I made notes for this article before one appeared in The New York Times implying that Renée Fleming was retiring from opera. I recall that, more than a year ago, she said she planned to put her famous roles behind her but was open to a new and interesting opera should it come her way. Fleming recently told NPR very explicitly that she is not retiring.

She made her Met debut at age 32 on March 16, 1991, a single appearance as the Countess in a run of 12 performances of Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by James Conlon in which the other Countesses were Pamela Coburn, Felicity Lott and Kiri Te Kanawa.

Starting with the Countess and concluding (for now) with the Marschallin makes sense as the two characters are connected. Mozart’s remains trapped in an unhappy marriage and hopes her husband will change. Strauss and Hofmannsthal transformed the character into a woman who may have sorrows but still is vital, beautiful and wise. A detail I enjoyed in the wonderful new Robert Carsen production at the Met is that the Marschallin may be closing one chapter of her life but slyly catches the eye of the dashing police commissioner, who extends his arm and they leave together. Tomorrow is another day.

Fleming’s career straddles two eras in opera and she made the best of inevitable change. At its start, young singers had recording contracts and she carved out a major career not only in opera but as a recitalist and recording artist. She was sought by the finest conductors and stage directors for collaborations. Singers who came along even a few years later did not have the same recording or performing opportunities and have not enjoyed the same degree of recognition that Fleming has.

She learned from the examples of artists such as Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne and Beverly Sills how to be an American artist who excels in a European art form. Those legendary singers had to work very hard for what they achieved and were subjected to frequent criticism. Fleming sang most of the Mozart and Strauss roles associated with her voice type but also pursued ones that were off the beaten path (her clout enabled her to get these operas staged). She is to be admired for pushing beyond the tried-and-true.

Fleming, more than anyone else in opera in many decades, has been a muse and inspiration to other creative people.

Ann Patchett, in her wonderful novel Bel Canto, seems to have drawn richly from the Fleming persona (without creating a portrait of the singer) in the character of Roxanne Coss. There had been talk for years about making an opera using Bel Canto, with the idea that Fleming would star. As it happens, among the many hats Fleming wears in her professional life is as creative consultant to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Fleming worked to make the opera a reality but passed on performing the lead. The company presented the world premiere of the opera Bel Canto in December 2015. It has music by Jimmy López and lyrics by Nilo Cruz and starred Danielle DeNiese.

Fleming recorded the singing for the forthcoming film version of the novel Bel Canto that stars Julianne Moore as Roxanne Coss.

In the spring of 2018, Fleming plays Nettie Fowler in a Broadway revival of Carousel. This is not her first appearance on The Great White Way. In 2015, she starred in Living on Love written by Joe DiPietro as a vehicle for some of her talents wedded to the generally-perceived persona of the opera diva. Her character Raquel De Angelis is a “diva” in the prima donna sense of being intemperate and high-maintenance.

Not since Beverly Sills has an American opera singer found her way into so many corners of American media and public conscience. Sills showed a talent for fundraising and a passion for arts management, but also hosted talk shows on television and engaged in politics with a combination of bare fists and velvet gloves. Fleming clearly understands how the wheels of government and arts organizations turn but her approach is gentler and more inclusive than the at-times bubbly and at-times steely Sills.

For many presenters in various areas of the arts who are seeking a diva, Renée Fleming is the one to get. In addition to her many talents, her name is almost a guarantee of a certain kind of luxe, charme et volupté. She elegantly sang the National Anthem at the 2014 Super Bowl. 

She inspired André Previn as he created the role of Blanche DuBois for her in his opera version of A Streetcar Named Desire. The aria “I Want Magic” has become part of Fleming’s concert repertory.

Ann Ziff, jewelry designer, philanthropist and chairman of the board of the Met, designed a Renée Fleming iris brooch.

Garrison Keillor found inspiration in her to create the character of Renata Flambee (note the initials) that Fleming performed on “A Prairie Home Companion.” Here is a script from a 2015 appearance. She was drolly funny on a David Letterman show delivering a Top Ten List in which she sang melodies from seven different composers to humorous lyrics.

She has inspired pastry chefs to make desserts in her honor. La Diva Renée, served at Daniel Boulud’s restaurants, is made of chocolate, hazelnuts, amaretto cookies and a clementine sauce. Here is another Boulud recipe for a dessert called La Coupe Glacée Diva Renée, which seems different from what he originally created. It is made with raspberries and pistachios. Imagine having two desserts named for you.

In 2019 she will take the reins of The Song Continues, Carnegie Hall’s splendid series of master classes for young artists who want to perform vocal recitals. Certainly we have not heard the last of Renée Fleming, and I am glad of it.

Not too long ago, the end of the Metropolitan Opera season in mid-May plunged New York opera lovers into despondency as there were few options for hearing performances of any kind, not to mention ones that were distinct and enlightening. How things have changed! Now the opera offerings in New York and environs in the warm months make the city a worthy destination for the operatically adventurous.

While there are performances of standard repertory for people who want them, this time of year represents an opportunity to hear rare works that have been unearthed and contemporary operas getting their local premieres. Many interesting performances can be found at the website of the New York Opera Fest, which kicked off its second season in late April.

May 26-June 3: Amore Opera is presenting two operas about gypsies. There is Carmen (May 26, 27, 28; June 1, 2, 3) as well as the American premiere of Donizetti’s La Zingara (May 30, 31).

June 16-July 8: The always compelling LoftOpera presents 8 performances of a program combining Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and arias by Vivaldi. They return in September with a staging of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

June 10, 12, 14, 16: New York City Opera presents the New York premiere of Péter Eötvös’ Angels in America based on the monumental play by Tony Kushner. It has a very strong cast, led by the outstanding baritone Andrew Garland with Wayne Tigges, Aaron Blake, Sarah Castle, Kirsten Chambers and Sarah Beckham-Turner, conducted by Pacien Mazzagatti.

June 11, 12: Opera Upper West presents a double bill, Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Menotti’s The Telephone, at Cafe Tallulah.

June 12: Metropolitan Opera Summer free recital series in Manhattan’s Central Park with soprano Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, tenor Stephen Costello and pianist Dan Saunders. These performers will appear in Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 14.

June 14, 16: Operamission presents Handel’s Rinaldo (wonderful score!) at Merkin Concert Hall.

June 15-18: Three Way, music by Robert Paterson and a libretto by David Cote at BAM in a production by American Opera Projects and Nashville Opera. These are three one-act operas that combine to explore some aspects of love and lust. It was described in Opera News as “an effortlessly funny, clever and deeply resonant opera … Paterson amplifies the humor and heartache of Cote's libretto with a bright and magnificent score.”

June 17: Opening Night of the Caramoor Festival is a bel canto gala conducted by Will Crutchfield and starring soprano Angela Meade, tenor Santiago Ballerini and bass Harold Wilson. These artists reunite on July 8 for Bellini’s Il Pirata.

June 18: Create Opera presents Strauss’s Elektra, quite an audacious undertaking for its very first performance!

June 20, 22, 23, 24: On Site Opera presents Darius Milhaud’s The Guilty Mother (La mère coupable), the composer’s adaptation of the Beaumarchais play featuring Figaro, the character who has been at the center of the company’s three year cycle of operas in which he appears. On Site Opera does each of its productions in locations specific to the content of the opera being performed. This one will be at The Garage on the far west side of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen.

July 1-16: Saratoga Opera proposes an enticing season in a beautiful setting. Zémire et Azor, a true rarity, is an opera from 1771 with music by André Grétry and libretto by Jean François Marmontel that is an early telling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. (July 2, 8, 14). It will be in repertory with Verdi’s Falstaff (July 1, 6, 10, 15) and Marc Blitzstein’s audaciously political The Cradle Will Rock (July 9, 11, 13, 16), which should prove as pungent today as it did when it premiered in 1937.

July 6-9: The mission of the Martina Arroyo Foundation is to train promising young artists in a process called “Prelude to Performance” in which they learn all the aspects of creating an opera production and then appear in one. Many of these singers have gone on to important careers and New York opera fans love to attend these performances to discover tomorrow’s stars. Recent standouts have included Cecilia Violeta Lopez, Brandie Sutton, Michele Angelini and Ryan Speedo Green. This year’s productions are Carmen and a double bill of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. During the training period, there are free master classes on June 2, 7, 14, 21, 26 and 29. I will be doing the first one and others will be led by singers Sharon Sweet, Isola Jones and Jane Eaglen, and managers Stefano Mazzonis and Ken Benson.

July 7-Aug. 22: Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York has something for everyone. Handel’s Xerxes (with John Holiday in the title role), Donizetti’s The Siege of Calais (starring Leah Crocetto), The Gershwins’s Porgy and Bess (starring Musa Ngqungwana and Talise Trevigne, two exceptional young singers) and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Oklahoma. There will be other attractions including smaller productions of contemporary operas, plus concerts and recitals.

July 15: Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert version of Das Rheingold at Tanglewood with a strong and very appealing cast.

Aug. 9: Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society performs Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Tanglewood.

Aug. 12-27:  The dell’Arte Opera Ensemble always presents an engaging and adventurous season in which young artists receive training in roles and then perform them for audiences. This year’s season includes Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen) performed in Czech, and Cavalli’s La Calisto in Italian with period instrument ensemble. There will be a concert of excerpts from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rusalka, Don Pasquale and Carmen.

Aug.17, 19, 20: The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center presents a semi-staged production of Don Giovanniled by the superb Iván Fischer with a strong cast and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Aug. 26: Kristine Opolais, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Andris Nelson and the Boston Symphony will present an evening of opera music by Verdi, Tchaikovsky and other composers at Tanglewood. 

