THOMAS ADES: The Tempest (complete opera) – EMI (2 CDs) DARON HAGEN: Shining Brow (complete opera) – Naxos (2 CDs)

by | Aug 27, 2009 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

THOMAS ADES: The Tempest (complete opera) – Simon Keenlyside (Prospero)/ Cyndia Sieden (Ariel)/ Ian Bostridge (Caliban)/ Kate Royal (Miranda)/ Toby Spence (Ferdinand)/ Philip Langridge (King of Naples)/ Royal opera Chorus/ Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden/ Thomas Ades, conductor – EMI 6 95234 2 (2 CDs), 117:24 *****:

DARON HAGEN: Shining Brow (complete opera) – Robert Orth (Frank Lloyd Wright)/ Brenda Harris (Mamah Cheney)/ Robert Frankenberry (Louis Sullivan)/ Matthew Curran (Edwin Cheney)/ Elaine Valby (Catherine Wright)/ Gilda Lyons (Maid)/ Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra/ JoAnn Falletta, conductor – Naxos 8.669020-21 (2 CDs), 138:24 ***1/2:

I decided to lump these two new productions together as it is an opportunity to assess differing views of modern opera. Thomas Ades and Daron Hagen are only 10 years apart in age (Hagen the older) and both still young, and each has written in this form multiple times as well. In addition, these are both live recordings and fairly close in total timing. Both take on serious subjects—Ades perhaps deals with a more timeless subject, but Hagen’s view of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life is also rather dramatic and dark, though his treatment of these themes could not be more different than his comrade composer.

Meredith Oakes (the librettist) sticks fairly close to Shakespeare’s immortal tale of sorcery and shipwreck, updating certain lines to more comprehensible English, though the end result is still a very verbose and complex entity. Though long considered a comedy, some scholars now think it more of a romance than anything, and there is certainly nothing ha-ha about Ades’s music, and I never detected any guffawing among audience members. If anything Ades’s music elevates the story into something more profound, creating a stylized moment out of stylized moments if you will. The music is hard to describe; imagine a tonal Wozzeck and you might get the picture. Ades gives each of the lines its full due of expression, but is also able to make the music fly beautifully into full-blown lyrical splendor when needed, though it isn’t Puccini. At the same time, it doesn’t need to be as the composer’s intentions are quite different.

The main protagonist is the former Duke of Milan and a sorcerer, Prospero, richly sung by Simon Keenlyside. The island upon which the shipwreck occurs has two inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban, brilliantly portrayed by Cyndia Sieden (whose stratospheric lines are keenly paralleled by Ade’s equally high string writing) and Ian Bostridge, whose characterization is somewhat cool and calculating, reflecting the complexities of his role. Kate Royal plays a more sedate Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, who nevertheless doesn’t hesitate to go behind her father’s back to get married, choosing love over filial association.

I was quite taken with this opera despite its manifold difficulties, but Ades gives you just enough to chew on at first while still demanding that you listen repeatedly in order to assume the full richness of his music and the story. EMI gives excellent sound, though audience clapping is included, and the Covent Garden players dig in with relish.

We enter into an entirely different work with Daron Hagen’s Shining Brow, a work that covers the earlier years of architect and modern day icon Frank Lloyd Wright. I had not realized how sordid his story is; he takes a client’s wife as mistress only to see her life end up as disoriented as that of the wife he has left. His live-in mistress, Mamah, ends up dead along with her two children and three other people as the famous house he built for himself, Taliesin (“Shining Brow” in Welsh) burns to the ground, though the man who started the fire, Julian Carleton (Wright’s chef), took a hatchet to the family members first.Sounds like a Shakespearian tragedy, does it not? The elements are certainly in place, and such a story only serves to emphasize the universality of the Bard. But the approach is far different than the one taken with Ades; Hagen uses an almost populist approach (not surprising considering his close relationship with Leonard Bernstein) that works very well on many levels, but other times seems surprising. Some potentially dramatic elements are present in the action that feels incongruous with the music. Tunes reminiscent of early Americana certainly have their place if a composer so desires, but to me they don’t fit certain events unless the composer is intending irony, but that is not clear to me here.

The cast is uniformly excellent, Robert Orth convincingly egomaniacal and suitably rough in his portrayal while at the same time genuinely repentant (or at least emotionally affective) in the last moments. Brenda Harris is a wonderful Mamah Cheney, and the rest of the cast quite generous in their acting and vocal abilities. The sound is somewhat of a letdown; despite the acoustical properties of Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo the voices are too far forward and dominant of the orchestra. The chorus is generally good but not as sharp and resonant as others I have heard. The Philharmonic plays the music quite adeptly, with Maestro Falletta in possession of a commanding knowledge of the score that she imparts to all forces with rigorous authority. This piece has found an audience and doesn’t need my approval or disapproval; perhaps seeing it in the theater would answer some of my lingering questions about it. For now, this recording is a milestone for a work that certainly deserves a hearing, and for which the public so far is inclined to accept.

— Steven Ritter

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