Past Production Reviews
9In “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson writes, “a truly extraordinary variety of alternatives to chemical control is available … they are biological solutions, based on an understanding of the living organisms that they seek to control … They recognize that we are dealing with having populations, with all their pressures and counterpressures.” A new exhibit at Carnegie Museum of Art takes its name from this passage of the Pittsburgh native’s book, exploring 10 artists’ relationships with global warming and the transitory state of our environment. The word counterpressures “stood out as a perfect description of the push and pull of back and forth between humans and the earth we live on,” says Hannah Turpin, curatorial assistant for modern and contemporary art and photography at the museum. Developed in partnership with Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the exhibit includes sculpture, photography, painting, sound installation and performance and video. Tara Fay Coleman’s performance and video piece looks at how low-income and black people, in particular, are affected by the ecological crisis. Stephanie Martin, an art teacher in Mercer who is originally from Johnstown, uses recycled materials as part of her sculptures referencing the mountains and rivers of western Pennsylvania. “She grew up with the industrial impact on the land really impacting her perspective of the landscape and what is viewed as natural or beautiful,” Turpin says. Ginger Brooks Takahashi presents a sound installation, a variation of her work from 2018’s Carnegie International, about what causes one to break their silence and speak out against the environmental crisis. Brooks Takahashi, who worked for the past eight years on a farm in Braddock, offers a poetic accounting of her time there as well as news reports and the experiences of others she’s encountered. “Counterpressures” is the 83rd installment in the museum’s Forum series, which began in 1990. Turpin says programming is a major component of the Forum series, especially for this exhibit, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22.
There’s a reason that Pittsburgh Opera draws attention from around the country and the world, and, if you’ve never been, now is the perfect time to discover this cultural gem. This spring, the company heats things up with “Carmen,” an irresistible thrill ride of lust, deception and murder. This riveting, classic opera makes for an unforgettable night out – as well as a great introduction for first-time operagoers. “Carmen” runs March 28 to April 5 at the Benedum Center. English supertitles will be projected above the stage. Tickets start at just $14, with kids and teens admitted half-price.
The opera opens with the sisters entering one by one, singing of their lost children. It's a scene that builds to emotionally intense five-part counterpoint. The emotions are individual. When the sisters are emotionally together, the vocal parts are together, too. Muhly and librettist Stephen Karam treat the family's values with respect and sincerity, as well as its assertion of religious freedom. That's not to say they sugarcoat the views of the husband and father, the self-proclaimed Prophet. By normal standards, he's extremely manipulative and paternalistic. The crucial dramatic conflict within the family begins when one of the sisters, Eliza, asks why only he receives revelations. Jasmine Muhammd gives an intense but finely nuanced portrayal of Eliza, who will break free of the family at the end of the opera. The other sisters were all well cast. Meredith Lustig 'and Samantha Korbey, as Zina and Presendia, were favored wives who speculate about who will sleep with the Prophet that night, and aren't above a little catty dialoque ended by referring to the rule for the wives — “be sweet.” Nicole Rudin gave impressive dimension to Ruth, an older sister “out to pasture,” who mourns her dead sons and will commit suicide in the second act. Alexandra Loutsion emphasized the sweetnes and compassion of Almera. Joseph Barron was formidable as the Prophet, singing with impressive legato when presenting a vision. Although we see him hugging his wives, and speaking of family love, the Prophet is an opaque character. Barron also played King, a television personality complete with Larry King-style suspenders, in the first scene of Act II. Although the sisters start by maintaining unanimity in making the public case for the return of their children, Eliza breaks ranks and reveals she was married at 16 and wants better for her daughter, Lucinda. Rebecca Belczyk was emotionally direct as Lucinda, who chooses to stay with the family when her mother leaves at the end of the opera. Resident artist stage director George Cedarquist handled the characterizations and stage space with skill. Glenn Lewis and the excellent ensemble made Muhly's imaginative orchestration a vital part of the action.
