The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: “Into the Woods” is a big deal in many ways for the UW-Madison. There are five performances at the Memorial Union between this Thursday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Make no mistake.
The modern musical and theatrical retellings by Stephen Sondheim (below) of well-known childhood fairy tales do not offer your usual versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Prince Charming, Cinderella and Rapunzel among others.
Moreover the local production of the acclaimed 1986 Broadway musical “Into the Woods” – the woods being a dark, adult and disturbing Freudian metaphor of deeper meanings — is literally a big deal. (You can hear a sample of Sondheim’s music and supremely clever lyrics, taken from the 2014 movie version by Walt Disney, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It involves both the University Opera and the University Theatre and Drama Department. The ambitious joint production – the first in a dozen years – took almost two years and involves over 90 people.
You can see the promising results for yourself in five performances starting this Thursday night in Shannon Hall at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Happily, there are a lot of ways to check out background and prepare for the show, which faced its own trials.
You’ll notice, for example, that the rehearsal picture below — taken by Beau Meyer of Elisheva Pront (Cinderella) with Jake Elfner (her Prince Charming) — was taken with no costumes, even though such photos were planned. But during the recent deep freeze and big thaw, Vilas Hall got hit with flooding from broken pipes and the costumes got clobbered, so such photos are delayed.
Still, the show must go on — and did.
Here is an interview with David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke DeLalio), the prize-winning director of University Opera and other members of the production team and actors:
https://arts.wisc.edu/2019/02/15/into-the-woods/
Here is more information, including a plot summary, a cast and ticket information from the University Opera:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/2018/12/27/opera-theatre-sondheim-into-the-woods/
Here is a story from the Department of University Theatre and Drama, including interviews with the two women who play Cinderella:
From the Wisconsin Union Theater, here is the complex and complete ticket pricing information ($10-$40):
https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/into-the-woods/#additional
And here is a complete list of the student cast, who will sing under the baton of UW-Madison professor Chad Hutchinson (below) who will conduct the orchestra:
https://theatre.wisc.edu/2018/10/18/into-the-woods-cast/
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Classical music: Do Stephen Sondheim musicals qualify as opera?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Do Broadway musicals by Stephen Sondheim (below) qualify as opera?
Granted, putting strict boundaries or criteria on certain musical genres only artificially limit their appeal.
But the question matters since this month will see two local opera companies stage two different works by Sondheim, who got his big break back when he collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on “West Wide Story.”
This Friday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., on Feb. 8 and 10 respectively, the Madison Opera will stage its production of the popular “A Little Night Music” – a great offering about many varieties of love so close to Valentine’s Day — in the Capitol Theater at the Overture Center.
For more information about the production (photos of it are by James Gill for Madison Opera) and performances, including ticket sales, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=sondheim
(Below are Charles Eaton and Katherine Pracht.)
Then later in the month, for five performances from Feb. 21 through Feb. 24 in Shannon Hall of the Wisconsin Union Theater, University Opera and University Theatre team up to stage Sondheim’s popular “Into the Woods,” based on classic fairy tales.
Find out more information here: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/into-the-woods/
So, do Stephen Sondheim musicals deserve to be included with operas by Mozart and Verdi, Wagner and Puccini?
The Madison Opera’s general director Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill) — a Harvard graduate and an opera veteran who worked at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera before coming to Madison — agreed to discuss that question as it relates to her company’s production of “A Little Night Music” this weekend.
Smith writes:
A Little Night Music has been performed by opera companies around the world since 1983, so it is a natural part of the repertoire.
Sondheim himself says, “For me, an opera is something that is performed in an opera house in front of an opera audience. The ambience, along with the audience’s expectation, is what flavors the evening.”
A Little Night Music is particularly intriguing because it is a modern operetta; that’s what the New York Times called it when it premiered in 1973.