There is a superb revival of Lillian Hellman’s play, The Little Foxes, at Manhattan Theatre Club, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Attending it twice gave me fresh thoughts about how opera singers and stage actors are different and alike.

The two leading female characters are the scheming and vindictive Regina Giddens and her wistfully tragic sister-in-law Birdie Hubbard. The star part is Regina, who lets her husband die when she withholds his heart medicine and then blackmails her two dreadful brothers who, in turn, intend to cheat her out of a lot of money. Regina may be our main focus, but the ideal actress as Birdie can sometimes steal the show when she gets the part just right, particularly in a wonderful monologue in the third act that shows Birdie to be, by turns, poignant and resilient.

If the story of The Little Foxes sounds operatic, it is. In 1949, Marc Blitzstein produced his opera, Regina. It appears occasionally, such as at Houston Grand Opera in 1980 with Maralin Niska and Elizabeth Carron as Regina, and there was a very fine straightforward staging at Bronx Opera in 2016.               

When the play premiered in 1939, Tallulah Bankhead was (reportedly) a venomous Regina and Patricia Collinge a sympathetic Birdie. A great film version was made by William Wyler, who allowed his camera to go into tight close-ups of Bette Davis as Regina in a way that cinema can do better than theater. Collinge again played Birdie.

The play has had numerous revivals that are always major events. The current production is the best I’ve seen, with a strong group of men and two smaller female roles ideally cast and played. Two wonderful actresses, Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon, are alternating in the roles of Regina and Birdie. The fact that each understands how the other character feels gives a texture and power to this production I have seldom seen in any play.

According to a program article, Linney was approached to play Regina. She knew that Nixon also dreamt of playing Regina and proposed that both actresses be engaged and switch roles from one performance to the next. It was a brilliant idea and, no doubt, would stimulate ticket sales. I am an M.T.C. subscriber and, last time I checked, they gave a discount if you purchase a ticket for an additional performance to see the cast that you didn't have on your subscription.

This casting gambit reminded me of one of my favorite songs, “The Story of Lucy and Jessie,” from Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, one of my very favorite musicals. In it, the wealthily married and bored former showgirl, Phyllis, lets loose with the story of “poor sad souls, itching to be switching roles, Lucy wants to do what Jessie does; Jessie wants to be what Lucy was.” Watch the original star of the 1971 production, Alexis Smith. The visuals may be blurry but they show the original staging and Smith’s charisma comes right through.     

To give you a sense of the subtle changes that can occur even in the same production when two performers play the same role, watch Linney and then Nixon as Regina, both opposite Richard Thomas as her dying husband Horace. Notice how Thomas’ acting also changes when he interacts with a different Regina.

Now watch Linney and then Nixon as Birdie, with Francesca Carpanini as Alexandra, the daughter of Horace and Regina.

The Little Foxes led me to think about operas in which role switching is possible. Of course, in opera the most important thing is whether a role fits a singer’s voice. There are certain artists whose vocal range can accommodate two characters, though not always with equally good results.

Sometimes a singer changes from one role to another as her voice evolves. Two Strauss operas offer this prospect. In Der Rosenkavalier, a soprano might begin as Sophie and evolve to the Marschallin or perhaps even Octavian. In Elektra, the rare soprano might begin her career as Chrysothemis then graduate to the title role and ultimately become Klytemnestra, a character who can give Regina a run for her money when it comes to being evil.

Drawing from The Little Foxes example, I am interested in singers who go back and forth between two characters. Diana Damrau did an extraordinary job in playing Pamina and The Queen of the Night in the same run of performances of Die Zauberflöte at the Met, but that is not something most artists can or should attempt.

Grace Bumbry has thrillingly essayed both Aïda and Amneris. Here is some catnip for opera lovers as she sings both roles at the same time thanks to clever editing. Why play opposite another artist when you can play against yourself?

Violeta Urmana and Shirley Verrett also played Aïda and Amneris. Another opera that offers juicy opportunities is Berlioz’s Les Troyens, in which the right singer can sing both Cassandre and Didon. Jessye Norman and Verrett both did this at the Met. Jeannine Altmeyer sang both Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre — not on the same night, of course — but this is a rather daunting challenge and she was probably suited more to Sieglinde.

The opera that most offers this possibility is Don Giovanni. Many bass-baritones, including Bryn Terfel and Ferruccio Furlanetto, have gone back and forth between the title role and Leporello. I imagine Luca Pisaroni will do so as well. There are four lower-voiced male roles and I have sometimes seen a Masetto graduate to a Leporello or a Don. Similarly, some sopranos, including Carol Vaness and Barbara Frittoli, have sung both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, the former lying higher and calling for more grit than the lyrical Elvira.

Some artists, such as Montserrat Caballé and Shirley Verrett, have sung both Norma and Adalgisa in Bellini’s opera. Caballé sang the title role opposite Marilyn Horne, Fiorenza Cossotto and Verrett. Caballé was Adalgisa with Joan Sutherland.

What opera contains two roles you think could be done by the same singer? And who is that singer?

Must expectations be adjusted — or lowered — when opera loses its grandeur?
 
Such is the ongoing question that confronts any number of upstart opera companies in New York and elsewhere as they seek to create alternatives to the huge budgets and high ticket prices of the Metropolitan Opera-sized productions. LoftOpera produces neglected works in unorthodox places. But Heartbeat Opera, now in the thick of a spring season at Baruch Performing Arts Center, is presenting heavily adapted and contracted versions of standard repertoire such as Carmen and Madama Butterfly — and one can't help but pose the question: If the art form must forfeit its grandeur to survive in the future, is this a viable way to go? It’s a big question. The streamlined Butterfly — as Heartbeat retitled it — also accommodated the current taste for shows that are 90 minutes with no intermission and an orchestra reduced to a string quintet with a harp. Next week, I'll see Vixen, a version of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen, presented by Silent Opera in London, which promises something smaller and shorter but with headphones for each listener offering 360 surround sound.
 
The artistic ideas behind Heartbeat's Butterfly adaptation was apparently to make the opera as immediate and vital as any good Metropolitan Opera performance should be, but often is not due to the frequent cast changes and fast-assembly issues that come with any house presenting work in repertoire.

There was also a more invasive revisionism at work here. The main feature of the 100-minute-long adaptation by Ethan Heard and Jacob Ashworth was changing the order of the first two acts. So we first see Butterfly as an Americanized bride who has been living in isolation in Nagasaki from the relatives who shun her and is running out of money left by the American officer, Col. Pinkerton, who has abandoned her. So there’s no long wait for the opera’s best-known aria, "Un bel dì vedremo," an expression of hope for his return. But with many of the subsidiary characters cut (who help define Butterfly's character within traditional Japanese society), she’s a woman suffering from questionable decisions. In the higher dramatic stakes of the full opera, she's approaching a state of checkmate, rejected by one culture and abandoned by another.

Off to the side, the production had an Americanized Asian boy using his laptop computer — whom you assume to be Butterfly’s son who has been adopted by an American family, sort of telling the story partly through his eyes. Act I then arrived as a flashback of three years previous, and though this is often the feel-good section of the opera with all sorts of pretty music, the love duet feels rather icky as Pinkerton is all but salivating over the prospect of bedding a legal bride who is only 15 years old. Generally, Pinkerton (sung by Mackenzie Whitney) was directed with all kinds of boorish, macho-American poses. So if Pinkerton is a joke, is Butterfly a fool? It's hard to have a lot of sympathy for either of them. One stunning stage picture, though, came at the end of the act: Pinkerton left her in a highly stylized state of bondage. When Act III rolled around, Butterfly’s suitor Yamadori is given the short shrift by being mentioned only briefly, which is unfortunate because he's a serial divorcer, but is apparently her only possible suitor, making her situation even more impossible. You realize that 95 percent of the original Madama Butterfly is indispensable. When cut as much as it is here, a less-is-less element sets in, perhaps because the cut portions have a far greater function than what initially meets the ear.

Heartbeat's physical production had the audience only a few feet from the singers with no separation caused by an orchestra pit since the string quintet and harp were positioned along the side. Much is to be gained from that. But with mainly functional scenery and a small orchestral sound envelop, the burden of the performance rested more than ever on the singer in the title role. Heartbeat's Banlingyu Ban, according to a pre-performance announcement, had been battling illness all week but sang anyway. She delivered a passionate, credible performance. But had that not been the case, would there have been enough opera left to bolster the evening into something that was still worthwhile for the audience? Even with Ban's conviction going far to compensate for the cuts, expectations again had to be adjusted: You weren’t likely to get a star Butterfly with a once-in-a-generation tone quality (as in Renata Tebaldi) with a long-cultivated sense of characterization (as with Renata Scotto) since such a soprano would probably be ... at the Met.
 
Laudably, the opera was sung in Italian with some adapted English subtitles. And if there was a miracle here, it was the orchestral adaptation. As much as I love Puccini’s own, I only missed it momentarily, so smart was was the use of the string ensemble in this Daniel Schlosberg adaptation under the knowing direction of Jacob Ashworth. If nothing else, Heartbeat’s ‘Butterfly’ makes you appreciate the original opera anew — and also shows that this kind of adaptation work is, on a purely strategic level, far trickier than anything the Met is routinely up to.

“My Music Rules,” arguably the best episode of the animated children’s drama Arthur, sees the titular third-grade aardvark at odds with his little sister, D.W. For the musical guest at an upcoming community event, Arthur has moved to book saxophonist Joshua Redman, while D.W. has invited cellist Yo-Yo Ma. As they argue passionate cases for their choice musicians, Arthur tells his sister that she doesn't know anything about music. D.W., not one to take anything lying down, retorts with this zinger: “You wouldn’t even know when to clap at a classical concert.” Game, blouses.

