Opera Saratoga / Recenzii

Smerud was excellent as the sad-faced, hapless Sancho. He was the most at ease on stage, and his bass-baritone was ideally suited to capture Sancho’s many moods and to give voice to the vivid description of past exploits that Telemann depicts so brilliantly in the music, especially the ups and downs of a ride on a magic carpet. Truth be told, Smerud would have made just as fine a Don Quixote with minor tweaks of character and costume.

”Some 80 years ago, The Cradle Will Rock, a blazing pro-union anti-capitalist opera written and composed by Marc Blitzstein was banned by the New York Police Department. Director Orson Welles and the entire ensemble did find a theater that night. But it says so much about this Brechtian/Weill-ish masterpiece, that today, America still stands on the cusp of censorship... It also says a lot that Opera Saratoga–an ensemble in a town which was once known as the home of Gilded Age plutocrats–should produce this opera. And produce it with all the veracity, the energy and the fun which good protests deserve... Lawrence Edelson, a kind of Wellesian talent himself, is not only Artistic Director of Opera Saratoga, but both directed and choreographed his massive cast with volition and the most muscular vigor. The ensemble of cellmates prance and dance inside their cells, they each come out to offer their hypocritical sermons. The stage is not in continuous movement, but Moll and the Druggist, a kind of sideline Greek Chorus, the jailed ensemble propelling their art and the soloists selling themselves on stage, give that energy which one supposes Welles gave to the original cast. More essential, Mr. Edelson never stoops to Camp or even anachronisms. Yes, his characters verge on the burlesque, but this was exactly where Blitzstein in his Agri-Prop opera meant it to be.”

“There is only one problem with Opera Saratoga’s terrific production of Man of La Mancha: it ran for just three performances. That’s more than enough to be grateful for in these perilous times for performing arts organizations, but the show deserves to be seen far and wide… Lawrence Edelson, Opera Saratoga’s artistic and general director, has repeatedly demonstrated his knack for staging opera in the intimate confines of the Spa Little Theater. With Man of La Mancha, he brings the same integrity, cogency and dramatic urgency to a massive stage (the Saratoga Performing Arts Theater seats 5200 people in the amphitheater alone). His concept for Man of La Mancha is traditional, but technology imbues it with freshness and wonder. Barry Steele brought Edelson’s vision to life through video and projections that create the walls of a huge prison; the vast vistas of the arid plains of La Mancha, complete with windmills; and the inn where Don Quixote meets Aldonza. The velvety blue sky dotted with thousands of twinkling stars is magical. Most impressive of all was the entry of the Knight of the Mirrors with his men, most of whom were digital creations. The cast that Edelson assembled reminds one of the pure joy of hearing popular musicals sung with classically trained voices. He could have done no better."