Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Kaija Saariaho’s haunting ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS, directed by Peter Sellars, is of a single fabric

• By drediman
• November 18, 2018
• No Comments

Davóne Tines and Nora Kimball-Mentzos in Kaija Saariaho’s “Only the Sound Remains” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Last night, I caught the New York premiere of  Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, by way of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival. Along with American composer Missy Mazzoli, Ms. Saariaho has emerged as one of the handful of important female composers working today. When I saw her opera L’Amour de loin in a production by the Metropolitan Opera two years ago, I thought it was one of the more successful contemporary operas the Met had mounted.

Which brings us to Only the Sound Remains, which played two performances this weekend. The opera is based on a pair of Japanese Noh plays. Noh performance lends itself beautifully to opera and music theater. Its suspended time signature and heightened storytelling is a natural fit for musical translation, and Ms. Saariaho’s delicate yet tightly wound score delivers. As conducted by Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, who produced exquisite textures from his chamber-sized orchestra, and sung by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and bass-baritone Davóne Tines, her score simply shimmered.

Like Ms. Saariaho’s score, celebrated avant-garde theater and opera director Peter Sellars’ elegant, minimalist staging was at once fluid and tense. As such, his haunting work also successfully reflected the Japanese Noh aesthetic. His inventive and mesmerizing contrasting of light and shadows cast a hypnotic spell that was particularly captivating. Visually, sonically, and dramatically, Only the Sound Remains is of a single fabric and an ideal example of the kind of fusion that’s possible in music theater.

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ONLY THE SOUND REMAINS
Opera
Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
2 hours, 15 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed