The National Symphony Orchestra led by Maestro Gianandrea Noseda seems to be living up to the expectation that it is ready to reinvigorate the staid Washington's classical music scene. What a pleasant surprise to see the inclusion of Poulenc's Litanies à la Vierge Noire in a concert of choral music. I was introduced to that jewel of sacred music years ago by the composer's grand nephew, or great grand nephew, who lived in the US at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTXf4wJ9xD0
Chris Poulenc made a documentary about his famous ancestor and about the Rocamadour pilgrimage site, which is the home to the title's Black Virgin - black from years of candle smoke. He conveyed that Poulenc had become very religious after the tragic death of his close friend, composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud in a 1936 car accident. Litanies, written in the same year, was Poulenc's first sacred work to be followed by such masterpieces as Stabat Mater, Gloria, Mass in G and finally Dialogues des Carmélites. Poulenc is not a rarity in Washington where one or another of his works shows up in a program every time a music organization feels the need to include a 20th-century piece.
Noseda convinced me of being special when he included a segment from Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet (why not the whole piece?) in the NSO's Valentine Day concert. Unlike Poulenc, Berlioz is virtually shunned by the Washington D.C. classical music organizations, who seem to believe that they can fill the halls with a staple diet of "three B's" and Mozart, interspersed with an occasional Poulenc or Shostakovich. In 1997, Leonard Slatkin, then NSO director, proved otherwise.
Through what must have been a super human effort, Slatkin managed to bring Berlioz's monumental Requiem to Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, with the participation of several area ensembles, orchestras and choirs. The cavernous church (one of the largest in the world) was packed for both performances and people traveled from far and wide to attend the historic undertaking.
It was too much to hope that Romeo and Juliet Suite, from the current season, would be followed by a complete Berlioz work in the coming season. One suspects, the suite made its way into the February 14 and 16 concerts by virtue of its name.
Now we come to something borrowed and something blue. The Washington National Opera is to be commended for its effort to stage the latest that there is on the U.S. operatic scene. This year's work is Jeanine Tesori's opera Blue (yes, that's the blue I've been referring to), set in Harlem and based on literature and contemporary events. A black policeman has to deal with the killing of his teenage son by a white policeman. Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, says she feels that art organizations have a responsibility to explore contemporary issues.
However, some of the new works the WNO presented in recent years dig into history: Appomatox by Philip Glass and Silent Night by Kevin Puts, come to mind. Nevertheless, most of them offer something well worth seeing in comparison, for example, with WNO's recent production of Aida which, as seen in the National's ballpark, was simply awful.
Apart from Blue, the new opera season, touting an expanded program of six "spectacular" productions, does not strike me as irresistible. At least not on the paper. We live in an era of live Met broadcasts, and opera-ballet-drama in cinema with top-notch performances from around the world. We saw the Met's new Otello last year, and an old one (Botha/Fleming) before that. The Magic Flute re-occurs in encores year after year for those who missed it the first time, or whose kids have just now reached the age when they can sit through it. In recent years, we saw Mariusz Kwiecien's sexy Don Gionvanni, and just a couple of months ago an innovative and exciting new production of Samson and Delilah. Sure, a broadcast cannot compare with a live performance. (Or can it?) But after seeing Alagna and Garanča in a Met simulcast, and while the memory of Olga Borodina's electrifying Delilah, paired with Carl Tanner's unimpressive Samson in the previous WNO production, still lingers in mind, how many people are going to flock to the Kennedy Center to see Roberto Aronica and J'Nai Bridges? Who will rush to Porgy and Bess, which is still remembered from the WNO's 2005 season? And especially after the Met shows its Porgy and Bess in cinemas in February.
Washington must be forever grateful to Francesca Zambello for bringing the complete Wagner Ring to us in 2016, an achievement hard to match by any subsequent effort. But a company with "national" in its name should not rely on a repertoire of recycled war horses, dressed in new costumes, packaged in ever sparser stage settings and peopled with performers at the start or the end of their careers - rarely real stars.
Instead of looking to the Met, the WNO would do well to borrow some ideas from other local companies. The Washington Concert Opera is well aware that it cannot compete with big houses and so it's director Antony Walker offers something entirely different: rarely performed works by well known composers. Walker's formula which pairs gorgeous music with fresh new voices is almost fool-proof and has served him well for years. Opera Lafayette is devoted to 17th and 18th-century French pieces and is doing so well that most of its performances get recorded on Naxos.
An opera company performing at the Kennedy Center has to do better in creating its own distinctive brand.
An opera company performing at the Kennedy Center has to do better in creating its own distinctive brand.