The concert hall, like a visit to your in-laws or your Facebook profile, is a performative space. Not just for the musicians, but the audience, too. There are commandments that govern listener conduct. And the greatest of these? You. Do. Not. Clap. Between. Movements.

But why?

Alex Ross, who feels it’s time to rethink this code, laid bare his feelings on the matter during a 2010 lecture at the Royal Philharmonic Society. In the process, he gave some perspective on how we got to this non-clapping business.

For a good chunk of music history, bursts of applause during a piece were expected. Bach literally played coffee house concerts. Mozart was so excited by the audience applause during his Paris Symphony that he went out for some celebratory ice cream. Basically, applause during a piece meant the audience was really feeling the music. And if they weren’t clapping, the composer might have freaked out. Brahms would know — he took the silence during a peformance of his First Piano Concerto to mean it was a dud, and he wasn’t wrong.

Ross doesn’t ask you to blame composers like Mendelssohn and Schumann for your concert woes, but you can point to both of them as early figures who began to expect audience behavior to keep up with the changing music of the Romantic era. Mendelssohn specified his Scottish Symphony be played without breaks to avoid applause. Schumann took a harsher tack:

“I have dreamed of organizing concerts for the deaf and dumb, that you might learn from them how to behave yourselves at concerts, especially when they are very beautiful. You should be turned to stone pagodas.”

Wagner is another notable composer who set a precedent for audience, but he did it by accident. The year was 1882, and Parsifal was getting ready to make its debut at Bayreuth. In order to preserve the serious mood set by the opera, Wagner told the audience there would be no curtain calls. The audience, confused by this strange news, thought that meant there should be no applause at all. So when the end of the opera was met with silence, the composer had to tell the audience it was cool to smack their hands together. But that didn’t make it any less weird. The confusion continued throughout early performances; audience members would hush early clappers. At one performance, after a silence following the Flower Maidens scene, Wagner himself tried to get the applause going. “Bravo!” he yelled, from a discrete location in the theater. The audience shut him up good.

By the 20th century, Ross notes, the concert hall — much like the church before it — was undergoing a reformation of sorts. And, like the church, it was to become a place of reverential silence. German critics led the charge, wishing that, among other things, orchestras remain behind a screen and the audience hold its applause. Big-name conductors like Toscanini and Stokowski also joined the ranks of hold-your-enthusiasm fans. And in America, it was spreading like crazy.

According to Ross, the early-20th-century American concert hall was undergoing a major change:

Members of the upper and middle classes embraced the symphony orchestra as a faux-European bastion in a world of vulgar commerce … The orchestra became the pride of the upper crust and the chief beneficiary of its largesse. In the face of a rising popular culture, the concert hall was remade as a refuge — a vale far from the madding crowd. The dying out of applause may be considered one marker of that evolution.

So, the concert hall became a retreat from the commoners. It’s not pretty, but this idea falls into line with a historical need for seemingly all things American “high” culture to be in someway validated by European trends. Ross goes on to quote Arthur Rubinstein, who blamed the silence in the concert hall on “an American inferiority complex.”

Even as late as the 1950s conductors and critics were pushing back against this new, silent social norm. Pierre Monteaux called the lack of applause between movements “artificial restraint.” Rubinstein said it was “barbaric” to dictate when one should and shouldn’t applause. Ross was even so kind to point us to Emanuel Ax’s personal blog, who in 2008 wrote, “I really hope we can go back to the feeling that applause should be an emotional response to the music, rather than a regulated social duty.”

We should note that things are a bit different in the opera world. While it isn’t encouraged that concert goers get rowdy, we still clap after amazingly beautiful arias and choruses. In fact, you can watch some audience interaction in the middle of an opera, from this 2011 performance of Nabucco. After a lengthy applause following “Va pensiero,” conductor Riccardo Muti was moved to speak to the audience about the importance of Italian culture and preservation of art. And then, he conducted the chorus once more, with the audience joining in. It’s quite a thing to behold.

Selective applause in the concert hall is a fairly recent development. And while some composers may have been in favor of it, it seems to be born of the demands some critics and privileged patrons, with the rest of us following suit. It’s how any other social norm works. But like other social norms, it is subject to change. Who knows whether or not we’ll be holding applause until the end of a work in 40 years? Music, its critics and performance are constantly changing — in some opinions for better, and in others, for worse.

Now, we want to hear from you. Do you welcome applause between movements or after a particularly dazzling passage? Or do you cast a side eye, and maybe a “sh”? Musicians, do you find applause distracting? Or does it hype you up? Sound off below.

The stunning Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti’s beautifully tragic masterpiece, is your Saturday at the Opera production. Listen in at 1 pm for the music of love, madness and — if this performance is new to you — a stunning example of why Donizetti belongs among the greats.

The opera’s highlight, it goes without saying, is it’s famous “Mad Scene,” in which Lucia loses her mind in a violent delusion of love. It’s a unnerving and masterful display of the human voice, one that has captivated audiences and held them rapt for almost 180 years.

Cast:

Conductor: Enrique Mazzola

Lucia: Albina Shagimuratova

Edgardo: Piotr Beczała

Enrico: Quinn Kelsey

Raimondo: Adrian Sâmpetrean

Memorial Day is behind us, and while Neil deGrasse Tyson wouldn't say it's technically summer yet (June 21 can't come fast enough!), the warm weather and longer days have us ready for it. To help you with your plans, here are 18 knockout music festivals that any classical music lover in the tri-state area would do well to visit. Some are right here in New York City, while others can be visited on a day trip. For the super-ambitious, we've included a few that will make for great weekend trips, without impeding your ability to make it back home just in time for the work week.

New York City

Chelsea Music Festival

The Chelsea Music Festival is ready for a 2017 summer season.

(Chelsea Music Festival)

chelseamusicfestival.org; info@chelseamusicfestival.org

June 9-17

Music, visual art and the culinary arts converge upon this eight-day event, which is back to help you kick off the summertime in the best way. While classical music remains a staple of the festival, visitors can also expect jazz and contemporary commissions. All these different art forms co-mingle in a number of creative combinations. Beethoven All Night features a pre-concert dinner centered on the theme of “time”; it is followed Beethoven’s Groove — Late Night Jazz with Helen Sung, which features the pianist approaching the composer’s music with her unique jazz perspective.

♪ Our Pick: "Next Atlantis; Civilizations Between Heaven And Earth brings together the music of Corelli's interpretation of La Folia, the mixed media of Sebastien Currier's Next Atlantisi, and Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. But WQXR's assistant producer Hillary Bonhomme recommends every date: "I can't recommend this to concert-beginners enough! The experience itself will ease any apprehensions you may have about audience etiquette AND you'll get concert snacks, talks about the repertoire, and perfume to remember the experience!"

Lincoln Center Festival

lincolncenterfestival.org; 212-721-6500

July 10-30

It’s the perfect lineup for those looking to broaden their artistic palettes, thanks to varied programming that crosses between theater, jazz, new music and ballet. Polish composer Maria Pomianowska is scheduled to make her New York debut, with her contemporary compositions played on Medieval instruments. Also, the oud-playing brothers of Le Trio Joubran play a tribute Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet with whom the brothers collaborated before his death in 2008.

♪ Our Pick: Cloud River Mountain, a journey through Chinese mythology, features the vocal talents of Gong Linna and co-composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe of Bang on a Can.

Mostly Mozart Festival

mostlymozart.org; 212-721-6500

July 25–August 20

How do you follow up a wild 50th anniversary? With more Mozart of course, but also with a healthy dose of Schubert. Wolfgang and his music still function as the connective tissue for the 51st Mostly Mozart Festival, but from late July to mid-August, the festivities take a Mostly Schubert turn. Events include the New York debut of pianist Beatrice Rana, a program of Beethoven and Schubert music and a film, Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, documenting the final months of the composer’s tragically short life.

♪ Our Pick: "Every summer, the Mostly Mozart festival reminds us of Mozart's extraordinary influence and how fresh his music still sounds through spirited performances and innovative programming. This year's festival is no exception: the New York premiere of David Lang's Percussion Concerto, the New York debut of dazzling pianist Beatrice Rana, and the festival opener, called The Singing Heart, which pairs Mozart's Haffner Symphony with folk songs from Mozart's time are all certain to deliver thrills." — Zev Kane, Music Coordinator

Day Trip From New York

Aston Magna Music Festival

astonmagna.org; 413-528-3595

June 15-July 22

The baroque music festival celebrates it’s 45th anniversary this year, and they’re going about it with (period) style. This year, Dominique Labelle sings arias from biblical oratorios by Purcell and Clerambault, among others; and Edson Scheid raises his baroque violin to dazzle audiences with Paganini’s 24 Caprices. You can also hear a consort of viols accompany the voices of Deborah Rentz-Moore and Aaron Sheehan, as they transport you to the court of Mantuan Noblewoman Isabella D'Este.

♪ Our Pick: The aforementioned 24 Caprices, performed by Edson Scheid on a period instrument, is not something to be missed. It's always a thrill to hear the virtuosity required of Paganini's Caprices.

Bard SummerScape

Melissa Citro and Clay Hilley in Dvorak's "Dimitrij."

