Few classical composers can claim a substantial portfolio in both instrumental music and opera.  In the United States, Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky is best known for his distinguished ballet music, “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as great symphonic pieces such as his “Symphony No. 5,” and “Piano Concerto No. 1”.  Tchaikovsky also wrote 11 operas, several of which remain immensely popular in Slavic countries.

Despite the difficulty of casting Russian language opera, two are present in the American repertoire, “Eugene Onegin” and “Pique Dame” (“Queen of Spades” in English).  Although the former premiered 11 years earlier than the latter, they share the same DNA, including source material derived from Alexander Pushkin.  Thematically, both involve military officers, unconsummated love, lethal gunfire, and untimely deaths of principals.  Musically, their haunting Russianness draws on folk music, sharing similar idioms and phrases, yielding common overarching sound adorned with uncommon poignancy.

Gaming occurs in numerous operas, usually to create an ambiance or to elaborate a main character’s character, sometimes as an addictive personality.  In “Pique Dame,” gambling acts as the central metaphor of casting one’s fate to the vagueries of chance.   Uniquely, the title of the opera is represented by one symbol-laden playing card.

Hermann, a seemingly virtuous but poor army officer, often visits the casino with friends but only as an observer.  Upon falling in love with Liza, he finds that she is the granddaughter of the Countess and therefore above his station.  Dedicating his life to becoming rich enough to marry Liza, he learns that the Countess extricated her way out of extensive gambling debts by betting on an irrefutably successful sequence of three numbers.  But that supernatural bestowal carried threatening conditions.  In his obsession to learn the sequence, Hermann’s morality is compromised, and Liza questions whether he still loves her or is only interested in the money or the quest itself.

A suitably doleful Michael Boley portrays the desperate Hermann.  In a role that challenges in vocal complexity, he also sings in every scene.  From his first significant set piece, the aria leading to a duet with his friend Tomsky, “I don’t even know her name,” Boley displays both range and power.  Early on at opening night, his voice seemed to lack full melodiousness, but it sounded richer as the evening progressed, and he redeemed himself well.

As the object of Hermann’s affection, Liza is played by Rhoslyn James.  With some exception, the tessitura of Liza’s part in early scenes is middle range, which plays well to James’ big, round vocalization in that realm.  Her duet with Polina, “Tis evening, the edges of the clouds have darkened” and her ambivalent aria about loving two men “But why these tears?” both demonstrate her easy power.  Range demands increase later in the opera, leading to her beautiful rendition of Liza’s evocative signature aria in Act 3, “Ah, I am worn out by grief.”

Tchaikovsky is at the top of his opera game in “Pique Dame.”  His plaintive and phantasmic sound, often relying on the reeds and large strings, suits the ghostly elements of the script.  The story line compels as we see Hermann’s obsession take hold, and considerable tension created.  The principal action is complemented by orchestral interludes and extensive use of chorus.  To make the setting more exotic to then contemporary audiences, the composer moved the action back to the 18th century.  In a gesture to classicism and particularly Mozart, he not only mentions that composer by name, but he includes a pastiche pastoral play-within-a-play, “The Faithful Shepherdess,” which also includes a fine female duet.

Producing this opera is among the many courageous decisions by General Director and Conductor José Luis Moscovich to extend the repertoire of his audience.  This production offers a delightful experience and everything an attendee of regional opera should expect.  That said, there are certainly pluses and minuses to note.  The secondary principal cast members, too many to mention, uniformly meet or exceed expectations.  Most had appealing and sometimes surprisingly strong voices, and they offered many highlights, as Tchaikovsky spread the wealth around.  The choristers have room for improvement, but they convey the music and the tone well.  Kudos to the large number of women, men, and children for participating in a work with considerable choral content that must be learned by most singers as nonsense syllables.

