Past Production Reviews
14The ambitious project tackles a disturbing violent pattern ripped from the headlines, namely, the disproportionate police shooting of black men. It does not need a spoiler alert to tell you that we already know that such a tragedy will be covered in the piece. And since there is only one African-American family and one son in the show, there is little suspense in who the victim(s) will be.
Big-voiced standouts in smaller roles included...Ms. Futterer as the slave trader Vanderdendur - her high E-flat in "Boy Voyage" brought back memories of her Armida the previous night.
The sterling cast includes...soprano Keely Futterer as the piratical slaver Vanderdendur
Keely Futterer was a thrilling whirlwind as Armida, ornamenting wildly and unafraid to take high notes into shriek territory.
In the role of the opera’s villainess par excellence, the sorceress Armida, Young Artists Program soprano Keely Futterer offers a richly realized character concoction. Seductive, red-maned, a lady ogress fully worthy of weird-sisterhood with the likes of Ursula the Sea Witch of The Little Mermaid, or Sigourney Weaver’s channeling of the demon hellion Zuul in Ghostbusters, so indelible is the impression Futterer makes that, in fact, one is tempted to wonder why the opera isn’t titled Armida.
In her final season as artistic director, she presents a comedic Rossini pastiche, ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘Carmen’ and a thematically linked double bill of ‘Taking Up Serpents’ and world premiere ‘Holy Ground’.
Petronio, the earnest and blustery father, was played with near-brutal force by bass-baritone Steffano de Peppo.
“Carmen” at the Ordway, performed with a double cast, is a bit of a homecoming for Graves, who performed the title role with Minnesota Opera back in 1991. Working with a keen design team, Graves brings a somber, desolate feeling to the piece, full of symbolism. The lighting design by Robert Wierzel and Amith Chandrashaker uses extreme breaks between light and dark to show contrasting life choices: freedom on the one hand, and constraint on the other. When Don José (played on opening night by the impressive Won Whi Choi) deserts the army and runs away with Carmen and the Romani travelers, the set opens up to reveal a bright, white light, one that offers new possibilities. But the new freedom, for Don José, is itself suffocating.
