MET-HD ENCORES OF
THE MAGIC FLUTE (December 21) and
HANSEL & GRETEL (December 22)
(Check the Met-HD schedules on-line for locations)
This week on WSBE, Rhode Island Public Television:
WSBE Learn 36.2= (RI Cox Cable 808)
(RI Verizon Fios 478)
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Patricia Racette is |
MADAME BUTTERFLY
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| To hear Patricia Racette, click on "Week of..." above |
Anthony Minghella’s breathtakingly beautiful staging returns with Patricia Racette as the tragic heroine and Marcello Giordani as the faithless Pinkerton and Plácido Domingo conducts.
Synopsis:
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This week on WGBH Boston:
PLACIDO DOMINGO
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| plays Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in IL POSTINO |
Bask in the beautiful voice of world-renowned tenor Plácido Domingo as he performs in a romantic new opera based on the Oscar-winning Italian film.
Schedule
| Friday 11/25/11 9:00 PM WGBH 2/HD | Saturday 11/26/11 12:00 AM 'GBH Kids | Saturday 11/26/11 2:00 AM WGBH 44 | Saturday 11/26/11 6:00 PM 'GBH Kids |
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| Il Postino From LA Opera | Il Postino From LA Opera | Il Postino From LA Opera | Il Postino From LA Opera |
December 14, 2010
OPERA REVIEW
Pablo Neruda and His Mailman, This Time Sung
By GEORGE LOOMIS
VIENNA — You can understand why singers like operas composed by Daniel Catán. They abound in real melodies — melodies with musical shapeliness, a capacity to soar and the potential to move the listener. His operas let singers do what they have been trained to do, and what they do in the theater when not performing operas by contemporary composers.
The response of critics is more mixed. The world premiere of Mr. Catán’s new opera “Il Postino,” based on the 1994 film by Michael Radford, won positive reviews at the Los Angeles Opera in September, but critical reaction to its European premiere at the Theater an der Wien here last week was more varied. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it “a triumph,“ but Die Presse found that the story, about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his unlikely mentoring of a young mailman, was “smothered in operatic sugar-icing.” The word “kitsch” cropped up in more than one review.
One thing everyone seems to agree on is that “Il Postino” sounds a lot like Puccini. It has a lighthearted and nostalgic quality that reminds me especially of “La Rondine.” But what is one to make of an opera that takes so little account of musical developments of the last century? Mr. Catán, who was born in Mexico and lives in Los Angeles, knows well enough what those developments are. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton, where he studied with two stalwarts of musical modernism, Milton Babbitt and Benjamin Boretz. But he chose a very different artistic path.
Drawing on elements from the past is solid practice but those elements need to be given a contemporary slant, if only to give a work its own personality. I am pragmatic enough to appreciate an opera that gives pleasure, and “Il Postino” clearly does that. But its ersatz aspect prevents it from really getting under one’s skin.
Still, it works without a hitch in the theater. The musical tone neatly meshes with the subject, which is essentially fictitious except for its starting point — Neruda’s exile from Chile in 1948 as the result of his pro-Communist activities. With his wife, Matilde, he takes up residence on an Italian island, where his home is the only stop on the route of a bicycle-riding mailman named Mario. Mario becomes fascinated by Neruda’s art — they sing an amusing duet about metaphors — but his interest also has a practical side, for he regards poetry (correctly) as a tool for winning the love of the beautiful barmaid Beatrice.
The transition from film to opera was shrewdly engineered by Mr. Catán to capitalize on the poetic ingredient’s suitability for musical treatment.
Sometimes Neruda’s poems supply readymade aria texts. Mr. Catán also fleshes out the character of Neruda by drawing on Antonio Skármeta’s novella about the poet and expanding on the film’s political content. An actual Puccini tune, amusingly played by a brass band, is appropriated by a right-wing politician, who promises running water for the island but reneges once elected.
Aside from making for good theater, building up the role of Neruda was crucial in another respect: it is sung by Plácido Domingo, the 134th role undertaken by the tenor, who turns 70 next month. It is skillfully written to show off the mid to upper (but not too upper) range of the tenor’s voice, which still sounds rich and burnished. You wouldn’t call it fresh, but it still has much to offer and retains flexibility and a capacity for shading.
Mr. Domingo sets a high standard for the singers. Mario is also a tenor role, though one more lyrically written, and Israel Lozano sings it handsomely, despite occasional patches of roughness, and manages to project the postman’s endearing quality. Singing with a sensuously lyrical soprano, Amanda Squitieri is a captivating presence as Beatrice. The rich soprano tones of Cristina Gallardo-Domâs made her Matilde a good match for Mr. Domingo’s Neruda. Géraldine Chauvet does a nice turn as Beatrice’s comically overprotective aunt Doña Rosa, and Federico Gallar sings strongly as Giorgio, Mario’s good-natured boss at the post office.
Drawing fine playing from the Vienna Symphony, the conductor Jesús López-Cobos ensures that Mr. Catán’s melodies sing and that his transparent orchestral textures are neatly balanced.
Ron Daniels’s production, with sets and costumes by Riccardo Hernández, is not a high-budget affair but its simplicity suits the opera nicely, and it moves swiftly to accommodate the many scene changes. Jennifer Tipton’s lighting bathes Neruda’s seaside patio in Mediterranean sun. Projections are imaginatively used, whether showing social unrest in Chile or poetic words on a blackboard as if they were part of Mario’s learning experience.
Like Mr. Catán’s other operas, “Il Postino” is written in Spanish. You might think this is an effort to reach a Latino audience in the southwestern United States, the locale of all four of his operas’ premieres. But Mr. Catán, who wrote an essay on the subject for the program, seems more interested in helping Spain establish the operatic tradition it has never had. The production goes to Paris in June, but it is not yet scheduled for Spain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/arts/15iht-loomis15.html
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OPERA ON THE INTERNET
WITH
DAVE D'AGUANNO
A nice selection of opera performances are scheduled for this coming Saturday (Nov. 26) on internet radio.
Among the more familiar items, there's a recent performance from this past September of Verdi's "Rigoletto" as played and sung in Toronto, Canada, by the Canadian Opera Company.
(www.cbc.ca/radio2/)
NPR has a Houston Grand Opera performance, airing this Saturday, of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." Donizetti's masterpiece was performed there in January of this year.
(www.wrti.org/)
The BBC has on tap one of this month's performances of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" , courtesy of English National Opera.
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/)
French Radio brings us an 11/11/11 performance of Bellini's take on the Romeo & Juliet story: "I Capuleti & i Montecchi" (from Paris).
(http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/accueil/)
German Radio takes us into the world of 20th century opera with Britten's "Turn of the Screw" in a performance that was given in Vienna on 9/17/11.
(www.dradio.de/dkultur/)
And for all those opera fans who rejoice in archival performances, check this out: Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" in a Met performance that was given on 3/17/56, & starring 3 of the greatest singers of that era: Zinka Milanov, Richard Tucker, & Leonard Warren. An amazing performance!
(http://oe1.orf.at/)
Last but not least, if you feel like more opera on Tuesday (Nov. 29), the Met is offering yet another free LIVE audio-stream, a preview (if you will) of the upcoming HD-transmission of Gounod's "Faust." IMO, another amazing cast: Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, & Rene Pape!
(www.metopera.org)
Enjoy! -- And have a safe & happy Thanksgiving!
DAVE
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