Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Women taking the baton: Marin Alsop conducts John Adams’ EL NIÑO and Jane Glover leads the NY PHILHARMONIC

• By drediman
• May 13, 2024
• No Comments

This past week over at Lincoln Center, I was able to catch a pair of accomplished women conductors take the baton at two flagship performing arts institutions. See below for my thoughts.

EL NIÑO
The Metropolitan Opera
In repertory through May 17

First up was the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams’ El Niño (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is being conducted by the great Marin Alsop in her long-awaited company debut. Featuring a libretto by Peter Sellars, the 2000 work is modeled in the lonstanding tradition of a Bach/Handel oratorio and distinguishes itself by culling material from global secular texts to tell the story of the Nativity (all the while drawing parallels to the current refugee situation). From the beginning, Alsop beautifully shapes Adams’ rich, rhythmic score, drawing out the drama and operatic grandeur from its intrinsic minimalism. As mirror images of Mary (past and present), soprano Julia Bullock — whose association with Adams’ oratorio also runs deep — and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges are giving vocally resplendent performances that also register with affecting dramatic intent. Also in his Met debut is bass-baritone Davóne Tines, who captivates with his warm yet burnished sound, as well as demonstrates his versatility as an actor in the vastly different roles of Joseph and Herod. Completing the crop of Met debuts is visionary theater director Lileana Blain-Cruz (who helmed Lincoln Center Theater’s memorable 2022 revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth), who has given El Niño a surreal, eye-popping staging, providing fertile ground for our collective imaginations to cultivate new traditions and myths.

THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
David Geffen Hall
Closed

Then just across the way at David Geffen Hall, I also had the opportunity to catch Dame Jane Glover conduct the New York Philharmonic in what could literally be described as a “Mostly Mozart” program (RECOMMENDED). Glover has long been considered an expert in the music of the Baroque and Classical eras, and the patience and eloquence she exhibited on the podium was indicative of her long and distinguished career and experience with some of the world’s leading ensembles. The bill commenced with an elegantly understated reading of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony (i.e., Symphony No. 35), which set the high standard of what was to come. Then came Beethoven’s Ah! perfido, an operatic scene sung here by soprano Karen Slack — in her Philharmonic debut — whose impassioned vocal performance nicely counterbalanced Glover’s clear-eyed conducting (due to unfortunate circumstances within the orchestra, the performance valiantly replaced Mozart’s Oboe Concerto). Then after the intermission came more Mozart in the form of a pair of symphonies that essentially bookmark the composer’s musical progression. First there was Symphony No. 13, a buoyant if slight creation that indicates an immense talent, which was followed by Symphony No. 39, which showcases an artist in full bloom. If Glover’s interpretations of these lacked some of the excitement and firepower of some of her fellow conductors, so be it. The care and intelligence she poured into these compositions illuminated them from within — at times, such an approach is more compelling, and satisfying.