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As the brutal summer of 2023 comes to a close, the Atlanta Opera rolls out the red carpet and welcomes autumn with the first offering of its 2023-2024 season: The southeastern premiere of Paul Moravec’s opera, The Shining, as part of its acclaimed Discoveries Series. Based on Stephen King’s iconic novel of the same name, Moravec’s The Shining, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, premiered in Minnesota back in 2016, and the opening run packed the Orway Center for the Performing Arts and earned the work positive reviews. It has since made the rounds at important American regional companies (Opera Colorado, Opera Parallele, Lyric Opera of Kansas City audiences have already been spooked by it) and was introduced to Atlanta this past Friday in a co-presentation between the Atlanta Opera and the Alliance Theater. 

Horror movie enthusiasts beware: The opera is based on the King novel instead of the landmark Kubrick film. This puts the team of Moravec & Campbell, initially, at a narrative advantage. The opening scene of the first act, for instance, depicting the Torrances as a realistic couple with a young child struggling to move past the shadow of past trauma and substance abuse, flourishes dramatically. This allowed the Atlanta Opera audience to easily connect with the leads (the gifted Craig Irvin as Jack and Kelly Kaduce as Wendy) and rally behind their young son Danny, played with earnest conviction by Max Walls.  This opener, and the subsequent tour of the hotel’s grounds played to Mr. Moravec’s strengths. His thematic treatment is insistently attractive and consistently incomplete, proving most effective when Mr. Movavec would ping pong between disparate situations: such as Jack’s boiler tour, juxtaposed with the extraordinary encounter between Halloran and Danny. This linear, organized exposition, coupled with the clever and smart filmed media work of Felipe Barral and Amanda Sachtleben, produced a striking opening scene, and gifted Mr. Moravec with the rest of the evening to gradually tear away at Jack Torrance’s mind. This is, unfortunately, where the real challenge comes, and Mr. Moravec’s style was less serviceable in that respect. 

Often evocative of Copland, Bernand Hermann, John Adams and late Verdi, Mr. Moravec’s score is rich in flourishes and effects, but fails to strike a memorable note in the mind’s ear. Themes are introduced but never given the space to enjoy a proper life. While this empowers Moravec to create a general sense of unease, it left the audience with little to hang on to. Wendy’s various solos (including a lullaby in act one) as well the finale of the first act and the big band tune which is heavily featured in the second, are left woefully incomplete.  More troubling, the orchestral voice does little to convey the inescapable presence of the Colorado winter, which insidiously pins the protagonists further down the psychological and physical isolation that modern audiences are so primed to relate to after the recent worldwide lockdown. Instead, the score accompanies even the most unimportant exchange with flourishes and summersaults: Even musical isolation is out of the question. Mark Campbell’s text was disappointingly banal and rendered awkward when activated by the score. 

Filling in the blanks, stage director Brian Staufenbiel, in large part profiting from the natural chemistry between Craig Irvin’s Jack and Kelly Kaduce’s Wendy, brought well rounded performances out of the principal artists. Alongside the work of scenic designer Jacquelyn Scott, and projections by David Murakami, the production promotes the natural development of the action onstage, but while it achieved genuine tension in various scenes, the production team was hard pressed to compensate for the shortcomings of the score in terms of eliciting horror. Similar as in the case of the score, set design does little to feature the primordial threat of the winter siege which trap the occupants of the Overlook, and the set design missed opportunities to emphasize claustrophobia. Bypassing the original direction to have them distort and melt to emulate Jack’s mental state (the Minnesota premiere production notes are floating online for any savvy online detective to obtain) would have contributed (though not solved) the situation. Save the scene where the ghost of Mrs. Massey physically attacks Danny in act two (which produced a genuine reaction in the auditorium,) the apparition scenes are imbued with the sort of cartoonish vibe that made DragonCon 2023 a great success the previous weekend. 

