Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – PROTOTYPE 2020 finds the new opera festival as adventurous and vital as ever

• By drediman
• January 27, 2020
• No Comments

One of the highlights of the frigid winter months in New York is the opportunity to bask in Prototype, the vital annual festival celebrating new opera and music theater. This year’s edition ran from January 9th to the 19th, featuring six full productions at various venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn. As in previous years, the most recent collection of productions was as adventurous as ever, unafraid of exploring the darker and more unsavory aspects of human nature. Here are my thoughts.

Nathan Gunn and Jennifer Zetlan in Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart’s “Ellen West” at Prototype. Photo by Maria Baranova.

ELLEN WEST
Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center (1 hour, 15 minutes)

One of the most complete experiences of the festival – and certainly one of its highlights – was Ricky Ian Gordon’s new opera Ellen West (Frank Bidart provided the libretto, lifted straight from his poetry). The piece is a soulful and surreal depiction of one Ellen West, a woman struggling for her life with what would eventually come to be known as severe eating disorder. In the title role, soprano Jennifer Zetlan was exquisite, both in character, as well as in voice. It was a brave performance that haunts me to this day. As the various men in her life (her psychiatrist, her husband, in addition to Mr. Bidar — the poet — himself), renowned and handsome baritone Nathan Gunn proved sensitively attuned to the work. Mr. Gordon’s detailed and accomplished score was presented thoughtfully by conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, who led a very fine chamber orchestra. Director Emma Griffin’s production was also excellent; she provided one of the more mature and satisfying stagings of this year’s crop.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Juecheng Chen and Nina Yoshida Nelsen in Garrett Fisher and Ellen McLaughlin’s “Blood Moon” at Prototype. Photo by Maria Baranova.

BLOOD MOON
Baruch Performing Arts Center (1 hour, 30 minutes)

Garrett Fisher (music) and Ellen McLaughlin’s (libretto) somber, parable-like Blood Moon was one of the more integrated hybrid presentations of this year’s edition of Prototype.  Indeed, the production – directed and developed by Rachel Dickstein – was clearly influenced by Japanese Noh, dance, puppet theater, as well as eastern and western musical traditions. The result was a stylish but somewhat overwrought experience that sought eagerly to stimulate the senses. Mr. Garrett’s east-meets-west music was played to immersive effect by music director Steven Osgood and his small but mighty orchestra. The performers were more than game to engage in the work’s eclectic and eccentric choices. Particularly striking was the seductive work of countertenor Juecheng Chen as the Moon.

RECOMMENDED

Danielle Birrittella and Ariana Daub in Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore’s “Magdelene” at Prototype. Photo by Maria Baranova.

MAGDALENE
HERE Mainstage (1 hour, 10 minutes)

Getting the award for most intense experience of this year is Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore’s Magdalene. The work, which features poetry by Marie Howe, is a sort of meditation on the internal life and contradictions of Mary Magdelene. What the creators (the music was penned by quite the collection of composers) and director Ms. Moore have done so brilliantly is to theatricalize the multitudes within this most mysterious of women, one of the most intriguing in world history. Appropriately, the staging featured two fearless performers – soprano Danielle Birrittella and dancer Ariana Daub – as the titular Mary. Both brought a sultry and unsettlingly direct approach to the role, disarmingly melding the sacred and profane. The evening was conducted by Mila Henry, who shaped a seductive rendition of the pungent patchwork score. Kudos also to Keith Skretch and Emilie Sabath for their evocative video design.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Rinde Eckert in Jeremy Schonfeld’s “Iron & Coal” at Prototype. Photo by Jill Steinberg.

IRON & COAL
Gerald W. Lynch Theater (1 hour, 30 minutes)

Likely the most crowd-pleasing show of this year’s festival was the staged concert of Jeremy Schonfeld’s Iron & Coal. The piece – composed, created, and performed by Mr. Schonfeld – is a moving tribute to the extraordinary life led by the creator’s father, who survived the Holocaust and subsequently successfully established himself in America. Although Mr. Schonfeld’s score leaned heavily towards pop power ballads, his emotional investment in the piece proved operatic in its own right. The concert was staged Kevin Newbury, in my opinion one of the most theatrically astute directors of opera working today (let’s get him to direct a new opera at the Met!). Despite technically being a concert, the production was nonetheless an elaborate affair, including accomplished featured performances by Rinde Eckert and Daniel Rowan (who played older and younger versions of Mr. Schonfeld’s father, respectively), as well as notable contributions from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Contemporaneous, and MasterVoices.

RECOMMENDED

Vuyani Dance Theatre in Gregory Maqoma’s “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro” at Prototype. Photo by John Hogg.

CION: REQUIEM OF RAVEL’S BOLÉRO
The Joyce Theater (1 hour)

One of the more adventurous hybrid works that Prototype has presented to date was this year’s Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero, which was conceived and choreographed by Gregory Maqoma. The compelling, slithering production’s was appropriately mounted at the Joyce Theater, one of New York’s premiere venues for dance. Cion is in essence a timeless meditation of death and loss – viscerally expressed through movement and the human voice. As performed by Vuyani Dance Theatre, the ghostly piece powerfully howled with rigor and expansive feeling. The intimate but piercing music direction and arrangements by Nhlanhla Mahlangu supported the dance-heavy work ideally through driving rhythms and building tension.

RECOMMENDED

The company of Julian Wachner and Cerise Lim Jacobs’ “Rev. 23” at Prototype. Photo by Maria Baranova.

REV. 23
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2 hours)

In terms of production, perhaps the largest undertaking of this year’s festival was Rev. 23 by Julian Wachner (music) and Cerise Lim Jacobs (libretto). The opera is a wild ride, a “throw spaghetti on the wall” mash-up in which biblical, mythological, and literary worlds collide. Similarly, Mr. Wachner’s score is wide-reaching; I heard John Adams, Igor Stravinsky, and Stephen Sondheim among the influences in his boisterous score. Daniela Candillari conducted Novus NY with fervor and playfulness, and the colorful cast was more than game. The direction was by James Darrah, who did a striking job of providing the production with a stylish contemporary look (the scenic design is credited to Adam Rigg) to accompany the spin on the age-old tales.

RECOMMENDED

PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL
Opera / Music Theater
Various Venues
Played January 9-19