La Traviata in Los Angeles

Maria Nockin and I have been discussing just how hard it is to review singers if you are not one and do not know what vocal production is all about. I am fairly picky about my singers, having had the advantage (or disadvantage...) of studying voice my entire adult life.


Elizabeth Futral played Violetta, and was not warmed up for the first act, her coloratura was sloppy. Her acting was fine and she was quite pretty. Sadly, her Sempre Libera was sloppy at best, and showed a marked lack of control on descending runs ending in a decided splat on the lowest notes. Admittedly, this is one of the most listened to arias in the opera, and if you don't do a good job, everyone is going to remember it, however, she improved as the night wore on, and did fine in the last act, vocally. She has a lovely voice, but Wednesday night although she did not seem to be completely in control of it all of the time.

The only tenor I have seen at LA Opera that I have bothered to mention has been Villazon, since up until now, he was the only one I thought in the least small bit competent. Until I saw Joseph Calleja. I have never been a huge fan of tenors, being a soprano myself, but he could change my mind. He is a truly gifted and sensitive singer. I am always the first to nitpick any bad technique, but there was not one flaw here for me to work with.

He was brilliant. The control was phenomenal, the tone warm and rich, with next to no squillo. The vibrato is fast and tight, not wide. Across his range he showed amazing consistency. Like this would not be enough, he was loud! He filled the Dorothy Chandler, arguably not the best acoustic space for an opera. To top off all of this, he is an extremely musical and intelligent singer, his judicious occasional use of the glottal attack for effect, the dynamics, the pitch. In short he was perfect. I was calling friends on the trip back home, telling them to come and see him. He has the added bonus if being tall, one he does not share with a lot of his colleagues, and is not hard to look at either.

All in all, the singing was good. I adore Suzanna Guzman, and will drive all over Southern California to see her. She did well as Flora, as she always does. Dwayne Croft did well as Giorgio, he is a fine baritone, but I did not feel his part was directed particularly well. I felt he was sort of held back in his performance.

The conductor needs to remember, he is there for the singers. They are not there for him. They were drowned out a few times, a pet peeve of mine. No excuse for this sort of behaviour.

My only beef in fact in this performance was the complete lack of taste used in the set design. It was not just bad, but actively ugly. In fact, I did a set in 10th grade for Oklahoma with Tony Tavares on a tight budget that looked betted thanthis one. In act two, they used a scrim with trees sort of glued to it and painted on, and they were curling up at the edges. Much of the set painting in fact, was far from acceptable. I think they hired some elementary school kids to do it. The autumn leaves were quite nice in act 2. But the central piece of furnishing was an enormous glass table which cast an annoying reflection back up into the set. It should have been buffed or sandblasted avoid this sort of thing. They had mirror balls in the third act, and a lot of extra glittery jewelry which I
found at times distracting. This might have been bearable, if the backdrop was not so incredibly hideous, gold spider webs painted on black, framing a bright fuschia are that stunned the eye and distracted from the singers. The railings were nice though. There were lightsout in the "stars" in the last act. They should always be checked before a performance. I am not sure why Violetta's bed seemed to be outside in the snow as the single furnishing in the last act. Must have been chilly. And I am pretty sure they got her sheets from the sale rack at Target. They were tacky and cheap looking.

The final act direction was annoying. Violetta kept looking asif she was dead, then coming back, getting up and walking. By the third time she had done this, I was ready to strangle her myself.

I would have really hated this, if the singing was not so damn good. Calleja made me forget the set, and I so look forward to seeing him again.

Grendel, The World Premiere

A mixed review from me. Those who know me, know I solidly support Los Angeles Opera in all of their endeavours, but this is the sort of "event" that deserves full disclosure.

If you are looking for the unusual, shocking, bizarre and perhaps offensive, this is the "opera" for you. If you are looking for a fun night, seeing a grand, romantic or tragic story, you are not going to be happy here. I am not quite sure if this is actually an opera just because they say it is. Maybe singspiel might be a better term. I am sure it was a grand effort, but it was not my cup of tea, and I did my level best to keep the most open of minds and see the positives, but honestly I had a hard time following the story in the first act which seemed never ending. There were some moments of comic relief interspersed here and there. On a happy note, the singing was very well executed.

