Diamond Opera Theater: News

News & Reviews

NEWS from Diamond Opera Theater January, 2009

We are delighted to tell you that we have once again received an award from the Twin Counties Cultural Fund Decentralization Program (a regrant program of NYSCA administered through Columbia County Council on the Arts) in support of the second season of our Art of Song Deconstructed series of free concerts at Hudson Opera House. For four years in a row, the Fund has supported the young professional musicians who sing and play our programs of vocal music for audiences in Hudson and beyond.

In 2006, the funds were devoted to our production of Henry Mollicone’s opera set in the Old West, The Face on the Barroom Floor, at the Basilica Industria in Hudson. The following year, they supported the singers in A Bernstein Celebration, at PS/21 in Chatham.

Last year, we returned to the Basilica Industria in collaboration with Walking the dog Theater to perform a ground-breaking double bill comprising a one-act play and an opera on the same text, Red Carnations X2. Five performances and a free open dress rehearsal allowed nearly 500 people to share this unique experience and to hear some dazzlingly talented musicians in an intimate setting.

In 2009, we are continuing our series of recital/conversations at the Hudson Opera House with four free Saturday afternoon performances. We have been fortunate once again to find supremely gifted musicians early in their careers, who perform a broad spectrum of the song repertoire, which they then discuss with Artistic Director Mary Deyerle Hack and the audience. Once again, the Twin Counties Cultural Fund grant is helping us to bring these future stars to local audiences.

The Art of Song Deconstructed - Storytime
By Uel Wade
for ccSCOOP January, 2009

Immediately, Jennifer Valle established her vocal credentials with a rousing delivery of “Vilia,” from Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow, probably the most famous witch song ever. Her voice shocked the ears on first hearing in that small space, but soon one began to admire the excellent intonation, the even vibrato, and the ease and expressiveness of her bearing...

The program, sung in French, Czech, German, and English, was well-chosen, well-sung, and well-acted. The voice is big and luscious, if somewhat lacking in variety of color.

Thank goodness, Valle, a pretty, young ingenue, delivered the humor in Poulenc’s La Courte Paille (“The Short Straw”) sans standard ingenue shtick. Her simple honesty was at work even as she told us about a flea pulling a little elephant, an elf imagining a glowworm wedding, and a serpent embarking on a singing career! After the last note of the haunting “April Moon” had died away, Valle’s absolute stillness was delicious.

This program celebrated the human urge to make fantasy. From Mother Goose to Ionesco, we insist on peopling the world with witches, angels, water sprites, elves, and humanish fauna. In addition, we never stop talking to the moon.

This last set of songs by Poulenc was written in 1960 for Denise Duval to sing to her young son. (He had toured North America with her.) Poulenc was one of “Les Six,” a group of young composers who transformed French music after World War I. As a young man, he thrilled to such “modern” works as The Rite of Spring while soaking up the world of pop culture: folk songs, music hall numbers, children’s songs, and the performances of Maurice Chevalier. These influences perfectly prepared him to set nonsense verse and fantastic images to music. He used the essential surrealistic musical device: surround dream imagery with accessible music. (An extreme example of this is Four Saints in Three Acts, by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein.)

Because he was most concerned with mélodie (with which he was most inventive), Poulenc created accompaniments that are fairly simple. Aufiero played them with suitable character, although he would have achieved a greater variety of colors had he followed Poulenc’s injunction that they must be “beaucoup de pédale.”

Valle extracted every bit of juice out of these charming settings. The warmth of “The Queen of Hearts,” the joy of “The Musician’s Angels,” the bold humor of “Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu”—not a moment was empty of meaning in both voice and demeanor.

Rusalka’s “Song to the Moon,” from the Dvořák opera about a water sprite (the classic Ondine fairy tale) is an aria that expresses the oldest yearning: for love. The composer’s warm connection to folk idioms is well-suited to the text, and it was sung and played without affectation.