The costumes and scenery make it look a bit like traditional operettas such as The Merry Widow, but its story and wit are distinctly modern, with a clear-eyed view of the complexities of adult relationships. (Below, from left, are Cassandra Vasta, Benjamin Barlow, Sarah Day, Emily Pulley and Maddie Uphoff.)
Sondheim’s musical sophistication is on brilliant display; the Act I finale (“A Weekend in the Country”) reminds me of the way Mozart or Rossini finales build scene upon scene. (You can hear a concert version of “A Weekend in the Country,” performed at the BBC Proms, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
I find A Little Night Music compelling for its beauty, style and humanity. The book and lyrics are laced with witty lines, but the underlying relationships are very real, as is the way people stumble on the way towards a happy ending.
It manages the trick of being simultaneously moving and entertaining, with glorious music underscoring it all.
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Classical music: University Opera’s “La Bohème” proves a complete success on all counts – from the staging and the costumes to the singing and the orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Opera Guy for The Ear went to the University Opera’s performances of “La Bohème” on Friday and Saturday nights so he could sample both student casts. He filed this review, which is accompanied by photos taken by Michael R. Anderson for the University Opera.
By Larry Wells
I attended the first two of the three performances of University Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Bohème.” This production made use of the expansive and technically advanced Shannon Hall in the Wisconsin Union Theater. Deservedly, the hall was nearly full for both of the performances I attended.
Director David Ronis decided to update the setting to Paris in the mid-1920s primarily using posters, wigs and wonderful costumes to suggest the decade. Joseph Varga’s beautiful and clever single set incorporated ingenious slight changes act by act to suggest the opera’s various settings. Along with Sruthi Suresan’s subtle lighting design, the production was a visual delight.
Ronis’ able hand was evident in the players’ acting. The cast was consistently believable, and consequently I was drawn into their world and suffered along with their despair over love’s inconsistencies and death’s sting. Using my acid test for a performance’s success, I never glanced at my watch either night. I was fully engaged.
The orchestra was a marvel. Conductor Chad Hutchinson let it soar when it was appropriate, but the orchestra never overshadowed the singers. In fact, the key term that kept occurring to me both evenings was balance. The acting, the back-and-forth between the singers, and the interplay between the orchestra and the singers were consistently evenhanded.
As for the singers, the primary roles were double cast. Friday’s Mimi was Shaddai Solidum whose first aria “Mi chiamano Mimi” was a lesson in the mastery of legato. Saturday’s Mimi was Yanzelmalee Rivera who possesses a bell-like voice of remarkable agility.
Benjamin Liupaoga as Rodolfo sang a fine opening aria – “Che gelida manina” – with finesse and credibility. José Muñiz’s Rodolfo was initially restrained, but soared to great heights in the second act. (Below are Jose Muniz and Yanzelmalee Rivera as Rodolfo and Mimi.)
The interactions between Mimi and Rodolfo were believable, touching, and musically magical. The duet at the end of the first act “O soave fanciulla” was uplifting both evenings. I always marvel at the Wagnerian chord progression. The audience was so enthusiastic Saturday night that its applause nearly drowned out Mimi and Rodolfo’s offstage “Amor! Amor!”
I feel that Musetta is the hardest role to convey successfully. She has to come off as a combination of carefree and needy in the second and third acts and then compassionate and vulnerable in the final act. Katie Anderson and Claire Powling both handled the acting and the vocalizing with aplomb. The singing in the ensemble after Musetta’s Waltz at the end of the second act was outstanding. Below foreground are, left to right: Claire Powling (Musetta), Michael Kelley (Waiter), Jake Elfner (Alcindoro)
Matt Chastain’s Marcello was dark and brooding while James Held’s was more carefree and pragmatic. Both were able singers, and I found their ensemble work exceptional. In fact, the duets, trios, quartets and ensemble scenes throughout the opera were uniformly terrific.