(Todd Norwood)

fishercenter.bard.edu; 845-758-7900

June 30-August 20

Here’s one for all you Romantics out there. Bard is following up last year’s celebration of Puccini with a laser focus on the music of Chopin, under the banner “Chopin and His World.” The Polish composer’s musical legacy is celebrated, aw well as the richness of Slavic culture in a more broad context. Opera fans are treated to a performance of Dimitrij, and ballet will be represented by a number of choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, whose Dances at a Gathering was his second ballet set to Chopin’s music. The composer’s legacy will also be explored in a film series, Chopin and the Image of Romanticism.

♪ Our Pick: "Dimitrij by Antonín Dvořák (Jul. 28-Aug. 6). This opera picks up where Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov leaves off, with the loyalties of the Russian people split between the Godunov family and Dmitrij, son of Ivan the Terrible. With its themes of uncertainty and power, it was one of the most significant operas written by a Czech composer." — Merrin Lazyan, Assistant Producer; Host, He Sang/She Sang

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival

bcmf.org; 212-741-9403

July 30-August 27

For almost 35 years devoted concertgoers have descended upon the Hamptons, eager for the intimacy and warmth provided by excellent chamber ensembles. This year, the sounds radiating from the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church will include strains of Mozart and Mendelssohn. Brahms & the Schumanns: Love, Genius, Madness is a concert series exploring one of 19th century music’s most complex relationships, and French Masters puts the colorful and sensual music of Fauré, Ravel and Hersant front and center.

♪ Our Pick: Beethoven: The Young Lion is a program featuring some of the early works of Beethoven, before the onset of political and personal upheavals that would soon follow. As Bridgehampton promises, this concert is "gentle, witty, lighthearted, and brash ... Beethoven at his brightest and most playful." We could all use a little bit more of that.

Caramoor

The Rosen House at Caramoor

(Caramoor/Facebook/Gabe Palacio)

caramoor.org; 914-232-1252

June 17-July 30

Take a trip upstate to this sprawling estate to soak up an equal sprawling mix of American roots music, jazz, the Songbook, and classical offerings. For those of us who are always ready to learn something new, Schubert and Gopnik will feature writer and Schubert super-fan Adam Gopnik giving a reading that examines the relationship between music and life — in between movements of a musical performance. The opening night concert is a Celebration of Bel Canto opera, and includes opera powerhouses Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi.

♪ Our Pick: “Caramoor is the most lovely setting in Westchester for music, picnics or just breathing. This season, like most, has something for everybody. I’m looking forward to Emmylou Harris, Jazz from Steve Bernstein and join us on WQXR on June 17 for an evening of bel canto, the opening night concert.” — Elliott Forrest, Afternoon Host

Music Mountain

musicmountain.org; 860-824-7126

June 11-September 17

A couple hours’ drive to Connecticut takes you to the home of the oldest chamber musical festival in America. Music Mountain has been spreading their brand of musical joy since 1930. This year, they continue their wonderful Sunday afternoon concerts with featured performances from the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (The Pirates of Penzance concert performance) and Jennifer Koh and Peter Askim, who lead a young orchestra in the performance of works by Anna Clyne and Caroline Shaw.

♪ Our Pick: The Harlem String Quartet, featuring Fei-Fei Dong on piano, is set to serve up a delicious program combining the works of Webern, Mozart, Ellington, Bolcom, López-Gavilán and Brahms. Prepare to criss-cross time, with good music as a guide.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas

artidea.org; 203-498-3772

June 3-24

This New Haven Summer Festival is able to pack so much into such a short period of time. Over 170 events, in fact. While they encompass film, theater, circus arts and lecture series, classical and art music maintain a strong presence, too. This year, Wu Man and the Míro Quartet perform the world premiere of Gardenia, a festival commission by composer Xiaogang Ye.

♪ Our Pick: "Pipa virtuoso Wu Man teams up with the critically beloved Míro Quartet for the world premiere of Gardenia, by Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye. Gardenia, which symbolizes “eternal joy” in Chinese culture, is the most recent edition to Ye’s subtropical plant series and draws heavily from the folk traditions of Hunan Province, in South Central China. It’s a rare opportunity to hear Ye's work premiere outside of Shanghai; this concert is not to be missed." — Eliza Grace Martin, Assistant Digital Producer

"In the wrong hands, academic programs can be didactic, using lots of big works and not a lot of feelings. But when the academic in question is Harold Bloom, the composer Martin Bresnick, and the source material Whitman, Melville, and Dickinson, you can be sure the result will have plenty of passion. At the New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas you can have it all. And if you’re all in, you can also hear another world premiere by pipa master Wu Man and the Miro Quartet, see exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, hear stories about August Wilson from his wife, and even bounce to The Wailers on the green." — Aaron Dalton. Associate Producer, Live Events

Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

norfolk.yale.edu; 860-542-3000

June 21-August 19

Norfolk can trace it’s festival origins back to the turn of the 20th century, under the auspices of Ellen Battell and Carl Stoeckel. Historic guests have included Sibelius and Rachmaninoff, and in 1939 it became intertwined with the Yale School of Music. Sit in on one of their many Emerging Artists Showcases or Chamber Music Masterclasses, for world-class insight into the music you love.

♪ Our Pick: Head over to the Music Shed on July 14 for From the British Isles, featuring works by Mozart, MacMillan, Beethoven, Walton.

The Princeton Festival

2016 Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra

(Jessi Franko)

princetonfestival.org; 609-258-2787

June 3-25

Turn your attention south, to New Jersey, and journey to the 2017Piano Competition Finals. Or, to see the Princeton Pops provide musical accompaniment to some of your favorite Disney Films. A mid-June production of Beethoven’s Fideliois also sure to delight as well as inspire.

♪ Our Pick: Here's one for the historical pracitce lovers. On June 17 and 21, the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra will bring you the music of Baroque masters including Biber, Buxtehude, Gabrielli and Stradella.

Weekend Trip

Berkshire Opera Festival

berkshireoperafestival.org; 413-213-6622

August 8-September 1

A relative newcomer to the festival scene (the inaugural season was just last year), Berkshire is holding its own among its music fest brethren. This year’s highlights include a production of Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss’ comic conflict between trashy and classy. Overall, pickings aren’t as vast as those of other festivals. But it’s still the Berkshires, so make sure you load up on BerkShares.

♪ Our Pick: The good humor of Ariadne auf Naxos is bound to pair well with the pleasant summer air. Of course we're excited for it!

Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival

capecodchambermusic.org; 508-247-9400

August 1-21

For four weeks across five venues in Cape Cod, you can catch some fine chamber music in the New England coastal air. In August, the Emerson String Quartet, the Borromeo String Quartetwith Jelle Atema and the Ying Quartet perform for three separate benefit events. The Teacher and the Student is a program featuring music that shows the influence of Dvořák on his student, Josef Suk.

♪ Our Pick: Borromeo and the Ancient Flute features the quartet performing the music of Mozart, Lampert and Franck. For the program, Jelle Atema lends his talents on both the ancestral flute and its modern cousin.

Glimmerglass Festival

The Glimmerglass Festival Alice Busch Opera Theater.

(Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.)

 glimmerglass.org; 607-547-2255

July 7-August 22

Your summertime opera fix can come a number of ways — like in radio broadcasts or at the Met Opera Summer HD Festival. But for the live experience, Glimmerglass has been a go-to for decades. This year’s main stage productions feature John Holiday in the title role of Handel’s Xerxes, and the Gershwins’ American classic, Porgy and Bess.

♪ Our Pick: Porgy and Bess, no question! Sure, it makes sense to experience the magic of "Summertime" in the actual summer, but with Musa Ngqungwana and Talise Trevigne in the title roles, this a performance to catch at any time of year.

Marlboro Music Festival

marlboromusic.org; 215-569-4690

Saturday and Sunday Evenings, July 15-August 13; Friday Evenings, July 28-August 11

Each summer, this Vermont college brings musicians together for summertime chamber music studies. Mitsuko Uchida returns as artistic director for this educational event. Concerts begin after three weeks of intensive rehearsals, so public concert details aren’t disclosed until summer training and collaborations have come to an end. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eye on their offerings — 21 straight days of rehearsals with leading musicians is definitely going to net something wonderful.

Maverick Concerts

maverickconcerts.org; 845-679-8217

June 23-September 10

From June to September, Woodstock is filled with jazz, classical — and a flourish of young talent. For this upcoming edition, the program Remembrances honors the legacies of American composers Dominick Argento and Ned Rorem; and Trio Solisti performs Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Concerto No. 2. which was commissioned for the group and premiered earlier this year.

♪ Our Pick: String Quartet and Maverick "mini-residents" ETHEL presents New Foundations III, featuring music by Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzoli and Julia Wolfe. As noted in the event description, their planned repertoire is coupled with original arrangements by musical influences including Stevie Nicks and Aretha Franklin.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center

spac.org; 518-584-9330

June 3-September 22

The venue offers up mixed musical offerings of jazz, classical, rock and opera, but also manages to to host the Saratoga Wine and Food Festival, too. And there’s dance as well, courtesy of the New York City Ballet. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents French Virtuosity, a program of Debussy, Ravel, Caplet and Chausson. The Philadelphia Orchestra will take you on a journey with The Russian Festival, featuring music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Glinka, culminating in a collaborative effort with Cirque de la Symphonie. 

♪ Our Pick: SPAC hosts an enormous number of events over the summer, but for a bit of fun, check out the Philadelphia Orchestra providing a musical accompaniment to Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Tanglewood

tanglewood.org; 888-266-1200

June 16-September 3

The Boston Symphony Orchestra kindly invites you to its summering home, for a couple months of fantastic music in an outdoor setting. The season kicks off with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.” You can also catch the music of Villa-Lobos and David Fulmer in the Tangelwood Music Center, the BSO's summer academy.

