portal, except that the patients in those look happy. Do advertisers really think that we have such close relationships with our health care providers? I don't even know mine, because every time I come in, there is someone new. Perhaps the advertisers' thinking is clouded by visions from their grandparents’ past.


The 2020-2022 Covid pandemic serves as a general excuse for the current state of the US health care, but no one is fooled. A few decades ago I noticed a slow but gradual decline in the quality of health care and a simultaneous rise in the costs. Before that I was healthy and rarely need to see a doctor.  But now that I do I have to make an appointment to see any physician at least three months ahead of time, which means that I have to look for alternative help if I suddenly feel sick. If I call the office to "ask the doctor", I get a recorded message saying an administrator will respond within 24 hours. Most often the promised call-back never comes. But the cost of a basic visit has risen at least three times in the past decade.

After a recent consultation with a doctor from the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, she wanted me to make an appointment for a test at the same facility.  But when she brought me to the reception, there was no one to make the appointment. All the staff had left for the day at 5:00 PM although the doctors were still seeing patients. The calls to the telephone number the doctor gave me to make the appointment were answered by a robot urging me to stay online because someone “will be with you shortly.” After three days of listening to godawful music and the robotic voice repeating the phrase, I literally begged my primary care facility to make the call for me through a line reserved for the physicians. They managed to obtain an appointment for me the next day, but no one informed me so I almost missed it. 

The test results for several issues have long been sent to me by mail, but I still don't know what they mean because my follow-up appointments with specialists are one and two months away respectively. I hope I don't have a fast-spreading cancer that could metastasize before I see a doctor.

Following a remote decade (cca 1980s) of seeing the same primary care physician, doctors in my life started rotating with increasing speed. I recently waited three months to meet my new PCP only to be called on the day of the appointment and told that she is leaving. Most of the time instead of a doctor, I see registered nurses. Before any visit, I am asked to complete a myriad of forms online, sign multiple waivers and authorizations, most importantly, of course, commitments to pay the bills if my insurance refuses to.

Currently I have three insurances: primary, secondary and a separate one for dental work. I am being urged to take out a fourth one for drugs. The amounts providers claim from health insurances are staggering these days: a visit to a primary physician that used to be about $150 or less can now easily top $600. And this is for about 10-20 minutes that you spend with the doctor discussing symptoms you have already described in detail online. Most of the visit is spent with nurses and administrators.  

The cost of dental care is astronomic but dental insurance companies rarely cover more than 10% of the claim no matter what they promise. They employ their own so-called experts to determine if the procedure is "necessary."  Guess what? ..... Yeah. The best dentists and medical doctors do not accept insurance because it requires an extra employee just to deal with the amount of paperwork required for the approval of even a minor procedure.  If you cannot afford their exorbitant prices, you have a choice of traveling overseas where the dental care prices are normal and the total cost with air fare will be lower than in the US, or you can go to a so-called network dentist (the one that has a contract with a particular insurance company and charges the prices agreed with the company). During Covid I went to one such dentist who persuaded me to cap 10 front teeth for a better looking "smile." After only a few months, the crowns began falling out one after another and I inadvertently swallowed one with food.  I have had dental work done in Croatia all my life before that and had never heard that a crown can fall out. Under the circumstances maybe I should consider myself lucky because of the $20,000 plus claimed by the dentist, the insurance only paid him $800. I paid about a third, but he could not claim more from me after the shoddy work he had performed.

I could write a hefty book describing my poor experience with the US health care. Suffice it to say that the system has made me (and a lot of other Americans) resort to emailing doctors or dentists in Europe for advice, researching symptoms online and self-medicating. During the rare occasions I see a doctor, I tell them what I think I have, they order blood tests, urine tests, biopsies, X-rays, CT-scan, MRI or whatever and then confirm or reject my supposition. So far the former has been more common than the latter.

Of course, it is possible that the situation is better in other states. But a recent international study has found that "people in the US see doctors less often than those in most other countries." The report by The Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovation, says this is probably because the US has a below-average number of practicing physicians, and the US is the only country among those studied that doesn’t have universal health coverage. In 2021 alone, the report says, 8.6% of the US population was uninsured.

“Not only is the U.S. the only country we studied that does not have universal health coverage, but its health system can seem designed to discourage people from using services,” researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, headquartered in New York, wrote in the report. “Affordability remains the top reason why some Americans do not sign up for health coverage, while high out-of-pocket costs lead nearly half of working-age adults to skip or delay getting needed care.”

The report’s lead author, Munira Gunja, said in a release that “To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to health care, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population.”


