SANTA FE'S TROIKA OF OFFBEAT OPERAS
                With the Comic-to-Tragic, Brilliant-to-Abysmal 
<>                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Aug. 13-20, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 121
          SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO-----Arguably the most powerful, gut-wrenching "Wozzeck" you'll ever encounter is overflowing the stage at the Santa Fe Opera these days. Alban Berg's 1925 opera about a decaying, bullying society that drives the poor soldier of the title toward his demise is as much social critique as it is personal tragedy.
          The lengthy rehearsal periods for this summer-long season pay off with the theatrical impact of Wozzeck's cruel superiors, his sadistic quack doctor, and the drawn-out consensual sex of the drum major with Wozzeck's wife Marie. This is the decline and fall of Everyman.
          Given the force of David Robertson's large pit orchestra and a prime cast, this show weathers the dissonant music as a medium for approaching the very heart of the drama. Add to it the sets that rock and twist as if post-Big-Quake, plus the relentless pounding imparted  by the unorthodox elimination of intermissions, and you've got a unique, searing 90-minute impact from which I am still trying to recover.
          But there is a deeper experience here, inspired by the dizzying collapse of German/Austrian society and economy after World War One (Any resemblance to present-day America is purely coincidental!). With that crisis came increasing madness on many levels, including heedless partying, abrogation of morality, and an unwillingness to plan and save for tomorrow. The mad environment, present also in the military, drives Wozzeck to hallucinations and insanity, ultimately losing both his beloved Marie and his boy born out of wedlock.
          The production makes use of elaborate stage machinery---largely rough-hewn wood walls slid smoothly on and off stage to convey the many scene changes, showering due credit upon designer Robert Innes Hopkins. Director Daniel Slater put his cast through crucial tests, often twisting agonizingly in their ordeals, backed by a large array of supers (extras) and close to 20 musicians playing on stage. In addition, various ghoulish figures hit the scene in Slater’s concept, further terrifying the demoralized Wozzeck.
          A superb cast of actor-singers included baritone Richard Paul Fink (Wozzeck), soprano Nina Beller Carbone (Marie), plus Robert Brubaker, Stuart Skelton and Eric Owens.  Robertson's orchestra was priceless, especially in the violent overture leading to the drama.
          Berg's modern opera "Wozzeck," at the   Santa Fe Opera through Aug. 17. In German. For info: (800) 280-4654, or go online. 

<>          SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO-----I went to the opera. Instead, a vocal recital broke out.
          Vivaldi's baroque work "Griselda" was such a dull choice, even its stage director, the maverick modernist Peter Sellars, called it a dreadful opera in his talk to patrons. Numerous cuts were made, and still it took over three hours, and still seemed like six, when heard Aug. 4.
          You enter an opera house, expecting a full pit orchestra, drama, some choruses, ensemble singing in groups of two or more, maybe a palatial period setting, or even some dance. Instead, "Griselda" offers a totally preposterous plot, a stream-lined string orchestra with harpsichord and archlute and, on stage, an array of solo singers dutifully doing  recitative, aria, and da capo (i.e., "from the top" repeat), one by one. And considerably less stage action than on your nearby putting green.
          Viva il barocco!
          In Vivaldi's Venice of 1735, the opera-goers at least had the advantage of stepping outside while the No. 2 or No. 3 diva sang, eating, drinking, chatting, and returning only when the stars came on. Not so easy at the Santa Fe Opera, where an act-two thundershower struck the open-air lounge areas, and no food is served anyway.
          In this gimmicky ultra-modern production, Sellars & Co. went to ridiculous extremes, with singers' arms flailing the air like marsh-grass in a hurricane. The sets (by Gronk) looked like garish murals on elementary-school walls. An array of folks trotted on and off the stage----for no earthly reason---in the midst of every aria, sometimes carrying all the furnishings, consisting of a single straight chair.
          Skimping on sets, you can pay more for singers, right? And here, "Griselda" was outstanding. As there were no male castrato singers around, a la 1735, the SFO rounded up A-list countertenors like David Daniels and Yuri Minenko, with yet another high male role  (Ottone) played by soprano Amanda Majeski in a trouser part. Baritone Paul Groves---a robust singer, but no coloratura baritone---played King Gualtiero, surely the stupidest hero role in all the operatic annals.
          Playing the Other Woman Costanza, coloratura soprano  Isabel Leonard brought down the house like no one else. Contralto  Meredith  Anwady gamely played the title role of the spurned but saintly queen, though she had the night's least interesting music (which, the gossips will tell you, was because Vivaldi cast his ladyfriend of limited vocal talents into the part.)
          The voices all came through so strongly, I was convinced that they were all wearing body mikes. But the SFO spokespeople were ready to swear on a stack of Bibles that the SFO never uses microphones for singers.  Score one for this cast, this remarkable indoor-outdoor opera house, and Gronk's acoustic-shell sets.
          So, while the opera can be written off as a mere vocal recital in disguise, baroque fans could revel in its tasteful ornamentation, surfeit of arias, and pit string ensemble under California conductor Grant Gershon.
          The less said about the plot, the better. It stems from Boccaccio, Chaucer and Goldoni, among others. All about a king of antiquity who renounces and banishes his long-standing spouse Griselda as a test of her fidelity, and then takes up with young Costanza as the substitute queen, while Griselda suffers, suffers, suffers.
         ABOUT VIVALDI---Known today for his countless violin concertos, he was the most celebrated opera composer of his Venetian milieu. His total output stands somewhere between the 94 he claimed, and the 16 operas still extant. No, Virginia, these are not all the same music recycled 15 times, regardless of how it sounds!
          Vivaldi's "Griselda," at the   Santa Fe Opera through Aug. 19. In Italian. For info: (800) 280-4654, or go online. 