Staying with her theme but changing to the German expressionism of Hugo Wolf for the next three songs on the program was a good choice. Writing in the last years of the 19th century, Wolf employed all the elements of German lieder but brought them to a new level of intensity. Harmony, rhythm, texture, articulation, in contrast to Poulenc, all were used in highly original ways to energize words. A major share of this expression naturally falls to the pianist, whose part is generally far more independent than those of Schubert or Schumann, Wolf’s obvious models.

In “The Song of the Elf,” the piano skitters about in high-register staccatos (the playing could have been crisper here, with less pedal) while the elf hobbles about, half-drunk with sleep. Valle sang with excellent articulation here and sparkled with impish humor. In “The Lemon-colored Butterfly in April,” the poor creature has emerged far too soon for May glory, and the plaintive quality of the singing was simple and exquisite. After the music ended, Valle stood mournfully, her hands spreading an imaginary yellow dress, like a little girl all dressed up with nowhere to go. The “Mousetrap Verses” was by turns childlike and mock-harsh, perfectly suited to the text.

The program was capped with a high-spirited, very funny account of “The Serpent,” by the living American composer Lee Hoiby. It presents a serpent who “didn’t like his kind of life,” “wanted a wife,” and so decided to sing! The birds, of course, objected.

As is the custom in this series, Mary Deyerle Hack led a Q&A afterward. She sought ideas from the audience for future thematic programs. Hack asked the singer what auditioners typically wish to hear. Valle replied, with chagrin, “The same old stuff. Every language, standard arias." Aufiero elaborated on what he looks for (besides, of course, the ability to sing): Can the singer portray character? Project it across the footlights?

Hack, herself a singer, speaks with a warm, honeyed voice that is a pleasure to hear. Valle ... was wonderfully spontaneous, and the two women created a friendly, informal atmosphere for this session.

“Storytime,” performed on Saturday, January 10, was the second offering of the second season of the series called “The Art of Song Deconstructed,” devised by the Diamond Opera Theater in conjunction with the Hudson Opera House. The programs are about a half hour long, followed by a Q&A period. Admission is free.

The next performance will take place on February 14, a celebration of Valentine’s Day called “That’s Amore,” with tenor Patrick Layton and his wife, mezzo-soprano Katherine Layton.

‘Red Carnations’double bill at Basilica
By John Paul Keeler
for Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

At the Walking the dog Theatre in the Basilica Industria in Hudson, a joint production of a one-act 1925 play, “Red Carnations,” by Glenn Hughes, and a one-act opera with a libretto based on the play by composer Robert Baksa proved to be a big hit.

Review
The collaboration of Walking the dog and Diamond Opera Theatre did something unique in the world of theater and opera, by bringing “Red Carnations” both as a play and opera to the public. Together, they made a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

Great credit needs to be given to the director, Benedicta Bertau, who dove-tailed the action both in the play and the opera so that the characterization became essentially the same in both works. That was a feat, since the acting style in theater and opera house is usually not the same.

The play was a delightful comic romp, with Ted Phelps a wise and droll secret father to the girl, played with great charm by Vanessa Graymason. Nikolas Geilan was superb as the naive love-struck boy.

“Red Carnations” is Baksa’s second opera. Knowing and enjoying his music for many years, one wondered what this opera would be like. It is a masterful work. It is a 20th century counterpart to Giovanni Pergolesi’s one-act masterpiece, “La Serva Padrona” of 1733. The sparkling melodic intrada sets the mood of the opera directly.

One also wondered about the reduction from orchestra to three [instruments]? Baksa’s arrangement, with Gili Melamed at the piano, Helene Annas on cello and Margo on flute, was played with superb beauty. The three singers in the opera were delightful. Mary Ellen Assue was lovely as the girl. Her voice soared with lyric sound and touching expression. Tenor Patrick Layton, who played the boy, has a vibrant lyric tenor voice that complimented Assue and made its own telling points with his brilliant top voice. Steven Marking, the vibrant baritone who sang marvelous Baksa songs a few years ago at Kinderhook, was just right as the father.

