MAGNIFICENT OPERA. If you can afford it, go see Tales Of Hoffman at Seattle Opera, 3 days only remaining of the gold cast -- May 10, 14, or 17. You will likely not see or hear opera again like this in your lifetime. This is the final production of Speight Jenkins, after 31 years at the helm, in this, Seattle Operas 50th year. For a glimpse of the production, see the trailer here: https://youtube/watch?v=jc6H0Z4eWAk (Also, Alecia says there are student rush and standing-rool tickets, for discounted prices; ask about them by calling the box office.) And -- the whole thing was made with soft hands, by gifted artists, designers, and technicians, with crisp stage direction, and extra funding everywhere. This is an outpouring of love for Speight, and in turn an outpouring of love for how much he loves opera, and song, and art, told in an opera about love and song and art -- and it feels like the finest of Paris, or Prague, or Moscow: handmade and fine. It is a mix of commedia, Eastern-European/Polish theatre aesthetics, Asian-brilliant silks and colors and costuming, a French sensibility and language, and pouring lyric melodies. Hoffmans harmonies are built of layered melodies; he is a stunningly lyric, melodic composer. They had 36 stringed instruments -- 19 violins alone!! -- a 40-voice chorus, a magnificent choreographer, and it all felt intimate and real. It was like watching chamber opera, but with grand opera control and honey-perfection and shimmer-release of voices. A mens trio. A womens trio. Voices at ease, playing through their registers, story-telling and wooing, taunting, and longing. And the singers were young, and physical, and funny, and fast, and in good shape. This was a remount of their striking 2005 production by Chris Alexander, the same stage director both times. So how did they do it? They committed. Normally, an opera has a single primary sponsor for a production. This opera had sponsor after sponsor after sponsor, to make this vision appear. There was a sponsor just to be able to hire this particular stunning mezzo-soprano. Another sponsor to hire this specific open lifting easy warm sailing tenor. Another to hire this unbelievably versatile coluratora soprano who sang 3 different roles in 3 different ranges, and died by walking slowly away, singing pianissimo in a trill of thirds -- forever -- lightly -- as if it were easy. Another sponsor just to get the puppeteer and the custom puppets. Another just for the magnificent brilliant costumes -- like, when in Venice, the main woman comes out in vivid maroon-red satin -- and a chorus of 40 appear, also in the same exact maroon-red satin, plus some whose dresses shade to deep rose, and others whose shade to pale pink. It was gestural. The costume designer gestured, and with a breath, it all appeared -- skirts, and hoop skirts, and external hoop skirts with extra pink fur feathers -- like breathing. Another sponsor just for the unbelievably detailed hand-painted four-story-high backdrops -- and several of them -- that looked like they had been created for a patron from Italy. Another sponsor just for that immaculate, and immaculately choreographed and costumed, chorus. Another for the extra musicians to make those soft hushy pianissimos on 40 strings, possible. What you get, with masters, is the simple, done beautifully. And the complex, done simply. You get artists at play, reinforcing each other, until the play splashes like fountains. So many vectors of beauty and engagement. Such incredible voices, in such a spilling of song about love. Not maudlin, but alive and wicked and funny and sharp and human and lively and fun. The soprano who sang a long lyric phrase... and then got quiet and sang a liesurely second phrase.. and then swelled again... and then faded... all on one unhurried breath. Impossible. It was as if the music had summoned her and the breath, and sang itself through her. Wonderful singers -- .William Burden, tenor. Norah Amsellem (of whom I just spoke). Mezzo, Kate Lindsey, a stunning singer, who would have stolen the show, had not she been surrounded by so many people of so much talent, and who very nearly stole it anyway. ------- Speight Jenkins is a phenomenon. an ENTJ (not far from an INTJ), who began as a Southern lawyer with a passion for opera. When Seattle Opera was searching for a new leader, they hired Speight to advise them on what to look for. Well, you need someone who knows how to do this, this, and this -- and knows NOT to do that and that -- and has deep expertise in this, and understanding of that other thing -- Would YOU like the job? they asked. Im a lawyer. Ive never run an opera company. Well, were pretty sure you can do it. And thats how it all began. In opera, you hire the singers years in advance. To find the singers, you need to hear productions all over the world, to see who is available. It is a deep long process. Speight has run the Seattle Opera as if it were simultaneously a scrappy start-up, a glorious grand opera of great vision, and a neighborly production company. He has grown it into a jewel of an international opera, respected and sought after by singers from around the world, who like our friendly vibe, respect, and excellent quality of work. Under his direction, they have built McCaw Hall, a world-class venue