Past Production Reviews
6Ceiling fans spin as Nadine Benjamin’s Clara sings Summertime to her baby – it’s the first singing we hear, and Benjamin delivers it gorgeously. You can almost hear the heat – and indeed, it is George Gershwin’s score, buoyantly played here under the specialist guidance of conductor John Wilson, that more than anything establishes the atmosphere of summer in the American south. Gershwin researched it enthusiastically: the prospect of working with Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and turning their play into an opera brought him to their hometown of Charleston, visiting churches and absorbing the music of the Gullah Geechee community first-hand. It’s no coincidence that there’s a slight stylistic shift whenever we hear from Sportin’ Life, the slippery, perma-smiling drug pusher who always has an eye on New York – his big numbers, including It Ain’t Necessarily So, have his voice shadowed by a quietly sleazy muted trumpet.
Nadine Benjamin, una soprano de carrera tardía y por ello mismo reconocida hoy en el Reino Unido como una artista capaz de llegar sin prejuicios de edad, cantó un excelente Summertime al comienzo y durante toda la velada protagonizó una Clara de fulminante autenticidad y carácter hasta el momento de su sacrificio final, cuando abandona a su hijo para buscar a su marido y ahogarse con él en medio de una tormenta. También merece una mención especial un My man is gone que Latonia Moore (Serena), cantó no como una queja individual sino como lo que debe ser, un lamento de trascendencia colectiva, en la línea del Requiem de Brahms.
Nadine Sierra as Gilda was outstanding. She is a light soprano, perhaps too much so for the second part of the opera, but was convincing at all times. Her ‘Caro nome’ was the best moment of the night: she gave an authentic demonstration of breath control in a final, endless note. I would also highlight her performance in the duets with Rigoletto and with the supposed Gualtier Maldé.
I feel especially compelled to praise Tracy Cantin as the maid Berta: so great was her finesse and projection that when I first looked closely at the program after the performance, I was stunned to read that she is still only in the Lyric’s training program (the Ryan Opera Center) – certainly a name to watch from now on!
While the highly anticipated revival of The Music Man idles awaiting the recovery from COVID of its stars Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster and other Broadway shows have closed either temporarily or permanently, the Metropolitan Opera defied Omicron to present its annual New Year’s Eve gala Friday night. If the crowd was sparser and less nattily dressed than in previous years, enthusiastically grateful applause greeted the superb cast and conductor after the premiere of the company’s new version of Verdi’s beloved classic Rigoletto. Before a celebratory shower of glittering confetti fell from the ceiling, the response was decidedly more tepid for the production team as yet once again director Bartlett Sher demonstrated little affinity for opera.
