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CHAUTAUQUA -- History was in the making Saturday as the Chautauqua Opera Company presented "L'Orfeo" by Claudio Monteverdi, as freely realized by Ottorino Respighi, staged at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater and backed by the Chautauqua Opera Orchestra.
The U.S. Stage Premiere was a multi-faceted 'miracle,' based on the composers; the un-archived nature of the score originally written as chamber music (MONTEVERDI 1607); the augmented and 'colorful' remix will full orchestration (RESPIGHI 1935); performed on the newly constructed Amphitheater stage with hydraulic orchestra pit; under the baton and catalyst of Maestro Steven Osgood; and Stage Direction and Choreography Keturah Stickann.
"L'Orfeo," one of the earliest operas is still widely performed today as scored by Monteverdi and is about the Greek myth Orpheus who was the demi-god of music who charmed all things with his lute. In this opera, the character Orfeo represents Orpheus. He finds love, marries Euridice and is finally happy in life. His bride is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies tragically. Orfeo charms Pluto and the Underworld negotiating the return of his wife, but only if he doesn't look at her in their journey home. In a moment of anxiety, Orfeo turns, gazes and looses her again. She transcends to heaven. Orfeo is grief stricken and his father, Apollo, descends from the skies in consolation. Together, they ascend to heaven and Orfeo is reunited with Euridice, his wife. The libretto is by Alessandro Striggio and adapted by Claudio Guastalla.
The original work had five acts and no prologue. Respighi created a Prologue using a small melody from Act One that is augmented, metered and volleyed by the contrasting musical families throughout the opera. The harmonies of the Strings reflected happy moments whereas the Brass signified the darker Underworld. Respighi respected the vocal and bass lines of Monteverdi but took creative liberty to embellish and color the middle of the score to expose the emotion and language of the music, blending old textures with new pungent harmonies.
The heart of the creative and production team focused on celebrating the new performance space utilizing the full stage and the choral areas stage right, center and stage left to reflect the imagery, textures and character of community -- Americana in every sense. A full stage muslin floor drop of earthen hues in concentric rings attempted to pull the large space to a visual inwardness. Up center, a lashed ladder connected the stage floor to areas above. Up choral left was the boudoir for La Musica. Up choral right represented the wildflowers. Apollo appeared up choral center as his descent from the skies. Two LED subtitled screens were positioned up choral right and left and were actually subtle in their presentation. A colorful heirloom quilt hung stage level stage left with clotheslines of laundry adding realism and geometry. Stage level right of center somewhat downstage was a primitive porch dwelling signed "Home Sweet Home." Laundry provided a similar border Stage Right. There was an additional deck platform down right. Conduction monitors were down right and left and most likely invisible with creative and blended masking. A row of benched rustic tables angled from Stage left toward center right. Illuminated quilts hung along the outside perimeter bordering the sacred space. A lute on the rustic table and a lyre in the boudoir of La Musica were light specials of foreshadow.
The Spirit of Music (mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson) enters down the aisles of house right in full orchestra fanfare to center stage to sing, "From my beloved Parnassus I come to you." Johnson is hailed as a dramatic singer in the truest sense as demonstrated in her roles La Musica, La Messaggera and La Speranza. The audience appeared to connect with each character and aria.
Daniel Belcher, (Orfeo) Grammy Award-winning baritone enters from the home sweet balcony singing with warm timbre "now while I alternate between happy and sad songs …" There is a distant choral swell as the Coco of Apprentice Artists fill the Amphitheater with pleasing harmonies. They run barefoot and laugh in excitement -- down, across the aisles, up the stage entrances in community dressed in natural colors: yellows, blues, pinks, purple, skirts, overalls, kerchiefs and suspenders.
There is a wedding feast, a toast, a folk dance, rounding curtsy and bow, Orfeo sings to Euridice, (Chelsea Friedlander) his bride, as La Musica journals from afar. Soprano Friedlander making her Chautauqua Opera Debut sings with confidence and beautiful vocal color. The couple is presented with a heirloom quilt and is received by the community line (Coco) singing a'capella with incredible harmonics and intonation, "leave the mountains, leave the fountains."
The men sing homage to a live snake and prostate in prayer. There is beautiful warm sunset that washes the stage and the families circle in tradition. Lighting Designer Michael Baumgarten uses the full potential of the moving lights in his design including several break-way gobos that fraction the light on home sweet home. The marriage is consummated and the community provides a fertility blessing staged with a wheelbarrow and cloth dolls -- the end of Act One.