The opera begins with Paul appealing his suspension from high school. Rebecca Belcyzk, Samantha Korbey and Nicole Rodin were the history, drawing and English teachers pushing for his suspension. They also sang well playing hotel maids in Act 2. The opening scene shows the stylistic stance of the words and music at their best. Spears writes in a minimalist style with some repetitions serving a baroque sense of ornamentation. The text is repetitive too, usually in the key fragments. This fits the opening scene because each of the characters is static. Spears' excellent ensemble writing welds it all into compelling music. Tenor Daniel Curran gave a superb performance of the title role, vocally secure across the nearly two-octave range and dramatically very well attuned to the somewhat mysterious ambiguities of Paul's character. Paul comes into his own in the split-stage second scene. He revels in his world at Carnegie Music Hall, while on the right side of the stage his father sits at a desk doing paperwork. Alex DeSocio offered well-supported singing in what is a one-dimensional role. Belczyk and Korbey shined in a duet Spears wrote, using lines by Stephen Crane, as an example of the art Paul enjoys. But that life is about to end. His father decides Paul must take a real job. The performance was effectively led by Glenn Lewis, who cued the singers attentively in the tricky score. The excellent nine-member ensemble was drawn from the opera orchestra, with assistant conductor James Lesniak playing piano. George Cedarquist's staging was direct and effective. Spears' opera is in two acts with an optional intermission, which Pittsburgh Opera declined. Performed straight through, the opera lasted a little more than an hour and a quarter. Although it felt long, the work is an impressive first opera from an obviously talented composer.
Mezzo-soprano Corrie Stallings made for a charming, comic Jo, with a delivery as natural as conversation. While her voice wasn’t large, the venue didn’t require it; more important, she used every bit of that bandwidth to achieve a wide dynamic range, steady execution and sensitive phrases. At the end of the opera, Jo’s sisters joined her for a gorgeous quartet. Toward the end of the opera, Beth, lying on her deathbed, offers one of the opera’s key moments of insight, telling Jo to accept her younger sister’s inevitable death. Playing Beth, soprano Adelaide Boedecker captured this shift with a warm bold vibrato that deepened the otherwise simple character. mezzo-soprano Laurel Semerdjian had a fine, coppery voice, but her musical lines lacked connective tissue. Soprano Claudia Rosenthal brought bright vocalism to the role of Amy. The Laurie of tenor Adam Bonanni had an appealing tone, but his character merited more operatic fullness. The production contrasted Susan Memmott Allred’s excellent period costumes with Shengxin Jin’s three-dimensional set, complete with floating furniture and large books twisted into staircases. This creative and striking production, directed by Crystal Manich, revealed much about the characters and story, although some scenes had gratuitous staging.
Pittsburgh Opera's new production of Adamo's work opened Jan. 23 at CAPA and proved a compelling vision of the piece thanks to an excellent cast and chamber ensemble, superb preparation and conducting by Glenn Lewis, and imaginative staging by Crystal Manich. Adamo's musical score is individual and eclectic, employing various musical languages to suit the nature of the situation he's bringing to life. The music expressing the characters' feelings is apt to be mainly tonal. Narrative music, in which most conflicts occur, is well served by the composer's chromaticism and 12-tone harmonies. Best of all, the colors of character and narrative music are wonderfully fluid. Mezzo-soprano Corrie Stallings offered a thoroughly convincing and sympathetic portrayal of Jo, which was especially impressive because of the character's complexity. Stallings' singing easily encompassed not only the wide range of her notes, but also her character's strong will as much as her emerging doubts and personal growth. Baritone Brian Vu gave a strong performance as Brooke, handling high tessitura with assurance and finding the strength to deal with Meg's challenging family. Soprano Adelaide Boedecker's big moment is Beth's death scene, in which she must help Jo accept the unpleasant reality. Her line was finely drawn, and her acting conveyed Meg's generosity and weariness. Kara Cornell and Daniel Teadt were winning as the parents, while Leah de Gruyl was intense as Aunt Cecilia. The staging was mainly quite effective in adapting to the small space of the stage. The costumes were realistic to the time of the novel. Glenn Lewis led a confident performance of a score that is more difficult than it might sound. He was as attentive to indicating cutoffs as entrances, and balanced the singers and instrumentalists very well. His pacing felt apt at every moment. Overall, Pittsburgh Opera has a winner in its cozy yet intense production of “Little Women.”
