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Opera Redux: The Old Face of New American Opera
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11801 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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1 / 1994 |
2,031 Words |
| Author
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Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott, based in New York, is a writer on
performance arts. |
October was a remarkable month for opera in New York. In the space of a few weeks, five new--or almost new--American operas were presented at the New York City Opera and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The diversity of styles and ambitions among the five works was almost enough to make one believe that the American opera tradition is healthy, thriving, and vital. And yet, one by one, each of these new operas added up to nothing coherent, singly or as a group.
As part of its fiftieth anniversary season, the New York City Opera decided to premiere three new scores in the space of a week. It was an ambitious undertaking, and to the company's credit it managed the logistical, theatrical, and musical challenges gracefully. The only problem is that it chose three composers, and three operas, that had nothing particularly new about them.
Indeed, two of the works, Lukas Foss' Griffelkin and Hugo Weisgall's Esther, cannot really be called City Opera projects. Griffelkin began life as a television opera, first seen on NBC in 1955. The work given its "world premiere" on October 7 was only a revised, and unnecessarily expanded, version of a piece almost four decades old. And while the October 8 performance of Esther was indeed a world premiere, the opera itself was commissioned a decade ago by the San Francisco Opera. The New York City Opera merely completed the orchestral parts and staged a work that was, according to insiders, dropped by San Francisco because its general director, Lofti Mansouri, did not feel artistically or aesthetically committed to the atonal score.
Fast Fadeout
Only Ezra Laderman's Marilyn originated at the City Opera. With its libretto based on the life and death of Marilyn Monroe, it was not surprising that Marilyn attracted the most attention, both in the press and among the public. A great deal of advance interest in the work apparently led the company to give it an extra, third performance. Expectations were dashed, however, on the first night. Laderman's score was a well-constructed, expertly orchestrated, and thoroughly conceived triumph of soporific note-spinning. Everything was there except musical content. The vocal lines were mostly singable and the libretto was an adequate vehicle for the drama. But the music danced around the comfortable line separating tonality from atonality, never quite crossing the line in its continual, rhythmically four-square progress. Some music is bad, some is fraudulent. Laderman's was neither, but it was extraordinarily boring.
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