Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Metropolitan Opera

Kavalier & Clay Opera A Comic Book Masterpiece Revisited

I’ve been revisiting Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” which I finally got around to reading for the first time only within the past decade. (The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.) I wanted it to be fresh in my mind when I see Mason Bates’ new opera at the Met next week. I’m a little over halfway through (I was hoping to knock it out before the first of October so that I can get on with my Halloween reading), and I’m loving it all over again.

First of all, I sense in the author a kindred spirit, as he obviously adores all the pop cultural detritus that I myself have been lapping up since childhood. He also has an enviable grasp of the history and the social history of New York, a mindboggling eye for detail, and a real flair for crafting playful similes that makes Ray Bradbury seem positively drab by comparison.

Of course, there’s a lot of comic book lore, both real and fabricated, as the dynamic duo of Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clayman, cousins, one European and one native, are brought together in a Brooklyn tenement to pool their talents in the creation of an unapologetically antifascist superhero, The Escapist. (Recall when Jack Kirby had the temerity to draw Captain America punching out Hitler a year before Pearl Harbor.) The team is also, I assume, inspired in part by Siegel and Shuster of “Superman” fame, both in terms of a crafting one of the first comic book superheroes and also getting screwed by their publishers.

But the story is lent a whole other, higher-stakes dimension through Joe’s plight, his separation from his family in his own escape from Nazi-occupied Prague, and later his efforts to have his younger brother to join him in safety in the United States. Joe’s passage is lent a touch of magical realism in the inclusion of a genuine Golem (folkloric protector of the Jews). Quite the ponderous symbol! Golems and escapists and explorations of the true nature of heroism pervade the narrative. The backdrop of the war, the Holocaust, and the tragedy that propelled so many immigrants to the United States haunts the American dream at a time when the U.S. is about to emerge – thanks in no small part to the ingenuity and hard work of European refugees – as the mightiest and most vibrant force in the history of the world.

Chabon shuffles a magic card deck, interleaving characteristics of the American Jewish experience and those of their displaced brethren with the worlds of classic comics, escape artists, magicians, strong men, surrealists, pulp writers, radio actors, Greenwich Village bohemians, the Empire State Building, the 1939 World’s Fair, “Citizen Kane,” and too many other subjects to catalogue. There’s even mention of a Karol Szymanowski Society (and Szymanowski’s “Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin”)!

It’s the rare modern novel that I wish I had written. We’ll see what Mason Bates does with it. I’m happy to see that some of The Escapist’s exploits will be brought to life through choreography and projections. If nothing else, it will be a spectacle. But it will be the music, especially idiomatic, ingratiating writing for voice, that will determine whether or not the opera will have legs. I can’t for the life of me imagine how one can cram so much incident into an opera. I assume librettist Gene Scheer worked with the composer to pare down the novel to what they believe is its essence. I am amused to find Salvador Dali, at least, made the final cut.

“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay” runs at the Metropolitan Opera through October 11.

https://www.metopera.org/season/2025-26-season/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier–clay/

Photos taken during my recent trip to Lincoln Center to see Gustavo Dudamel conduct the New York Philharmonic, with the exception of the one of The Escapist cleaning Hitler’s clock, borrowed from the Met’s Facebook page

September 29, 2025
Montemezzi’s Lost Opera A Rediscovery

If opera will not come to the middle of the mountain, the middle of the mountain will come to opera!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Italo Montemezzi (Montemezzi, if I am not mistaken, literally translating as “half-mountain”).

A representative of that vast artistic lineage of one-hit wonders, Montemezzi is pretty much known for his opera “L’amore dei tre re” (“The Love of Three Kings”), which one might assume from the title to be a heartwarming Christmas piece about the three Magi, along the lines of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl of the Night Visitors.” If so, one would be mistaken.

“L’amore dei tre re” is an overheated historical tragedy, centering around a love triangle – perhaps even a ménage à quatre – in which everyone winds up dead or inconsolable. Another great night at the theater! Only in opera does one set foolish, deadly traps to ensnare the guilty, only to have the scheme backfire horribly.

“L’amore dei tre re” opened at La Scala in 1913 to mixed reviews. But what do the Italians know about opera? When it made its way abroad, it became an international success. In the U.S., it was hailed as “the best operatic work coming from Italy since Verdi’s ‘Falstaff.’” In 1918, it was sung at New York’s Metropolitan Opera by Enrico Caruso, Claudia Muzio, and Pasquale Amato.

Alas, the mania for “The Love of Three Kings” proved to be but a flare. The opera had its moment, but after World War II, frequency of performances declined to the point where now, if it’s ever done at all, it’s an event.

Unabashedly decadent, coyly erotic, dramatic, and dreamlike, “Three Kings” may be Italian, but it was written by a composer who had assimilated broader musical influences. The score cranks up the heat, in kind of a mélange of Wagner, Strauss, and Debussy.

It won’t turn up very often at your friendly neighborhood opera house. Happily, there’s a fine recording of the work in modern sound (i.e. stereo), featuring Anna Moffo, Placido Domingo, and Cesare Siepi.

That said, here’s an interesting document from the Met in 1941, with the composer conducting on a broadcast introduced by Milton Cross!

In 1948, the New York Times described “L’amore dei tre re” as “a tone poem for voices and orchestra,” lauding it as “the most poetic and aristocratic of Italian operas” and declaring of its composer, “He never descends beyond the loftiest level.”

Not bad! Where is it now?

We’ll keep a candle in the window for you on your sesquicentenary, Italo Montemezzi.