“The Long Walk” refers to a soldier’s walk towards a live explosion, as well as his psychological journey home after the war. The two-act opera is based on Iraq war veteran Brian Castner’s written account of his time in the military’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit and his tortured reintegration into civilian and family life. Mr. Beck’s score is taut and energetic, cuing the audience between Iraq flashbacks and suburban life in Buffalo, N.Y., with simple but effective instrumental gestures. Electric guitars conjure a gritty desert feel, while slide whistles often accompany the Castner’s three rambunctious boy children’s mischief, etc. Balance between the small orchestra and onstage action was mostly good, but at times the orchestra was a bit loud and obscured the singers. This was most noticeable in Mr. Taylor’s opening minutes and whenever the trio of his three sons sang. Sets and stage direction also proved stellar, with set designer Katy Fetrow’s minimalist nods to the opera’s 15 different locales set starkly against a sandy backdrop with a monolithic, spiraling concrete structure that suggested a “bunker” or perhaps “nose cone.” Resident artist Frances Rabalais’ stage direction kept the mayhem crystal clear, propelling the piece with a sense of narrative momentum and intermittent moments of pathos despite the jumbled, fractured nature of Mr. Castner’s writings and the libretto adaptation. The most poignant scene featured Mr. Taylor helping his son with hockey pads while his EOD brothers dress one of their own in 80 pounds of Kevlar for the long walk, taken only “for your brother, for your brother’s children, for your brother’s children’s children.” Other vocal highlights included resident artist Shannon Jennings as Mr. Castner’s psychologist, singing of blast-induced neurotrauma with an effortless, natural authority and granting the opera a rare moment of catharsis. Adrianna Cleveland’s lament was raw, infused with passion, and the strident confidence of the male EOD quartet in the first act was pure swagger distilled into aria form. Pittsburgh Opera’s production, the third-ever staging of the show, makes for an entirely uncomfortable but equally moving experience.
The opening set piece is a film montage that sets up the premise of a shipwreck and rescue set to Mozart’s overture. The cinematography is handsomely stylized, but having the vocalists appear onstage to interact with the projection was distracting and unnecessary. The orchestra, conducted by Glenn Lewis, delivered the overture with an almost perfunctory air. Throughout the work, there were consistent intonation problems, balance issues in chords and an uncharacteristic lack of precision and grace. After the overture, the canvas screen lifted and resettled on stage in the shape of a canvas tent surrounded by orange life preservers, presumably to evoke a refugee camp. Soprano Ashley Fabian (Ilia, last surviving member of her Trojan family) opened with a voice that sounded small at first but warmed and became more expressive over the course of the evening. Tenor Terrence Chin-Loy (Idomeneo) was a convincingly distraught and displaced king of Crete. Mezzo-soprano Antonia Botti-Lodovico (Idamente, in a pants role) looked and sounded every bit the spurned prince, and soprano Caitlin Gotimer (Elletra) shone in her finale as she suffers a jealous breakdown. This transformed production uses lyrics from the original libretto, stitched together to create a new tale. It’s an awkward fit, with character motivations simplified to the point of parody and plot developments that feel like they’re appearing out of left field. Still, the vocals were strong. All four cast members belong to Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artist program, one of the premiere training programs for developing opera singers. Mr. Chin-Loy and Ms. Gotimer were especially powerful, their solo and ensemble work alike fizzing with tension and nuance. Ms. Botti-Lodovico was superb, increasingly desperate and wild, as her character is repeatedly rebuffed and pushed away by his father. Traditional opera is notorious for its length — some of the staples can easily run three or four hours — and shortening works as evening-length entertainment is a worthy experiment. But this production doesn’t just cut, it adapts. The refugee aspects feel largely tacked on, perhaps as a way to make the opera more “relevant,” and this seems contrived, however well-intentioned.