On the design side, Peter Crompton has established an excellent and efficient scenic formula for West Bay Opera productions that includes multilevel forestage; extensive projections as side walls and backdrops; and a few sticks of movable furniture.  These sets are handsome and make the staging appear complete.  A number of projections are used, but in some instances, they fail to reflect the spaces they are supposed to represent – bedroom and barracks scenes, for instance.  Abra Berman also deserves a nod for capturing an appropriate look and for the sheer volume of costumes required for this production, which alone ornament the stage with a period appearance.  One exception is that the outer tunics of the military outfits lack appropriate decoration or distinction and thus don’t capture the feel of dress uniforms.

As indicated earlier, this is an opera that opera lovers will love.  It is a deserving production that can be thoroughly enjoyed.

“Pique Dame,” composed by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky with libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky, after a novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, is produced by West Bay Opera and plays at Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA through May 29, 2022.

https://www.berkshirefinearts.com/05-24-2022_tchaikovsky-s-pique-dame.htm

OPERA RESOUNDS, DESPITE ADVERSITY

 May 21, 2022  Paul Hertelendy

PALO ALTO, CA—World-renowned are Stanford University’s technology expertise and her women’s sports teams. But across town, there’s a little miracle called West Bay Opera, which despite a postage-stamp-sized auditorium to play in, brings off productions that are both presentable and downright moving.

Cheers rang out with WBO resuming performances after the two-year Covid padlock, hitting its stride in its 66th season.

Imagine a theater incapable of scene changes. Half the musicians are sitting in the wings like caged birds, barely able to see the baton of conductor José Luis Moscovich, who must also double as WBO general director. And in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades,” you have armies of performers including some unpaid choruses, walk-ons, children, and a trio of Commedia dell’Arte  dancer-singers who nearly stole the show in their cameo (at least, when not hopscotching  over footlights).

The phoenix rising from the viral ashes May 20—-a fateful drama about gambling, gamboling, and the supernatural—came off powerfully at the heart of the matter, at least  if you didn’t examine the edges too much. The cast sang in Russian. And if your vocabulary never went beyond “Tri karti” (3 cards) and “Ya vas lyublyu” (I love you), you had the projected text translations to help out.

It has weaknesses common to the genre, like pieces stopping the drama dead in its tracks with irrelevant choral scenes—once proclaiming a sunny day, later judging it a stormy day. Judicious cuts would help. (Verdi’s Italian operas to their credit  eliminated those fillers  with choruses propelling the action or juicy subplots to replace fillers.) But the racy central story, with assignations and secret rendezvous, is engrossing: a man, Hermann,  caught between a love interest in Liza and an obsession for gambling at cards in scenes of the elegant czarist aristocracy. He loves the gaming table more, literally forcing an old clairvoyant Countess to divulge future outcomes and enable him to make his fortune. In the end the ghost of the victimized Countess thwarts his greed with a flawed prediction. The turning up of the queen of spades in the casino leads to his merited end.

WBO made the seven-scene opera work through dazzling architectural projections. The masterful touch was a lovers’ quarrel at the walls of the canal where, as if in a  video, the image slowly shifts to the canal waters, showing the demise in a watery suicide—a great touch by projection designer Peter Compton.

The heavy-weight voices of Michael Boley (Hermann) and Rhoslyn Jones (Liza) rang through the hall and rafters with power and authority. They cautiously tended to the sharp side vocally to skirt tending flat. Jones’ surprising mobility added plausibility to the doomed pair. In the scene-stealing secondary role of the Countess, mezzo Laure de Marcellus proved to be the night’s best actress. In strong supporting low voices of nobles came Kiril Havezov (Tomsky) and Jonathan Beyer (Yelensky).

Your sympathies had to be with WBO, playing a 19th-century Russian opera at a time of great public antipathy toward Russians, a factor definitely cutting into attendance at the opener. But given the many months of contracted operatic preparation, WBO was hardly in a position to substitute “Otello,” “Mme. Butterfly” or “Porgy and Bess.”

Stage Director Ragnar Conde did some of his best work staging the song-and-dance trio of Commedia dell’arte performers Sarah Benzinger, Maria Kaganskaya and Kiril Havezov in the Masked Ball scene.

For the audience, VAXX ID was required and masks strongly recommended.