But it is nothing new. Study after study in recent years have found that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation (3-4 times more than South Korea, New Zealand and Japan, about twice as much as Germany and Switzerland), but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found that the U.S. has fewer hospital beds and physicians per person than France, Australia, Italy and Austria, the countries that spend a lot less on health than the US. Many countries also outrank the U.S. in access to advanced medical technology the nation is so proud of. 

Healthcare system in the United States is not only the most expensive but also the most complicated in the world. There is no universal care and the majority of individuals rely on private healthcare provided by their employers. Retired employees who have contributed to the federal health insurance Medicare are entitled to enroll into its plans once they reach the required age. Some low-income individuals have access to public plans subsidized by the government. Rich Americans can afford to pay for the best private insurance and get the best care. For an additional $1,000-$2000 per year "concierge" fee, their doctor will also talk to them on the phone and answer their e-mail. US Congress members also get the best health care, but at the expense of taxpayers, and don't care how many of those taxpayers have no insurance themselves.

Privatizing health insurance was supposed to spur market competition and decrease the prices, but analyses show the opposite has happened. And yet, the idea of nationalizing health care sparks horror in the minds of many Americans, even those who have no health insurance. We all know how hard it was to pass the so-called Obamacare and how targeted it has been since then by the politicians who want to dismantle it.  

Economist Jonathan Skinner said that the powerful health-care lobbies and Americans' suspicion of what many see as socialized medicine make a radical overhaul of the system difficult. He was one of the experts I interviewed for the Voice of America 2006 report, titled Is America's Health Care System the best or just the most expensive in the world?  Skinner also said the increasing financial strain of health care spending on American businesses, government and families would make some change inevitable.  The report was relative news at the time and was  cited in subsequent literature on the state of the US health care until it was pushed out from the internet by newer and more dire studies. Here we are almost 20 years later with experts still urging the administration and Congress to expand access to health care and control the costs, with no solution in sight. 

So where does the money go? I have yet to meet a doctor in D.C. struggling to survive on their income. So when the George Washington University Hospital network last year sent me a colorful envelope asking me to reward my doctor's hard work with a several-hundred-dollar gift, I was puzzled. The envelope had a place for a doctor's name. I had no idea which doctor could be considered as mine since I had not seen one doctor more than once in years and no names came to mind. But how typical of America to push its ordinary citizens to share their hard-earned middling income with the highest paid professionals, rather than its most needy citizens.  

Monday, July 10, 2023

Our Lives Today

Science and technology are making great strides, offering better services, faster food, better income, bigger houses, more advanced medicine and, one could conclude, a much better life. But opinions vary on whether this is the reality or not. Here are some thoughts of renowned Croatian economist, Velimir Srića, professor emeritus at the University of Zagreb, with a PhD in IT management and an MBA from Columbia University, who has also taught as visiting professor at UCLA, Swiss School of Management in Geneva, Renmin in Beijing, universities in Shanghai, Cincinnati, Budapest, Graz and many others. It would take too much space to list all his achievements, so I leave that to Google.  Here is how Dr. Srića views our lives today (and by the way, "srića" means "happiness" in one of the Croatian dialects).

Prof. Velimir Srića in an interview for Glas Slavonije:



"We live in creative times. Medicine has advanced so much that almost no man is completely healthy. The state is so powerful that no one is free. We are ruled by democracy, with man incapable people electing a few corrupted. 

Today, the best football player, actor or singer makes a thousand times more than the best teacher, educator or healer. Material wealth is accompanied by spiritual emptiness.

We are constructing ever taller buildings, while the threshold of tolerance is sinking ever lower. Cities are expanding and world views narrowing. We buy more things and enjoy them less.

The square footage of dwellings is growing, for people who increasingly live alone. Families are wealthier but couples divorce more often. The number of beautiful houses and broken homes is growing at a similar pace.

Technological advances are saving time, but we are still increasingly short of it. We have learned how to rush and forgotten how to wait with patience. The number of experts is growing as is the number of unsolved problems. We are more educated but not wiser. We know more, but understand less.

The abundance of comic shows is growing in pace with the number of people suffering from depression. We are angry all the time and tired all the time. The brain we use while reading a book is replaced by vegetating in front of a screen. We live longer, but emptier lives. We are surrounded by fast food and slow digestion.

One third of humanity is dying from starvation and one third from morbid obesity. We have hundreds of Facebook friends but no real friends. The number of high-placed people and small-minded people is growing. We quarrel often, love rarely and hate easily.

Good taste has been replaced by junk. Mass culture has created mass hysteria and mass murderers. We are visiting remote planets and asteroids, and do not know our closest neighbors. The center of our lives is a shopping place.

We proudly eat "healthy food," but allow the media to poison our spirit. There is more and more information and less and less real communication. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing. We are taught to earn a living, but not how to live.

Once we used things and loved people, today we love things and use people. Do we live better than before? Make your own conclusion."


Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Opera "Blue" Premieres in Washington After a Three-Year Delay

When Washington National Opera announced its premiere of composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson's opera Blue for March of 2020, it seemed like the time was perfect to present a story dealing with racial tensions in the United States. The outrage over deaths of unarmed Black people at the hands of mostly white policemen led to renewed street protests in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement spread across the globe. Three years later the Washington premiere, delayed by the pandemic, the topic remains as relevant as ever. Just scroll down your social media feeds to witness increasingly open and bold expressions of hatred toward "the other." Blue offers a rare and intimate look into how racial inequality destroys lives and tears into the fabric of community.

Police officers in Blue                                                        (Photo: Scott Suchman)

The opera's title refers to the blue uniforms of New York City policemen. The characters are named by their roles: the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Reverend, the Nurse, Policemen and Girlfriends, indicating they represent generic members of a close-knit Harlem community. During a brief musical introduction we see the Father as a young man running into policemen blocking his way wherever he goes until he becomes one of them. Being a policeman gives the young man a secure job, stability, health and dental insurances (no small matter in the United States) and enables him to start a family life.

In the opening scene, the Mother chats with her Girlfriends about the joys of her marriage and desired for a child. The Girlfriends cheer her happiness, but warn she should not bring a boy into this world because he would not live long. The Mother swears to protect the boy. 

The Father's fellow police officers react differently to the news. They celebrate and tease their mate, seemingly confident that their profession provides security.

Next we see the father arriving in the hospital to see his new baby. He is proud, excited but also frightened about the responsibilities coming with raising a boy in a dangerous world that he knows well as a policeman. This scene is followed by a very brief glimpse into the marital happiness buoyed by the love for a young boy at home. All too soon the playful boy becomes a rebellious teenager, well aware of injustices in his society and ashamed of his father's profession. When asked to stay away from protests in which he could get arrested and hurt, the Son accuses the Father of supporting laws that protect the white people but not his own Black community. Despite angry barbs, the Father hugs his son and assures him of his love. After promising to attend one last peaceful demonstration, the Son leaves the house and never comes back.

In the second act we witness the Father's meeting with a local priest after his son's death. His grief is exacerbated by the knowledge that the boy was killed by one of his fellow police officers. The Reverend encourages him to forgive, but the pain is shaking the Father's faith ("Only a white God would sit in his cloudy white heaven") and he swears revenge.

During the funeral, which brings the community together much as the funerals do after real-life shooting deaths in America, the Father is beset by memories of his son, and feelings of guilt and regret, wondering if he could have done anything different to save him. The parents and the congregation then end their prayers and quietly leave.

Funeral scene in Blue        (PhotoScott Suchman)

Originally commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival at the initiative of WNO's artistic director Francesca Zambello, Blue premiered in Cooperstown in 2019. In 2020 the Music Critics Association of North America named it the 'Best New Opera.' It has since played in Seattle, Detroit and Pittsburg and had a European premiere in Amsterdam in 2022. English National Opera is scheduled to unveil its production of Blue next month at the London Coliseum.  

Washington National Opera meanwhile produced a studio recording of the opera, which was published last year on the Pentatone label. 

WNO's repeat performance of Blue on Monday was impeccable. Kenneth Kellog as the Father has made the role his own having sung it in most of the performances so far. He will sing it again in London next month. The role of the Mother was expertly conveyed by mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter, for whom the role was written. She was buoyant in her joys and heartbreaking in her sorrow, with some vocal rollercoasters to handle along the way. Aaron Crouch, who created the role of the Son, returned to it for the WNO production. The Girlfriends (Ariana Wehr, Katerina Burton and Rehanna Thelwell) were in superb voices, and delivered some of the most enchanting ensemble pieces of the evening. If I had to single out one of the three singers, it would be promising new soprano Katerina Burton. Wehr doubled as a nurse, making the most of her comic moment in which she gets to stick the new-born baby into the bewildered Father's arms.

Baritone Joshua Conyers stood out as the compassionate Reverend.

Blue is generally described as an opera about police violence against young black men. Indeed, the Girlfriends warn their pregnant friend: "Thou shalt bring forth no Black boys into this world!" The less pessimistic Father grows more concerned as his 16-year old son starts to rebel. He tells him repeatedly: "Your only duty is to stay alive," underscoring his awareness that it is not a given.

Blue does not seek to impress with violence. The shooting death does not take place on the stage. It does not need to. We see such scenes in the news media often enough. The opera shows the joys and sorrows of average African-American families and dependence on one another and their community. Despite the initial unease, the Girlfriends welcome a new boy into the community and the Father's conflict with his son ends in a firm embrace and pledge of his love.