This combination production of play and opera is so splendid that it should go on a national tour to a wide public. Or, if that were not possible, at least it should be heard throughout the Hudson Valley.

Singleton at Opera House
By John Paul Keeler
for Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

The continuing Diamond Opera Theatre program, “The Art of Song Deconstructed,” continued at the Hudson Opera House Saturday with a program of German Lieder featuring Robert Schumann’s (1810-56) great “Dichterleibe” song cycle, written to the poetry of Heinrich Heine. For many, this Schumann is the greatest song cycle of the 19th century Romantic Period.

Review
For this series, the artistic directors of the Diamond Opera Theatre, Mary Hack and Keith Spencer, have had the good taste to present wonderfully talented young singers.

Young tenor Byron Singleton was the best singer yet in the series. He has a very beautiful lyric tenor voice and sang the cycle like the great artists of the past. The secret of his success with the cycle was that he applied the Italian vocal Bel canto to his singing, while staying in the correct German Lied style. His diction was clear, though modified, as singers always need except in Italian. The purity of his voice was combined with a full expression of the poetry. He avoided the trap so many singers find themselves in the German Lied, namely being too precious.

Singleton had the wondrous vocal lift in the first song, “Tm wunderschonen Monat Mai,” and brought rapt swagger to “Die Rose, Die Liile,” but missed the understated introspection of “Ich Will Meine Selle Tauchen.” He brought heroic thrust to “Ich Grolle Nicht” and sang the remainder of the 16 songs beautifully with a musical effect rare in any musical age.

Brian Holman was a superb accompanist, or rather a partner artist, reminding one of some of Weissenberg’s accompaniment of Gedda in Rachmaninoff Songs. It. was wonderful. to watch these two young artists breathe together as they performed.

Music and art take over ArtsWalk
By John Paul Keeler
for Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

One of the outstanding events during ArtsWalk week was the performance at the Hudson Opera House on Sept 28 [30] of a song cycle titled "I Remember." It is based on the diaries of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager heroine of the last days of World War II. She and her family were the last to leave Holland by train to the concentrtion camp.

Review
This writer went back and reread the diary before attending the performance and the impact after more than 40 years is so sad and still riveting.

The song cycle composed by Michael Cohen is written for mezzo soprano, flute, harp and cello. The libretto by Enid Futterman, fashioned after the 268 page diary, is outstanding. Futterman captures perfectly the essence, the persona, the searching and the hope of Anne Frank.

Michael Cohen's music is so beautiful and, in its way, wraps the text with the haunting poetry of the three accompanying instruments. The cello brings the sad emotions forward, the harp in upward arpeggios seems to point out the way for Frank's escape to eternity and the flute anchors suffering humanity.

Nina Fine is a lyric mezzo soprano to reckon with. Her lovely sound and beautiful expressivity, as well as perfect diction, completed the ideal picture of Frank.

Earlier the same day at the Opera House, Edward Barnes' children's opera, "The Vagabond Queen," delighted both children and adults.

The work has the soprano singing all the parts, the Queen, King, Vagabond, as well as the bad King. Soprano Amanda Boyd sang all parts with wonderful verve, acting out each role in a kind of pantomime that really worked. She colored her voice cleverly, bringing a magical effect to her audience. ...[review of other events continues]

Feel the sawdust in intimate 'Barroom'
By Joseph Dalton, Special to the Times Union
First published: Saturday, May 27, 2006

HUDSON -- Who'd have thought that a Wild West saloon could be such an ideal setting for opera? But in Henry Mollicone's "The Face on the Barroom Floor," a clattering piano provides musical accompaniment, and an abundance of liquor helps boost the emotional drama to the necessary proportions. Romance and murder happen in nearly record time.

In the second production of the newly established Hudson Chamber Opera, Mollicone's one-act proves to be a potent shot delivered by a company of professional caliber. As Hudson's cultural capital grows, it seems ready for intelligent but accessible musical dramas such as this. Friday night's opening drew a capacity crowd to the charming but disheveled Basilica Industria in Hudson. Performances continue Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

"The Face" refers to a fading portrait of a beautiful woman that graces the floor of a tavern in Colorado's Central City. That city's opera company actually revives the piece every summer.