Amidst these limited conditions, it was left for conductor Timothy Myers to navigate the odd acoustics of the Alliance Theater and hold the proceedings together. The maestro drew convincing sonority from Moravec’s sanctioned re-orchestration of the score (down two thirds from the premiere) by way of a disciplined baton and brisk tempi. His cast is particularly fine, led by Craig Irvin as Jack Torrance, who delivered a physically compelling and emotionally profound performance aimed at conveying Jack’s descend to madness when the score could not. I almost bought it.  His sound is distinctive and, when permitted, exhibited a lush, beautiful baritone – musically miscast for the score restricts his involvement to declamatory fits and starts. He is, essentially, the Method Man to Kelly Kaduce’s Mary J. Blige, or in this case Wendy Torrance. A favorite of Atlanta audiences (I recall Ms. Kaduce memorable Atlanta Opera debut as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote back in 2003,) Ms. Kaduce is back in town, this time portraying the part she premiered in Minnesota back in 2016. And she takes the honor to heart, immersing herself into this assignment with brave dramatic conviction. Vocally, the voice has attained full lyric soprano status, and can swell impressively to do right by the hysterical reactions to her husband’s unravelling.  Though her tone has predictably lost some of the fresh bloom that graced her debut twenty years ago, her overall vocalism has gained in size and possibilities. I am thrilled for the opportunity to hear her once again.

As in the case of the opera’s premiere, the role of Danny Torrance, entrusted in these performances to the talented Max Walls, is given to a child actor who performs his part through the assistance of amplification. The aural disconnect that invariably results from such practice (quite off putting whenever its spotted in opera performances) solicited some adjustment, and since Danny is only required to sing a couple of bars in the entire evening, one wonders whether an adolescent of short stature could do right by the part without reverting to such tricks. Regardless, young Max Walls delivered a committed and impressive performance and even nailed the lip sync as the Atlanta Opera Ensemble voiced his responses during the trance scene in act two. Shante. 

The principals were rounded off with the important contribution of Kevin Deas as Dick Hallorann and his soft-grained, gracious bass baritone navigated the score’s long lines with great success. Hallorann’s acclimation to Danny can be read as quite creepy in 2023’s trigger-happy society, and Mr. Deas delivered a faithful reading of the character’s benevolent mentorship of Danny within the limitations of the source material. His involvement also illustrated how careful adaptation is needed in order to translate the impact of a work of literature into successful theater. Remaining true to the King novel, the team of Moravec and Campbell end the opera not at the moment when Jack Torrance lets the boiler blow up the Overlook, but with the epilogue which depicts the remaining principals recovering from the tragedy at a hotel in Maine eight months later. This yielded one of the better musical offerings of the evening, Hallorann’s “These woeful days will be over,” and an anticlimactic end to a night at the opera.  

Being the basic (and very bold) opera person that I am, I dare suggest inserting this scene into the main body of the second act as a premonition by Danny prior to the opera’s final sequences (perhaps after Jack is locked in the pantry, or maybe following Danny’s comatose state after Mrs. Massey’s attack). This would yield a scene depicting Danny’s shining in its full expression, while allowing for a more conventionally curtain with the destruction of the Overlook, a la Le Prophete.  

Though not a complete homerun, Moravec’s The Shining provides a bold start to Atlanta’s opera season, which will include performances of Michael Shapiro’s Frankenstein, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Puccini’s La Boheme, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the second installment of the Atlanta Opera’s first stab at Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Die Walkure. The Shining runs through October 1^st, and rumor has it that the company may be adding new dates as I type. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.atlantaopera.org 

Last Saturday night, the Atlanta Opera unveiled the third stage production of its 2021-22 season, the company’s comeback season following the prolonged pandemic-related hiatus, with a performance of Rossini’s comic masterpiece, Il barbiere di Siviglia. Though pandemic statistics in our city and state continue to trend favorably, safety for staff and patrons remains a prime focus with the Atlanta Opera, and as it was at the time of the season’s opener last November (Handel’s Giulio Cesare,) proof of vaccination or a negative antigen test are still required to enter the Cobb Energy Center. Inside the hall mask mandates have been lifted, though their use is still highly encouraged. In practice, the majority of the opening night audience sported them inside the auditorium and during intermission. An update of the company’s policy is broadcast prior to the curtain by a public health official, and a curious sense of community is impressed upon many by the reminder that it is not only the audience that risks much in attending these performances, but also the musicians and artists who have made them possible. After the tremendous stress of the past two years, complying for the general safety of all in order to bask in the glory of a treasured comedy and have a much-needed laugh seemed like an easy ask.

It has been remarked that it is easier to make an audience cry than to make them laugh, and though the musical virtues of the operas of the buffa genre virtually guarantee their position in the standard repertoire, they often land short of achieving their intended effect. Italian comedy of this period can strike modern audiences as slap stick, campy and grotesquely overstated. To ensure success, director Michael Shell has cleverly refashioned Rossini’s masterpiece through a definite mid-20^th century Spanish sensibility evocative of the work of Pedro Almodovar. Taking as evidence the quotes presented in the production playbill and the director’s notes from the production’s 2014 unveiling at Opera Philadelphia, the production team’s intention to emulate the aesthetic of the famed Spanish film director is transparent. Shoko Kambara’s set design is dominated by aggressive pop art elements realized through an Iberian color palette and are often juxtaposed by anachronistic costumes by Amanda Seymour. The resulting atmosphere is cohesively Spanish and primed for the ridiculous. All that’s needed is a cast on the verge of a nervous breakdown and stir.

