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San Francisco Chronicle
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nero's ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York meet in `The Comet/Poppea' at Lincoln Center
NEW YORK (AP) — Nero's ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York were similar. That is the message of 'The Comet/Poppea,' an intriguing combination of Monteverdi's 1643 opera 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' and George E. Lewis' 'The Comet,' a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year. The mashup conceived by director Yuval Sharon began a five-performance run at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City on Wednesday night. First seen in Los Angeles last year, the American Modern Opera Company production unfolds on a turntable that completes a spin each 2 minutes, 8 seconds. An audience of 380 is split into sections on opposite sides of the set on stage at the David Koch Theater while the venue's 2,586 auditorium seats remain empty. 'It's an unstable ride over the course of 90 minutes, and the power of the interpretation is up to each and every spectator,' Sharon said. 'Whether you're on one side of the seating bank or the other, you're going to have a totally different experience and you may miss a really important piece of action that your imagination is going to have to fill.' In Monteverdi's final opera, created to Giovanni Francesco Busenello's libretto, Nerone exiles his wife Ottavia, leaving him free to crown Poppea empress. Lewis composed 'The Comet' to librettist Douglas Kearney's adaption of W.E.B. Du Bois' dystopian eight-page 1920 short story in which a working-class Black man, Jim (Davóne Tines), and a society white woman, Julia (Kiera Duffy), believe they are the only survivors of a comet and can join to form a prejudice-free society. Their aspirations collapse when they learn people outside New York remained alive and segregation was unconquerable. 'People can make the leap between the music they're hearing and the kinds of tensions that are inherent to modern life and the tensions that the opera presents and the text presents, particularly around the dystopian aspect of white supremacy,' Lewis said. 'White supremacy is a kind of dystopia and it's a dystopia that we continue to live with today." Mimi Lien's two-sided set, illuminated strikingly by John Torres, is tiered with a bath at the top level on the Roman portion and a red Art Deco restaurant evoking the Rainbow Room on the other, where Jim and Julia find three dead bodies slumped. 'Jim is confronted with what it means to be the only man left alive, what it newly means to be a Black man allowed into spaces he wasn't before, but then have that dream crushed by the reality of Julia also inhabiting that space," said Tines, a commanding presence as Jim and the smaller role of Mercury. 'The Comet/Poppea' debuted at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA last June and also was performed with a student cast in Philadelphia in November. It is part of a Run AMOC* festival of 12 productions at Lincoln Center that include 10 New York premieres. Friday's performance can been viewed on a live stream on Lincoln Center's Facebook and YouTube channels. Planning, writing and funding took years Sharon first discussed the project in 2018 with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who sings Nerone and Julia's father, a stuffed shirt dressed like Mr. Monopoly. 'It fell apart so many times,' Constanzo said. 'First, the pandemic came, and so all of our plans we'd put together were dashed. Then we had one co-producer who was giving a lot of money and they pulled out. Then we got another co-producer to put that much money in again and they pulled out." Sharon had met Lewis at a 2018 Columbia University conference and approached him with the idea of concentrating on Poppea's upward mobility and creating 'a secondary story to complicate and to make a mess of this idea of authoritarianism.' Sharon trimmed 'Poppea' to its essence. Lewis' music, filled with dissonance and a snippet of jazz, mixes with the Monterverdi's baroque, which Jim first hears from the restaurant jukebox. 'The conception was one in which you knew from the beginning that there are moments of overlap, there are moments of exchange, of sequentiality,' Lewis said. 'It could stand alone by itself, `The Comet,' certainly." Lincoln Center is presenting a more ambitious offering of classical events after drawing criticisms in the first three seasons of Summer for the City that emerged from the pandemic. There are 266 scheduled events from June 11 through Aug. 9. Programs are set to include jazz, Latin music, R&B, Broadway, pop, Caribbean, dance and more.
