Operas in Concert: Stories of the Middle Ages, Renaissance
Kaija Saariaho/Amin Maalouf
Kaija Saariaho’s first opera L’Amour de loin is based on “La Vida breve” by the 12th-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel. In it, a pilgrim tells Rudel of a faraway woman, and Jaufre falls in love based only on the pilgrim’s account. Saariaho’s score is slow-moving, filled with dreamy orchestral textures illuminating the Pilgrim and Rudel’s arduous travels. It is a “haunting and resonant work” that investigates the nature of love and idealization (The New York Times). A concert version with live video by Jean-Baptiste Barrière was premiered in 2006, and an animated film by artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset was presented in lieu of staging at Bergen National Opera in 2008. In addition to such possibilities for multimedia concert presentation, the stately pace of the opera’s action lends itself to minimal movement by the singers, as was the case with Peter Sellars’ 2016 production for the Metropolitan Opera.
Soloists: Susanna Phillips (Clémence), Tamara Mumford (The Pilgrim), Eric Owens (Jaufré Rudel)
excerpt, Metropolitan Opera
© Bernd Uhlig/Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Olivier Messiaen, based on 14th-century writings of anonymous Franciscans
Olivier Messiaen’s only opera is in many ways his magnum opus. With a runtime of four hours, a chorus of 150 singers divided into 15 groups, and a massive orchestra, its forces and scale in tracing the stations of Saint Francis’ life are ambitious. But this ambition and logistical complication bring ample rewards: as Gramophone observes, Messiaen “embraced the era’s multiplicity of means while remaining entirely true to himself […] All Messiaen’s trademarks are here: the birdsong, the modal rigour (especially for the word setting, which is crystal clear), the common or garden triads given new harmonic context and heft, the post-Stravinskian dances […] Saint François d'Assise can make Parsifal seem like an intermezzo, but it exerts a uniquely hypnotic spell.”
Soloists: Jacques Imbrailo (Saint François), Anna Prohaska (The Angel)
excerpt, Nederlandse Opera
Lee Hoiby/Mark Shulgasser, after the play by Shakespeare
Librettist Mark Shulgasser notes that The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s “‘problem plays’ — obviously profound, the last major work, but what’s it all about?” Shulgasser’s text stays true to Shakespeare’s prosody while grappling with the work’s many questions, all “under Geoffrey Hartman’s provocative definition: ‘[…]opera, a powerful setting for homeless visionary clichés.’” Hoiby’s music is “always beautifully and colorfully orchestrated around a constant flow of melody” (Fort Worth Star Telegram), but also steps back when necessary: it is “rock solid and absorbing and enhances the text instead of competing with it” (Opera News). For lovers of Shakespeare, the result is sure to enrich their experience of the play’s enduring drama.
excerpt, Purchase College Conservatory
Art’s Afterlives | Feminist Essays | Casting Off Chains: Abolition and the Civil War | The Americas: Latine Culture and History | East Asian Love Stories | Positively Medieval: Stories of the Middle Ages and Renaissance | Classics of English Fiction | The 19th Century: Great Wars and Colonial Sorrows | Upheavals of the 20th Century | The Weight of Motherhood