TCHAIKOVSKY’S OPERA “PIQUE DAME” (Queen of Spades), by West Bay Opera, Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto, through May 29. In Russian, with supertitles. 3.5 hrs. with three acts, two intermissions. For info: (650) 424-9999, or go online: www.wbopera.org.

https://www.artssf.com/opera-resounds-despite-adversity/

Pique Dame

May 21, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds

Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

West Bay Opera

Woodwinds and strings sing in gentle, back-and-forth conversation before other instruments begin to join, building into rolling climaxes of commanding brass and timpani and all leading to a sense of foreboding as projected on the walls before us are splashed, red blotches mingled in a flurried mix of numbers and symbols.  Eventually queens appear from their deck of cards to dance about the stage in projected frenzy as the music once again shifts in nature.  Black shadows and smoky clouds finally escort the Queen of Spades to rule in her projected state with the orchestra’s outstanding overture leaving us with a final sense of foreboding and unease.

Under the fine direction of José Luis Moscovich, the twenty-seven-piece orchestra thus majestically opens the sixty-sixth season after a two-year, COVID-induced hiatus of Palo Alto’s West Bay Opera with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades). The three-act, two-intermission evening is one where the majority of the fifteen principals’ voices ring forth impressively rich and authentic with performances believable in their emotions and motives – unfortunately with one major exception of the night’s lead role.

Written in 1890 and an audience favorite since its premiere to the present day, this West Bay production of Pique Dame is set in St. Petersburg a century earlier as the tragic tale unfolds of a soldier who falls in love with a Prince’s intended but finds the lure of a sure-fire gambling gain in the end to overrule his reciprocating the adoration this same woman in fact has also for him.  Even though the soldier Hermann becomes a crazed brute with more lust for money than for his Liza, opera audiences through the ages often find they have a liking for this devil while also still awarding great sympathy to the ruined Liza.

From the moment we meet Liza singing at her piano with her gathered friends, it is clear Rhoslyn Jones will be the star of the evening.  Her soprano time and again will glide with ease and beauty through the wide range of emotions Liza will find herself.  After only a silent, across-the-room exchange of glances with the stranger, Hermann, Liza sings soon afterward of her misery and sorrow of a fate to be loved by a worthy prince but to find herself suddenly in burning attraction with this other man of mystery.  Singing in moving melancholy, Liza laments in tones round and luxurious, “My girlhood dreams, you have forsaken me” while in a marked shift of tone, she then admits to herself about the stranger, “My soul is in his power.”

As the story progresses and she is able to confide to Hermann her love and to plan for an eventual, secret rendezvous with him, Rhoslyn Jones only gels stronger and stronger in her role as Liza. First singing of a love she believes is fully reciprocated, Liza eventually finds herself in a wretchedly painful Scene Two of Act Two where she sings of the exhaustion with a life that is sorely disappointing her because of a lover that has not lived up to his promises.  With a voice that cries with sad brilliance and visceral hurt, Liza intones, “I am weary and worn.”  After having a brief moment of reprieve when she believes Hermann’s love may in fact be true, her final despair and self-inflicted death are astonishing both to hear and to watch as singer and actor combine for a memorable finale of her character.

Hermann begins the evening in fine enough form, singing in a tenor quite clear and convincing as he trembles with wonder mixed with a bit of fear for the love he has of a woman whose name he does not know.  However, when Michael Boley’s Hermann meets his Liza and sings with her their first duet, the mismatch of vocal power and prowess between the two performers becomes obvious.  As his character loses his sense of love in comparison for his drive to uncover a secret three cards that can lead him to gambling fortune, his Hermann falls short time and again to match the emotion of the scene in both his sung vocals and in his performed demeanor.  Whether matched in duets with the spurned Prince, with the doomed Countess (who holds the secret of the magical sequence of cards), or with the adoring Liza, this Hermann disappointedly underperforms in needed volume, intensity, and clarity of purpose in comparison to the stronger partner of each particular scene.  Only in Hermann’s final moments of life does Michael Boley seem to regain the Hermann we first saw in Act One in terms of a more sterling stage presence, vocally and acting-wise.

