Category Archives: Opera

Atlanta Opera: Out of Darkness: Two Remain

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I found Atlanta Opera’s production of Out of Darkness: Two Remain to be a bit uneven. Composed by Jake Heggie with a libretto by Gene Scheer, it’s made up of two acts, with the first being a chamber opera and the second a musical, the plot driven forward more by unsung dialog than by the music. Both depict aged survivors struggling with their memories of the horrors of the Shoah and are based on the writings of real people. The first act was a masterpiece that moved me to tears. The second was merely decent in terms of the writing and composition and was rendered barely better than mediocre by this production’s casting and staging, though it was not without some moving moments.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Russell Thomas, Mary Elizabeth Williams, and Nmon Ford

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I was excited when I saw that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was doing a semi-staged production of Verdi’s “Otello” this season. It’s among my favorite operas as much because of the wonderful orchestration as for anything sung by the soloists. The orchestra really tells the story almost as well as the libretto such that I think that you could strip the singing from it and still have the makings for a solid ballet. I suspected that a semi-staging would let me focus more on the musicality of the work than the dramatic aspects without reducing the emotional impact of the work on me. I’m happy to report, I was correct: this was a wonderful way to hear the opera.
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Atlanta Opera: The Seven Deadly Sins

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When they announced it last season, I wondered how Atlanta Opera would present Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins” without a double-bill. Not a traditional opera, the work is only about 45 minutes long and was originally commissioned as a ballet. I wondered if they were going to pull what Atlanta Ballet did with “Twyla Tharp’s The Princess & the Goblin” and just present it as though it were an evening-length work or if they’d add some kind of warm-up act. They ended up doing the latter, presenting a pseudo-cabaret of songs from Weill’s other works.
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Atlanta Opera: Maria de Buenos Aires

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The Atlanta Opera’s production of Astor Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” was a true delight. It was staged in the event space at Paris on Ponce, La Maison Rouge, which is a decent sized space decorated with a variety of novel tchochkes kind of like one of those restaurants with a name that ends with an apostrophe and an ‘s.’ The action took place in a C shaped area that enveloped the front of the audience, with a stage to the left that led to a higher, narrower stage in front. To the right was a bar set and on the floor in front of the higher stage were a couple of small, high tables and chairs, such as you might find in a bar or café. The word “Maria” was written in ribbons of cloth woven through nails on the front wall.
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Atlanta Opera: Silent Night

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I was excited when I found out that Atlanta Opera had programmed “Silent Night” by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell: I like what I’ve heard of Puts music and the subject is one that I’ve always found interesting. It’s about the WWI Christmas Truce of 1914, a rather remarkable pause in hostilities in what would become one of the most horrifying wars in history. Along some parts of the front during the truce, soldiers of all sides and nationalities left the trenches and fraternized in the middle of the conflict zone. In one area, a soccer match actually broke out and the brass had a hard time restarting hostilities once it was over.
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ASO: Samson et Delila

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So many beautiful voices! So much wow in Samson et Delila! When Blythe unleashed her voice, she owned the room. She really did. And Skelton voiced his part with as much character as excellence. I saw in his bio that Grimsley did Bluebeard’s Castle and I’d really love to hear that after hearing his High Priest. And the chorus! What a great sound they had tonight! Even though they are absent from the 2nd act, this opera really let them shine from the beginning and left me as impressed with them as any of the soloists. Every bit of the performance was well played by the orchestra, too. I would have loved an encore of the ballets, which I find absolutely gorgeous and the playing of which was nothing short of exceptional. Lots of wow.
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