The absolute highlight for me was the “Triple Bill” opera performance
Paul Hindemith: “Hin und Zurück” (There and Back), a Sketch with Music
Igor Stravinsky: “Mavra”
Elliott Carter: “What Next?” (conducted by James Levine with the composer in the audience)
The sets were by Doug Fitch (temporary available reviews: Director brings unconventional ideas to opera and What’s Next for Opera). Slighty surreal but in simple colors, they perfectly fit the stories but were not distracting from the happenings. The costumes were by Catherine Zuber, and the lighting designer was Clifton Taylor.
Unfortunately, no photography whatsoever was allowed due to copyright protection, i.e., one could not take pictures of the sets & cast at the end of the performances.
Hin und Zurück is a farcical musical sketch, with a jealous husband shooting his wife to death (very funnily done by a little boy running with a bullet from the gun and poking the wife with it) and a midpoint from which everything is played backwards. The piece begins with a sneeze by an otherwise mute (and deaf) aunt knitting and observing the proceedings, played formidably by Phyllis Curtin, and ends of course with a sneeze too. Hindemith composed the sketch in 1927 in four days for the Baden-Baden Festival, at a time when unserious opera was de rigeur.
Mavra, composed in 1922, is an opéra bouffe about star-crossed lovers; musically, compared to Hindemith, rather conservative, combining Stravinsky’s neo-classical period with his then pre-occupation with Tchaikovsky. It is dedicated to the memory of Pushkin, from which he took the storyline; Glinka, whose influence is also shown; and Tchaikovsky. It is the last Russian-themed piece of music Stravinsky would compose. The character of the lover Vasily, appearing in drag as the cook “Mavra”, has a wonderful buffo drag role.
What Next, a one-act tragic comedy about 40 minutes long, is Elliott Carter’s only opera, composed 1997/98. Although he has written much for voice, and toyed with Aristophanes' The Birds (Mr. Carter studied the classics and literature at Harvard), and The Emperor’s New Clothes, he didn’t get around to it until he was about 90 years old. Working with the librettist Paul Griffith, who also took bows, Carter used a highly involved traffic accident sequence in Jaques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot movie Trafic to create the story. When the curtain rises, a child is sitting on a rock and five adults emerge apparently unharmed from their smashed automobiles but in utter confusion about who they are and how they are related to each other; and what follows is how the adults perceive each other, never quite getting it, it seems. This makes for wonderful solos, duos, trios and on so on. The child is a catalyst of sorts. At one point, two road workers appear and inspect the scene, but do not notice the people. One wonders at times, as the program notes author does, are they dead? However hard they try, the characters can never resolve their situation, and at the end, the audience is left with the question “What Next?”
The singers, all TMC fellows, were outstanding, and they must have loved the Carter opera.
There were two performances on consecutive days. I had so much fun and, through a mistake, an extra ticket, so that rather than giving it away, I went both times, and was by no means the only one who did so! On the first day, one got the overall impression, on the second day one could concentrate on the music.
The happenings at the Friday afternoon performance were enlivened by a couple of tremendous thunderstorms, during which rain came through the roof of the “Theatre” building, an old wooden structure, which is the only one with an orchestra pit and stage facility. It rained not only on the audience, but on the stage too, and the “What Next?” singers adapted quickly with appropriate gestures. I thought the thunder claps fit quite well into the story...
The Theatre
Postcript: Heidi Waleson, the Wall Street Journal's opera critic, just gave both the “Don Giovanni” and the “Triple Bill” a rather morose review.