The opera itself begins when a couple of tourists, played by soprano Nancy Allen Lundy and tenor Dean Anthony, stumble into the old drinking establishment, get into their cups and start asking about the painting. The bartender, baritone Mark Gargiulo, proceeds to spin for them his familiar yarn of a penniless painter, a dance hall girl, and a barkeeper, and their love triangle gone bad. Soon the opera jumps back in time and the cast of three become their forebears.

The score is rich in melody and includes references to both Puccini and "Home on the Range."

It reaches its apex in a finely crafted trio that is also nicely staged. The focus is on the artist as he works on the portrait. His concentration and refined skills with a brush are a startling sight in the rustic pioneer setting. The opera ends with a jump back into present time when love, jealousy and death repeat themselves. Is there any other opera in which the soprano gets two death scenes?

When the male leads go at it a second time, they unleash a ferocious anger that's channeled purely through the score. It's as up close and powerful as opera can get. But more often than not, the music felt too loud for the space -- not unlike an evening in a real bar perhaps.

Pianist and music director Uel Wade provided a lively and supple accompaniment with support from flute and cello. As in last fall's production of "The Medium," Dean Anthony directed as well as performed.

Joseph Dalton is a local freelance writer who contributes regularly to the Times Union. Opera review: Hudson Chamber Opera presents Henry Mollicone's "The Face on the Barroom Floor" When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: Basilica Industria, 110 S. Front St., Hudson Duration: One hour The crowd: About 2,000 people, all ages, attentive and overly eager to applaud Continues: 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

A 'Medium' with flair in Hudson
By Joseph Dalton, Special to the Times Union
First published: Monday, October 10, 2005

HUDSON -- A leaking roof and a flooded backstage area didn't keep the new Hudson Chamber Opera from presenting its first production, which was part of the second weekend of Hudson's annual Artswalk.

Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Medium" was given a staging full of character and flair in the Basilica Industria, an old manufacturing space that's on its way to becoming a new arts center. Local soprano Mary Hack owned the title role. Dominating the stage, she played the Medium as a temperamental woman of a certain age whom you'd rather not cross. When something from the spirit world possibly makes contact with the medium -- who otherwise stages sham seances -- she shuns her loyal clients and lashes out at her two underlings. Though anger, born of fear, dominates the role, Hack's best singing came in the few quieter moments. Rage too often won out over beauty, though nothing was ever out of control. Even Hack's spoken lines were modulated and she was ultimately mesmerizing.

Soprano Megan Weston was also excellent in the principal supporting role of Monica. Her singing was attractive, as well as intelligible in the midrange. A duet between Hack and Weston sounded like a juicy hymn.

A silent presence on stage but a big player in the production was Dean Anthony. He played the mute savant Toby and also directed the opera and collaborated on the sets and lighting. Anthony was a sympathetic and agile actor and his direction was as economical yet effective as Menotti's score. Pianist and music director Michael Clement was also a solid presence.

There was chipped paint and the aura of dust on the set's walls, windows, statues and modest furnishings. It was an appropriate domicile for a reclusive fortuneteller and also a nice match to the makeshift theater, which itself was rather spooky and drafty. Let's hope Hudson Chamber Opera, a phoenix that has risen from the ashes of the defunct Columbia Festival Orchestra, can continue to offer sturdy English language music dramas in productions as engaging as this. Hardworking conductor Gwen Gould is co-artistic director of the new outfit, along with Hack.

Next up, in May, is a double bill of Henry Mollicone's wild west opera "The Face on the Barroom Floor" and Lucas Foss's "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

Joseph Dalton is a local freelance writer who contributes regularly to the Times Union. Opera review: Hudson Chamber Opera presents What: Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Medium" When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Bascilia Industria, 110 S. Front St., Hudson Duration: 1 hour The crowd: A full house of about 125 enthusiastic locals.