Global interest in the Tesori-Thompson opera is testimony to its universal themes of love, conflict, pursuit of justice and tragedy.  Tesori's melodic score is an example of contemporary sound with African-American influences and a strong sense for theater. The composer known for Broadway musicals, such as Tony Award-winning Fun Home; Thoroughly Modern Millie and Shrek the Musical, did not shy away from writing tuneful music that people actually enjoy. Blue has been described as an eclectic piece with rich orchestration and eloquent vocal lines. There is every reason to look forward to the world premiere of Tesori's new opera Grounded, which WNO plans to premiere during its next season.  

Thompson's libretto was a mixed bag. It held very few surprises in the first act. The Girlfriend scene offered some of the most beautiful singing, but was too long in my opinion, especially in comparison with its male counterpart. The glimpse into the early family life, hinting it was a happy one, was too short to be remembered before a crucial scene of conflict between the Father and the Son. 

       Kenneth Kellogg and Aaron Crouch as Father and Son in Blue   (Photo: Scott Suchman)

The encounter between the Father and the Reverend in the second act brought to mind a scene from Verdi's Don Carlo, in which King Philip seeks advice about his rebellious son from the head of the Spanish Inquisition. The circumstances are different and the music is different. While the Spanish king seeks to sacrifice his son for the stability of his reign, the US police officer, in an equally powerful scene, seeks revenge for the unjust death of his. 

Another scene that brought to mind a well known opera was the one where somber Girlfriends give support to the grief-stricken mother. It reminded me of Poulenc's nuns in Dialogues des Carmélites preparing for the guillotine. Neither group has hope for a better future.

At the funeral, when the Father's mind wonders back to the past, we finally witness some of the family scenes missed in the first part of the opera. In this unexpected flashback, we witness the Mother making peace between the Father and the Son over a family meal. Throughout Blue, we saw the Mother rejoicing in the birth of her son and agonizing over his death, but no interaction between her and her teenage son until this last scene. It was a little late for me, literally like an afterthought. 

The congregation leaves the stage to a sad but musically calming conclusion. We are left with a sense that a human life has been cut off too early with no lesson learned and more grief to come - the same sense of helplessness we get after learning about yet another shooting death reported in the news. Despite outrage and a wave protests after every new killing of a black man by a police officer, resignation follows soon after. The Father's words to God “How many sons do we have to give before you can’t hold one more?” come back to haunt us, rightfully so. An optimistic end to this opera would ring hollow. 

Zambello has said that art organizations have a responsibility to explore contemporary issues and start dialogues that could lead to change.  She has done her part with Blue and I expect there will be more. WNO has made an extraordinary effort to make the opera accessible to educational institutions and people who don't often see opera. Almost every performance is accompanied by pre- and post-show discussions. The company has reached out to communities at the center of this work to bring them to the opera. in Addition, it is hosting events and inviting the media for dialogues on Blue's themes of race, violence, and reconciliation. A list of events can be found here:

https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/2022-2023/blue/   

WNO has also produced a documentary on the making of Blue, which will be presented on March 18, starting at 1:00 PM at the Justice Forum at the Kennedy Center's REACH,  and will be followed by a panel discussion. The event is free and open to the public.


Arts organizations, at least some of them, are making steps toward awareness of our societal problems and possible change. But so should we all. One thing everyone could do immediately is stop spreading hateful, incendiary messages on social media, while hiding behind fake names.


*****


There will be four more performances of Blue at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through March 25.


English National Opera in London will run 6 performances of Blue between April 20 and  May 4.



Sunday, March 5, 2023

Maryland Lyric Opera Ends Verdi Season With Solid Otello

Maryland Lyric Opera ends its current season of four Verdi operas with Otello, following Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth and Falstaff. All of the four operas performed at the Music Center at Strathmore have been semi-staged as the concert hall has no room for fully staged operas. Sharing the stage with a large orchestra can be taxing on singers, but it enables the audience to focus more fully on the music. The choice of Philippe Auguin to conduct Verdi's last drama was an excellent one. He led the chorus and the orchestra with a sure hand and perfect synchronization. The choice of principals was a mixed success.

The opera opens with a crowd outside a castle on the Island of Cyprus, watching a ship commanded by Venetian general Otello struggle to reach the port through a stormy sea. Otello, who is a Moor, has been awarded governorship of Cyprus as reward for his heroism in fighting the Turks and has also won the hand of beautiful Desdemona. The crowd is cheering the ship's landing while Otello's ensign Iago plots his master's demise. The opening storm is spectacular with blasting chorus and orchestra, interjections and thunderclaps. The scene reaches a climax with Otello jumping on shore and exclaiming "Esultate!"  (rejoice) in one of opera's most exciting entrances. The brief but powerful first encounter with the tenor is a good indicator of what to expect from him as the drama enfolds.

