➤ COSTANZO, from p.18
naten are tantalizingly unique,
usually depicted with an elongated
skull and facial features and body
form that have male and female
aspects. Both the Aten and Akhnaten
were known as “the mother
and father of all” and controversy
continues about the pharaoh’s appearance
and representation, and
how it should be interpreted or understood
today.
The Met production of “Akhnaten”
and Costanzo’s portrayal
have not been without controversy
themselves on this point. Brooklyn
based composer Brin Solomon
recently wrote a four-part article
for the website New Music USA “Towards
a Framework For Responsible
Trans Casting.” I asked them
via email to respond to Costanzo’s
calling the historical Akhnaten
perhaps “the fi rst trans icon” on
Terry Gross’ “Fresh Air” on NPR in
early October.
“While it’s true that people have
lived lives that don’t fi t neatly into
the Western gender binary for as
long as there have been people, I
can’t agree,” Solomon wrote. “Not
only does his claim confl ate intersex
and trans people, it also makes
assumptions about the body of
someone who lived over 3,000 years
ago based on highly symbolic, religiously
charged iconography.”
Solomon’s concerns about cultural
relativism and representation
on the operatic stage have in large
Anthony Roth Costanzo.
part been anticipated by Costanzo,
whose research on the historical
fi gure of Akhnaten included
a journey to Oxford University to
meet with Egyptologist Richard
Parkinson and his colleagues.
“Akhnaten saw the god, the
sun, as the unifi cation of man and
woman, and for a long time people
thought that statues that come
from this period of Akhenaten at
Amarna that show things that
look like breasts or feminine hips
or feminine lips, these are things
that people would focus on and say
that perhaps Akhnaten was a ‘hermaphrodite,’
which we would now
KAREN ALMOND/ MET OPERA
call intersex,” Costanzo said.
He asked the Egyptologists their
opinion about Akhnaten’s physical
self and identity as represented in
the iconography. “They said that
they thought maybe that since
Akhnaten saw god as the unifi cation
of men and women and saw
the pharaoh as between man and
god, that Akhnaten was trying to
make himself closer to god by being
in between sexes.”
Our contemporary view of Akhnaten
and our own artistic interpretations
of the historical fi gure,
Costanzo maintained, can’t help
but be seen almost “completely
through the lens of our terminology.
I don’t think Akhnaten thought of
his or her or themselves as a trans
icon. Trying to understand who he
is has really colored my interpretation
of him and rather than trying
to answer those questions for the
audience I try to ask them in the
most sophisticated way.”
Certainly, the parallels between
the historical controversy and
Costanzo’s life as a countertenor
place this production at a cultural
center point of contemporary conversations
about gender.
Again speaking of his voice,
Costanzo told The Times, “I don’t
think the gender fl uidity of today
has taken away the shock. The
thrill of it and novelty of it will
never go away, nor should it.” And
in an interview exactly a year ago,
Costanzo said, “I would love to go to
parts of the country where young
men if they were wearing nail polish
at school, they’d be beaten up.
That’s where I want to sing a concert.
That’s where I want to sell an
album. I can expand this idea of
what is masculine, or what is macho.
It doesn’t have to do with our
narrow defi nitions as they come
from the past, but it rather has to
do with what it is to be human.”
AKHNATEN | Metropolitan Opera,
Lincoln Center | Nov. 12 & 19, Dec.
4 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 15 & 30 at 8
p.m.; Nov. 23 & Dec. 7 at 1 p.m. |
metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/
akhnaten/
➤ DAVIES, from p.19
ing. Three Carlo Gesualdo songs
emerged well-shaped but featured
rather bloodless Italian declamation.
Davies fared better projecting
the texts of two slow Handel arias,
a pre-slumber musing from “Orlando”
and — oddly — that staple
of non-baroque soprano’s recital
numbers, Cleopatra’s “Piangero la
sorte mia”. I might have preferred
Sesto’s stop-time “Cara speme.”
Davies’ instrument lacks a broad
range of tone color, but throughout
he savored tapered dynamics and
used rhythmic accent expressively.
This fi ne evening’s encore was —
aptly — Purcell’s enchanting “Music
for a while shall all your cares
beguile.”
On November 1, Weill presented
Golda Schultz’s highly satisfying
New York debut recital.
Known for Pamina and Nannetta
at the Met, the highly musical, very
appealing South African soprano
offers Strauss’ Sophie there next
month. Her readings of Schubert
and Richard Strauss lieder proved
unfussily straightforward, with the
former’s “Suleika” songs a special
highlight. Pianist Jonathan Ware
brought greater specifi city and
accuracy to the programs widerranging
second half: Amy Beach’s
highly melodic “Three Browning
Songs,” Ravel’s sensuous “Scheherazade,”
and the modernism-tinged
cantata John B. Carter wrought
from four classic spirituals. Schulz
totally inhabited the English-languages
texts. The pair offered the
aptly enthusiastic audience a pristine
“Nacht und Traeume” — Schubert’s
supreme test of legato — and
a heartfelt, nostalgic song in Afrikaans,
the soprano’s mother’s native
language.
Andrew Ousley’s “Death of
Classical Series” — a witty repost
to media blowhard Norman Lebrecht
that also presents dynamic
events outside the box of traditional
classical venues and programming
— utilizes an atmospheric,
otherwise inaccessible catacombs
in Green-Wood Cemetery. This historic
Brooklyn landmark, easily
accessible via the R train when it’s
behaving, offers spectacular landscaping
and cinema-worthy vistas
of Manhattan. October 8 brought
Pergolesi’s infl uential 1736 “Stabat
Mater”, which the brilliant composer
penned weeks before dying at
26. What might he have achieved
had he lived seven decades like
Haydn or Gluck?
Molly Netter’s straight-toned
soprano, with pinpoint attacks,
made for good contrast with Kate
Maroney’s earthier, furrier mezzo;
in fact these good, style-conscious
singers sounded most energized in
Pergolesi’s seven duets. The sacred
work was bookended, without intrusive
applause, by Arvo Paert’s
“Fratres” and Barber’s iconic “Adagio
for Strings.” There was much to
enjoy musically, but Eli Spindel’s
String Orchestra of Brooklyn suffered
from some muddy “opening
night” violin ensemble. String tone
is hard to maintain in such spooky
acoustics.
David Shengold ( shengold@yahoo.
com ) writes about opera for many
venues.
GayCityNews.com | November 21 - November 27, 2019 27
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