 ♪ Our Pick: “July 15, Maestro Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony in the first-ever complete concert performance at Tanglewood of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. An all-star cast of vocal soloists will join the BSO for this epic night.” — Kathleen Drohan, Director of the WQXR Instrument Drive

“What are the four movements of a symphony?” is a weird question. Not a bad question, but certainly a weird one. That’s because it assumes that there are always four movements in a symphony. There are not, but we’ll get to that eventually. The fact of the matter is that a whole lot of symphonies have four movements, and yes, they often do follow a pattern. Let’s take a look at Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3, which she wrote while a professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire.

I. The Fast Movement (Allegro)

Typically, the first movement you hear in a symphony is a fast one, which is indicated by a tempo marking such as allegro, Italian for “cheerful.” It’s a brisk and lively pace, much like Calvin’s after he got a job at McDonald’s.

Oftentimes, the opening movement sticks to what is known as sonata form. In this context, sonata form refers to a structure in which music is developed in three main parts. First is the exposition, where the movement’s themes are introduced. Sometimes you’ll hear two themes stated: one heavy and intense; the other a bit lighter in nature, providing a cool balancing effect. Next up is the development, where those themes get built out a little bit more and the composer experiments with different keys, moods, and colors. Finally, recapitulation brings everything home, literally. The themes from the exposition make a reappearance, and the composer might choose to close out the movement on the home key that was established at the beginning.

II. The Slow Movement(Andante, Adagio)

Following the bluster of the first movement is one that is much slower and gentler. It’s placement next to the first movement puts its introspective nature on full display. Common tempo markings you may see include andante (moving at a walking pace) or adagio (literally “slowly”). Here, Farrenc opens the movement with the quiet call of horns before letting a lone clarinet sing to you. The movement gradually gains momentum and tension, taking you to a turbulent and emotional high before masterfully gliding back down.

III. The Dance Number (Scherzo, Minuet)

The third movement usually comes in the form of a scherzo (“joke”) or minuet. You can hear the dance-like qualities of this movement in its time signature, usually in triple meter — that means that you should have no problem counting along “one-two-three, one-two-three” to the music. The minuet is actually a dance with French roots, and features stepping in that three-count time. No, really, people used to get down on that beat like it was no one’s business. 

The scherzo is descended from the minuet, and like its name suggests it is spritely, quick, always in a hurry. In many symphonies, the third movement will kick off with the scherzo or minuet before giving way to a trio (three instruments making their statement) and then returning to the dance party.

IV. A Fast Movement. Again. But Even More Impressive.

The finale. It’s where the composer really gets to show off their fireworks and go out with the proverbial bang. It’s loud, the power of the orchestra is on full display and you yourself are bursting at the seams with enthusiasm. You might hear the sonata form at work here, but there is a good chance you’ll hear a different form — the rondo— at work, just like in Farrenc’s finale. The rondo is pretty easy to grasp. Here, a main theme is introduced (let’s call it “A”) and then alternates with a series of contrasting themes (let’s call them “B,” “C” and so forth). So you’ll hear something along the lines of “ABACA,” except infinitely more exciting than a series of repeating letters. 

Were there always four movements in the symphony?

Not quite. The symphony as we know it can be traced back to the overtures of operas during the Baroque period, and it really began to take shape in the late 17th century thanks in part to Alessandro Scarlatti (Domenico’s dad). His big contribution? He started writing his overtures with a fast-slow-fast structure. Over the next few decades the Italian opera scene included a number of composers who helped to continue the evolution of the symphony. Among these were Niccolò Jommelli, who mastered the ability to load the opera overture with musical ideas while compressing it into a single allegro movement.

Meanwhile the composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini was making strides to develop the symphony outside of the opera house. His concert symphonies helped to bridge beloved baroque techniques with newer classical trends. Sammartini's 1732 opera Memet is particularly notable because he took the overture and developed it into a symphony on its own.

And so, you had a French-style “overture” symphony that was born at the opera and an Italian-style “sinfonia” that developed in the concert hall. The French style was typically slow-fast-minuet (dance) in nature, while the Italian style was fast-slow-fast. In a 1936 article for the Royal Music Association, composer and scholar Adam Carse points out that these distinctions were not always strict. However, it was the three-movement Italian style that won out. Sometimes, composers would swap out the final fast movement with a minuet. As the years went by, it became common to just include both. And there you have it — a four-movement symphony.

As some of you are undoubtedly pointing out already, there is no rule that says a symphony has to have four movements, or even stick to the usual characteristics. Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique contains five; and its third movement, a scene set in the fields, is about as far from a dance as you can get. Florence Price dubbed the final movement of her Third Symphony as the Scherzo. Mahler would sometimes write a fifth movement for his sprawling symphonies; the fourth and fifth movements of Mahler’s Third (out of six total) contain choral parts. Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony only has three movements, the last of which isn’t a minuet or scherzo, but still has one of the greatest symphonic endings of all time. Fazıl Say’s “Universe Symphony” is made up of 6 movements, and the music is based on scientific data.

The four-movement paradigm is helpful for sure, but the symphony isn’t limited to it by any means. Just enjoy the emotional journey, coasting to an excitement of a big and bold finale.* And finally, you can release all that pent-up energy. Please clap.

*Usually. Have you heard the end of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth?

MILAN — I have been fortunate to attend at least a couple of performances at Teatro alla Scala every season since 1975. In addition, I was a student there in the late 1970s, working directly under the brilliant stage director Giorgio Strehler and absorbing much of what I know about Italian opera.

I have seen this legendary opera house during a golden age under Claudio Abbado and Strehler as well as when there was frequent labor unrest, clashes between musicians and management, and a pervasive sense of exclusivity that made many opera lovers feel unwelcome. Securing a ticket required considerable strategizing, lots of money and knowing the right people.

My current visit finds La Scala in very good shape, fully connected with its past, present and future, and more open to the public and to diverse audiences than ever before. Two recent events helped make it the vibrant theater it is today. From 2002-2004, there was a major reconstruction and expansion of the backstage areas that built new dressing rooms and rehearsal spaces and modernized stage technology. This enabled the company to do more ambitious productions.

In 2015, the whole world arrived for the six-month Milan Expo. La Scala rose to the occasion with 12 opera productions and numerous concerts and special events. Many of the world’s top opera singers performed during Expo.

On May 28, I attended a revival of Robert Carsen’s staging of Don Giovanni. When it was La Scala’s opening night production of the 2011-2012 season, I wrote about its reflection of the zeitgeist in Italy at that moment. There are many brilliant ideas, including a funhouse mirror in which the audience is reflected during the overture. It returns at the moment when the Commendatore appears in the box where heads of state such as Silvio Berlusconi have sat. The audience sees him among them, which is chilling.

It is remarkable that the production is even more relevant now than in 2011 even though nothing in the staging has changed. The subtitle of the opera, Il Dissoluto Punito (The Licentious Man Punished), suggests that those who transgress will pay for their sins. In this production (spoiler alert) the Don seems to be punished but, in fact, returns as malevolently charismatic as before, while all the other characters are dragged downward and vanish. The man who breaks all the laws prevails.

It helped that La Scala had, in the title role, Thomas Hampson, who deeply understood the ideas of the production more than Peter Mattei, who appeared in 2011. This, Hampson’s first opera role at La Scala, was one of the baritone’s finest portrayals. Luca Pisaroni was just as good as Leporello in that he was not merely downtrodden and servile but, like all the characters, completely infatuated with Giovanni even though they knew better. They are complicit in their own downfalls.

While the 2011 cast (including Anna Netrebko, Barbara Frittoli and Bryn Terfel) was starrier, the two male leads worked better this time and were abetted by the splendid Donna Anna of Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, one of the finest sopranos I have come across in a long time. She was a memorable Marzelline in her Met debut in Fidelio in March, but that did not prepare me for what she did in Milan. In a strapless black gown designed for Netrebko, Müller looked like John Singer Sargent’s Madame X and sang with such ease and deep feeling for the role and for Carsen’s ideas.

The performance was conducted by Paavo Järvi and the orchestra, though not quite the level of the Met, was marvelous. Attending a first-class performance at this temple of the lyric art is still one of the summits in the life of an opera lover.

On May 31 the company announced its 2017-2018 season and it is very appealing. There will be 15 operas (fewer than the Met or Vienna), but also 8 ballet programs, 8 symphonic concerts, 8 vocal recitals, children’s programs, and visits from major orchestras and the Bolshoi Ballet. Many excellent conductors and singers are scheduled. The glamorous Dec. 7 opening night will be Andrea Chénier, starring Yusif Eyvazov and his wife Anna Netrebko, conducted by music director Riccardo Chailly.

La Scala looks back with a revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s sumptuous Aïda in honor of the director’s 95th birthday. It will be conducted by 86-year-old Nello Santi, who I would love to see again at the Met. There will also be Don Pasquale, Elektra, Ernani, Fidelio, Die Fledermaus, Orphée et Eurydice and Simon Boccanegra. I am drawn to seldom-seen operas such as Francesca da Rimini, Il Pirata, the world premiere of Kurtag’s Fin de Partie (based on Samuel Beckett’s Endgame), Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and, especially Schubert’s Fierrabras.

I want to single out Cherubini’s Ali Babà e i quaranta ladroni (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) in Sept. 2018. It will be presented by the Accademia della Scala, the training program that is a jewel in the company’s crown. It has done one mainstage production each season since 2016. Ali Babà will be conducted by Paolo Carignani and produced by Liliana Cavani.