Gregory Kunde, an internationally acclaimed tenor who - unfairly - never quite achieved stardom, acquitted himself well in his entrance to the stage on Saturday (March 3), with only a minor strain felt at the peak of his jubilant cry. Kunde's strong voice was buoyed, not drowned, by the expertly controlled chorus and orchestra under the baton of French conductor Philippe Auguin. The lighting and projections, combined with the energetic music, created a realistic feeling of the sea storm. 

As the opera progressed, Kunde's once ringing voice showed signs of dryness and fray. In Otello's love duet with Desdemona (Greek soprano Eleni Calenos), Kunde appeared less comfortable than his fresh-voiced partner, so much so that it was almost a relief to hear him complete the high-octave finish line"Venere splende" without mishap. The chemistry with Calenos was barely there.

Such moments were not infrequent throughout the evening. Kunde's rendition of Otello's descent into madness consisted largely of abrupt switches from whisper-soft voice to jarring shouts, which marred his act III aria "Dio mi potevi scagliar."  Such harsh transitions continued all the way to the bedroom scene in the last act.  Only after the murder scene, as Otello realizes he has been duped into murdering his innocent wife, Kunde regained a dignified tone and delivered the surrender aria "Niun mi tema" in appropriately noble vein.  He was also poignant in recalling the couple's first kiss as the tragic Moor ends his life by his wife's deathbed.

Otello is arguably Verdi's most demanding tenor role and singers take time to get ready for it. Kunde may have waited too long. The singer who was a memorable Otello in Rossini's bel canto version and an impressive Enée in Berlioz's epic Les Troyens, may have had a bad night on Saturday, but it is more likely that his best Otello days are behind him.


Gregory Kunde as Otello and Eleni Calenos as Desdemona.  Photo: Julian Thomas

Calenos was not the kind of Desdemona that brings tears to your eyes.  She was in good voice throughout the evening, but her vibrato sometimes veered on the verge of wobbling and her phrasing was occasionally choppy. While appropriately gentle and in turn confused by Otello's increasingly erratic behavior, the soprano's emotion never seemed as deep as the words would have it. In Desdemona's encounters with Otello, Calenos acted more like an obedient daughter than a loving wife. She may grow into the role with time, but is not there yet.

Mark Delavan had a great evening as the devious Iago. His rich bass-baritone sounded better to this ear than in MDLO's Falstaff earlier in the season. Delavan delivered an impressive "Credo in un Dio", Iago's aria in which he reflects on his cruelty in stirring Otello's jealousy, to achieve the destruction of the hated Moor through his innocent wife. He was an equal partner to Kunde in the menacing duet "Si pel ciel marmoreo giuro!"

Delavan was not the darkest and cruelest Iago to ever grace an operatic stage. There was a glint of humor rather than glee in his eye, when he put his booted leg on Otello's chest, and his flight from the stage after his crime is unveiled brought to mind comical Falstaff. But overall, he projected enough malice to make a convincing evil doer.

Yi Li was a charming Cassio, Otello's captain who provoked Iago's envy and served as the instrument of his revenge.  David Pittsinger made for an elegant and respectable Venetian envoy. Mezzo-soprano Patricia Schuman had good moments as Iago's wife Emilia, but did not quite rise to the occasion in her crucial scene of standing up to Otello for killing Desdemona, and unveiling her husband's role in it.

Supertitles by Chadwick Creative Arts included some weird translations. In Act III, Desdemona talks about Otello's angry look, "lo sguardo tuo tremendo," which was translated as "your fearful gaze." Otello's look was supposed to be frightening rather than fearful. Likewise, Otello's exclamation,"Anima mia, ti maledico," is addressed to Desdemona. He is calling her "my soul" as is common in addressing a beloved person in Italian and he is cursing her at the same time. The translation had Otello condemning his own soul. Those were minor distractions, likely missed by most patrons.

While the soloists sang with various degrees of success, the grandeur of MDLO's Saturdays performance was secured by the brilliant chorus, excellent orchestra and unwavering guidance by conductor Philippe Auguin.

The two-hour-40-minutes long performance will be repeated on Sunday, March 5.


Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Maryland Lyric Opera's Falstaff Makes More With Less

Verdi's final opera Falstaff is considered to be technically his best work, although it has never achieved the wide appeal of his earlier works such as Rigoletto, Aida or La Traviata. After its premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 1893, and the following years at Covent Garden, London, and Metropolitan, New York, it had been mostly neglected, but it has enjoyed a gradual comeback in the past few decades. This year, maybe in honor of the 130th anniversary of its premiere, Falstaff is taking a prominent place in the repertory of the world's major opera venues: The Metropolitan, Maryland Lyric Opera, San José and Palm Beach operas in the US; Greek National Opera in Athens, Hamburg and Nürnberg operas in Germany and Opéra Nice in France, to name a few. Salzburg Festival in Austria also features Falstaff this summer.