The minor characters and the choruses were all excellent. But special praise must go to Benjamin Schultz-Burkel as Colline whose small aria in the fourth act (below) was a true showstopper. In the death scene finale of Act 4, left to right, are: James Held (Marcello), Claire Powling (Musetta), Jose Muniz (Rodolfo, kneeling), Yanzelmalee Rivera (Mimi), Benjamin Schultz-Burkel (Colline, standing)
My major piece of advice to the singers would be to trust their training. Some of the singers seemed initially tentative, but when they let themselves go they were fantastic. (Below is Yanzelmalee Rivera as Mimi.)
The program lists “Into the Woods” as University Opera’s production next spring in conjunction with the UW theater department. Although I personally look forward to it, I wonder about the blurring between opera and musical theater.
In any event, I was very pleased by both performances and give my heartfelt congratulations to the casts and staff for a memorable musical and theatrical experience. But I had to laugh at the supertitle for one of Mimi’s lines: “I wish the winter would last forever.”
Tags: #GiacomoPuccini, #LaBoheme, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #RichardWagner, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #WisconsinUnionTheater, 1920s, acid, acid test, acting, advanced, agility, aria, Arts, balance, believable, bell-like, carefree, cast, Chad Hutchinson, choral music, chord, Chord progression, Classical music, compassionate, composer, congratulations, costume, credibility, critic, David Ronis, death, decade, delight, design, despair, drama, evening, final, finesse, Friday, hard, hardest, height, inconsistencies, inconsistency, interplay, Into the Woods, Jacob Stockinger, laugh, lighting, Love, Madison, magical, memorable, Musetta's Waltz, Music, musical, Musical theater, needy, opera, Orchestra, Paris, performance, player, Poster, production, progression, Puccini, remarkable, review, role, Saturday, set, Shannon Hall, singer, singers, sting, suffering, supertitle, symphony, technical, tenttive, test, theater, touching, training, trust, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, visual, vocal music, vocalizing, voie, vulnerable, Wagner, Wagnerian, Waltz, watch, wig, winter, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, world
Classical music: University Opera will stage three performances of “Transformations” this Friday night, Sunday afternoon and next Tuesday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Take children’s fairy tales – such as “Sleeping Beauty” (below) — and recast them through adult reinterpretations. You can get some pretty weird and dark and humorous results.
That is not only the formula for Stephen Sondheim’s popular Broadway musical and later Hollywood movie “Into the Woods.”
It also worked for the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Anne Sexton, who grew depressed and killed herself at age 45. Her versions then became an opera.
The music, described as tonal and accessible, is by Conrad Susa (below), who taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The contemporary opera has been popular and widely staged.
This weekend and early next week, University Opera – the opera program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music – will give three performances in Music Hall of the work on Friday night at 7:30 p.m., Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. (NOT 3:30 as first posted here mistakenly) and Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. (NOTE: An ad on Wisconsin Public Radio erroneously lists the performance times on Friday and Tuesday nights as 7 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.)
Admission is $25, $20 for seniors and $10 for students.
Members of the cast even posted an invitation video on YouTube:
For more information, visit the A Tempo blog of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, which features remarks from interim opera director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke Delalio), who is based in New York City, and details about the pre-concert discussion on Friday night from 6 to 7 p.m. (There will also be talk back sessions after each performance.):
The music director is graduate student in conducting Kyle Knox (below), who recently conducted Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” for the Madison Opera and who conducts ensembles at the UW-Madison and the Middleton Community Orchestra.