Called upon to do just that, Carl & Sally Gable Music Director Arthur Fagen managed the principals and the forces of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and Chorus with a tidy baton: and this was no simple task. Bel Canto opera has a bad reputation for featuring basic orchestrations, but Rossini infamously tagged “il Tedeschino” early in his career, and Il barbiere di Siviglia’s orchestration is among his most descriptive, instigating the stage proceedings in very palpable ways: It gesticulates, comments and reacts. Once he had shaken off the opening night jitters (the reading of the famous overture was initially tentative,) Maestro Fagen managed to synergize the forces in the pit and stage without reducing his contribution to that of a traffic control cop: much of what was heard on opening night was realized with verve and glittery brilliance.  A favorite with Atlanta audiences for over 15 years, his leadership was supportive and considerate, keeping the performance on its rails whenever the ride got shaky and creating musical space for those in need. 

This was a position that the evening’s Figaro, the opera’s title character played by baritone Joseph Lattanzi, unfortunately found himself in. A rewarding assignment for those who fit the bill, Rossini’s Figaro will mercilessly call out those who don’t, and the ultimate litmus test is administered at the character’s very entrance: the iconic Largo al factotum. The showpiece permits the baritone to showcase the character’s personality through exuberant vocal means. As heard on opening night, Mr. Lattanzi possesses an attractive baritone of respectable dimension, but it does not roar with Spanish bravado or thrive in the flurry of patter singing sequences to qualify his efforts a success. The testing leaps to the high G called out a certain disconnect between the middle and upper tessitura. The scene was rendered passable through Mr. Lattanzi’s winning stage presence and stage business, and to his credit, the rest of the evening found him settling more comfortably into his paces. While the qualities that make a Figaro vocally memorable were simply not within his grasp last Saturday, his is certainly not a “bad voice”, and many of his long-held utterances towards the end of the evening provided evidence of an instrument which could graciously serve many of the famous Mozart baritone parts and someday graduate to more serious bel canto assignments. He remains an artist within our radar.

To the surprise of many, Figaro’s patron and partner in crime, the Count Almaviva, was not portrayed in these performances by Atlanta Opera discovery Santiago Ballerini, but by Taylor Stayton making his Atlanta Opera debut with these performances. A veteran of the role, Mr. Stayton provided evidence of his worth through the impressive fluidity in his scale up to the upper middle during the first act’s serenade scena. The inescapable comparisons to Mr. Ballerini ultimately qualified Mr. Stayton worthy of the assignment: His is a gallant, soft grained lyric tenor graced by a pale timbre which can fill the house with ease until challenged by either orchestra or colleague. A certain tightness in the ascension to the upper extension of his scale was also a deterrent, and his vocalism lacks an incisive edge, making the exclusion of the extracurricular “Cessa piu non resistere” bravura showpiece (which recent performance tend to reinsert into the opera) a wise choice. As a physical actor, he commanded the stage, demanding the attention of the audience at his every involvement, particularly in his portrayal of Don Alonso, realized in this production as a peace-loving, yoga practicing hippie by Mr. Shell.

The role of Rosina has run the gamut of casting practices through the history of the part, and though premiered by a contralto, the alternate tradition of the soprano Rosina was started by the composer himself. The 19^th century Italian opera scene was a wild place, and it was not uncommon for composers to churn out transposed versions of their own work for famous artists of the day. For these performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia, the Atlanta opera celebrates Rossini’s original conception by entrusting the part to a lower voice. Making her Atlanta Opera debut as the feisty Spaniard, mezzo soprano Stephanie Lauricella, fulfills the vocal demands of the role with flying colors. Her instrument is of lyric weight and exceptionally limber, allowing its mistress to accomplish the score’s florid complications with apparent ease. Though the lower register is not dominant, it is certainly securely placed and within the singer’s control: if allowed to develop, it promises to bring added excitement to her future portrayals. Her success, however, was not complete. Though the voice satisfies the athletic demands, her declamation and timbre were ill-matched to the character’s piquant personality, and theatrically she tended to yield the spotlight to her zany colleagues. While these held back her transformation into the endearing feisty queen of hearts we expect to greet us by the final curtain, we hope to continue to witness her development in future Atlanta Opera seasons.

Saturday night’s opening night performance will be referenced to future opera goers as the United States and Atlanta Opera debut of bass-baritone Giovanni Romeo, entrusted here with the role of Doctor Bartolo. For all intents and purposes, the night belonged to him. Vocally, his instrument is malleable and responsive in loud, soft and ornate passages. Wielded by Mr. Romeo, this voice can both bloom beautifully and distort itself to express the passions of the ridiculous assignment. His aria “A un dottor de la mia sorte” does not enjoying the same fame as other numbers in the opera, but can prove particularly testing in its mix of sustained singing, legato, and patter outbursts, which Mr. Romeo executed with expert measure and comedic verve. Dramatically, he is a scene stealer like Mr. Stayton, though he achieved this through subtler means: A slight change in position, or a well-time silence allowed him to redirected the spotlight to himself at every turn. This is not to say that he was above the more overt antics, for he was able to successfully land the interpolated side business of doctor Bartolo’s split persona as a rooster for the entirety of the show. There was even a rooster ballet which accompanied the tempest interlude in act two and it was entirely hilarious! In the hands of Mr. Romeo, his Bartolo was ultimately realized pedantic and pathetic through a Falstaffian reading. It elevated the character well beyond the stock figure treatment we are often accustomed to and inspired disappointment in many when Doctor Bartolo doesn’t end up with the girl at the end. 

Going past this benchmark, bass-baritone David Crawford’s portrayal of Don Basilio was vigorously overstated. Think The Joker played by John Travolta, add excess. The voice itself remains his best calling card, and though not the most idiomatic for this sort of music, his instrument projected firmly though the paces of the famous “La calumnia”. In a refreshing bit of casting, the role of Berta was reimagined as a young sexy maid, allowing soprano Cadie J. Bryan to steal a bit of the scene in her various comings and goings. She also surprised the ear by offering her fresh, pleasing soprano to Berta’s often ignored aria di sorbetto (literally, the song you want to leave the auditorium during to use the facilities or get some ice cream). Baritone Sankara Harouna started the night on a positive tone as Fiorello, and company favorite Mitch Gindlesperger offered his seasoned bass-baritone through a sturdy take of the police officer during the finale of the first act. The hilarious David Silverstein as Ambrogio rounded out the cast by shuffling his way through a night of great music making and so many giggles.

Two more performances remain in the Atlanta Opera’s run of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. For ticket information, details of the company’s exciting 2022-23 season, or to learn more about the company, please visit its website at www.atlantaopera.org

-Daniel Vasquez

Welcome back, stranger!

Last weekend, the Atlanta Opera made its much-anticipated return to mainstage productions at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and opened its 2021-22 season with a first for the city: Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Aside from a selection of Handel and Hasse arias featured at a Spring Gala Concert back in 2007, and a full staging of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 2009, the Atlanta Opera has rarely been known to champion early music, thus the prospect of such premiere proved enticing enough to force many (including myself) out of their pandemic accommodations of choice. What follows is an assessment of the performance which took place on Tuesday, November 9^th.

But before we go there, I have an announcement!

As all of you know, the world has changed drastically since my last post, thus going forward (note the optimistic yet tentative tone) in addition to providing musical and production value assessments, these reviews will also contain relevant information pertaining to the topic of “going to the opera in the middle of a pandemic”. Now, I realize that this information will attract some and perhaps repel many, and since we try not to play politics on this page, both sections will be kept separate to allow the reader the ability to pick and choose what best serves them. We believe in choice. 

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To welcome spring, newoutpost ventured west for the opening night performance of Nashville Opera’s production of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann on Thursday, April 4th. Despite being one of the biggest musical capitals in the United States, opera lags behind the more obvious musical genres in Nashville, and part of the company’s donation drive outlines becoming a medium tier regional outfit by 2020 as a prime goal in its printed literature. Though small, the company can most certainly surprise us from time to time, and recently staged a production of Puccini’s Tosca for rising star soprano Jennifer Rowley. Your friends at newoutpost attended a more than valid performance of Verdi’s Otello (not an easy piece to pull off by any standard) which featured Mary Dunleavy as Desdemona and Clifton Forbis in the title role. Thus, Nashville Opera is always in our radar when planning our traveling schedule, and when it ambitiously announced a staging of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, we could not help ourselves and embarked in a short pilgrimage. In the process, we failed to prepare ourselves for the possibility that the company may have bitten off more than it could chew.

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