According to some accounts, Verdi wrote his last opera to challenge his own creativity, regardless of whether the audience would like it or not. It was only his second attempt at comedy after the first one, Un giorno di regno, flopped (I still enjoy it regardless). Based on Shakespeare's play Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff features an aging fat, impoverished and dishonest knight who may have once been slim, attractive and honorable. But like many of us, he still sees himself as he was in his youth. It takes drenching in the Thames River and a scare in the "haunted" forrest to disabuse him of his delusions. I still have the urge to shop at Forever 21, but inevitably get drenched when I find out that nothing fits.


MDLO's Performance of Falstaff, Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD

Maryland Lyric Opera's Falstaff was semi-staged, with only the most basic props: a few chairs, bench, table and the iconic wicker laundry chest. With the orchestra taking most of the Strathmore music hall's stage, there was no room for elaborate scenery or physical antics, which shifted focus to the music. The singers moved along a narrow strip of stage front while the chorus took the balcony above the orchestra.

After a quick instrumental introduction, we meet Sir Falstaff deeply in his cups at the Garter Inn, ordering his followers Bardolfo and Pistola to deliver identical love letters to two wealthy married women that he plans to seduce in order to get into their husband's coffers. The dissipated knight is buried in debt and desperate. Bass-baritone Mark Delavan's good-natured eye twinkle made him a likable Falstaff even when he was plotting the worst of the shenanigans. Delavan's voice sounded appropriate for the character's age.  The knight's minions resent being treated as servants and decide to betray his plan.

Brian Major as Ford and Mark Delavan as Falstaff in MDLO's Falstaff

The scene moves from the inn to the home of wealthy and beautiful Alice Ford, who has an excessively jealous husband. It must have been her longtime grievance because they've been married for some time and have a daughter of marriageable age. Clearly, Alice is fed up and needs to teach her husband a lesson once and for all. 

Teresa Perotta, who replaced Mary Feminear in the role of Alice on Sunday, was the evening's best surprise. Her mellifluous soprano was strong enough to soar above the orchestra, which sometimes overpowered other singers, especially those with lighter voices like soprano Rachel Blaustein as Alice's daughter Nannetta and tenor Yi Li as Fenton. Alice also sings most of her music in ensemble, so her role requires a singer with the ability to meld with others. Perotta displayed all the necessary qualities.

Together with her friends Meg Page and Mistress Quickly, Alice learns about Sir Falstaff's nefarious plan and the women decide to punish him. When Alice's jealous husband, informed by Bardolfo and Pistola of Sir Falstaff's plan, barges in to catch his wife in flagranti with the alleged lover, the women hide the visiting knight in a basket of dirty laundry and have the servants dump him in the river. The husband is appeased at the sight of the dripping wet intruder. But his daughter Nanetta also has a gripe against him because he rejects her lover's suit and wants to marry her off to a wealthy doctor. Alice promises to right all of the wrongs committed by the silly men.

Brian Major as Ford sang with a clear and ringing voice, but lacked the comic chops to convey the ridiculousness of a middle-aged husband's jealousy. Mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin showed her talent for theatrical intrigue in the role of gossipy Mistress Quickly. She was especially effective pretending obsequiousness to Sir Falstaff ("Reverenza, reverenza...") Allegra de Vita was a vocally attractive Meg Page. Rachel Blaustein and Yi Li's were well matched as Nannetta and Fenton. Both had sweet and light voices, suitable for a young couple.

The last act offers a unique opportunity for stage directors to unleash their artistic creativity. Most of it is set in a dark forest with spirits, elves, goblins and fairies, all of them fake, roaming around in Halloween-style garb, and scaring the gullible victims. It is surprising how much of that fanciful chaos was conveyed with so little on the Strathmore stage. The characters put on their disguise in front of the audience, while the bluish light projected to the scrims behind the orchestra created a required spooky atmosphere.

Ford is tricked to approve the marriage of his daughter with the man she loves, and Sir Falstaff is frightened by fake spirits to confess his sins. Even vanquished and ridiculed in the end, the old man accepts his punishment with a philosophical look on life: "Tutto nel mondo è burla" (everything in the world is a joke). Requests and offers of forgiveness are exchanged and the party leaves the forest for a celebration at the Fords' place.

Despite its funny moments, Falstaff is not a comic opera in a traditional sense. The gross knight is a thief and a liar, but he is also an astute critic of his society. "Un mondo ladro," he wails when he is punished for his own unsuccessful attempt at crookery. He suggests that as a young man he may have been naive and decent, but has become a cynic who questions the value of honor: "can it fill your belly? can it fix a broken leg?" For those unfamiliar with Shakespeare's opus: Sir John Falstaff was a sharp-witted friend of young Prince Hal in Henry IV, part one and two, who was abandoned when the prince became King Henry V.  

While we can laugh at some of the slapsticks depending on the production, there is a lot of serious thought behind the comic verse. The title character is a dishonest buffoon, but he is not truly evil. He gives hints that he was once a gentleman, and a philosopher, but fell through the cracks either through misfortune or alcoholism. In Act III, Sir Falstaff once more ruminates about the evils of the world in which there is no honor left and everything is in decline. "But," he concludes, "good wine dispels the gloomy thoughts of discouragement."

The work's treatment of women is quite advanced for Shakespeare's as well as Verdi's time. Operatic heroines are often portrayed as helpless victims or deceitful witches. In Falstaff, aka Merry Wives of Windsor, they are loyal wives, with a good sense of humor, using deception only when necessary to teach annoying men a lesson. To emphasize this modern view of women, some productions place Falstaff in more recent eras. The last one I saw live on stage at the Kennedy Center was a production by the Mariinsky Theater, with the trio of Windsor women plotting their revenge in a hair salon, while sitting under a row of retro hair driers.

The ambiguity between the comic and the serious puts Falstaff outside the categories that make an opera memorable: high drama, passion, tragedy, or side-splitting comedy. Therefore it has never had such a wide popular appeal as the traditional romantic, heroic or comic operas. 

Rachel Blaustein as Nannetta and Yi Li as Fenton in NLDO's Falstaff

Furthermore, Falstaff's cohesive structure does not comprise distinct separate pieces like arias and recitativi in the Italian tradition. Few people like this unique opera at first hearing, or go home humming one of its tunes, with the exception perhaps of Fenton's third-act solo Dal labbro il canto estasïato vola, which ends in a duet with Nannetta. 

To fully appreciate the quality and unique delights of Verdi's last opera, a listener has to become familiar with his musical inventions and with the thoughtfulness of Boito's verse through repeated listening, something an average opera fan rarely does. 

Maryland Lyric Opera was founded in 2014. Its current season of four Verdi operas ends with Otello in March.

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Zambello Shines With WNO's New Elektra

Not since Wagner's Ring in 2016 have we seen such a brilliant Washington National Opera production as Richard Strauss' Elektra on Monday night at the Kennedy Center.  The performance showed what WNO's artistic director Francesca Zambello can do when she puts her mind to it, from collecting the best interpreters for some of the hardest operatic roles to getting the artistic team to join forces to create a memorable revival of a groundbreaking masterpiece.

After visiting Calcutta (today's Kolkata), India, Sir Winston Churchill said: "I shall always be glad to have seen it for the reason that it will be unnecessary for me to see it again." This is how many opera fans feel about Strauss' Elektra. This is probably how I felt when I first saw it all those many years ago, with Hungarian soprano Eva Marton in the role of the revenge-obsessed Greek heroine.

Strauss' Elektra is based on Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1903 play, which was inspired by an old Greek legend and subsequent plays written by Sophocles and other tragedians.  In Greek legend, King Agamemnon of Mycenae returns from the Trojan War to be assassinated by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Agamemnon's daughters Electra and Chrysothemis are spared, but closely watched, and his son Orestes is sent away. Years later, Orestes returns to see the justice done. According to the legend, he then takes the crown and Electra marries his friend Pylades.

Not so in Strauss' opera. His Elektra is traumatized by the bloody murder of her father, which she has either witnessed or has seen his massacred body in the aftermath ("dein Blut rann über deine Augen, und das Bad dampfte von deinem Blut"). She is now torn by the need for revenge. 

Elektra is a female counterpart to Hamlet, only more direct, more fierce and more bloodthirsty.  Unlike Hamlet, who causes many deaths before his own, Elektra is mostly self-destructing. She does not bathe, she does not groom her hair or clothes, and she does not control her behavior, even to save herself. Her raison d'être is getting her father's assassins killed, possibly with the same axe that was used to slaughter him in his bath. After that, she plans to celebrate with a dance around his grave.