Fortunately, however, surrounding both Hermann and Liza are other performers who do measure up in wonderful ways to the requirements of their persona.  Kiril Havezov performs in rich baritone the role of Count Tomsky, singing with an air of suspenseful gossip and rolling through waves of paused and quickened phrases as he recounts the story of a young woman obsessed with gambling who once sacrificed her body to learn of a French Count’s secret, three-card sequence that ensured gambling success.  That sense of having fun performing in front of his fellow revelers is seen again in the night’s final scene as Tomsky entertains with drunken flair but also in full-sounded, rich excellence, “If pretty girls could fly like birds.”

The young woman in his story is now the aged, cane-supported Countess, grandmother to Liza, played with a dignified, proud sense of her level of aristocracy and elderliness by Laure de Marcellus.  As surrounding maids attempt to lure her into bed in Scene Two, Act Two, the Countess sings of earlier loves with a mezzo-soprano voice that increasingly sounds as if locked in a dreamlike trance, finally singing herself to sleep in a lullaby manner.  Along the way, her Countess displays the kind of wide-eyed, dramatically posed expressions that one might have once seen on the screens of a silent movie.  (Kudos goes both to her and Stage Director, Ragnar Conde.)  When she is awakened by an intruding Hermann, Laure de Marcellus is particularly stunning in the gripping scene of the Countess’ demise, with her last breaths sung with memorable, haunting eeriness.

Making fine impressions along the way is also mezzo-soprano Maria Kaganskaya whose Polina (friend of Liza) sings a sad ballad that features her clear, wonderfully deep tones followed by a merrier dance that offers wonderful contrast of style.  Later, Maria Kaganskaya returns with Sarah Benzinger to draw one of the night’s biggest rounds of applause as they play Shepherd Milovzor and Shepherdess Prilepa, respectively, singing in robust melodies a playlet that – with the able help of Kiril Havezov (also Count Tomsky) – reflects the storyline of the greater opera in terms of a young girl turning away sure riches for the love of a more common man.

Truly one of the other finest performances of the evening comes from Jonathan Beyer in the role of Prince Yeletsky.  His baritone soars as he pleads the case of his love to Liza in Scene 1, Act 2.  His raptured entreaties for her to trust his love – even as he can see her heart has turned toward another – are impressively sincere and believable.

Briefer appearances by Jackson Beaman as Chekalinsky, Matthew Lovell as Surin, Alexander Frank as Master of Ceremonies, and Anna Yelizarova as Governess each bring strong, resounding intonations, each worthy of their own kudos.

Kudos also especially goes to the evening’s production team.  Once again as she so often does on Bay Area stages, Abra Berman has outdone herself as costume designer, with the entire cast appearing as a live, museum display of late 18thCentury, lower- and upper-class, Russian attire.  The projections co-designed by Peter Crompton and Fréderic O. Boulay are a show unto themselves, bringing us into the high-ceiling interiors of estates and cathedrals, the outside of stately gardens and plazas, vast walls full of paintings and niches of statuary, and finally the horrors of ghosts and nightmares.  The lighting designed by Steve Mannshardt and the sound design of Giselle Lee sprinkle the tilted-stage, vast windowed scenic design of Peter Crompton with perfectly timed, additional elements to bring celebration, mystery, and suspense onto the stage at just the right moments.

Both the opera’s twenty-one person Chorus (Bruce Olstad, Chorus Master) and the evening’s opening, ten-boy, soldier chorus (Julia Simon, Chorus Master) unfortunately fight a mostly losing battle with an orchestra that too often over-powers their songs, with lyrics usually lost and even harmonies sometimes too indiscernible.  A further issue with the main Chorus comes from the stage direction of Ragnar Conde, with the repeated use of frozen stances (including raised arms shifting from one direction to another) just not working.  There were also times when the movement on the stage of the Chorus (at least on opening night) was awkward and almost clumsy in appearance.

But given so many strong major and minor character performances as well as the exceptionally strong talents of the production’s creative team, even with a couple of noteworthy misses West Bay Opera’s Pique Dame is well worth seeing, particularly since this popular, Tchaikovsky opera has not been performed by the company since 2007 nor by the larger San Francisco Opera since 2005.