<>          SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO-----Gian-Carlo Menotti’s thoroughly satirical “The Last Savage” (1963) has finally found its niche at the Santa Fe Opera, where the farcical, frivolous madcap comedy is bringing down the house night after night.
          Menotti, classical music’s bad boy, ran against the grain in his times and was skewered by the academic establishment for his efforts. He wrote easy-listening harmonious music when the norm was severe atonality. He accentuated ready access over profundity. He created here a work at the Metropolitan Opera which sounded much too much like a Broadway musical. And along the way, here he roundly made fun of modern music, modern art, Ph.D.-wielding academics, clerics and modern beat poetry----as if he didn’t have enough cultural opponents already. We critics, I must confess, loved to hate Menotti, who this year would have turned 100. He went his own way and became a successful American-opera composer, even if he was never the most diplomatic artist around New York City.
          Between laughs in “The Last Savage” he attacked both Western-culture arrogance and Eastern class consciousness while saluting, in a left-handed way, the emerging woman professional controlling her own destiny.
          The thoroughly American heroine Kitty, a ditsy young anthropologist, is determined to find and study the last savage off in India’s jungles. Since there are none, one is manufactured via the urbane hunk Abdul, who is paid generously for his great acting job, emerging as a muscle-man cross between Tarzan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
          He does his zoo-animal shtick far too well, totally disrupting an arts-opening celebration in Chicago with his unchained antics, scandalizing the belittling snobs while bedding down Kitty. In a madcap surprise ending, he and Kitty both take surprise 180-degree turns and make a case for a return to the cave-man world to escape the modish menagerie.
          Of course, none of this should be taken too seriously, least of all given the witty touch of Stage Director Ned Canty, who turns the protagonists into caricatures. And who could top the sextet of near-naked swamis with Obama beards, all undulating like jellyfish, as if prepping for the Castro Street parade?
          So at long last, “The Last Savage” has come into its own as a Broadway-style hybrid piece, closer to, say, “Candide” than to the intended comic opera (a genre that seems to baffle modern composers most).
          As for the music, it’s better than Menotti is given credit for, though there are definite traces of Rossini, Mozart, and Gilbert & Sullivan. I particularly relished his ensembles---a choice sextet in the opening scene, and a superb septet toward the end.
          As a librettist, he was at his best, with clever rhymes much of the way, some even in German. The only impediment to wide circulation of this work---apart, of course, from  Menotti’s turning into a made-in-USA insult-everybody Wilde---was the large cast, with 25 solo singers listed.
          Anna Christy (Kitty) managed very difficult high coloratura, though with considerable vocal effort. The tall, muscular baritone Daniel Okulitch (Abdul) sang with authority and dominated the scene. Also of note: Jennifer Zetlan (Sardula), Sean Panikkar (Kodanda), and that agile singer-actor, bass Kevin Burdette (Scattergood). George Manahan conducted with aplomb.
          And somebody must be a good traffic cop running rehearsals, as the number of supernumeraries was truly staggering.
          Menotti’s “The Last Savage” at the Santa Fe Opera through Aug. 25. In English. For info: (800) 280-4654, or go online. 

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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