We first get a hint of Elektra's deranged mind from a conversation between five  maids, at the start of the opera, but the degree of her abomination is further underlined by contrast with her younger sister Chrysothemis. After being told that their brother Orest is dead, Chrysothemis loses hope to get justice done and is ready to move on, while Elektra believes it is now up to the sisters to kill the murderers, their mother Klytämnestra and her new husband Aegisth

Elektra and Chrysothemis, Photo: Scott Such

Chrysothemis urges her sister to contain her anger lest she should be forced to spend the rest of her life in prison. She wants for both of them to abandon the misery of the corrupt court, and start a new life. Her plea for a future as a wife and mother is one of the most poignant scenes in the opera ("Kinder will ich haben, hevor mein Leib verwelkt, und wär's ein Bauer, dem sie mich geben). But Elektra cannot be swayed from her course and is fierce or devious in turn, as needed. She promises Chrysothemis a lavish wedding and a handsome husband to enlist her help for the deadly deed.

Klytämnestra is weary of her elder daughter, but convinced of Elektra's supernatural powers comes to seek her help to get rid of the nightmares that keep her awake. Elektra's suggested remedy is not to her liking.  "Wenn das rechte Blutopfer unterm Beile Fällt, dann träumst du nicht länger" (if you offer the right sacrifice, the dreams will be gone). 

Klytämnestra towering over Elektra, Photo credit: Scott Suchman

Orest returns from exile and with Elektra's help sneaks into the palace where he kills his mother and her lover. Elektra's mission accomplished, she begins the joyful dance announced as the drama began, and does not stop until she falls dead. Orest is crowned in this production, which is not standard, but brings some optimism at the end of the tragedy.

The relentless strife, pain, agony and madness are densely packed in one long act. The constant agitation, primal screams, laments and intense orchestral music can be taxing on the audience as well as the performers. If the singers shriek, as some are wont to do, it makes wading through the drama harder.  Seeing the curtain fall on the final scene can be a real relief.

None of this was evident in WNO's Elektra on Monday night. The production was well paced and the voices enjoyable. I cannot think of a better choice for the title role than Christine Goerke. Her plush, but hefty soprano floated smoothly from the stage, enveloping the space with force and sweetness, a combination rarely heard in this opera. At times, Goerke brought to mind her superb Brünhilde on the same stage a few years ago, making one wonder how much influence Wagner really had on Strauss. Goerke was frightful in her anger, seductive in her cajoling and almost girlishly coy about her unkempt looks before Orest.  Only her aimless climbing up and down a pile of rubber gravel on the stage seemed superfluous at times. Goerke could convey any feeling with her voice and stance without moving at all.

A real surprise of the evening was Sara Jakubiak's Chrysotemis. Never have I heard such an impressive rendition of this young girl's plea for a peaceful life. The soprano portraying Chrysothemis has to be exceptional to make an impression next to Elektra and Jakubiak definitely did that.  I wish I had seen Goerke's Chrysothemis in an older WNO production of the opera.

Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Dalayman was a queen not sure of her power. If Elektra is half-crazed, Dalayman's Klytämnestra is surely getting there, but more like a cackling old lady losing her mind than a murdering despot. 

Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo-Green was an impressive Orest, a role in my view more suitable for him than Escamillo in WNO's latest Carmen. He exuded physical strength and guile Orest needed to regain his rightful position at a court overtaken by treachery.

Czech tenor Štefan Margita emphasized Aegisth's physical and moral weakness in his brief appearance. It was hard to link this pathetic figure with acts of horrific carnage.  

Evan Rogister conducted with aplomb, emphasizing the terror and the drama, without overpowering the singers.


The return of Orest, Photo credit: Scott Suchman

Erhard Rom's set is simple and dark. The only light-colored props are the ruins of a Greek entablature with Agamemnon's name on it, toppled to the ground to signal the demise of his kingdom. Behind them loom modern black structures of a new palace under construction. 

Bibhu Mohapatra's costumes for Elektra and the maids bear elements of Greek peasant garb, while Chrysotemis, Klytämnestra and her retinue wear contemporary looking festive dresses with red, black and gold accents. It is not quite clear why the queen's headgear looks more fitting for a Valkyrie than an ancient Greek royal. Aegisth's appearance is somewhat clownish as he stumbles on the scene in a long tunic, inebriated and clueless. Orest and his companions wear copper-colored breastplates shaped to reflect sculpted bodies underneath, complemented with royal blue shirts and green mantles.

In the post-performance Q & A session, Zambello said the groups were separated by distinctly different costumes to emphasize their belonging to different  factions. In answer to another question, she acknowledged that all the artists sigh a huge breath of relief when the opera is over.  It sounded like Churchill after visiting Calcutta.

I can't remember how exactly I felt after seeing my first Elektra, but I know that I have always considered it a challenge - an opera that needs to be seen and heard time and time again to be conquered. In the past Elektra always won. But the WNO performance on Monday night was unlike any version I had heard before.

I was truly enthralled by it entirely for the first time: the music, acting, voices, dancers and even the somewhat simplistic set.  Zambello's latest production has restored my hope in the return of a better era for the opera house which has floundered in recent years with pedestrian productions of popular works.