The roots of training performers at La Scala dates back to 1813, when the renowned ballet school was founded. A school for singers was established in 1950 and one for stage directors came in 1970. In recent years, the Accademia has grown in scope and now has 1200 students receiving a wide range of training. It became an autonomous school in 2001. An outstanding recent graduate is soprano Pretty Yende.

The Accademia trains opera talent of all types: conductors, instrumentalists, singers, stage directors, scenic designers, hair stylists, wig makers, tailors, costume designers, videographers, sound crews, lighting designers and photographers, as well as young people who want to work in opera management. No other theater in the world offers as complete an education in all aspects of bringing opera to the public. But, then, no other opera house is Teatro alla Scala. 

Sir Jeffrey Tate, the leading English conductor and chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra died on June 2nd, at the age of 74. It has been reported that he suffered a heart attack.

Tate was a conducting fixture in the opera world, ever since he made his debut in 1978 at Sweden’s Gothenburg Opera. He was a regular conductor there, alongside his duties as the principal conductor of the Geneva Opera.

Before becoming a conductor, Tate studied medicine at Cambridge and was set to pursue a career as a doctor. But he began to train at the Royal Opera House, and studied with Georg Solti. In 1976, he assisted Pierre Boulez in Bayreuth’s 1976 centennial production of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Two years after, he made his official debut at Gothenburg Opera, conducting a production of Bizet’s Carmen. The following year, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut, and in 1986 he became the principal conductor of the Royal Opera House. In 2007, he became the chief conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.

Tate was born with spina bifida, an affliction affecting the vertebrae and causing a severe curvature of the spine. This, along with paralysis in his left leg, caused Tate to conduct from a stool in front of the orchestra. However, he could stand on occasion, telling BBC Radio 4, “that is an advantage, because if you do stand up occasionally, you can produce an effect.”

In May of this year, he was knighted Sir Jeffrey Tate, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of his contributions to music.

Now, hear Tate conduct the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Dvořák Symphony No. 6.

On Saturday at 1pm, soak in the epic nature of Hector Berlioz’s crowning achievement, Les Troyens. The sprawling story, told over five acts, was the culmination of Virgil’s epic poem that had fascinated the composer since his earliest days. As a boy, Berlioz studied Virgil with his father, and The Aeneid had an indelible impact on his imagination.

Years later, Berlioz revisited the story. His musical ideas germinated and grew into plans for a Grand Opera. His motivation was largely intrinsic; the negative reception for his Benvenuto Cellini harmed his reputation in the opera world, and as David Cairns points out in his liners for a recording by Sir Colin Davis and the Orchestra and Chorus of Covent Garden, “no commission called [the opera] into being.” Still, Berlioz pressed forward, knowing very well that, production-wise, the opera had no certain future. That he worked on the Les Troyens while battling a painful intestinal disease makes the opera’s two-year completion time all the more impressive.

Cast:

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cassandre: Christine Goerke

Didon: Susan Graham

Énée: Brandon Jovanovich

Chorèbe: Lucas Meachem

Narbal: Christian Van Horn

Anna: Okka von der Damerau

Earlier this month, the internet learned that Ron Howard will be directing an official Luciano Pavarotti documentary. Howard is no stranger to biopics and documentaries; the famed actor and filmmaker has several music docs under his belt with The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Jay-Z: Made in America, and he scored some additional points as the executive producer of Katy Perry: Part of Me.

Deadline, which first reported the news, spoke extensively with Howard. The director revealed that he found the people and stories behind the music more fascinating than the music itself. Howard Pavarotti's life, after all “was replete with the highs and lows of great drama” and is a perfect subject. “Like any compelling character, he was also a man of considerable contradictions.”

Another plus? Pavarotti's life was heavily documented in sound, film and photograph. That wealth of information means that the celebrated tenor can “tell his own story.” Despite all of that archived material, Howard told Deadline that there is a shortage of stories— there aren’t a lot of Pavarotti films and other creative undertakings relative to other musical giants.

Howard will be co-producing with longtime collaborator Brian Grazer, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Nigel Sinclair and Michael Rosenberg.

Now, watch Pavarotti perform the familiar favorite “La Donna è Mobile” from Verdi's Rigoletto. 

For this New Sounds, hear music made about an imaginary Iceland as well as new music from Iceland by way of Ireland, Australia, & New York. One of the outsider’s views of Iceland is by the Irish composer Linda Buckley. Listen to her work for piano and electronics, “Fridur,” which means “peace” in Icelandic. The work premiered in Belfast in late 2015, and features pianist Isabelle O'Connell.  

Then, hear music by Australian-born composer and sound artist Ben Frost, who is based in Iceland. From his terrifying record of industrial and drone-influenced music, “By the Throat,” which features field recordings of wolves, listen to “Leo Needs a New Pair of Shoes.” Then, there’s music by way of Brittany, courtesy of composer Yann Tiersen, who made his record, ∞ (Infinity), on Iceland.

Plus, listen to music by composer/producer Valgeir Sigurðsson and his score for a documentary about the exploitation of Iceland's natural resources - “Draumalandið” (“Dreamland”), in a selection, "Grylukvaedi," which features Sam Amidon. There’s also music by way of Canadian-born, Seattle-based composer Eyvind Kang from his five part suite, “The Story of Iceland.” Hear a bit of his “Circle of Fair Karma,” replete with tuba, violin, trumpet, snare drum, and Uilleann pipes. And more. 

PROGRAM #3834, new music from/about Iceland (First Aired 2-23-2016) 

ARTIST: Bjork
WORK: Dark Matter (with Choir & Organ), excerpt [1:00]
RECORDING: Biophilia
SOURCE: Nonesuch 528728
INFO: nonesuch.com

ARTIST: Linda Buckley / Isabelle O'Connell
WORK: Buckley: Fridur for piano & electronics [12:04]
RECORDING: Soundcloud, recorded Nov 21 2015
SOURCE: https://soundcloud.com/isabelleoconnell/linda-buckley-fridur-live

ARTIST: Ben Frost
WORK: Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes [7:04]
RECORDING: By the Throat
SOURCE: Bedroom Community HVALUR6 
INFO: bedroomcommunity.net

ARTIST: Yann Tiersen
WORK: Midsummer Evening [4:14]
RECORDING: ∞ (Infinity)
SOURCE: Mute 9592
INFO: Available at Amazon.com or iTunes

ARTIST: Valgeir Sigurdsson ft. Sam Amidon
WORK: Grylukvaedi [4:51]
RECORDING: Draumalandið
SOURCE: Bedroom Community HVALUR8
INFO: bedroomcommunity.net

ARTIST: Nico Muhly
WORK: Wonders Pt. 1 New Things & New Tidings [5:56]
RECORDING: Mothertongue
SOURCE: Bedroom Community HVALUR5CD 
INFO: https://nicomuhly.bandcamp.com/album/mothertongue

ARTIST: Carlos Bica
WORK: Iceland [4:20]
RECORDING: Matéria Prima
SOURCE: Clean Feed CF180
INFO: cleanfeed-records.com

ARTIST: Eyvind Kang
WORK: Circle of Fair Karma II, excerpt [8:15]
RECORDING: The Story of Iceland
SOURCE: Tzadik Records - #7059
INFO: tzadik.com

GENOA — This wonderful, contradictory capital of Liguria (the Italian Riviera) is the first Italian city I wrote about for Operavore. I adore Genoa and its whole region in a very particular way. It is remarkably beautiful but also careworn and marred by some ugly post-war urban renewal. Liguria is the Italy I dreamt of long before I ever set foot in the nation 44 years ago.

I came now for a brief visit to get a sense of what’s happening at the Teatro Carlo Felice. I also wanted to eat the city’s superb food, including pesto, focaccia and perfect fruit and vegetables. As it happens, an article just appeared in the Conde Nast Traveler about dining in Genoa in which I was quoted. This is true love.

The Carlo Felice is one of the most important opera houses in Italy. It was badly damaged between 1941 and 1944 and only reopened in 1992 with a huge modern stage.  In the quarter century since, it has had some rough times as economic instability determined the fate of government funding and also whether people were inclined to buy tickets. The city’s population shrank from 800,000 to 650,000 and many newcomers to Genoa came more for work than to partake of its rich cultural offerings.

Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy

(Fred Plotkin)

And yet the flinty determination and extreme pride of the Zeneize (the dialect word for Genoese) prevented the theater and other institutions from foundering. Native musicians, including conductors Marco Armiliato and Fabio Luisi and singers Fabio Armiliato and the late Daniela Dessì made sure to lend their presence and international fame to attract audiences.

The Carlo Felice offers a rich mix of opera, ballet, recitals and symphonic concerts. This season’s operas have included Così Fan Tutte, Don Carlo, L’Elisir d’Amore, Falstaff, Maria Stuarda, La Traviata and Turandot.

I went to the last of five performances of Maria Stuarda. The emphasis was mostly on musical values, as it should be if there are limited resources. Elena Mosuc excelled in the title role and conductor Andriy Yurkevych supplied intense dramatic imperative and shaped the orchestral playing magnificently. The entire cast gave an idiomatic account of the score. The stage direction of Alfonso Antoniozzi was straightforward, the scenery by Monica Manganelli was minimalistically functional and the fanciful costumes by Gianluca Falaschi were effective apart from some odd choices. Why did the character Roberto have a large owl over his private parts? Overall, though, a pleasing and Italianate rendering of a bel canto gem.