Winnipeg Free Press
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Nero's ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York meet in `The Comet/Poppea' at Lincoln Center
NEW YORK (AP) — Nero's ancient Rome and Jazz Age New York were similar. That is the message of 'The Comet/Poppea,' an intriguing combination of Monteverdi's 1643 opera 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' and George E. Lewis' 'The Comet,' a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year. The mashup conceived by director Yuval Sharon began a five-performance run at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City on Wednesday night. First seen in Los Angeles last year, the American Modern Opera Company production unfolds on a turntable that completes a spin each 2 minutes, 8 seconds. An audience of 380 is split into sections on opposite sides of the set on stage at the David Koch Theater while the venue's 2,586 auditorium seats remain empty. 'It's an unstable ride over the course of 90 minutes, and the power of the interpretation is up to each and every spectator,' Sharon said. 'Whether you're on one side of the seating bank or the other, you're going to have a totally different experience and you may miss a really important piece of action that your imagination is going to have to fill.' In Monteverdi's final opera, created to Giovanni Francesco Busenello's libretto, Nerone exiles his wife Ottavia, leaving him free to crown Poppea empress. Lewis composed 'The Comet' to librettist Douglas Kearney's adaption of W.E.B. Du Bois' dystopian eight-page 1920 short story in which a working-class Black man, Jim (Davóne Tines), and a society white woman, Julia (Kiera Duffy), believe they are the only survivors of a comet and can join to form a prejudice-free society. Their aspirations collapse when they learn people outside New York remained alive and segregation was unconquerable. 'People can make the leap between the music they're hearing and the kinds of tensions that are inherent to modern life and the tensions that the opera presents and the text presents, particularly around the dystopian aspect of white supremacy,' Lewis said. 'White supremacy is a kind of dystopia and it's a dystopia that we continue to live with today.' Different styles for different eras Mimi Lien's two-sided set, illuminated strikingly by John Torres, is tiered with a bath at the top level on the Roman portion and a red Art Deco restaurant evoking the Rainbow Room on the other, where Jim and Julia find three dead bodies slumped. 'Jim is confronted with what it means to be the only man left alive, what it newly means to be a Black man allowed into spaces he wasn't before, but then have that dream crushed by the reality of Julia also inhabiting that space,' said Tines, a commanding presence as Jim and the smaller role of Mercury. 'The Comet/Poppea' debuted at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA last June and also was performed with a student cast in Philadelphia in November. It is part of a Run AMOC(asterisk) festival of 12 productions at Lincoln Center that include 10 New York premieres. Friday's performance can been viewed on a live stream on Lincoln Center's Facebook and YouTube channels. Planning, writing and funding took years Sharon first discussed the project in 2018 with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who sings Nerone and Julia's father, a stuffed shirt dressed like Mr. Monopoly. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. 'It fell apart so many times,' Constanzo said. 'First, the pandemic came, and so all of our plans we'd put together were dashed. Then we had one co-producer who was giving a lot of money and they pulled out. Then we got another co-producer to put that much money in again and they pulled out.' Sharon had met Lewis at a 2018 Columbia University conference and approached him with the idea of concentrating on Poppea's upward mobility and creating 'a secondary story to complicate and to make a mess of this idea of authoritarianism.' Sharon trimmed 'Poppea' to its essence. Lewis' music, filled with dissonance and a snippet of jazz, mixes with the Monterverdi's baroque, which Jim first hears from the restaurant jukebox. 'The conception was one in which you knew from the beginning that there are moments of overlap, there are moments of exchange, of sequentiality,' Lewis said. 'It could stand alone by itself, `The Comet,' certainly.' Lincoln Center is presenting a more ambitious offering of classical events after drawing criticisms in the first three seasons of Summer for the City that emerged from the pandemic. There are 266 scheduled events from June 11 through Aug. 9. Programs are set to include jazz, Latin music, R&B, Broadway, pop, Caribbean, dance and more.
