Grand Wagner at the Lyric! (But Brown-Bag Your Dinner!)
Mar 01 '09
The Bottom Line Liked this more than the Met's production last year, also with the estimable Deborah Voigt! Revelations - Petra Lang and Stephen Milling!
This review isn't going to be helpful to anyone wishing to attend the Chicago Lyric Opera's run of ‘Tristan und Isolde', since the last performance took place last night. This post is written just to give readers a sense of the experience of seeing and hearing a live opera. This specifically addresses one held at the Lyric Opera House, as opposed to the more easily accessible filmed one shown at a multiplex near you, via the Metropolitan Opera's High-Definition live broadcasts. Based on my own experience, for newbies a filmed opera might be a better bet - the steady sound, close-ups and more visible screen activity (thanks to camera editing) enrich the understanding of an opera, and it certainly is a much less expensive investment than the usual cost of a live performance ticket ($22/person for the Met's HD broadcasts, with senior citizen and student discounts, too).
However, if you can, don't limit yourselves to the HD films if the opera bug does bite. There's nothing more thrilling than hearing those beautiful voices cultivated over years and years of training - live - for you won't believe such sounds can come from a person standing on stage that far away from where you're seated, and can be heard above the already loud orchestra (especially so in a Wagner opera like ‘Tristan und Isolde').
Better sets than last year's ‘Tristan und Isolde' at the Met.
Having seen the Met's production on last season's HD roster, I was curious to see how this one (originally produced at the LA Opera) measured up. We caught the Friday night performance on the 20th of February, 2009.
For one, I much prefer the David Hockney-designed sets here that look like children's art yet suggests enough atmosphere to conjure up the necessary mood. The stage and costume colours are bold, bright, primary ones of red (as in the dresses of Isolde), blue, green and brown, with attractive and dramatically emphatic lighting designed by Duane Schuler. Of note, the pool of light surrounding Ms Deborah Voigt was ethereally breathtaking during the final act's ‘Liebestod', sung by the ‘transfigured' (Herr Wagner's own description of the phenomenon) Isolde. A ravishingly beautiful ending that was! Although there were a few precipitate hand-clappers before the last note ended, 98% of the decent audience members waited till the last note finished before breaking out in enthused applause. (I detest the trend these days of people clapping before the final note is sounded to completion!)
Better cast, too.
I'm no opera connoisseur, much less a Wagner expert, so do take my comments about the singing with a bit of salt. That said, my non-professional, non-seasoned ears thought the Chicago cast sounded more robust as well. American soprano Deborah Voigt was in both productions, and doesn't disappoint here, either, giving us a strong yet poignant Isolde. Fellow American Clifton Forbis's heldentenor was dramatically compelling, although from where I sat (back section of orchestra, left aisle, just under the Dress Circle section above us), he sounded a little shrill. (Disclaimer: I must confess a preference for bass-baritones over tenors in any opera, however, since tenors are usually lovesick characters with little gumption and wit, unlike the baddie basses and baritones.)
The night's Kurwenal was Greer Grimsley, who evoked the proper sadness at seeing the weakening of his master, Tristan, in Act 3.
The revelations of the night to mine ears included German mezzo-soprano Petra Lang, making her Lyric Opera debut as Brangaene. Her beautifully spun legatos were golden, and the purity of that vocal made me a fan. (I read somewhere that she's sung this part to Voigt's Isolde previously on an Austrian or German stage.)
Similarly astounding was Danish bass Stephen Milling as the dignified yet disappointed King Marke. I almost stood in rapt attention when the King sang his pieces, with a deep and resonant bass vocal perfect for the regal being.
Then there's the deeply passionate and erotic music of Richard Wagner in this opera of love and death. That suspended chord so well-crafted by Herr Wagner, also known as the ‘Tristan chord', will invoke an anguish and longing in the listener that isn't easily forgotten. Many times one just closed one's eyes and let the music envelope one's entire being. This is the key to taking pleasure in Wagner - submitting completely to it is essential.
The Lyric orchestra played excellently, guided by British Sir Andrew Davies. While I also sought greater heft from the deeper, larger strings, the orchestra's overall music-making did move the emotions rather well.
Disappointments with the production hover around the totally static staging as realized by Argentinian José María Condemi. Even the brief swordplay between Kurwenal and Melot looked awkward and unconvincing. Wish they'd hired a stage director with the imagination to match the sets - but, as I mention below, ‘T & I' isn't exactly an ‘action piece'. And yet, I can't help wondering what someone hugely talented like Scotsman David McVicar would have made of this opera!
Now to the actual pros and cons of attending a live performance.
Obstructed views on the ground level.
A con: in the section where we were seated, the floor isn't raked steeply enough to avoid heads in front blocking one's view to a significant degree. This annoyed me enough to not get full enjoyment in those seats, as I tried to crane my neck to one side just to get a fuller view of the stage goings-on, which shifted from one side to the other in different scenes. With ‘Tristan und Isolde' at least, there isn't much going on in nearly all scenes, so that isn't such a drawback. Methinks the view from the higher sections (Dress Circle, Balconies) are less obstructed than that on the ground level.
Of course, take some opera glasses, or small binoculars with you to the theatre, too. They're nice for picking up production details and getting a better look at the heavily made-up and brilliantly costumed singers. (Ms. Voigt hardly breaks a sweat in this, one of the most demanding of roles, and is simply a fine actress to boot.)
The problem with dinner at the Lyric.
Another ‘con' that pertains only to the Lyric opera house: the problem with dinner! In my previous post on the ‘Giulio Cesare' production we saw there, I was appalled by the lack of any tables or chairs provided for patrons to dine decently and half-comfortably during the intermission. There IS mention of a Café finally being opened one day soon, but that didn't help us here at all. Box lunches (consisting of a large sandwich of turkey, roast beef or I-forget-what-else, plus a little serving of pasta salad and a large brick of sweetened puffed rice - pretty good) cost $12, and tickets for these are sold before the show begins by folks in the lobby.
It becomes positive mayhem during the dinner intermission, since it lasts about 20 or 25 minutes only, and you have to waste time making your way through the thick crowds already gathered in the lobby (or in the upper level) to retrieve your lunch boxes, and then waste more time lining up to get a drink! And then the lack of dignity for patrons who have to eat from these flimsy clear plastic boxes standing up, or if lucky, seated on a very limited row of chairs set just outside the doors to the auditorium.
I didn't know it this time, either, but others actually brown-bagged their dinners for the opera and no sooner did the intermission lights go up did they leave their seats for the lobby, and brought their food forth. I would highly recommend this plan to future Lyric operagoers, as it saves you a lot of time and money, and all you need worry about is finding a chair to sit on. (There were precious few small tables and chairs set out in the lower level, too, right outside the restrooms!)
A few odd observations re the Lyric again.
I found it odd that no bag inspection was carried out AT ALL before the show began. Did people just get tired of this whole ritual, since nothing unusual or dangerous has happened for a while now? Or have the rules been relaxed to encourage more people to come to enjoy the opera?
Also odd is the lack of any restriction of what you can bring INSIDE the auditorium (besides the bagged foods) - my seatmate chugged nonchalantly from a plastic water bottle throughout the performance, something I'd not seen done at the New York Metropolitan Opera House!
So, in summary, there's a lot you can get out of the High-Definition broadcasts produced by New York's Met Opera, but there are intangibles in the live opera performance and experience that will send thrills down your spine. Go for one the next time - if you can - and the seats at the upper levels won't be shabby at all for a good listen and view!
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