OPERA
Glimmerglass’ Wrenching “Blue”
Jeanine Tesori debuts probe of violence against black men
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
The Glimmerglass Festival
— Cooperstown’s lakeside
company that started
with “La bohème” at the
local high school in 1975 — made
rapid strides artistically, especially
after the beautiful, state-of-theart
lakeside Alice Busch Theater
opened in 1987. An all-English
policy was dropped and repertory
grew more ambitious, encompassing
world and national premières
as well as explorations of early and
recondite repertory. Since 1988,
the company’s Young Artist program
has produced many distinguished
alumni including Karina
Gauvin, Christine Goerke, John
Osborn, Brenda Rae, and Anthony
Roth Costanzo.
Francesca Zambello, the busy
out lesbian stage director who’s
run Washington National Opera
since 2012, assumed the reins as
Glimmerglass’ artistic and general
director in 2010. She has to
raise donations tirelessly, but has
stabilized the company after two
fi nancially heedless regimes and
instituted one remunerative and
(usually) worthwhile innovation:
she programs a classic musical
comedy — mercifully without
distorting amplifi cation — every
season. This year, she directed
1927’s “Show Boat,” a landmark
Jerome Kern score with some actual
socio-political content. Next
year promises “The Sound of Music”
with Isabel Leonard and longtime
Glimmerglass tenor star William
Burden. Zambello has also
pioneered cooperation with local
schools and brought piano-accompanied
performances including
“Macbeth” (starring Eric Owens)
and “Bohème” to inmates at Attica
State Prison. Multiracial casting
and staffi ng has been welcomely
standard under her régime.
The big news this season was
July 14’s world première of “Blue,”
dealing with the all-too-timely
subject of police violence against
African-American men. In veteran
director Tazewell Thompson’s libretto,
the young activist victim’s
Kenneth Kellogg, Aaron Crouch, and Briana Hunter in the Glimmerglass Festival’s world premiere of
Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s “Blue.”
father is ironically himself a policeman,
complicating the family situation
and the narrative. Jeanine
Tesori, an acclaimed composer of
Broadway musicals including the
admirable “Caroline, or Change”
with Tony Kushner and the superb
collaboration with Alison Bechdel
“Fun Home,” supplied Glimmerglass
with her fi rst opera, 2011’s
chamber piece “A Blizzard on Marblehead
Neck.” Her atmospheric
score for “Blue,” successful though
not especially innovative, respectfully
incorporates some jazz, gospel,
and hip-hop infl ections; the
choral scenes show especially fi ne
vocal writing. Thompson’s libretto
— more steeped in Catholicism
than the typical Baptist-infl ected
African-American “family play”
— offers clarity and an ingenious
construction (we see the hopeful
middle scene last, after The Son’s
wrenching funeral). It does indulge
at times in the current American
libretto’s besetting sin: introducing
McNally/ Wasserstein boulevard
comedy-style “relatable” references
to brand names, sports, and pop
culture to ‘soften’ the impact of the
serious themes being presented.
But it’s a moving and highly honorable
work, and certainly Thompson
and veteran conductor John
DeMain obtained excellent, affecting
results from a youngish cast.
Solid, sonorous bass Kenneth
Kellogg capably shouldered the
lion’s share of singing and acting
as the confl icted Father. Briana
KARLI CADEL/ THE GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL
Hunter’s vibrant-voiced Mother
generated endless sympathy.
Still a student at Curtis Institute,
Aaron Crouch acted the Son very
convincingly; his trenchant tenor
sounds more baritonal by the year.
Lively, clear-toned high soprano
Ariana Wehr proved the evening’s
vocal revelation in three ensemble
parts — but the whole cast delivered
conviction. Veteran baritone
Gordon Hawkins — Zambello’s fi ne
longtime Alberich — brought mature
but still imposing sound and
presence to the Reverend — with
whom, somewhat unexpectedly,
the Father discusses the tragedy
more than with his wife. Robert
Wierzel brought his usual lighting
wizardry to bear. “Blue” aroused
a strong emotional audience reaction.
It plays through August 22
and will appear in Washington
March 15-28, with Kellogg still anchoring
the cast.
Though she’s directed some
highly accomplished works, involving
huge stagings internationally
(“War and Peace” at the
Bastille, Wagner’s “Ring” cycle for
Washington and San Francisco
Operas), Zambello’s productions
sometimes take on a circusy or
holiday pageant-like aspect. But
her handsome, organically blocked
and motivated “Traviata” (originated
in DC last fall and on view upstate
through August 24) proved
highly enjoyable, a tonic after the
disappetizing Disneyish spectacle
Michael Mayer unveiled at the
Met in December. The opera began
and ended in a hospital ward,
and the transformations of Peter
J. Davison’s handsome set fl owed
smoothly.
Amanda Woodbury, an attractive
Kentucky-born lyric-coloratura
who has alternated with
Diana Damrau as a Met Leïla
and Juliette, made her affectingly
acted Violetta’s technical challenges
sound easy, though weightier
phrases like “Amami, Alfredo”
took some effort. Looking like
portraits of Marie Duplessis, the
raven-haired original inspiration
for Dumas’ fi ctional courtesan,
she’s ready to shoulder this iconic
role in important regional houses;
greater textual and timbral variety
will come. A shy, youthful Alfredo,
Kang Wang sang solidly in a stilldeveloping
tenor, best in the lyrical
duets. Adrian Timpau, spared
Germont’s sub-standard cabaletta
(company music director Joseph
Colaneri led a warm, idiomatic
reading with traditional cuts and
cadenzas) contributed dignity
and bel canto phrasing. Among
the Young Artists in comprimario
roles, Lindsay Metzger and Kameron
Lopreore’s live-wire Flora and
Gastone showed distinctive timbres
and stage personalities. Even
the dancing at Flora’s party was
apt and enjoyable: a major rarity
in this piece.
The other 2019 mainstage show
was John Corigliano’s nostalgiepour
l’ancien-regime pastiche “The
Ghosts of Versailles” (Met, 1991),
reportedly very well staged. Next
season brings “Don Giovanni” and
— more interestingly — Handel’s
“Rinaldo”: a welcome return of the
baroque repertory that helped put
Glimmerglass on the international
map with appearances by David
Daniels, Goerke, Drew Minter, and
Lisa Saffer in Monteverdi, Cavalli,
and Handel — and (following
2008’s “Das Liebesverbot”) Richard
Wagner’s early “Die Feen,” not
heard in America since 1982.
David Shengold ( shengold@yahoo.
com ) writes about opera for many
venues.
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