Boston Globe
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
With ‘Ariodante,' Boston Baroque founding director Martin Pearlman exits on a high note
So it wasn't the best precedent for this weekend's 'Ariodante,' which already felt especially significant because it marks the final engagement of founder Martin Pearlman as the company's standing music director. So I'm glad to report that it's the company's most coherent and satisfying operatic endeavor that I've seen in the post-shutdown years, easily on par with 2019's campy, sexy 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' at Jordan; a satisfying cadence to honor Pearlman's final bow. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Ariodante' sees the company back in GBH's Calderwood Studio, and though it may never be a choice opera venue, it seems they've worked out some of the most important theatrical snags. Throughout Thursday evening, I never noticed the metallic ringing sound from the ceiling that often interrupted 2023's 'Iphigenie en Tauride.' Director Eve Summer kept the stage setup simple but effective, with singers in front, orchestra in back, and handsome projections by Camilla Tassi adding some visual interest at the rear. None of that nonsense from last year, in which Don Giovanni's Commendatore delivered climactic pronouncements while standing in what might as well have been Siberia. Advertisement It's a good thing too, because the story of 'Ariodante' doesn't easily coast on dramatic momentum. To recap: It's a drama circa 1735 adapted from a segment of the Italian Renaissance epic 'Orlando furioso,' but it's set in Scotland. Hence the tartan costumes, which looked unfortunately wrinkled from every angle. (Is there an iron backstage?) Ariodante (Megan Moore) and Princess Ginevra (Amanda Forsythe) are so crazy in love they spend an entire act of the opera singing about it. Ginevra's father the king (Brandon Cedel) blesses the match. The problem: Duke Polinesso (Ann McMahon Quintero) wants both Ginevra and the throne, even though Ginevra can't stand the man. So Polinesso takes advantage of the fact that Ginevra's maid Dalinda (Robin Johannsen) has a huge crush on him, and tells her to disguise herself as Ginevra and meet him in the garden on the night before Ginevra and Ariodante are supposed to get married. Amanda Forsythe as Ginevra and Brandon Cedel as the King of Scotland. Ken Yotsukura Photography Because the rules of opera dictate that no one will ever recognize you if you change clothes (see also: 'Marriage of Figaro'; 'Rosenkavalier'), Ariodante immediately thinks Ginevra is creeping on him, and throws himself into the sea. Also because this is an opera, as well as the 18th century, everyone immediately suspects Ginevra was two-timing Ariodante, and she's imprisoned and condemned to death — unless a champion appears and proves her innocence in a trial by combat. Whew! Advertisement It takes convincing acting and singing to pull this one off, but with those logistical obstacles out of the way, the singers were free to shine against the orchestra's gorgeous backdrop — which we could hear, hallelujah! The lineup of leads was a luxury cast, featuring a mix of newcomers to the company and familiar faces. In the latter category, Forsythe, a veteran Handelian, was luminous as per usual, radiating joy — and technically pristine melismas — in Act 1's amorous arias and duet with Ariodante. Quintero most often portrays matrons and crones, and she seemed to be having a lot of fun showing off her dramatic versatility in the trouser role of Polinesso. Her plummy, full contralto voice effectively conveyed the character's childish petulance. Johanssen was initially winsome and girlish as the deceived Dalinda, rose gold in color to Forsythe's silver. Then she suddenly produced a stunner near the end of the opera in 'Neghittosi, or voi che fate,' calling down lightning on the treacherous Polinesso. (Here's an idea: Johanssen/Forsythe double bill of Baroque rage arias.) Cedel, already familiar to Boston Lyric Opera audiences, was a satisfyingly nuanced King, while recent Juilliard School graduate Richard Pittsinger made a compelling Lurcanio. Moore, in the title role, seemed to stumble over the athletic demands of 'Con l'ali di costanza,' but on the 1-10 scale of technical difficulty, that aria is probably a 12; even Joyce DiDonato has called it 'nearly unsingable,' so I left more impressed with Moore's unshakable poise and warm timbre. What's more, her 'Scherza infida' — the emotional apex of the role — was sublime, each syllable hanging heavy in the air like a branch covered with ice. Advertisement The opera probably would have benefited from a few more judicious cuts; three hours is a lot to Handel. But what to cut? There's no one in the cast I would choose to hear less of. Just don't eat a heavy meal beforehand — or maybe have an espresso before showtime — and you'll be fine. This 'Ariodante' is an achievement to take pride in as Pearlman departs, and hopefully one to build on in the future. Jordan Hall is undeniably a better acoustic environment, but Calderwood offers the cast and crew the chance to get comfortable in the rehearsal space without needing to pack in and out so quickly. In the meantime, consider me convinced that future operas at Calderwood might not actually be the worst idea. BOSTON BAROQUE 'Ariodante.' At GBH Calderwood Studios Thursday. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
Washington Post
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
A new production of ‘Poppea' struggles to get out of its own way
There's some fine singing to be found in the new production of Claudio Monteverdi's 'Poppea' from IN Series. Let's start there. Composed in 1642, 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' was Monteverdi's final opera and remains his most popular, thanks in large part to its beautifully buoyant score, but also for its compelling cast of characters, whose dramatic depth and tragicomic range was relatively innovative for 17th-century Baroque opera.
