New
York City Opera took a good run at Handel's
Xerxes, achieving enough success to
send the audience on the piece's opening night
out into a chilly March 30 evening with smiles
on their faces. Some in the uneven cast missed
the Baroque opera spirit, making their gestures,
both musical and dramatic, so broad that they
lost the sense of spirited elegance that makes
Handel Handel. But the ones who got it managed
to carry the day.
Americans
find Handel operas a challenge. They're long,
and audiences need something to get past a
certain sameness in the music from one number
to the next. Some productions go for elaborate
scenic effects. This one, designed by Thomas
Lynch, used a single set, a long brick wall
with a two-story house attached stage left,
Xerxes' favorite tree stage right, hovering
over the entire proceedings. Other productions
aim for inventive dramatic or clever comedy
direction. This one, by Stephen Wadsworth,
got a lot of things right but veered occasionally
into vulgarity. His translation into English
mixed modern Americanisms with long stretches
of classical English, a bit too obviously
reaching for rhymes.
The
best way to liven up a Handel opera is with
great singers who can put their own stamp
on the arias and recitatives. Although no
one in this cast qualified as great, about
half them showed real Handelian panache. Whenever
soprano Lisa Saffer, mezzo soprano Beth Clayton
and counter tenor David Walker were on stage
and singing, all was well with the world.
Unfortunately, the two characters at the center
-- mezzo Sarah Connelly and Amy Burton --
were overshadowed by those around them.
In
the story, Xerxes, the king, wants to marry
Romilda, a hot tomato and the daughter of
one of his servants, but she doesn't want
him. She is in love with Xerxes' brother,
Arsamene. But so is Romilda's sister, Atalanta,
who thinks she's smarter and more alluring
than she really is. A mysterious gentleman
shows up who turns out to be the lovely Princess
Amastre, whom Xerxes had promised to marry
but has abandoned. She disguises herself as
a man to find out what's going on.
That's
the basic set-up. Along the way there are
way too many written messages passed to the
wrong lover and contrived misunderstandings.
For further comedy, we have Elviro, the manservant
of Arsamene, who spends much of the second
act dressed as a woman flower seller. We also
have the father of Romilda and Atalanta, who
misreads Xerxes' cryptic instructions and
marries Romilda to Arsamene, leaving Amastre
to confront Xerxes and embarrass him into
marrying her.
Got
all that? It doesn't matter much because mostly
it's a series of set-ups for one more da capo
aria. The problem with Connelly was she didn't
provide a consistent enough personality as
Xerxes for all the action to revolve around.
She has a lightish mezzo, which makes her
seem weak next to the other low voices around
her. "Ombra mai fui" (badly translated here)
came and went with virtually no applause.
And Burton, whose lyric soprano voice amply
conveyed Romilda's beauty and allure, doesn't
have the sparkle to her coloratura to make
the second and third iterations of these da
capo arias interesting enough, so she seems
one-dimensional.
By
contrast, Clayton employed a rich, dark honeyed
mezzo with marvelously clear coloratura to
make Amastre, the jilted princess, into a
truly noble character -- better dramatically
and vocally than Xerxes. Walker displayed
a pure, supple countertenor with no hootiness
and an impressive command of fioratura. He
is a singer to watch. His voice had more richness
than Xerxes', which added to the cast's imbalance.
And Saffer, a lyric coloratura who sings major
Handel roles often, invested Atalanta with
pinpoint intonation and plenty of power and
drive to outline her character's envy and
flightiness. So you had an Atalanta who was
more appealing vocally than Romilda.
Michael
Zegarski made a worthy company debut as Elviro,
the manservant, showing a flair for physical
comedy and a focused baritone. In the small
role of Arodante, the father, baritone Jake
Gardner provided the necessary gravitas.
Gary
Thor Wedow, former associate conductor of
Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, kept things
moving nicely in the pit, and he showed commendable
sensitivity to the singers. We could, however,
have heard a greater variety of colors from
the orchestra.
By
all accounts, NYCO has done well by Handel
in previous seasons, with Alcina, Partenope
and Ariodante. That's why I went out
my way on a weeklong visit to New York to
see it. In the end, Xerxes would not
be exhibit A in a defense of NYCO's efforts,
but you could list it among the credits.
Harvey
Steiman
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