I wanted so badly to love this, and I don't hate it. I have been excited for months about it. I love the whole idea of it. I got there and watched, waiting for something to happen. It was all pretty much narrative with very little character interaction. Beowulf was not a singer, but a dancer. There was a lot of dancing in this. More than I wanted to see. It's sort of like performance art, with some really amazing singers in it, but the shame of it was that I get the feeling the composer does not understand writing for singers. Sometimes he hits the right note, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

The set was interesting, and the costuming was wildly imaginative, scary and fun. Everything we have come to expect from Julie Taymor. Odd creatures, a clockwork ram, some weird tree like beings one with large tree breasts, I think it was supposed to be Grendel's mother, but I am not too sure. There were puppets poking Grendel with tiny swords.

Eric Owens as Grendel was the hardest working singer in this opera. He is omnipresent and almost omni vocal in this piece. He performed admirably, despite a constant lack of anything to really work with and I love his voice. The part skated around in a very low tessitura, as it did for many of the parts, and it did not show off his voice to the best effect. He did the best he could and I was impressed with him.

Charles Robert Austen was wonderful, I wish we would have gotten to hear more from him. The part once again was extremely low, and did not showcase his voice.

Apparently the part of the dragon was written for Denyce Graves, and she did it well. However the whole act and costuming left me wondering if she was a drag queen, rather than a dragon. Once again, low, low, low notes added to the androgynous sort of mood. The dragonettes were
cleverly costumed and cute up there on the end of what seems to be the dragon's tail. Hard to say. The costuming in this act was spectacular.

The standout aria, in my opinion was Queen Wealtheow's. It was haunting and moody. This was performed to perfection by Laura Claycomb. I had the pleasure of chatting with her extensively during an intermission two years ago at the Operalia finals, and I am always thrilled to see her performing in Southern California and wish we could see her more. While not in possession of the biggest voice, as few coloratura are, it carried amazingly well in the theatre. Her aria was very difficult, quite high (I am hoping this is for contrast...) and a lot of it was piano to pianissimo. She did this so delicately, approaching these achingly high notes with a smooth and controlled attack. She looked lovely as well. It's a shame we had to watch her have sex with the king after the aria, and no I am not joking.

I wanted to take my kids to see this. My 17 year old son and his girlfriend were dying to see it. Not only do I not want them to see something like this, for the girlfriend's first opera (my own kids have been dragged to the opera for years), but there are many parts I considered offensive and mysognistic, and could not encourage them to see in good conscience. The language and obscene gestures, I could deal with, hey, I have premium cable, I am no prude. However, references to killing the queen by "burning the ugly little hole between her legs" is just plain over the top. I realize Grendel is supposed to be a monster, but he was supposed to be a thinking, feeling monster. In the book I recall these comments being made, but here they seemed woefully out of context. Throughout the book, Grendel cheerfully refers to dismembering and eating Hrothgar's men, as if it was a normal daily event, but that was not communicated here. After this point, I had no sympathy or liking for him, and was pleased he choose to give up in the end.

Maybe I am just too dumb to understand the symbolism here. I admit it. I refused to read the synopsis going in, because I think the story of an opera should be self explanatory, but there was not much story to tell here, only Grendel's self absorbed narrative.

I spent a lot of time talking to others about their reactions during intermission and afterwards, to get a gauge on what other people may have thought of it. Many of the people were visual artists and they loved it, but the traditional opera fans were not as generous. Many of the press people left at intermission, but I always feel since the ticket it free, I owe it to them to sit through the whatever it is.

Some people will just go crazy for this piece. Some people will despise it, and/or walk out early. This is a very mixed bag. Having said this, I am happy to see LA Opera taking the occasional risk in programming. I admire their willingness to commission works from contemporary composers to expand the repertoire. With this I realize they might run the risk of producing some things I do not like, and I will continue to support them fully. I am thrilled to see them finally programming some Zarzuela for next year. Overall, Los Angeles is very lucky to have them.