Some 15 miles (24 km) southeast is Camogli, a town of 5,500 souls that I first saw in 1973 and where I since have spent long, happy stretches of my life. It is a fishing port that attracts some tourism (any more would overwhelm it). Some camoglini commute to Genoa for work. Many more stay put in local jobs, falling under the sway of the waves that endlessly pound against the rocks and cliffs along the shore. This unrelenting acoustic is, to me, the most spellbinding aspect of Camogli. To some visitors, including Charles Dickens, this sound is overwhelming.

Camogli has a history as a city of mariners, shipbuilders and men who sought their fortunes elsewhere. Its peak was in the mid-19th century, after which it sank into obscurity and dependence on tourism and fishing. During the height of its economic power, its prominent citizens had the audacity to build a theater — the Teatro Sociale — to assert Camogli’s importance (at least to the camoglini). Its owners were a consortium of private shareholders. On Sept. 30, 1876, the theater opened with a production of Verdi’s Ernani.

For the next five decades, the fortunes of the theater ebbed and flowed according to the economics and politics of the Republic of Italy. Restructuring and new management in the Fascist era saw a period of renewal that included, in 1933, productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Rigoletto. The rise of cinema meant that films were shown too, but the little town still heard the occasional opera with stars such as Lina Pagliughi, Magda Olivero and Beniamino Gigli, especially after Genoa’s opera house was bombed in World War II.

After the war, the theater was used mostly for movies and conferences and gradually fell into disrepair. By 1975, it was no longer safe for public assembly and its shareholders disagreed about what to do with it. In the decades since, the theater remained shut and its interior began to rot due to neglect. The roof was near collapse and birds took residence indoors.

In my years in Camogli, I tried to interest local people in restoring the Teatro Sociale because of the uniqueness of its history and what it could offer the town today. I was always told, in effect, that the shareholders could never agree. As Italians often say with a shrug, “é difficile!”,  and that is that.

And yet Italy is a land of miracles and the Ligurians are a particularly determined lot. Two prominent and persuasive citizens, Farida Simonetti and Silvio Ferrari (who was Liguria’s culture minister in the 1990s), decided to attempt the impossible and reopen the theater. It was helpful that conductors Riccardo Chailly and Fabio Luisi had connections to Camogli and Luisi, in particular, offered to help.

Shareholders were convinced of the merits of the plan. The region of Liguria, the province of Genoa, the towns of Camogli and nearby Recco, and the Carige and San Paolo banks, gave generously, thanks in part of Ferrari’s prestige. Architects and engineers created a beautiful new interior with 493 seats that is quietly modern but evocative of the original. There is a truly impressive stage house with scenic potential.

After more than five years of reconstruction, the Teatro Sociale opened on Dec. 23, 2016 with Fabio Luisi leading musicians from La Scala in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Forty different events have followed and some 12,500 tickets have been sold. Opening a theater is one thing. Making it viable — with performances and public gatherings — is another. Speriamo (“let’s hope”)!

This week's episode of Saturday at the Opera features a special broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Grand Finals Concert. The Finals Concert took place on March 19th with Maestro Nicola Luisotti leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.  It was hosted by soprano Renée Fleming, with special guest artists soprano Amber Wagner, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and tenor Michael Fabiano.

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti

Program:

“O luce di quest’anima” from Linda di Chamounix (Donizetti)
Natalie Image , Soprano

“Se vuol ballare” from Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
Cody Quattlebaum, Bass-Baritone

“Parto, parto” from La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart)
Samantha Hankey, Mezzo-Soprano

“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” (Flower Song) from Carmen (Bizet)
Richard Smagur, Tenor

“Otchego eto prezhde ne znala” from Iolanta (Tchaikovsky)
Kirsten MacKinnon, Soprano

“Pompe vane di morte ... Dove sei, amato bene?” from Rodelinda (Handel)
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Countertenor

“Il est doux, il est bon” from Hérodiade (Massenet)
Gabriella Reyes de Ramírez, Soprano

“Steady! There you are! Nearly home!” (Grimes’s Mad Scene) from Peter Grimes (Britten)
Kyle van Schoonhoven, Tenor

“Un bel dì, vedremo” from Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
Vanessa Vasquez, Soprano

Intermission

Snow Maiden’s Aria from The Snow Maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Natalie Image, Soprano

“Vous qui faites l’endormie” from Faust (Gounod)
Cody Quattlebaum, Bass-Baritone

“Da, chas nastal” from The Maid of Orleans (Tchaikovsky)
Samantha Hankey, Mezzo-Soprano

“Pourquoi me réveiller” from Werther (Massenet)
Richard Smagur, Tenor

“Ah, je ris de me voir” from Faust (Gounod)
Kirsten MacKinnon, Soprano

“Dawn, still darkness” (Refugee’s Aria) from Flight (Jonathan Dove)
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Countertenor

“Cristóbal ¿Es esta luz la muerte?” from Florencia en el Amazonas (Catán)
Gabriella Reyes de Ramírez , Soprano

“Allmächt’ger Vater, blick herab!” (Rienzi’s Prayer) from Rienzi (Wagner)
Kyle van Schoonhoven, Tenor

“È strano! È strano! ... Ah fors’è lui ... Sempre libera” from La Traviata (Verdi)
Vanessa Vasquez, Soprano

GUEST ARTISTS

“Acerba voluttà, dolce tortura” from Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)
Jamie Barton, Mezzo-Soprano

“Es gibt ein Reich” from Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss)
Amber Wagner, Soprano

“Oh! fede negar potessi ... Quando le sere al placido” from Luisa Miller (Verdi)
Michael Fabiano, Tenor

The rock opera Divo Nerone (“Divine Nero”), a massive spectacle of musical theater, premiered this weekend in Rome. But while the show and it’s all-star direction stopped at nothing to wow the audience, it has found a foe in cultural preservationists and archaeologists.

It’s not the content of the work that has left some disgruntled. Rather, it’s the location. Roman authorities authorized the construction of a set situated on the Palatine Hill — atop the remains of the palace Nero built after the Great Fire of Rome of 64 CE. The show runs for three months, halting any excavation of the royal ruins. As Elisabetta Povoledo recently reported in the New York Times, some are concerned that the set — though temporary — has marred the natural beauty of the archaeological site, while the nuns of a nearby covent are subject to the unceasing noise from the production.

Municipal authorities, however, have a different perspective. The Local Italy reports that Archaeological Superintendent  Francesco Prosperetti sees both the show and it’s set as beneficial to future preservation efforts. Three percent of ticket sales — estimated to be €1 million — are being donated to the archaeological site, and Prosperetti believes the production will spark interest of Rome’s cultural heritage in an untapped demographic.

Musical and artistic production of Divo Nerone is helmed by a seasoned team, whose members share eight Academy Awards and two Grammys between them. Gino Landi is serving as director. Francesca Lo Schiavo, who has won Academy Awards for her work on The Aviator, Sweeney Todd and Hugo is set decorator. The musical team includes composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score with Il Postino; and Franco Migliacci, whose “Nel blu dipinto di blu” (“Volare”), won the first ever Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Below, the trailer for Divo Nerone.

H/T: The New York Times.

Though Angels in America remains a pungent period piece about the late-20th-century AIDS epidemic, the 21st century couldn't help but creep into the New York City Opera production of Peter Eotvos' operatic version in highly beneficial ways.

The angel of the title, which may be here to save our beleaguered nation, wore a Hillary Clinton pantsuit (white, of course) with a shoot-from-the-hip sense of self-possession. Portrayals of increasingly distant historic figures like shady super-lawyer Roy Cohn no longer need to resemble the real thing. Best of all, the 1993 play is far enough in the past that you're less inclined to expect the two-hour-plus opera version to deliver the seven-hour play’s experience. I doubted the opera's viability when I heard its haphazard 2004 premiere at Paris' Châtelet Theater. The City Opera's Saturday opening changed my mind.

Operas often need years to find their legs. This one will always be somewhat problematic if only because the original story and characters feel more stereotypical as a side effect of concision — even if the Mari Mezei libretto is fairly deft. Nonetheless, the piece revealed much more of itself at the Saturday opening partly because of the chamber-opera circumstances of the Rose Theater. The Eotvos score emerged with a more controlled sense of invention, not to mention a richness that borders on lush for something so rooted in modernism. The orchestra is used more for its individual sections than collectively, the saxophone writing being a particular source of emotional information. The opera's vocal trio, housed in the orchestra pit, sounded like a mere echo effect at the Châtelet but in the Rose Theater had its own independent purpose, adding a layer of commentary on the stage action. We can thank conductor Pacien Mazzagatti for much of that.

Obviously, the intertwining plots of young gay men coping with AIDS, a Mormon couple whose marriage is devolving amid Valium addiction and Cohn’s fight to keep his law practice are not dramatized prosaically here. Eotvos employs a rich succession of sung, declaimed and spoken dialogue that works mainly because the singers are miked, allowing the various forms of text articulation to unfold in a seamless stream. That’s saying a lot. The largely atonal vocal lines were more eloquent than obscure amid the cast's exceptional dramatic focus — at least most of the time. The Act I finale still feels truncated and some early scenes lack musical sweep though that's the composer's failing.

The production, directed by Sam Helfrich, used a handsome unit set — black tile walls with white windows and doors — that lent itself to the quickly shifting settings from home to hospital to office. Any number of secondary factors — what was happening outside the window, changes in lighting and shifts in stage direction — allowed the opera to cover much dramatic territory in a short period of time.

New York City Opera production of Angels in America. Andrew Garland as Prior Walter, Michael Weyandt as Joe, Aaron Blake as Louis, and Sarah Beckham-Turner as Harper Pitt.

(Sarah Shatz )

Casting decisions were made for looks as well as voices, though the singers were all musically well prepared, with Andrew Garland as Prior Walter and Aaron Blake as his errant boyfriend Louis handling the mixture of singing and speech particularly well. The Mormon couple inspired more empathy than judgment with Michael Weyandt managing to be both charismatic and hapless, and Sarah Beckham-Turner steering clear of operatic-madness cliches as her Valium gobbling character hallucinates her way around the world. You're not supposed to like Roy Cohn, though Wayne Tigges was more vocally abrasive than needed. Matthew Reese maintained relative vocal and theatrical restraint as the truth-telling nurse Belize, but must a flamboyantly gay role be written for a countertenor voice? A special word for Kristen Chambers as the angel: Her strong stage presence (beyond the Hillary references) knits together the huge narrative gaps that are inevitable in adapting such an epic play. For all of her efforts, the opera may never make sense without knowing the play first. But opera isn’t necessarily expected to make sense.

Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic, just gave his last Lincoln Center performance with the company he has led since 2009. The house program on June 10 had a cover page that misleadingly referred to “Alan Gilbert’s Farewell Concert.” This excellent performance of Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 was his last in David Geffen Hall, but he and his players have more music to make together.

There will be the annual free concerts in New York City parks from June 13-16. They will then appear in Shanghai (July 2-7), the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado (July 22-28) and Santa Barbara with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (July 31).

As I sat in Geffen Hall, watching and listening to Gilbert and the Philharmonic (as well as 22 guest musicians from 19 nations in what was called A Concert for Unity), I reflected on many Gilbert performances I have been privileged to hear.

Just before the concert began, I jotted down the names of conductors who have inspired me in the wonderful masterpieces of opera and classical music. My gold standard is Claudio Abbado and just after him are Leonard Bernstein, James Levine and Georg Solti. I wrote down a few other names, past and present, including Harry Bicket, William Christie, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber, Gianandrea Noseda, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Klaus Tennstedt. Within moments of the performance’s beginning, I realized that Alan Gilbert has earned his place on my list of conductors whose work moves me, inspires me and challenges me to think in new ways about music and its place in our lives.

Gilbert is not as flamboyant as many conductors and seems to feel most at home as a colleague who makes music with other talented musicians. At the curtain call, he came out with a bottle of Pils beer and took a celebratory swig. He is eclectic in his tastes (which is a good thing) in a way that defies easy definition (also a good thing). I am grateful that he led the orchestra on a long exploration of the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen and that most of these performances were recorded. He created Contact!, a new music series and has engaged many collaborative artists, such as Salonen, composer Magnus Lindbergh and singer Eric Owens for fascinating musical programming. He has conducted 28 world premieres at the Philharmonic.

He made an outstanding Met debut in 2008 leading the company premiere of Dr. Atomic (by John Adams and Peter Sellars) with a superb cast led by Gerald Finley, Sasha Cooke and Owens in his first role at the Met. The production was by Penny Woolcock and a superb team of designers. It was in every way an ambitious undertaking and the largeness of everything—the opera ends with the detonation of the atomic bomb, expressed more in musical than visual terms—meant that the contribution of this conductor was not sufficiently lauded. I recall it as some of the finest playing by the always excellent Met orchestra.

Gilbert has been a valuable presence at the Juilliard School as the Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies. He conducted a lovely Così fan tutte there in 2012 in collaboration with the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in a lucid production by Stephen Wadsworth. The quicksilver plot changes and subtle shifts in mood and emotion were exquisitely captured by Gilbert and his young musicians.

In 2015 he led ten performances of Don Giovanni at the Met with a cast including Elza van den Heever, Emma Bell, Peter Mattei and Luca Pisaroni. I think the Michael Grandage staging is the least successful in the current Met repertoire. I have seen marvelous singers in it but the production never comes alive. I attend instead to hear the music because, as theater, it is inert. I experience a conductor’s work more fully because it is up to him to use the orchestra for telling the complex story in this Mozart masterpiece. 

Also in 2015, Gilbert conducted the American premiere of British composer George Benjamin’s stunning new opera, Written on Skin, at the Lincoln Center Festival. Doctor Atomic, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Written on Skin are, in their own ways, very difficult works to conduct and to make viable in musical and theatrical terms. Gilbert excelled in all four and proved that a conductor need not be defined as a specialist in one kind of music. Rather, he is absorbed in music that inspires him and then shares it with us.

In the same period, Gilbert brought opera and other kinds of music drama to the New York Philharmonic, including Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake and, earlier this month, a magnificent rendering of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. (Full disclosure: The education department of the Philharmonic engaged me to do a video about Joan of Arc as an inspiration to composers and creative artists).

Gilbert is moving to Sweden, where his wife is from, but I hope that major musical organizations around the world will engage him and allow him to explore his passions. I would love to hear him conduct Lohengrin. He is more than up to the task musically and this is an opera about belief which he would make a meaningful experience.

Alan Gilbert began his final season at the New York Philharmonic with Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony (“From the New World”) as part of a year-long exploration of that work’s particular relationship to the orchestra for which it was composed while Dvořák lived in New York in the 1890s and to the city that was part of its inspiration. Alan Gilbert has new worlds to explore in the next phase of his career but I hope that New York (his hometown) will always find a place for him and his very special talents and mission as a musician.

With all of its throbbing vocal and orchestral intensity, opera is full of sex, as a byproduct of passion. But how often does opera portray sex — full and frontal?

Three Way, the new opera with music by Robert Paterson and libretto by David Cote that opened Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy's Fishman Space, has no live sex acts onstage. Or nudity. Or is even a turn-on. What's left? Much navel gazing (though not literally) in three one-act operas that periodically left you asking if the emotions in sex without passion are too small (and sometimes too petty) to fill out an aria.

At least the piece never lapsed into tutorial mode. But in dramatizing ex-taboos — from bondage to group sex — the opera feels a bit 1970s in its sense of newly won liberation. Mostly, Three Way stayed aloft thanks to composer Paterson's tendency to keep the music light, bouncy and well-paced in a tonal, Jonathan Dove sort of way. It's as if, in his zeal to resist any implied moral judgment, the composer played a more supporting role than what you usually get in opera.

Presented by American Opera Projects and the Nashville Opera with the American Modern Ensemble, the opera certainly benefited from good singing and acting, plus a production designed by Randy Williams and directed by John Hoomes that was handsome, highly functional and stepped in with some sexy video (by Barry Steele) in moments where composer Paterson maintained a high road by not becoming sexually graphic. But did it justify its three-hour running time? Barely.

The best came first. The Companion is set in the near future with a career woman (Danielle Pastin) living with an android lover (Samuel Levine), and going broke over self-defeating upgrades: The more human-like the companion gets, the more moody, selfish and useless it becomes. Patterson and Cote are definitely onto something here, comically examining what we think we want in a partner, but discovering that playing God by dictating precise physical and emotion requirements is the way of madness, not to mention debt as tech support put her behind in her mortgage.

As with all three sections, Cote throws in plot twists that Paterson accommodates with pithy motifs, many sounding appropriately mechanized in this section. Here, and in other parts of the triptych, getting down to business sexually often means a lapse into something jazzy. Why not? Best moment: She asks a tech-support guy if he wants to have a three way, and he demurs because he doesn't do it with what he calls "units." A new taboo?

Eliza Bonet in 'Safe Word' which is part two of the opera 'Three Way.'

(Steven Pisano)

Safe Word, part two, is about a relationship between dominatrix (Eliza Bonet) and client (Matthew Trevino) with twists that are cliches in our post-Jerry Springer world. Rarely did the piece truly illuminate why people seek out this kind of play acting, but Paterson took it seriously with spare, dissonant chords that were more like film scoring. Within the Three Way triptych, this section provided some shade amid the lighter first and third sections. Conductor Dean Williams was particularly skillful at maintaining tension. But am I the only one who finds any kind of cruelty hard to laugh at these days?

Plot-wise, the Act III Masquerade had the least dramatic credibility. Married couples at a swingers party are obliged to wear robes and masks so they don't know who they're having sex with. I know that's a time-honored European Shrovetide tradition and in this context was practiced in the dark. That's fun? In any case, the self-discovery element was reminiscent of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway show Into the Woods, particularly with the libretto's tight, Sondheim-esque rhyme schemes. The best operatic moments arose from the loneliness experienced by one who is left out of group gropes — countertenor Jordan Rutter delivered the evening's best and most affecting singing. Later, baritone Wes Mason had some great moments in a tragic-comic aria about performance failure. Musically, Masquerade is the liveliest section of the three, and doesn't portray a retreat back to more safe, conservative sexuality. Even so, Three Way isn't going to take anybody out of their comfort zone. After all, it emerged from its Nashville world premiere in January with no signs of tar and feathers.

Three Way runs through June 18 at the BAM's Fishman Space in Brooklyn.

Tune in Saturday at 1 pm EST for Mozart’s immensely successful fantasy opera The Magic Flute. The two-act production begins as a romantic princess rescue mission, a common theme amongst works of its time. The narrative takes the audience on a magical and ethereal journey of fraternity and love.

The work was a major hit from its premiere, celebrating its 100th performance just over a year after its debut. Since then, the production has inspired generations of adaptations, films, novels and art pieces. To this day, it is still among the top 10 most frequently performed operas worldwide.  

Cast:

Conductor: Rory Macdonald

Tamino: Andrew Staples

Pamina: Christiane Karg

Queen of the Night: Kathryn Lewek

Papageno: Adam Plachetka

Sarastro: Christof Fischesser