20th Century Operas in the 21st Century (part 2)
[Continued from part 1.]
by Leonard J. Lehrman
About 300 operas with consciously Jewish themes are among the listings in Kenneth Jaffe’s 437-page Solo Vocal Works on Jewish Themes: A Bibliography of Jewish Composers, published this year by Scarecrow Press. A 13-year labor of love, it is highly recommended to anyone interested in vocal music by Jews, especially for the Yiddish theater, but also living composers like (to list those most prolific) Miron, Kingsley, Adler, Davidson, Steinberg, Kaufman, Sargon, Schidlowsky, and this writer. The 2006 Merkin Hall premiere is listed of the “video opera” Mosheh by the Israeli-born Yoav Gal (1966- ), presented 8 times in the performance space Here in Jan.-Feb. 2011, and billed as “the world premiere of the original opera.” Danced and sung in Hebrew with English supertitles, the work starred Nathan Guisinger in the nearly nude mostly mimed title role with Heather Green, Beth Anne Hatton, Judith Barnes, and Hai-Ting Chinn as the women in his life, the latter also joining Wesley Chinn in duet as The Voice of God, together with 8 instrumentalists and 8 performers on video, directed by Kameron Steel, conducted from the piano by Yegor Shevtsov. The often high, taxing music generated power, but not much hope, especially in its conclusion concentrating on the Ten Plagues.
Another more hopeful and optimistic musico-dramatic work on a Jewish theme was Korach, a play for and produced at The Living Theatre by Judith Malina with a cast of 26 and music by Steve Taylor, Carlo Altomare, and Sheila Dabney, who also music-directed, Dec. 8, 2010-Feb. 28, 2011. The work begins with a video of Malina herself playing Emma Goldman, extolling anarchism as a great tradition, and Korach as the first Biblical exponent of it. This is appropriate, since Emma’s last portrayal in NY was in fact at The Living Theatre. (See Linda Pehrson’s review.) Solidarity and resistance were the themes throughout, as the cast chanted, among other things, the great Jewish partisan melody by Vilna ghetto songwriter Hirsh Glik, “Shtil, di Nakht iz oysgesterent” – without, apparently, knowing what they were singing! The cast irresistibly inspired the audience to dance with it onstage at the end, much in the spirit of the troupe’s great epic of the 1960s, Paradise Now, though without the nudity of that era.
Nudity, of a sort, featured in the Transport Group’s revivals of Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again, his 1994 musical adaptation of Artur Schnitzler’s 10-character 10-scene play Reigen, aka La Ronde. That is, if bare male assholes turn you on, as they seemed to, for about 3/4 of the audience. Schnitzler’s original 10 heterosexual overlapping couplings have been re-cast here, with 6 men and 4 women, and the most affecting music sung by two gay men in bed, transitioned to and from by bisexual individuals sandwiched by straight couples. No lesbians, though you’d think they’d be there, for symmetry. In Jack Cummings III’s direction, the action all takes place between and on ten tables at which the audience is seated, thus giving a literal in-your-face feeling to the sex acts being performed (the most amusing of which was yet another blowjob—this one embellished by popcorn). Except of course they’re not being performed, but simulated, with breasts, genitals, and in fact all but the male anuses quite covered. Programs were not handed out until the end, so it was hard to follow who was who, which was I suppose part of the point: sexual partnering as impersonally interchangeable. Not very satisfying, however.
A more satisfying performance, even though the work is still unfinished, was experienced at Turtle Bay Music School Dec. 17, 2010, in Judith Sainte Croix’s Visionary Dance performed by the Sonora Trio, Mark Degamo, projections and dancers. Students became part of the performance, and an ecstatic mood prevailed. More when the work-in-progress is complete!
Also satisfying were the eloquent performances by Amanda Crider and (on short notice) baritone Michael Kelly of songs by David Sisco and Elie Siegmeister, sensitively accompanied by Liza Stepanova, Feb. 17, 2011 at the Lincoln Center Library (postponed from Jan. 27 due to the snowstorm). Two of the 3 Lorca Elegies by Siegmeister were transposed up, slightly disturbing the tonal unity of the set, but the singing of both soloists was nearly flawless and so much in the spirit of MC Paul Sperry’s “Joy of Singing.”
Meanwhile, Howard Pollack, definitive biographer of Piston, Copland, and Gershwin, now at work on a book on Blitzstein, came out with a lengthy review in MLA Notes reviewing the Siegmeister bio-bibliography which I co-authored with Kenneth Boulton, published in 2010 by Scarecrow Press. Pollack called the work “a landmark in American music scholarship that deserves to be a part of any serious music library’s collection”. The inaugural issue of North American Opera Journal also includes a lengthy article on Siegmeister. Subscription details (and the opening pages of the articles from the first issue) can be found here. Access is free for subscribers (including libraries) to the magazine Opera America.
Other song recitals of note included the NYFOS series at Merkin Hall, Beth Anderson’s Women’s Work series at Greenwich House, and LICA’s “Love of the Art Song: Art of the Love Song” at the Steinway Gallery in Melville.
The first of these was the most accomplished, introduced by Steven Blier, alternating with Michael Barrett accompanying Sari Gruber, Liza Forrester, James Martin and (briefly) Christopher Tiesi on Feb. 15 & 17, 2011 in a collage of American songs by Bernstein, Ives, Weill, Bolcom, Rorem, Hoiby, Cole Porter, Paul Fujimoto, Michael Sahl, Hugh Martin, Hall Johnson, Leiber & Stoller, and Steven Marzullo. Ms. Gruber progressed from a growly chest voice to a lovely high soprano, while Ms. Forrester impressed with a wide vocal and dramatic range throughout. The texts were especially well chosen, to reflect a kind of cycle of NY life from morning ’til night. “Love, Lust and Longing in Poetry and Song” was the title of soprano Eileen Strempel’s Greenwich House recital, accompanied by pianist Gilya Hodos Mar. 24, 2011. The promising program opened with Pauline Viardot-Garcia’s Pushkin settings (in German) and continued with settings by women composers of texts by Margaret Atwood and E.E. Cummings, all composed for Ms. Strempel over the last 6 years. Judith Cloud (1954- ), who had a song in each group, was there to talk about her music. So did Libby Larsen, along with Lori Laitman, Elisenda Fábregas and Amanda Harberg in the Atwood; Christine Donkin, Regina Harris Baiocchi and Jocelyn Hagen in the Cummings. Applause from the small audience was scant, as many of the songs ended buttonlessly, fading out on a dominant chord, or otherwise unresolved. The program is to be streamed and available for viewing, and certainly worth watching, at least in segments.
It seems almost unfair to critique the Feb. 11, 2011 LICA concert honoring Valentine’s Day this year, since one of the performers tapped at the last minute is still an undergraduate. But a full house responded well, especially to soprano Michele Eaton’s performances of songs by Jane Leslie, Patricia King, Joel Mandelbaum, Herbert Deutsch, this writer, and impresario Laurence Dresner, accompanied variously by Stephanie Watt, Paul Hefner, and Ms. Leslie. Even more unfair would it be to come down harshly on the ambitious Airheart, a musical (really a play with music) about Amelia Earhart by Roslyn High School vocal music teacher Brad Frey, sumptuously produced at that school in a production to rival the technical proficiency of his first musical on Tiananmen Square, 15 years ago. Only this time the dialogue and lyrics were written by a student. When they didn’t rhyme, they sounded as though they should; when they did rhyme, tritely, one wished they didn’t. An original cast recording is available for the curious.