Humbled and Overwhelmed

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold March 31, 2011 Starring Bryn Terfel, Richard Paul Fink, Stephanie Blythe, Arnold Bezuyen, Dwayne Croft, Franz-Josef Selig, Patricia Bardon, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Fabio Luisi cond.

This afternoon I went to the New York City Opera's Elixir of Love . It's usually called Elisir d'Amore , and set in some kind of rustic Italian fairy-tale-land, but Jonathan Miller's production has set Donizetti's everygreen opera in the American South, 1950's era. Miller took a page from Peter Sellars' famous production of Cosi fan tutte that was set in "Despina's Diner" and decided to make the unit set "Adina's Diner." At various points in the opera, the characters dance along, jukebox style, to Donizetti's catchy tunes. It was overall a charming performance, with a more relaxed vibe than a typical performance at the Metropolitan Opera. The small-scale production and cast of mostly young, unknown performers gave Donizetti's opera a freshness and energy that propelled the whole afternoon along.

Audio clips from the most recent run are now available, and I thought I'd post them here: "Regnava del silenzio": "Verrano a te": Dessay's Mad Scene: Calleja's "Tu che a dio" Enjoy!

It's so strange to have three videos of one production available on DVD, but a third video Natalia Makarova's staging of La Bayadere was released recently by the Royal Ballet. Natalia Makarova was the first dancer to revive the complete La Bayadere in the West (Rudolf Nureyev had staged the famous Shades Scene for the Royal Ballet). At the time Natalia Makarova made her staging for the ABT in the 1970's, most people were unfamiliar with how the ballet was performed in Russia.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor March 12, 2011 Metropolitan Opera Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja, Stephen Gaertner, Patrick Summers, cond.

If ever there was one ballet associated with one company, it might be the Bolshoi Ballet and Don Quixote . This colorful romp through 16th century Spain has almost nothing to do with Cervantes' novel, which is a profound philosophical dialogue between two mythic characters, Don Quixote and Sancho. Despite the famous events, the novel is not driven by narrative, but by ideas. Perhaps that's why there have been so few great adaptations of Cervantes' work. Petipa/Gorsky's ballet is based on a small episode in the Cervantes novel, but really it's just an excuse for a non-stop dance spectacular. Don Quixote and Sancho are walk-on characters who have little to no relation to the plot. Ludwig Minkus's score is bright and bouncy, maybe the best score he ever composed. The ballet was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa, but the version we know today is really the revised choreography of Alexander Gorsky. Gorsky erased the formal classicism that Petipa favore...

This afternoon, thanks to a friend, I was able to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company for the second time this week, in a very different triple bill -- Arden Court , Three Dubious Memories , and Cloven Kingdom . This is my third time seeing Taylor's company, and every time I think I "get" him as a choreographer, he does something that surprises me, and makes me rethink what he's about, what drives him. What's his philosophy on life, or dance? I left the City Center pondering these questions, that probably can't be answered. The afternoon bill opened with Arden Court , and it was one of the most charming dances I have ever seen, period. The music is by baroque composer William Boyce, and then men are bare-chested (the audience sighed at how handsome the Taylor dancers are, in that effortless, all-American, athletic way), the women dressed in pretty white dresses with colorful multi-colored dots. As "pants," the men are wearing these white tights ...

The juxtaposition of violence and love is at the heart of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , and successful adaptations of Shakespeare's play tend to have the same mixing of the most shocking violence with the tenderness of young love. Prokofiev's ballet score, West Side Story , Franco Zefferelli and Baz Lurhmann's movies, all have this quality. Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette was one of the most popular operas in the 19th century, and the list of great Romeos and Juliettes is a long and storied one. But I think the reason why the opera fell out of favor is that Gounod tilts the focus of the story too much towards the LOVE LOVE LOVE side. The violence between the Capulets and Montague's is barely touched upon except for the pivotal scene of Mercutio's death, and Juliet's combative, overbearing parents are also a non-entity in Gounod's opera (Juliet's mother doesn't even exist for Gounod). The arias and love duets between the star-crossed ...

I decided to do something a little different tonight and go watch the Paul Taylor Dance Company in a triple bill of Company B , his new work Phantasmagoria , and Promethean Fire . Last year I went to a Paul Taylor Dance Company performance for the first time and so enjoyed the experience that I had high hopes when I took my seat at the City Center tonight and the lights dimmed. I was not disappointed.