For even more background, visit:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2016/02/12/university-opera-presents-transformations/
Here is a sample, a YouTube video of the “Hansel and Gretel” section of “Transformations”:
Tags: adult, Anne Sexton, Arts, blog, Broadway, chamber opera, children, Conrad Susa, David Ronis, depression, fairy tale, film, Hansel and Gretel, Hollywood, Into the Woods, Jacob Stockinger, Kyle Knox, Little Women, Madison, Madison Opera, Mark Adamo, Middleton Community Orchestra, movie, Music, Music director, musical, New York City, opera, Orchestra, poem, poet, Poetry, Pulitzer Prize, San Francisco, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Sleeping Beauty, stage, Stephen Sondheim, suicide, tonal, Transformations, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: Stage Director Norma Saldivar talks about Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd.” The Madison Opera gives three performances of it this coming weekend.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Opera will present its first-ever production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” by Stephen Sondheim (below) this coming weekend on Friday and Saturday nights and on Sunday afternoon in the Capitol Theater at the Overture Center for the Arts.
The company has built a new production of this American masterpiece — which is so popular that it was made into a 2007 film by director Tim Burton that starred Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter. The powerhouse cast, Madison Opera Chorus and the Madison Symphony Orchestra all promise to bring a very operatic theater score to life.
The show tells of the barber Sweeney Todd, who returns to the gas-lit streets of Victorian London after 15 years of unjust imprisonment to claim vengeance on those who wronged him. He is aided in his murderous activities by Mrs. Lovett, maker of some rather tasty meat pies.
One of Sondheim’s most renowned works, “Sweeney Todd” has a stunningly inventive score containing drama, macabre humor, lyrical purity and an unforgettable final scene.
“I love this piece,” says Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill), Madison Opera’s general director. “It’s a true American classic, with a story that is simultaneously dark and comic, and music that ranges from beautifully lyrical songs like ‘Not While I’m Around’ (at bottom in a YouTube video ) to vaudevillian turns like ‘A Little Priest,’ all with some of the wittiest lyrics ever written.”
Although it premiered on Broadway in 1979 – winning eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical – “Sweeney Todd” has been a staple of opera companies since 1984, when Houston Grand Opera first staged it, followed a few months later by New York City Opera. With a score that is almost entirely sung, it has been described by Sondheim as a “dark operetta.”
That first Houston Grand Opera production was conducted by John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad), the music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the Madison Opera, who will conduct these performances.
“For me, it is a brilliantly composed work for the musical theater that has marvelous melodies, incredible lyrics, a unique and thrillingly fascinating story, and a climax that is the stuff of grand opera,” says DeMain. “I can’t wait to conduct our stunning cast in this masterwork for the lyric stage.”
Corey Crider (below top) and Meredith Arwady (below bottom) make their Madison Opera debuts as the vengeful barber and the ever-practical Mrs. Lovett. Crider has sung leading roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Arizona Opera, and the Castleton Festival. Arwady has sung leading roles with San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Santa Fe Opera.
In the role of the mysterious Beggar Woman, Emily Pulley (below) makes her Madison Opera debut after recent performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Theater of St. Louis.
Returning to Madison Opera are former Madison Opera Studio Artist Jeni Houser as Johanna, Sweeney’s daughter; Daniel Shirley as the young sailor Anthony Hope; and Thomas Forde as the evil Judge Turpin. Three tenors round out the cast. Joshua Sanders, who has been singing with Madison Opera since high school, plays the innocent Tobias Ragg. Jared Rogers makes his debut as the menacing Beadle Bamford. Robert Goderich, a local theater and opera favorite, plays Sweeney’s rival barber, Adolfo Pirelli.
Performances are on Friday, at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
The production will be sung in English with projected text.
Tickets are $25-$110 with group discounts available. Contact the Overture Center Box Office, 201 State St., Madison, WI. You can also call (608) 258-4141 and email www.madisonopera.org
Madison Opera is building a new production specifically for the Capitol Theater. Stage director Norma Saldivar, set designer Joseph Varga, costume designer Karen Brown-Larimore, and lighting designer Hideaki Tsutsui are creating a world set in an Industrial Age factory, with the orchestra on stage to bring the action even closer to the audience.
“Building a new production allows us to take advantage of the Capitol Theater,” says Smith. “The gorgeous venue is ideally suited to this piece and it is exciting to create something new.”