with pin-drop acoustics. Speights letters to his patrons are unlike those of any other theatre. Most theatres and performing companies write as if they are asking for charity -- Please donate, please help, please support. Speights letters sound like a business man, speaking to business partners, about a business which happens to be wildly passionate, wildly expensive, grand opera on an international scale. Here is what is required to have grand opera in Seattle, he begins. This is what is entailed. Here is what we need to do to make it happen -- long list of incredibly hard year-round work -- And here is what the community needs to do to make it happen -- matter-of-fact, at-a-glance page-long budget of production and operating expenses. Heres how we are doing on our part -- very well; well planned, well run, increasingly excellent productions, with some real stand-outs -- And heres how the community is doing -- short financial statement. Here is what is needed for the next phase, to keep this going. Im like, Here. Take my money. Just take it. It is clear that investing in the opera is an investment -- just like investing in our schools or roads. If you want grand opera in Seattle, here is what it will cost, and here is what you will get. It was so reassuringly businesslike. Most of the time, though, you will hear Speight speaking, not of the business, but of the operas, the artists, the productions. He gives after-talks, after the productions, speaks on the radio, and is generally an accessible eloquent speaker for the opera. But boy, does he feel like a software guy -- in his smarts, savvy, cheerfulness, scrappiness, outrageous vision and ambition, faced by an implacable and unending wall of brutal expenses, costs, and challenges. He is a man who loves what he does, and always has. You couldnt pay me enough to do that work, said an onlooker to Mother Theresa once, as she was washing and tending the grimy sick and poor. You couldnt pay me enough either, she agreed. There is a certain quality, and kind, and massive ongoing amount of work that is made possible only by love and passion. And, when you are lucky, by equal parts of savviness, carefulness, steady stewardship, and grace. The rehearsal hall of the Seattle Opera is like a modern open-air dungeon -- a medieval underground stone building which is 5 stories high, 5 stories wide, 5 stories deep, and has windows placed high in the walls. It is large enough to place an entire stage in, and still have room to move around the edges, and have sets and costumes and designs by the walls. Their rehearsal room has a full-length 9-foot Steinway grand piano, and sometimes two of them. I was working at a rehearsal there once when all the power went out in Seattle. In the silence, the wooden stage built into the room creaked like a ship. The singers came and sat at the edge of the stage, and drank water and told stories. My father was a doctor, said Gabor, from Eastern Europe. And every few months, they would come and take him away for several days, to try and convince him to become a Communist. Mythic stories, told in the dark, to creaking ship-like timbers. My model for directing is the Grateful Dead, said Bartlett Sher, who was directing this production. You know -- in the first set they would warm up, then in the second set they just head Out. There. Whats the second set like? I asked. Well, he said, gesturing at the wooden stage, dimly lit only by a few high windows, with quiet voices laughing and telling stories, in a world centuries away from Seattle, lit only by daylight and candles -- This is pretty second-set right now. I have been assistant-to-the-director on two Seattle Opera productions: their production of Mourning Becomes Electra, directed by Bart Sher and sung by the incredible Lauren Flanigan; and Don Giovanni, in their Young Artists Program, directed by Nicolette Molnar and sung by Morgan Smith. Our DigiPen BFA professor, Alecia Rossano, is a long-time volunteer at the opera, greeting artists at the airport and driving them around town and to their lodgings, whilst comfortably speaking with them in a variety of languages. I asked Speight once, during a coffee break after an early stumble-through of Don Giovanni, What are your top three pieces of advice for someone wanting to run an opera company? He said: 1. Demand and get complete artistic control. 2. Find someone who understands exactly what is happening with the money, and who can explain it to you simply. 3. Look up and look down. Look up to see the far vision for the company, and where you want to grow it. Look down to see the specific challenges facing you in this production, and this time. Develop the habit of looking up, then looking down; looking up, then looking down. It is spectacular advice for running an opera company. It works just as well for running a theatre or a game studio. So anyway -- if you are free, and can afford it, definitely dont miss these singers, in this production of this show, this week, in this hall, in this town, as the communal love-song at the farewell of this particular general directors tenure. It shimmers. Tickets and more info available at seattleopera.org.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 17:19:06 +0000
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