There is good news at Lincoln Center these days.
A couple of weeks back, the always reliable Metropolitan Opera company announced an exciting, if not terribly ground-breaking, 2010-11 season full of repertory staples and a couple of company premieres.
Now, the much less dependable New York City Opera has offered their own announcement: five opera productions and a series of concerts will comprise a modest, yet noteworthy gesture toward a solid artistic future.
Deep in financial trouble, the formerly adventuresome New York City Opera (NYCO) hasn't given opera-loving New Yorkers much to cheer about for the better part of the last decade. Aside from occasional productions of off-the-beaten-track repertoire (some genuinely successful), this smaller and much less vaunted 'second' opera company at Lincoln Center simply hasn't been able to get the operatic ball rolling in the right direction. Following on years of splashy press for the company (including coverage of a wrong-headed, mercifully brief courtship with Gérard Mortier), recently appointed General Director George Steel seems set to deliver a small-scaled, solid opera season.
Surprisingly, there is only one title from the standard repertoire: Donizetti's charming L'elisir d'amore. Hopefully, New Yorkers will be excited to experience Italian opera buffa at its finest, with a cast that includes soprano Stefania Dovhan, who debuted as Donna Anna in last season's Don Giovanni, tenor David Lomeli as Nemorino, and baritone Marco Nisticò as Dulcamara. Conductor Brad Cohen will make his debut, and A. Scott Parry will direct the Jonathan Miller production, which premiered in 2003 at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. With a viable production of this Donizetti gem in storage at the Met next door, however, perhaps NYCO will be spending its time and capital more wisely on the less mainstream productions that make up the remainder of its season.
Richard Strauss' chatty Intermezzo will make a welcome return in a production by director Leon Major. Soprano Mary Dunleavy is Christine, baritone Nicholas Pallesen is Robert Storch, and tenor Andrew Bidlack makes his company debut as Baron Lummer. NYCO music director George Manahan will conduct this production that was originally premiered in 1999. Intermezzo will seem positively 'old-fashioned' when compared with the three remaining Twentieth-century productions.
Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place, which tells the long story of an estranged family in America, will finally have its New York premiere. Director Christopher Alden will return to direct the new production. A host of singers will make their NYCO debuts, including soprano Sara Jakubiak as Dede, mezzo-soprano Patricia Risley as Dinah, tenor Dominic Armstrong as François, baritone Joshua Hopkins as Junior, and baritone Christopher Feigum as Young Sam.
Grammy-winning composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz will unveil his very first opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon. House diva Lauren Flanigan will portray Myra Foster, and baritone Kim Josephson makes his company debut as Bill Foster. Based on the novel by Mark McShane, the opera tells the story of an eccentric 'medium' (Flanigan) who seeks notoriety through a sinister plot involving the kidnapping of a neighbor's child. On paper, the role seems tailor-made for Flanigan's unconventional vocalism and vivid acting skills.
Last, but not least, is perhaps the most intriguing offering, a trio of 'monodramas': Schoenberg's Erwartung, Morton Feldman's Neither, and the world premiere of La Machine de l'être by John Zorn. Singers include soprano Cynthia Sieden and Kara Shay Thomson in her company debut. George Manahan will conduct. This production will mark the company premieres of all three works. Schoenberg's modernist piece from 1909 is a dark psychological study of fear and desire. Feldman's Neither, based on a text by Samuel Beckett, promises to tax Sieden's highest register to the limit. Zorn's premiere offers music first heard in New York in 2007 in a wordless drama receiving its very first staged production.
Complementing the five staged productions will be a series of concerts, in part designed to highlight the music of the opera composers. In the autumn, NYCO will present beloved soprano Christine Brewer in a gala concert with the NYCO Orchestra and Music Director George Manahan. Brewer will sing selections from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Puccini's Turandot, and lieder by Richard Strauss. Next up will be Lucky to Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein, and will include music from the Kaddish Symphony, Mass, Songfest, Wonderful Town, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, On the Town, and West Side Story.
In the spring, John Zorn will host such avant-garde innovators as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot, Dave Douglas and Uri Caine in a series of genre-bending sonic compositions and improvisations. NYCO will also offer a family-oriented concert with Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are, based on the beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak.
Music Theater will be represented by well-known stars Kristin Chenoweth and Raúl Esparza. They will offer songs from Broadway and film by Stephen Schwartz in a program entitled Defying Gravity. And finally, NYCO will offer its yearly 'Spring Gala' concert to complete their season. There may not quite be 'something for everyone', but NYCO is obviously attempting to continue its long tradition of operatic exploration and diversity. Hopefully, this courageous program will draw enough adventuresome listeners to guarantee a steady re-building of this once venerable company.
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