Stage Director Norma Saldivar (below, in a photo from Madison Magazine) is Executive Director of the UW-Madison Arts Institute and a professor in the Theater Department, recently granted an email interview to The Ear:
Could you briefly introduce yourself to readers?
I’m Norma Saldivar, and I am the stage director for the Madison Opera’s production of “Sweeney Todd.”
How does directing an opera differ from directing a play?
I know that you’d like me to say that there is some real difference in directing opera or straight theatre productions – and there are distinct differences. However, the work of the director remains the same.
I am a storyteller, a chief creative leader of a team of people who bring the story to life and three-dimensional form. There are differences in working with music that obviously involve expressing the intention of the composer, which means working with a conductor who brings to life and secures the intention of the composer and lyricist.
But ultimately, we all work to bring the story to an audience and to engage and entertain them.
In the case of “Sweeney Todd,” how does such a grim and gory or grotesque plot – about murdering men by slitting their throats and then baking their bodies into cannibalistic meat pies –- end up being an enjoyable and entertaining opera? Does being so over the top help or offer special challenges?
The story predates Sondheim and began in “penny dreadfuls” — these stories of suspense were very popular and connected to their audience in a way that so many contemporary suspense and horror stories do now for our audience.
I think there is a great deal of suspense in the story, in that as it unfolds an audience can’t believe their eyes or ears. The audaciousness is surprising and tantalizing –- and then there is also humor, heartbreak and love in the story. It is a different take on an age-old story of revenge.
What does Stephen Sondheim do in the libretto and music to overcome that kind of inherent handicap?
I don’t see the aspects of the genre — suspense and horror – as handicaps. There are other musical pieces – “Phantom of the Opera” is one – that make for great drama.
The music is the added character to the story.
Sondheim writes in one of his books that he was inspired by the movie music of Bernard Hermann – his work in horror films by Alfred Hitchcock fueled Sondheim’s work on Sweeney. But Sondheim is so brilliant that he integrates other musical genres in the piece to create a very specific effect. There are intricate pieces that pull us momentarily away from the suspense. Like any good storyteller, his music takes the audience on an unexpected ride.
What is your approach to staging it? Are there special things in this production that you would like the audience to take notice of?
I am a very visual director. I love that Sondheim himself talks about this piece being a movie for the stage. What a great challenge for the stage director to try and interpret quick cuts and split screens, or changes in time and location on stage. We have a great design team that provides me the tools and background to work with the singers to support the musical story and to work in visual harmony. Without the design team and singers — well, I wouldn’t have much.
The challenge with this piece in particular is the length of the story. It moves quickly, spans months of time, and exists in a theatrical and psychological platform all at once. It’s a terrific challenge for a director, production team and performers. All the nuances that have to play to make the story clear is what makes the challenge really interesting.
Is there anything else you would like to add or say about this work and this production of it — the cast, the sets, the costumes — for The Madison Opera?
It has been a pleasure to work with the extraordinary John DeMain and the entire Madison Opera family. From the administration to the designers to the principal artists to the lovely chorus to the folks building the show — what more can a director ask for? Everyone is top-notch and devoted to giving everyone the best show. I feel honored to be working with them — really honored.
Tags: A Little Night Music, A Sea Symphony, Alan Rickman, Alfred Hitchcock, Arizona Opera, Arts, Bernard Hermann, Broadway theatre, Classical music, film, Helena Bonham Carter, horror movies, Houston Grand Opera, Industrial Age, Into the Woods, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Johnny Depp, London, Madison, Madison Magazine, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, movie, Mrs. Lovett, Music, Musical theater, musical theatre, Norma Saldivar, opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Operetta, Orchestra, Overture Center, San Francisco, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Opera, singers, St. Louis, Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film), Tim Burton, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison Arts Institute, Victorian era, vocal music, West End theatre, Wisconsin, YouTube
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