Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – PROTOTYPE 2018, one of the festival’s finest outings, was an eclectic exploration of the possibilities of opera

• By drediman
• January 24, 2018
• No Comments

This past weekend marked the closing of this year’s PROTOTYPE, an annual two-week festival curated to celebrate and showcase the cutting edge in opera and music theater. In just its sixth iteration, PROTOTYPE has become an essential platform for exploring opera’s vast, eclectic array of possibilities. All in all, I’m happy to report that the 2018 edition was one of the festival’s more consistently satisfying outings. Here are my thoughts.

FELLOW TRAVELERS

At Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s “Fellow Travelers”

Arguably the main offering at this year’s PROTOTYPE was Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s Fellow Travelers, an opera based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 historical fiction novel of the same name. The story is essentially a tragic love story (sounds like any other opera?) between two men set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. The PROTOTYPE run at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater marks the piece’s highly anticipated New York premiere (it had originated at Cincinnati Opera). It was worth the wait. Fellow Travelers features a soaring, evocative score by Mr. Spears that’s both accessible and lyrical without sounding like a derivative knock-off. It’s an important achievement. Mr. Pierce’s libretto, in addition to Kevin Newbury’s direction, are elegant and unfussy, driving the eventful plot forward with affecting theatrically and clarity. As for the performances, they were eloquent and, when the plot called for it, unflinchingly brave. As the central pair of lovers, Timothy and Hawkins, tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Joseph Lattanzi gave gutsy, fully-formed, and vocally solid performances. As these characters’ mutual friend, Mary, soprano Devon Guthrie gave a quietly compelling performance that was just as memorable. For this brief run, the American Composers Orchestra was conducted by George Manahan, and they sounded ravishing.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

ACQUANETTA

At Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center

Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s “Acquanetta”

PROTOTYPE 2018 got off to an auspicious start at the Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center in DUMBO with the world premiere of the chamber version of Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s unsettling opera Acquanetta (it originally premiered in 2006 in “grand opera” format in Aachen, Germany). The phantasmagorical work explores the tug of war relationship between watching and and being watched vis-à-vis the staged filming of a horror flick. This is experimental, conceptual stuff, which composer Mr. Gordon approaches in a visceral manner. His score is insistent, often times raw – if a bit monotonous at times – chipping away at our nerves over the course of the opera’s intense 70 minutes (conducted here by Daniela Candillari). Daniel Fish’s fever dream of a production, beautifully realized and executed, was just as confrontational. As the leading diva in the horror movie within the opera, Mikaela Bennett gave a fearless, vocally secure performance that drew me into her character’s increasingly agitated and anxiety-ridden mindset. A heart-racing experience.

RECOMMENDED

THE ECHO DRIFT

At Baruch Performing Arts Center

Mikaela Karlsson, Elle Kunnos de Voss, and Kathryn Walat’s “The Echo Drift”

Then we had The Echo Drift, Mikaela Karlsson, Elle Kunnos de Voss, and Kathryn Walat’s world premiere opera at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Set in an existential prison cell of sorts, this fascinating, often counfounding piece of music theater portrays murderer Walker Loats (played with an unnerving deadpan gaze by Blythe Gaissert) and his bizarre friendship with a moth (played by downtown theater artist John Kelly). The opera explores notions of reality and perception, and is, as a result both expansive and and confining. Mr Karlsson’s score, captivatingly orchestrated for both chamber orchestra (the excellent International Contemporary Ensemble) and electronica, sounded mesmerizing under the baton of conductor Nicholas DeMaison.  Kudos also to the crack design team – particularly projection designer Simon Harding and the animators Dara Hamidi, Simon Harding, and Elle Kunnos de Voss – for effectively capturing director Mallory Catlett’s transfixing vision for the piece.

RECOMMENDED

IYOV

At HERE’s Mainstage Theatre

Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko’s “IYOV”

Perhaps the most out-of-the-box – and rewarding – experience of all at this year’s PROTOTYPE was the US premiere of Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko’s opera IYOV from Ukraine. With just a suggestion of a plot, the self-professed “opera-requiem” is more of a tone poem for chorus about Job, the Old Testament character who is subjected by his God to trial after trial, than a proper opera in the traditional sense. The score by Mr. Grygoriv (who also conducted) and Mr. Razumeiko, which creatively used the piano in ways that are, to say the least, innovative, is among the most adventurous and riveting I’ve come across recently. The enthralling soundscape also made inventive use of the human voice throughout (the small chorus, made up of compelling, idiosyncratic performers, was a theatrically and sonically gripping presence). And in the intimate confines of HERE, the work was aurally thrilling – often jarringly in-your-face, but at times delicately embracing. As directed by Vladyslav Troitskyi and hypnotically designed “live” by Mariia Volkova, IYOV made for compulsive, boundary-pushing music theater, and was, in my mind, mandatory viewing.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

In addition, I was also able to catch Matthias Bossi, Jeremy Flower, and Carla Kihlstedt’s multi-media concert Black Inscription at HERE’s Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, as well as the return engagement of Dez Mona and Baroque Orchestration X’s song cycle Sága at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. Both were soulful sets that wonderfully complimented the main offerings above.