OCTOBER 1996
RIVER OF DESIRE
The Teatro Amazonas . . . magic clings to the very name. In steamy Manaus, a few
degrees south of the Equator, 900 miles up the Amazon from the Atlantic, the
ornate opera house reflects the social pretensions and showy tastes of the
Brazilian rubber barons whose fortunes skyrocketed in the 1890s. No one who has
ever spent weeks rapt in the teeming dreamworld of One Hundred Years of
Solitude or the heartsick nightmare of Love in the Time of Cholera
can imagine an author more attuned to that place and period than Gabriel
García Márquez. Lo and behold, it has inspired his first
libretto. (The chore of actually writing the words in the end fell to a
hand-picked amanuensis.) The Nobel laureate might have recycled some episode
from his existing trove of story, but he has done opera the honor of working
from scratch. Florencia en el Amazonas, receiving its world premiere at
the Houston Grand Opera (October 25-November 9; 713-227-2787), centers on an
opera singer who is making her way up Brazil's mighty river. Her apparent
purpose is to fulfill a professional engagement in Manaus. But what secretly
propels her is the desire to be reunited with the love of her life, a man who
vanished into these jungles twenty years ago, in quest of the rarest of
butterflies. Memory, mystery, obsession--these are prime ingredients for the
cocktail that is an opera. The fine-boned soprano Sheri Greenawald, both
elegant and passionate, should prove a captivating protagonist. The director,
Francesca Zambello, may be depended on for an enthralling show. The wild card
is the Spanish-Mexican composer Daniel Catán, whose score will determine
in the end whether Florencia sings.
Costume Designs
Photo: Catherine Zuber
Some say that the vocal recital in America is on the verge of extinction. New
York tells a different story. This month both Carnegie Hall (212-247-7800) and
Lincoln Center (212-721-6500) kick off series devoted to the intimate,
challenging, infinitely rewarding art of the song. In Carnegie's main hall the
Welshman Bryn Terfel--great of heart and voice--leads the cavalcade of big
names presumed capable of filling the 2,804 seats in that cavernous temple:
Waltraud Meier, Kathleen Battle, Thomas Hampson, Jessye Norman, and Dawn
Upshaw. Upstairs, Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall (268 seats) features debuts by
Stanford Olsen, Andreas Schmidt, Michelle DeYoung, and Jard van Nes, artists
whom connoisseurs will appreciate the chance to know better. Meanwhile, Lincoln
Center offers a congregation of songsters that is even ampler and for the most
part fresher. Cecilia Bartoli is the only surefire box-office name in the
bunch, but Alice Tully Hall, with its 1,096 seats, presents a reasonably
manageable marketing challenge--besides being a setting in which a true
communicator shines. The Russian Sergei Leiferkus, a mesmerizing storyteller,
leads this month, to be followed by his gleaming compatriot Galina Gorchakova;
the vivacious Americans Jennifer Larmore, Susan Graham, and Ruth Anne Swenson;
and the polished Scandinavians Bo Skovhus (who might have stepped from the
pages of GQ) and Håkan Hagegård (who presides with the
ease of the host of a country estate). A complementary series at Lincoln
Center's Walter Reade
Theater (268 seats) introduces four new names who are
setting insiders abuzz: the Irish baritone Simon Keenlyside, the brilliant
American countertenor David Daniels, the bright Irish soprano Frances Lucey,
and Nancy Maultsby, a plummy American contralto. "Our audience," says
Lincoln Center's vice president for programming, Jane Moss, "is loyal and
knowledgeable and has a very large appetite."
Jennifer Larmore
Sergei Leiferkus
Photo: Zoe Dominic
Courtesy of J.F. Mastroianni Associates, Inc.
The composer Richard
Einhorn likens his first encounter with Carl Dreyer's
silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc to a chance discovery of the Taj
Mahal. Six years later Einhorn produced his own "meditation" on the warlike
virgin. The oratorio Voices of Light, for voices and amplified
instrumental ensemble, is set to a patchwork of medieval texts in various
languages (no English--not even Middle English). The music milks the medieval
and medievalish strains that the New Age finds so congenial, discreetly
blending in elements of minimalism for good measure. Voices can stand
alone (the recording on Sony Classical has been selling briskly), but since its
premiere, in 1994, its principal exposure has come with screenings of Dreyer's
classic account of Joan's trial, to which it provides an atmospheric, rather
lulling accompaniment. Silent films, even the masterpieces, cry out for music,
and Voices serves The Passion well. Wisely, Einhorn leaves
unattempted the impossible task of finding musical "equivalents" for Dreyer's
camera work or the mute eloquence of the riveting performers; rather than
dramatize, he sheds an aura. This month the multimedia Voices of Light
travels to major concert venues in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Tucson, Tempe, Atlanta, Savannah, and Charleston (see local listings).
Photo: Hans Neleman
Hear
a clip ("Torture") from Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light
in RealAudio 28.8
format. Or, you may also download "Torture" in .AU format. (For help,
see a note about the audio.)
Copyright © 1996 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.