Rating: 3.5 E

Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) continues in performance May 22, 28, and 29 by the West Bay Opera at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.  Tickets are available online at https://www.wbopera.org .

https://theatreeddys.com/2022/05/pique-dame.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pique-dame

West Bay Opera Scales a Formidable Musical Mountain

Steven Winn on May 23, 2022

When José Luis Moscovich came onstage at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre on Friday, May 20, the applause and cheers for West Bay Opera’s general director went on so long he had to sheepishly and repeatedly signal for silence. The audience celebration was well deserved. Friday’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame (or, The Queen of Spades) was a reunion, the company’s first staging before a live audience since the pandemic began.

West Bay undertook a singularly demanding work, sung in Russian with English titles, to re-greet Peninsula opera lovers. Sprawled out over three acts in seven different scenes, this tragic tale of erotic passion and gambling addiction tinted with Faustian overtones, adapted from a Pushkin novella by the composer’s brother, poses formidable musical and dramatic challenges.

Set and projection designer Peter Crompton devised a strikingly apt frame for the action, backing the skewed angles of a raked platform and tilting architectural fragments with images of a garden and drawing room, barracks and a snow-chilled canal, eerie visions, and apparitions. Costume designer Abra Berman outfitted a large cast with an extravagance of 18th-century finery for courtiers and soldiers, a revenge-seeking prince and domineering countess, everyday townsfolk, and wine-soaked gamblers. Here was a St. Petersburg at once opulent and teetering on the edge, just as its fated lovers are.  

As for the performance, Pique Dame proved to be a case of a company biting off more than it could comfortably chew, at least by opening night. With one notable and shining exception, the principals lacked authority, in both their singing and acting. Ragnar Conde’s direction yielded too many stock gestures and static stage pictures. The orchestra, under Moscovich’s baton, sounded patchy and was too often out of phase with the singers and especially with the chorus.

Like a bright light cutting through murky skies, Rhoslyn Jones stood out by blazing contrast. In the leading role of Liza, a beauty who captures the hearts of two different men, the singer tapped her arresting vocal prowess and vivid stage presence to produce a fully embodied study of a woman on the brink. In her first, carefully modulated scene, she segued from demure detachment to a mounting anguish over her engagement to a Prince (baritone Jonathan Beyer) and dawning ardor for her possessed admirer (tenor Michael Boley as Hermann.) Jones’s head feints, sidelong glances, and alarmed staggers were every bit as articulate and persuasive as her singing.

Her voice cascading from impassioned fortissimos to fretful misgivings, Jones’s Liza seemed to conjure a desperate Hermann to her bedchamber by the force of her own desire. Through her swooning portamento, some delicately hushed phrasing, and unmistakable attraction to Hermann, she projected a ravishing allure, a Liza helpless in the grip of passion. Later on, in her coruscating, Tosca-like suicide aria on the banks of a canal, Jones gave the tragedy its full human dimension.

While the temperature dropped whenever Jones was not onstage, intermittent strengths emerged over the course of a long evening. The two male rivals had their moments, most notably Beyer in the Prince’s indignant, wounded aria. Bass Kiril Havezov had some graceful turns as Hermann’s diplomatic friend Tomsky. A Mozartean pastorale was a spritely diversion. In the pit the woodwinds had a generally solid outing, highlighted by Ann Duxbury’s pleading and tender bassoon.

Pique Dame delivered its best ensemble scene at the end. Eyes glazed and mind addled by the prospect of a card game secret he’s learned from a dead Countess (a regrettably mannered Laure de Marcellus), Hermann arrived at a boisterous gambling hall to play his last, doomed hands. Impressed at first and gradually alarmed, the other men pulled back to watch Hermann unravel. The hymn-like threnody over the hero’s spent body brought this problematic production to a quietly affecting close.

Steven Winn is a San Francisco based free-lance writer and critic and frequent City Arts & Lectures interviewer. His work has appeared in Art News, California, Humanities, Manhattan, Symphony Magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle.

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/review/west-bay-opera-scales-formidable-musical-mountain