Act Two opens with the ladies picking flowers with Euridice, the guys are playing baseball, the children are coming home from school with book straps and Orfeo sings "I once lived in misery and sorry. Now I rejoice, my long suffering (have passed). La Messaggera sings of Orfeo's charming music, "Must I pierce his heart with my message." The musicality of the orchestration modulates the unhappy news "your wife is dead. They were gathering flowers to make a garland. A snake pierced her foot with its poisonous fangs. Her sparkling eyes grew dim."
The legato strings and bassoon provided the matrix to the Pastori (Eric Wassenaar, Omar Najmi, Natalie Rose Havens and Tascha Anderson) that sang "Ah, bitter happening, ah impious and cruel fate." Orfeo sings, "Thou art dead, my love and I am breathing. Farwell earth, heaven and sun, Farwell." He searches for her as the Coco repeats a beautiful swelling a'cappella melody of condolence. Euridice body is located among the flowers and covered with the wedding quilt. Orfeo grieves and kisses her good-bye. Her body carried away. Orfeo crosses to La Musica and end of Act Two. The color of heirloom quilt hanging stage left is muted.
During the intermission the audience conversed about the delicate balance between the orchestra and singers in crescendo and the perceived difficulty of hearing some of artists singing in Italian verses expected English. One audience member remarked, "I think we are hearing what we are suppose to be hearing." One pondered if microphones would have distorted the natural singing voice or enhanced the overall experience.
Preshow light is dim, blue that projects on the perimetered quilts and scenery. The clotheslines are hung with dark textures. The wedding quilt is draped down stage right platform deck. The lyre is featured. Act Three travels to the Underworld where the community is muted in apparel sleeping, posed on tables, floor and platform. This concept of the Underworld is confusing but reference states itself as being either at the outer bounds of the ocean or beneath the depths or ends of the earth where souls go after death according to Greek mythology.
The water gobos of the moving lights provide a blue wash that triggers more of an underwater than underworld perception. As Orfeo descends the lashed ladder the audience notes the dark purple tones of the Underworld that radiate from the stage floor. He encounters Caronte, the 'gate keeper' (Ricardo Ceballos de la Mora) who sings with deep and beautiful resonance "O thou who darest before death…"
"Nothing is undertaken by man in vain," is sung by Spiriti (Eric Wassenaar, Natalie Rose Havens, Helen Hassinger and Blake Jennings), the chorus of spirits. Belcher as Orfeo sang beautifully mid-descent with a very clean string echo with articulated harp compliment as vocal underscore. Orfeo sang, "Let courage lead me." The layers, texture and depth of the a'capella coco was significantly noteworthy that followed.
Stickann's staging created several noteworthy pictures including the community of the Underworld staged right as Orfeo broke through each gate and barrier. Proserpina (Megan Grey) begs her husband Pluto (Evan Ross) to allow Euridice to return to earth. Orfeo's music charmed Pluto consents with condition as the Spiriti sing "Gentle singer lead your wife to open skies." Orfeo is happy again and sings, "Oh sweet eyes I can see you." He looses her again. Now Orfeo sings of his grief and his father Apollo (Arnold Livingston Geis) consoles him and together they ascend to heaven. Orfeo ascends to meet his father costumed in the purity of white and then was robed in blue velvet with celestial stars. Costume Design was by B. G. FitzGerald. The Bambini (Lydia Kushmaul, Eve Kushmaul and Alexandra McKee) added youthful appearance to the community and the closing scene.
This was a huge undertaking from locating and learning the score, to mounting this production in such a large space, to utilizing the hydraulic orchestra pit, to creating the acoustic balance of voice and instrument in virgin space. Printed space does not allow the credit due to everyone involved in this U.S. Stage Premiere. The music as played by the Chautauqua Opera Orchestra as interpreted by Maestro Steven Osgood was phenomenally colorful and emotional. The voices of the Guest Artists, the Apprentice Artists, the Studio Artists and the spectacular a'cappella sound of the 2017 Chautauqua Opera Young Artists, all certainly commendable. Staging and mounting a production of this size in quite the conundrum. Using the upper levels of the choral spaces may have segregated several scenes but afforded coming down into the Underworld. The large space did not afford the perceived intimacy of the original work that always calls people back to this story of loosing a loved one and doing anything to get them back. Although the acoustics were dynamic, amplification of the voices might be considered for future operas in this space. The Chautauqua Opera Company season may be referenced online by visiting opera.chq.org and on Facebook.