August 4, 2025
Marian Anderson at the Met 70 Years Ago

It was on this date 70 years ago that Marian Anderson made her Metropolitan Opera debut, as the sorceress Ulrica, in Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera” (“A Masked Ball”), making her the first African American singer to appear in a solo role on the Met stage.

Anderson, whose talent was described by Arturo Toscanini as “a voice one hears once in a hundred years,” was already in her late 50s, at the far end of a singing career that had already made her a household name and a reluctant symbol for social justice. Her legendary recital from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial took place on Easter, 1939 – nearly 16 years earlier – after she was shut out of performing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution because of her skin color. Ironically, this only served to increase her exposure. The audience gathered on the National Mall was estimated at 75,000, with millions listening to the live radio broadcast in their kitchens and living rooms across the nation.

Anderson’s belated appearance at the Met may have signaled a new era, but progress was slow, and the administration was careful about which singers it sent to tour in certain areas of the country.

It would be churlish of me to observe that, in order for a Black woman to make it on stage at the Met, she had to be dressed like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Because it is opera, after all, and everyone dresses like that.

The first male African American soloist appeared on the Met stage only a few weeks later. Baritone Robert McFarrin sang Amonasro in Verdi’s “Aida.” McFerrin was the father of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” singer Bobby McFerrin, to give you an idea of how recent this history is.

Now it’s not unusual to see Black singers in whatever role. Opera is fantasy, after all. Everything is heightened. It shouldn’t matter if different cultures and social strata are inexplicable melting pots. In the past, no one thought twice if a white Canadian sang Otello or an Italian woman sang Cio-Cio-San or if the principals were a mix of French, German, Irish, and American.

The core of opera is great singing. And no matter how outlandish the plots or settings or costumes or make-up, the most enduring examples of the form deal in emotional truth. It’s one of the few arenas in which all men and women are received with an enthusiasm commensurate with their talent.

January 7, 2025
Sarah Caldwell Opera Pioneer at 100

While soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa rightly takes center stage today, as the musical world showers her with rose petals for her 80th birthday, spare a piece of cake for Sarah Caldwell.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Caldwell’s birth. With her own hands, she molded the Opera Company of Boston, for 32 years an organization distinguished by its bold programming, insightful productions, and esteemed singers (including Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Shirley Verrett, Marilyn Horne, Jon Vickers, and James McCracken).

Caldwell tackled works that struck fear in the hearts of major companies, operas such as Prokofiev’s “War and Peace,” Schoenberg’s “Moses und Aaron,” Roger Sessions’ “Montezuma,” Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Taverner,” and Rodion Shchedrin’s “Dead Souls.” She spearheaded the first complete American staging of Berlioz’s “Les Troyens.” She was also the first in the U.S. to employ Mussorgsky’s original orchestrations for “Boris Godunov.”

She had her detractors, to be sure. For many of her productions in Boston, she served not only as conductor, but as stage director. Some felt this diluted her powers, but there is no questioning her magnificent ambition. On a shoestring budget, she drove her team as hard as she pushed herself, which was very hard indeed. Often it led to its share of backstage drama and cost overruns.

Caldwell became the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera (in “La traviata” in 1976, with Sills). The same year, a production of “The Barber of Seville” (again with Sills) was televised over PBS. In 1978, she returned to the Met to conduct “L’elisir d’amore,” with José Carreras and Judith Blegen.

A non-operatic highlight, surely, was when she joined the New York Philharmonic for a program of women composers – in 1974! – as only the second woman ever to conduct the orchestra (Nadia Boulanger was the first, in 1939 and 1962), presenting works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Lili Boulanger, and Thea Musgrave. Time Magazine dubbed her “Music’s Wonder Woman.”

She also conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Caldwell founded the organization that became the Opera Company of Boston (originally known as the Opera Group) in 1958, with $5000.

She didn’t have the best head for money and she could be politically naïve. In Boston, a cultural exchange with the Soviet Union tanked at the box office. Later, she entered into an agreement with the Marcos regime to bring opera to the Philippines. To her credit, she pulled out of the deal, but it brought her some bad publicity.

In 1993, at 68, she became principal guest conductor of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Orchestra of Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Clearly, Caldwell was a force of nature.

She died in 2006 at the age of 82.

Caldwell conducts “The Barber of Seville” at the Met (with Sills, Alan Titus, Donald Gramm, Henry Price, and Samuel Ramey)

Hindemith, again with Sills, in Boston – oh my goodness, unless I’m very much mistaken, Aaron Copland provides the spoken addendum, at around 12:20!

“Otello” with Vickers and Verrett

“Norma” excerpts with Sills and John Alexander

A Musical Adventure in Siberia

Shostakovich Cello Concerto

Interviewed by Bruce Duffie

https://www.bruceduffie.com/caldwell.html

March 6, 2024
Free Doctor Atomic Opera Stream Before It’s Gone

Okay, so I’m a little late to the table. Following on the heels of yesterday’s post about classical music relating to the current Barbenheimer phenomenon (including works inspired by Oppenheimer and, believe it or not, Barbie), I learned that the Metropolitan Opera is streaming John Adams’ Oppenheimer opera, “Doctor Atomic” (2005), free through Thursday. Watch it here.

http://www.metopera.org/season/on-demand/opera/?upc=811357012130&fbclid=IwAR1O_nucSW5YjgGbOf-jWEchhfUujXBm6uXK14GETtIp7xn3WTKRqQz_1_E

And if you missed yesterday’s post, an atomic dud apparently, here’s the link.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1138484557070606&set=a.883855802533484

More about Adams’ “Doctor Atomic”

https://www.metopera.org/discover/education/educator-guides/doctor-atomic/

July 25, 2023

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS