Sing like an Egyptian

By now, it’s old news that Union Avenue Opera’s (UAO) concert version of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1871 opera Aïda was a massive hit.  In his review for KDHX, Benjamin Torbert called it “superbly sung” and went on to praise the singers and musicians in great detail.  “The excellent cast gave compelling interpretations,” wrote Gerry Kowarsky over at HEC Media, “a most welcome gift to St. Louis operagoers.”

Having seen the final performance on August 3rd, I must heartily agree.

L-R: Marsha Thompson, Melody Wilson
Photo: Dan Donovan

Soprano Marsha Thompson and mezzo Melody Wilson, who last appeared at UAO in their impressive Nabucco in 2018, were once again romantic antagonists as, respectively, Aïda and Amneris. Both women were vocally formidable and theatrically savvy. Wilson, in particular, brought a welcome element of slinky cunning to her character.

Despite an upper respiratory infection that plagued him for the entire run, tenor Limmie Pulliam gave what can only be called a heroic performance as the heroic Radamès, with a passionate and ringing “Celeste Aïda.” If this was what he sounds like when he’s sick, I can only wonder what he can do when he isn’t.

Bass-baritone Lloyd Reshard was a commanding presence as Aïda’s dad Amonasro, whose decision to place patriotism over patrimony has tragic consequences. Baritone Todd Payne was an equally forceful King of Egypt. Baritone Jacob Lasetter, replacing Joseph Lodato on short notice (he had to learn the part in a week), was credibly solemn as the High Priest Ramfis.

L-R: Jacob Lassetter, Marsha Thompson,

Limmie Pulliam, Todd Payne, Melody Wilson
Photo: Dan Donovan

The roles of the High Priestess and the Messenger were taken by chorus members Danielle Yilmaz (soprano) and R. Nathan Brown. Both turned in first-rate performances, with Yilmaz the kind of vocal power you usually see in larger roles—not surprising when one realizes that she’s a principal soprano with the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Her defiant performance of “Die Trommel gerühret” (from Beethoven’s incidental music for Egmont) was one of many highlights of the SLSO’s all-Goethe concert last year

Finally, let me congratulate the orchestra and chorus for their fine work. A chorus of 30 and an orchestra of 22 might not be particularly imposing in a large hall, but they sounded big and polished in UAO’s relatively small space at the Union Avenue Christian Church. Kudos as always to Conductor and UAO Artistic Director Scott Schoonover for a clear and well-paced reading of the score.

Aïda in 1928 at The Muny

A fully staged Aïda is a massive, eye-popping spectacle—a "grand opera" in the tradition of Meyerbeer, with lavish sets and costumes, a corps de ballet and even live animals. That calls for the kind of big stage and deep pockets that our local companies don’t have. The last time we had one, in fact, was in 1928, at The Muny. Since then, the closest we have gotten to a full-metal Aïda was the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s semi-staged version with digitally projected sets in 2015.

Union Avenue’s “no frill”s concert version demonstrated that one can abandon staging altogether and still deliver all the dramatic thrills Verdi had in mind. Anyone looking for an object lesson in how to deliver what RCA Victor modestly describes as “unquestionably the most stupendous experience available to the music-lover” (How to Get the Most Out of Your Victrola, 1919) on a modest budget should routinely put UAO’s season on their calendar.

Union Avenue Opera closes its 2024 season with Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods August 16th through 24th. Given their enviable track record with Broadway shows, it would be wise to visit their web site for tickets sooner rather than later.

Opera Review: Union Avenue's "Carmen" gets Season Thirty off to a strong start

Union Avenue Opera is opening its 30th season with Bizet's "Carmen," a venerable work which, according to a New York Times article from some years back, is the fourth most-performed opera in North America.  And why not?   It has drama, it has some of Bizet’s most memorable and therefore most popular melodies and last – but most definitely not least – it has sex.

Joel Balzun
Photo: Dan Donovan

No, it’s not R or even PG sex, but when Carmen sings the famous "Habanera" while sinuously gyrating around army corporal Don Jose, there’s not much room for doubt what everybody is thinking of when they’re singing about l’amour.  The theatrical vitality of a production of “Carmen” hinges on the ability of the mezzo in the title role can convince the audience that she’s so utterly irresistible that she can entice a straight arrow like Don Jose to abandon the military life and join Dancaïre and his merry bandit band.

Mezzo Elise Quagliata, whose resume includes roles as diverse as Fricka and Sister Helen Prejean, is a slinky, seductive, dangerous Carmen. She’s completely believable as the most desirable woman in Seville and has a big voice to go with it. "Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!" ("If you love me, beware") indeed.

Meroë Khalia Adeeb
Photo: Dan Donovan

Her chemistry with baritone Joel Balzun’s swaggering, supremely self-confident toreador Escamillo is palpable.  Balzun has a booming voice that they could probably hear out on Delmar on opening night. He completely dominates the stage during the familiar Toreador song in Act II.

There are stellar performance in the supporting cast as well. Micaëla, for example, far too often comes off as a simpering victim. Not so in soprano Meroë Khalia Adeeb’s performance, which adds  some backbone to the character.

Mezzo Holly Janz and soprano Gina Galati (General Director of Winter Opera) are in very much the same league as Carmen’s friends Mercédès and Frasquita. Their voices blend perfectly in the Act III fortune-telling number (“Mêlons! – Coupons!”) as they shuffle (“Mêlons”) and cut (“Coupons”) the cards to reveal increasingly fanciful versions of their futures. Baritone Jacob Lasetter is properly cynical at the ethically flexible Lieutenant Zuniga.

As Don Jose, Brendan Tuohy is vocally solid, as he demonstrated in his Act II “Flower Song” ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"), but overall his character lacks passion. I didn’t see the journey from loyal soldier in Act I to delusional killer in Act IV, and without that Jose can come across as more pathetic than tragic.

Holly Janz, Marc Schapman, Elise Quagliata,
Xavier Joseph, and Gina Galati
Photo: Dan Donovan

The orchestra has never sounded better under Scott Schoonover's baton and the chorus is, as always, first rate. Marc Freiman’s stage direction is straightforward and keeps the action moving without drawing attention to itself.

Viewed from a contemporary standpoint, the libretto of “Carmen,” based as it is on an 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée, clearly looks sexist and, in its treatment of “gypsy” subculture, a tad racist. Attempts to update the opera and somehow modernize the characters tend, in my experience, to create more problems than they solve. Treating “Carmen” as the period piece that it is dodges those bullets and, ultimately, make it easier to enjoy the experience of seeing it. Especially when it’s done this well.

The bottom line is that this is, hands down, the best “Carmen” we have had locally in over a decade. Performances are in French with English supertitles and conclude this Friday and Saturday, July 12th and 13th, at 8 pm at the Union Avenue Christian Church in the Central West End. Don’t miss it.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Preview: The Big 30: Scott Schoover on Union Avenue Opera's 30th

I caught up with Scott Schoonover, the Artistic Director and Conductor of Union Avenue Opera, for a chat about the company’s 20204 season. This interview is based on our Zoom call, with the usual edits for clarity and brevity (“the soul of wit,” as Shakespeare wrote).

Chuck Lavazzi
So you're opening with Bizet’s “Carmen” and then a concert staging of Verdi’s “Aida” and finally Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

Scott Schoonover
Right.

Chuck Lavazzi
Often the third show at UAO is a Broadway musical. I see others doing this. Is this going to be something you're going to be doing more of in the future?

Scott Schoonover
I think we'll continue to do it. It's not that we plan necessarily to do it every single year for the rest of our lives, but for the moment, it's working for us. And it's been a real boon to ticket sales, especially post pandemic, trying to get things back up on their feet.

And also, we ended up having a lot of fun with it. It’s sort of a different medium of storytelling and for us the fun of opera is the storytelling. And from what we hear from our audiences, they really enjoy seeing those musicals and hearing them sung without mics, which is really an interesting change from what they get to hear other places.

Chuck Lavazzi
Yes, that is a rare experience. As an audience member and as a critic, I've kind of gotten tired of going to see musicals that are always amplified. Half the time I find that the amplification makes a lot of the lyrics incomprehensible.

Scott Schoonover
I know. Me too. Yeah

Chuck Lavazzi  
This raises another question. Is it sometimes difficult to find shows, non-operas, that will work in an operatic setting? I mean, obviously, “Ragtime” works because it's almost an opera, and Sondheim shows have a lot of musical depth to them.

Scott Schoonover  
Yeah, and sort of Golden Age shows, Rodgers and Hammerstein, those sorts of things. I mean, they were written to be unamplified in the beginning.

Sondheim is an interesting guy because in my brain, he has a classical sense about him. “A Little Night Music” was my first choice in that sense because I felt like it really was operatic in so many ways.

Chuck Lavazzi  
Well, “Sweeney Todd” also.

Scott Schoonover
Yeah. And I intend to do “Sweeney Todd” at some point, for sure. And I’m also a big fan of Kurt Weil, which I want to do in the future too. We aren't going to announce our 2025 season until our big gala this fall. But we're working on some options for that. And also, of course, the first two shows this season.

Chuck Lavazzi  
Well, let's start with “Carmen.” I mean, this is one that's very popula.r

Scott Schoonover  
For the 30th season, I wanted to do three kind of big ensemble shows that had a lot of popular appeal to kind of make a big statement. And “Carmen” certainly is always the most popular piece when we put out an audience survey.  

I think it's just one of those operas that people know. They enjoy hearing the music and it's got all the elements of a popular show. It's got this rebellious, sexy character who is at the center of it. And it's a dramatic story. There are things that tug at your heartstrings. There's a kid's chorus. There are all sorts of great things about it that people seem to like.

Elise Quagliata

And our Carmen, Elise Quagliata, has been at Union Avenue many, many times over the past several years and has gone on to have a pretty sizable career. Among a couple of roles that she does a lot is Carmen. I've gotten to see major clips of her doing the show and I keep wanting to engage her in this conversation. It happened that she had free time during the summer, so she's going to be our Carmen.

I can tell you already in rehearsals, it's so fun to watch her work and see. Just all the different things that she brings to it and all the different productions that she has been through in her life, all the different ideas that are there

Chuck Lavazzi
Well, and there are so few really meaty leading roles for women with lower voices.

Joel Balzun

Scott Schoonover
That's true. That's a good point.

Chuck Lavazzi  
So it's always good to see them on stage.

Scott Schoonover
Our Don Jose and Escamillo (Brendan Tuohy and Joel Balzun) are both making their debuts with us and they're wonderful. And then Meroë Khalia, who played the governess last year in “The Turn of the Screw,” is playing Michaela, which is the really touching sweet role of the home girlfriend of Jose, who comes twice to try to find him and give him messages from his mother. And she has a beautiful aria in the show.

Chuck Lavazzi  
I think this is a very hard part to do credibly because she's written as such a cliche victim.

Scott Schoonover  
She is. I agree with that in terms of the character. But the other thing about it is the Bizet gives her the only really beautiful music in the whole piece. It was so touching to hear her sing that aria. I think people are going to really love her.

Chuck Lavazzi  
What kind of a production concept are you doing? Is it more or less traditional?

Meroë Khalia

Scott Schoonover  
Yeah, it's pretty traditional. We have a unit set that is used in different ways. It's a beautiful set and it's got a backdrop. It's very traditional Seville, the time period they're used to. The soldiers are in the yellow uniforms that they're supposed to be in and all that kind of stuff.

Mark Freiman is directing this one. I think he has a nice eye for the pictures of the stage. A lot of little nice details go into what he's doing. The concept I would say is “just tell them the story.”

Chuck Lavazzi  
So let's go on to what I think is the really unusual one here: The concert version of “Aida.” I don't know if there are any companies in St. Louis that could actually do it as written because of its size. So how are you approaching this? Is it going to be just a concert setting, semi-staged, or what?

Scott Schoonover  
We're going to have a basically blank stage with the blacks [black curtains] around the back and then the chorus will be seated. There's a chorus of 30, which is a pretty big group. There are 16 men and 14 women. And it's a really big sound.

They'll be seated on stage and then in front of them will be the principals. And they're going to stand and come to the front of the stage when they would be on stage. There won't be any projections or anything like that. The only thing that will sort of change is that when the chorus is singing, they'll be lit and when they're not singing, they won't be lit.

Marsha Thompson

So it focuses the energy on the front of the stage when it's just the principals. The principals are singing from memory, and they'll be in concert attire, but they're going to be acting. They're going to be relating to one another as they would in the opera.

Our Aida, Marsha Thompson, is a bit of a known quantity. She was our Abigaille in “Nabucco” a few years ago and she's sung Aida several times already in her career. Our Radames, Limmie Pullia, just covered [understudied] the role at the Metropolitan Opera and he got to go on stage in the part, to great success. He’s from Southern Missouri and so he was like, “yeah, I really would love to be able to do this in my home state.”

Limmie Pullia

Melodie Wilson, who is a favorite here, is our Amneris. There are lots of roles in the show, but those are the three that have the bulk of the arias.

It's going to be really full in there, similar to [our production of] “Ragtime” in a way, but even bigger. Interestingly, we got a lot of the ragtime folks back in to do “Aida,” which is kind of cool.

Chuck Lavazzi  
Regarding the size of the chorus and cast, what kind of challenges does that present to you as a music director in terms of making sure everything is sonically clear?

Melodie Wilson

Scott Schoonover 
I talk to them about that a lot in rehearsals. I often make the endings of phrases a little shorter, so that  there's a space in between. So, for example, if there's a quarter note at the end of a phrase, I'll usually make that into a short eighth note, so that we actually get in that space. It sounds a little truncated in the rehearsal room, but when you go in the auditorium, it sounds exactly right. We have to overstep everything up a little bit in terms of articulation to make it work.

Chuck Lavazzi  
More pointed and precise.

Scott Schoonover  
Yeah, exactly. But it doesn't sound like that out front. It just sounds clear, but that's what you have to do in order to make it work.

We love the acoustic of the auditorium. One of the things that I can't imagine is before the 1950s renovation of the building they used to have wooden round pews, like they have up in the balcony, and a wooden floor. I can't imagine what it sounded like in there back then before carpeting and before those padded seats. It would have been just insanely live. Now it just gives a nice balance with the orchestra being in the pit. I love our space. I wouldn't trade it

Chuck Lavazzi  
Any other special events coming up that we need to talk about?

Scott Schoonover  
Oh, I just want to say about “Into the Woods” that Jenny Wintzer is directing. She has done a lot theater producing in the St. Louis area. She used to be at COCA and has been involved Shakespeare in the Park [St. Louis Shakespeare Festival]. She's a wonderful director, and we're having a lot of fun pulling all that together.

Laura Skroska is designing the set for this. We're using the whole auditorium as the set. So it's not just the stage that's going to be decorated. I think people will enjoy that a lot.

In terms of special events, we have the Backstage Pass luncheon concerts [June 25, July 23, and August 6]. There's one for each of the shows, and it's a chance to meet the singers and to hear what the directors have in mind. You get a lunch, and you get to hear two scenes from the opera itself, and then each of the four principles sings a piece of their choosing.

And then we have our 30th anniversary gala celebration, which is Thursday, October 17th. That is a sit-down dinner where we're going to recognize lots of people who've been involved in the last 30 years. Christine Brewer is the honorary chair. It will be at the Barnett on Washington.

Chuck Lavazzi  
Cool.

Scott Schoonover
Yeah, it's gonna be a really nice evening.

The Essntials: Union Avenue Opera’s 2024 season runs from July 5th through August 24th at the Union Avenue Christian Church in the Central West End. For information and tickets, including the Backstage Pass series 30th Anniversary Gala, visit their web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Review: Swedish Rhapsody: "A Little Night Music" at Union Avenue Opera

In a 2016 interview at the Glimmerglass Festival, Stephen Sondheim said that he had always viewed his 1973 musical “A Little Night Music” as having “an operetta attitude.” It’s not surprising, then, that many opera companies have embraced it.

L-R: James Stevens, Leann Schuering,
Eric McConnell, Jordan Wolk, Teresa Doggett
Photo: Dan Donovan

Union Avenue Opera’s production doesn’t just embrace the show; it makes love to it with a combination of sensuality and skill that even the curmudgeonly Madame Armfeldt (played with sardonic wit by Teresa Doggett) would appreciate. With a simple but highly functional set (C. Otis Sweezey), beautiful costumes (the multi-talented Doggett), skilled dramatic and musical direction (Annamaria Pileggi and Scott Schoonover, respectively) and, above all a splendid cast, this is the best “Night Music” I have seen in quite a while.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, know that “A Little Night Music” is “suggested by” famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 comedy “Smiles of a Summer Night.” The story centers on a collection of romantically confused couples whose foolishness is sorted out by the “smiles” of a single midsummer night, when the sun never sets and there’s both magic and pheromones in the air. Hugh Wheeler’s book adds a few complications and a bit more romance (“sex presented pastorally,” to quote Stephen Schwartz), but otherwise it sticks fairly closely to Bergman’s original.

L-R: Debby Lennon,
Peter Kendall Clark
Photo: Dan Donovan

Presenting a successful “Little Night Music” can be a tricky proposition. Sondheim’s lyrics mix low comedy and high art in a way rarely seen on the musical stage, and his music is filled with intricate rhythms and layers of polyphony that are uncommon even in the regular operatic repertoire. That musical complexity is true as well for the roles of Frederik, Desiree, and Madame Armfeldt—originally written for singing actors rather than classically trained singers—which can be challenging.

What you need, in short, is a cast that can act as well as it sings, and vice versa.

Union Avenue has assembled just such a cast. Debby Lennon, a familiar presence on the operatic, theatre, and cabaret stages locally, is a wry and  insightful Desiree Armfeldt, the actress who realizes that ending her earlier relationship with lawyer Fredrik Egerman might not have been a wise decision. Lennon is the kind of singer who sounds entirely at home in just about any musical genre, a fact she demonstrates here with a performance of “Send in the Clowns” that is simply the most heartfelt and musically solid I have ever heard.

Baritone Peter Kendall Clark’s Fredrik is funny and wistful, as he tries to negotiate a mid-life crisis of which he seems blissfully unaware. The role has generally been the province of big theatrical baritones like Len Cariou and Ron Raines, and Clark could not be a better fit. He’s got projection and tonal warmth to spare.

L-R: Leann Schuering, Peter Kendall Clark
Poto: Dan Donovan

Speaking of projection, bass-baritone Eric J. McConnell has ample vocal power as the “pea-brained” Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, whose toxic masculinity is exceeded only by his lack of insight. He comes close to making the character’s vapid bluster a little too silly, but better to error in that direction than to let us see what a truly awful person Carl-Magnus is.  

Soprano Leann Schuering, whose crystalline voice so brightened Union Avenue’s “HMS Pinafore” in 2018, sparkles again as Countess Charlotte Malcolm, painfully aware of just how much she is under her husband’s sadistic thumb but unable to find her way out.

I have, perhaps, exhausted my store of encomiums for soprano Brooklyn Snow from her previous UAO appearances. Here, as Fredrik’s very young and deeply shallow bride Anne (“unfortunately still a virgin” after nearly a year of marriage), she is once again vocally stunning and utterly convincing in her portrayal.

L-R: Amy Maude Helfer,
Brooklyn Snow
Photo: Dan Donovan

Tenor James Stevens is Henrik, Fredrik’s son from his first marriage, who finds himself in the untenable position of studying for the priesthood while lusting after his stepmother who, after all, is around the same age as him. Steven’s performance is a perfect mix of pain and comedy, delivered with a clear-as-a-bell voice that fills the stage. Together with Snow and Clark, he makes the complex Act I trio “Now / Later / Soon” one of many memorable moments.

One sign of a solid show is the presence of first-rate performers in even the smallest roles. As the free-spirited and flirtatious maid Petra, mezzo Amy Maude Helfer brings an unusual touch of sadness to the final line of “I Shall Marry the Miller’s Son.” It’s there in the music, but I don’t recall hearing it before.

Arielle Pedersen, a finalist in last year’s Fox Performing Arts High School Talent competition, makes an auspicious UAO debut in the mostly non-singing role of Desiree’s daughter Fredrika, radiating warmth and wisdom beyond her years. Perhaps that’s the result of her tutelage at the feet (literally) of the wheelchair-bound Madame Armfeldt, continually disappointed by her daughter Desiree’s refusal to recognize the importance of the profit motive in her romances. She gives voice to it in the ruefully witty “Liaisons,” which Doggett, in one of her regrettably rare stage appearances, sings with impressive clarity, even though it’s at the bottom of her range.

L-R: Joel Rogier, Sarah Price, Phil Touchette,
Gina Malone, Grade Yukiko Fisher
Photo: Dan Donovan

Finally, let us not forget the fine work by the vocal quintet that Sondheim employs as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the action and sometimes letting us hear the thoughts of the characters. Their presence is essential throughout the work and their music is often complex, as in the fugal “Perpetual Anticipation,” sung by the three women of the ensemble in Act II. The quintet consists of Joel Rogier, Gina Malone, Grace Yukiko Fisher, Philip Touchette, and Sarah Price.

That said, there are the usual issues with UAO’s overly resonant acoustics blurring overlapping vocal lines, especially in the Mozartian complexity of the Act I finale “A Weekend in the Country.” Schoonover’s tempos are also a bit too brisk in places for Sondheim’s lyrically lavish music, but the projected English text helps.

L-R: Arielle Pedersen,
Teresa Doggett
Photo: Dan Donovan

Set changes were also longer than they should have been due to the necessity of hauling large pieces of furniture on and off stage. But this, again, is a function of the fact that the performance space has no backstage or wing space; there’s only so much you can expect a designer to do. “Falstaff” suffered from the same issue but at least this time Schoonover used bits of the score as change music, which made them feel shorter.

For me the bottom line is that it has been over a decade since I have seen a professional production of “A Little Night Music” and longer than that since I have seen one that was so completely right in so many ways. This is a “must see” for anyone who loves musical theatre of any kind.

There are two more performances this Friday and Saturday (August 26 and 27) at 8 pm at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union at Enright. Tickets are available at the UAO web site.

Opera Review: Union Avenue Opera's "Falstaff" achieves musical perfection in an imperfect space

Now in its 28th season, Union Avenue Opera has, over the decades, presented a wide range of operas—ancient to modern, intimate to grand—with a remarkable degree of success. Despite working with a small stage and a less than ideal acoustic environment in the venerable Union Avenue Christian Church, UAO’s hits far outnumber its misses.

Running through August 6th, the company’s production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” is in some ways the quintessential UAO show. Under the skilled baton of Stephen Hargreaves, the orchestra sounds great, with Verdi's many expressive instrumental details coming through loud and clear. Individual performances range from good to stunning, both musically and theatrically, and the overall experience is immensely satisfying.

L-R Mark Freiman as Pistola. Marc Schapman
as Bardolfo. Robert Mellon as Falstaff
Photo: Dan Donovan

Flawless it isn’t, but what flaws there are can largely be attributed to the physical limitations of the performance space. Transferred to an actual theatre like the Browning Mainstage at the Loretto-Hilton Center or the auditorium of the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, this “Falstaff” would be darn near perfect. As it is, opera lovers won’t want to miss it, especially since it hasn’t graced a local stage in nearly three decades.

First performed in Milan in February 1893 (just a few months short of Verdi’s 80th birthday), “Falstaff” was the composer’s third Shakespearean opera and second attempt at comedy since his flop “Un giorno di regno” way back in 1840. It’s considered by many, including yours truly, to be his greatest work for the stage, if not the greatest opera of the 19th century.

There are many reasons for that. To begin with, Verdi had the best of all possible librettists in the person of Arrigo Boito, who had worked with Verdi on “Otello” only a few years earlier. A gifted writer and composer (his “Mefistofele” is still the best of the “Faust”-inspired operas, in my view), Boito was, like Verdi, a great admirer of The Bard of Avon. His “Falstaff” libretto ingeniously combines “The Merry Wives of Windsor” with bits of the “Henry IV” plays and even hints at “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the faux fairies of the "Herne's" Oak" scene that ends the opera.

L-R Janara Kellerman as Quickly. Brooklyn Snow
as Nannetta. Karen Kanakas as Alice.
Melody Wilson as Meg
Photo: Dan Donovan

Verdi, for his part, produced a score that departed radically from everything he had written previously. Instead of a typical 19th century Italian opera in which the action pauses for arias, duets, and other set pieces, he wrote a fast-paced through composed musical play that moves at the speed of speech. Jokes and puns fly back and forth so quickly that even the original Milanese audience probably didn’t catch them all. The result is a seamless integration of words and music that is often exhilarating.

All of this makes “Falstaff” a challenge to produce. Verdi demanded over sixty rehearsals for his original La Scala cast because of the sheer complexity of the work. The sets are detailed, making scene changes potentially cumbersome. And the principal roles require performers with not only vocal and theatrical skills but comic timing as well.

Union Avenue has, I’m happy to say, a cast that meets and often exceeds those expectations, headed by baritone Robert Mellon in the title role.  His Falstaff roars, boasts, preens, and schemes—all in a big, resonant voice that reaches every corner of the theatre. His Act I “honor” monologue (one of the choice bits Boito lifted from “Henry IV”) is delivered with an authority and comic force that makes it a genuine showstopper. He even manages, in the less boisterous third act, to let us see a bit of the nobility buried under the character’s folly—no easy task, given that he’s lumbered with an absurd fat suit that’s more appropriate to a circus than the stage.

L-R Anthony Heinemann as Caius.
Jacob Lassetter as Ford.
Marc Schapman as Bardolfo.
Mark Freiman as Pistola
Photo: Dan Donovan

Falstaff’s nemesis is Alice Ford, whose sharp wit punctures the absurd schemes of both her husband and Falstaff. Falstaff wants to seduce both her and her friend Meg Page, while Ford arrogantly attempts to keep their daughter Nannetta from her true love Fenton and force her into an unsuitable marriage with the ancient Dr. Caius. Lighting up the role here is soprano Karen Kanakis, whose effulgent voice and impeccable acting have enlivened many roles at both UAO and Winter Opera. Her Alice is all quicksilver wit and irresistible charm.

Mezzo Janara Kellerman is delightful as Dame Mistress Quickly, Alice’s chief co-conspirator. Verdi saw the role as “the most individual and original” of the four women’s parts. The three scenes he wrote for her in Acts II and III are comic gems and Kellerman makes them shine. The part calls for a contralto, but Kellerman sounded perfectly at home in it.

The massive talents of soprano Brooklyn Snow and mezzo Melody Wilson are rather underused in the roles of Nannetta and Meg, respectively, but their finely wrought performances demonstrate the value in putting star performers in supporting roles. Snow also has some charming moments with tenor Jesse Darden’s Fenton as his limpid voice joins with hers in love duets that are invariably interrupted by the plot’s comic complications.

Tenor Marc Schapman and bass Mark Freiman make a first-rate pair of clowns as Falstaff’s wily minions Bardolfo and Pistola. The role of the clueless Dr. Caius offers little opportunity for tenor Anthony Heinemann to display his wide vocal range, but he does get to show off his fine comic timing.

Brooklyn Snow as Nanetta
and Jesse Darden as Fenton
Photo: Dan Donovan

Baritone Jacob Lassetter’s voice packs a serious punch in Ford’s big “revenge” monolog “È sogno o realtà?” ("Is it a dream or reality?") but his acting is a bit monochromatic. Verdi saw Ford as a character “who, in a towering outburst of jealousy, roars, screams, jumps all over”—a larger than life counterpoint to Falstaff. A bigger stage presence was called for, I thought.

The UAO chorus does fine work with some difficult music here thanks to the meticulous direction of company Artistic Director Scott Schoonover. They are not always easily understood, but the blame must rest with the imperfect acoustics of the Union Avenue Christian Church. Indeed, the tendency of the space’s overly resonant acoustics to sometimes turn Verdi’s multi-layered vocal lines to mush, especially in the brilliant fugue that concludes the opera, is probably the production’s biggest flaw. And one that is, alas, entirely out of UAO’s control.

The UAO stage was also an issue, simply because of its small size. The libretto calls for multiple sets, with the most elaborate being the room in Ford’s house where the madcap farce of Act II takes place. Lex Van Blommenstein’s scenic design evokes the feel of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, with a massive wooden framework supporting painted scrolls that were apparently designed to roll up and down quickly. In practice, doing so required multiple stagehands to laboriously raise and lower each one, resulting in scene changes that seemed to go on forever and killed the forward momentum in the middle of each act.

Even so, stage director Jon Truitt shows the same skill in maneuvering large forces around a small stage that served his Winter Opera production of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del Weat" so well two years ago.

Still, these are relatively minor blemishes in an otherwise outstanding production of Verdi’s final masterpiece. Add in Teresa Doggett’s bright period costumes (that fat suit not withstanding) and you have a “Falstaff” that must be seen.

Performances of Verdi’s “Falstaff” continue through Saturday, August 6th, at the Union Avenue Christian Church on Union in the Central West End. Information on this and the company’s final show of the season, Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” are available at the UAO web site.

Opera Review: Union Avenue does the impossible in "Les contes d'Hoffmann"

Union Avenue Opera has an enviable ability to turn out solid productions of big, traditional operas under conditions that are often less than ideal. So it’s no surprise that they managed the dauting task of producing a semi-staged version of Jacques Offenbach’s last and arguably greatest opera, “Les contes d’Hoffmann” (“The Tales of Hoffmann”) in a large circus tent with eccentric lighting, a miniscule stage, and no air conditioning. In July. In St. Louis, a.k.a. The Sauna of the Midwest.

L-R: Jeremiah Sanders, William Davenport
Photo by Ron Lindsey

What’s really impressive is that the results were generally entertaining and well worth seeing, at least for opera lovers.

Left uncompleted at the time of the composer's death, “Hoffman” is, by now, a bit of a mess. It has gone through numerous rewrites over the years, the most recent being a major critical edition by Michael Kaye and Offenbach expert Jean-Christophe Keck. Union Avenue wasn’t using that one, but whichever edition they did use made Hoffmann’s conversion from passed-out drunkard to poet so brief and understated that one could be excused for missing it entirely. Still, I suppose it's truer to the real Hoffmann's early death from alcoholism and syphilis.

Union Avenue’s biggest asset was its fine cast, headed by tenor William Davenport as Hoffmann, soprano Brooklyn Snow as his three improbable loves, bass Jeremiah Sanders as the three diabolical villains, and mezzo Emma Rose Sorenson in the “trousers” role of Nicklausse, Hoffman’s friend and, as we learn at the very end of the opera, also his poetic muse.  All four were vocally powerful and looked entirely comfortable in their roles. Snow was especially adept in distinguishing her three very different characters, displaying that stunning combination of vocal athleticism and theatrical smarts that impressed me so much in UAOs “Candide” in 2019.

William Davenport and
Brooklyn Snow (a Olympia)
Photo by Ron Lindsey

Add in strong singing actors in major supporting roles, an excellent chorus, and a music director (Scott Schoonover) who really knows what he's doing on the podium, and the result was a winning combination.

That’s despite the fact that the space in The Big Top in Grand Center wasn’t especially conducive to opera. The orchestra was on stage, with the singers confined to a relatively narrow strip of space in front of them. That meant minimal props and no scenery to speak of, which made this more of a concert version of the opera than a fully-staged production.

For some operas, this might not be an issue. We saw a complete concert version of "Die Walküre" at Tanglewood a couple of years ago, for example, and it was pretty thrilling. “Les contes d’Hoffmann,” however, calls for some relatively elaborate stage effects and multiple scene changes, so it doesn’t lend itself easily to downsizing. Sage Director Mark Freiman made exceptionally good use of the space he was given, but even so I have to confess that this “Hoffmann” didn’t really have the dramatic punch I would have liked.

Still, everyone involved did a remarkable job under the circumstances. Indeed, I give UAO major props for pulling it off at all, even more for as well as they did. With "Hoffmann," after all, if you have really solid principals, you're already most of the way there. This was not a “Hoffman” for the ages, but it was a fine one for a Plague Year.

L-R: Anthony Webb as Pittichinaccio,
Brooklyn Snow as Giulietta, and
Emma Sorenson as Nicklausse
Photo by Ron Lindsey

“Of this,” to quote Offenbach’s slightly older contemporary W.S. Gilbert, “there can be no possible doubt / No possible, probable shadow of doubt / No possible doubt whatever.”

Union Avenue Opera’s “Tales of Hoffman ran in alternating repertory with its production of Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” July 21 through 25. Performances were sung in French with English supertitles that were clearly visible through the house. The singers did not appear to be wearing mics, which was rather courageous in an admittedly imperfect acoustic environment.

For information on upcoming Union Avenue Opera productions, visit the company’s web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Review: There's "un'abbondanza di gioia" in Union Avenue Opera's "Il barbiere di Siviglia"

Back in 2015 I asked Michael Shell, who was directing Opera Theatre’s production of Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville," why he thought this comic opera had remained so popular over the centuries. His answer: “I think I can sum that up with one word : JOY. There is so much joy in the spirit of the piece that I think that is why it has stood the test of time.”

L-R: Pedro Barbosa and Andy Papas
Photo by Ron Lindsey

If you were looking for a good word to describe what made Union Avenue Opera’s production of “Il bariere di Siviglia” such a success, you could do far worse than “joy.” Or, since this was sung in the original Italian with English supertitles, “gioia.” There was certainly plenty of that to go around, thanks in large measure to the outstanding performances of the principal cast members.

Baritone Robert Mellon schemed cheerfully as Figaro, taking uproarious pleasure in every trick he played on baritone Andy Papas’s brilliantly befuddled Dr. Bartolo. Tenor Pedro Barbosa’s Almaviva loved wooing mezzo Janera Kellerman’s Rosina as much as he did putting one over of Bartolo. And bass-baritone Isaiah Musik-Ayala’s Don Basilio was happy to work both sides as long as someone crossed his palm with oro.

The singing was on the same high level as the acting. Mellon’s “Largo al factotum” (perhaps one of the most famous baritone arias of all time) was polished and funny, even though he and the orchestra came perilously close to getting out of synch towards the end. Kellerman’s “Una voce poco fa" was a masterful mix of comedy and coloratura, and Barbosa displayed a heavenly bel canto-style voice in “Ecco, ridente in cielo,” the elaborate cavatina in which Almaviva extols the virtues of Rosina.

Robert Mellon, Janara Kellerman, Pedro Barbosa
Photo by Ron Lindsey

Basically, everyone was having a good time. And that included the audience, who laughed and applauded frequently and with enthusiasm

Union Avenue’s “Bariere” was less hampered by the shallow staging area at the Big Top than its “Les contes Hoffmann” since "Barbiere" doesn't really require much in the way of scenery or stage effects, so the emphasis was on the impeccable singing and comic abilities of the cast. Stage Director John Truitt even made a virtue of necessity by using the orchestra and conductor Stephen Hargreaves (who also played the recitativo secco passages on an electronic keyboard) as "props" for some of the comedy. The staging got a bit overly busy at times—most notably during the “Fredda ed immobile, come una statua” ensemble at the end of Act I, when time stopped for everyone except Figaro—but it generally worked quite well.

The cast of Il barbiere
Photo by Ron Lindsey

The continuing popularity of “Il barbiere” (Operabase consistently shows it in the “top 10” list worldwide) is remarkable when you consider that the composer dashed it off in three weeks. He didn’t even have time to write an original overture, choosing instead to recycle one he had used for two previous operas, "Aureliano in Palmira" and "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra." Which is why none of the engaging tunes in the impeccably-played overture appear in the actual opera. I guess it comes back to that infectious sense of joy. Congratulations to Union Avenue for capturing it so effectively.

Union Avenue Opera’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” ran in alternating repertory with Offenbach’s “Les contes d’Hoffmann” July 21 through 25. For information on upcoming Union Avenue Opera productions, visit the company’s web site.

Opera Review: The omega glory

Tom Cipullo's 2007 opera Glory Denied, which is getting its local premiere through August 24th at Union Avenue Opera, is a difficult piece to watch. That's not because of flaws in the work itself (although it does have a few) and certainly not because the performances of the cast and the orchestra are anything less than perfect.

L-R: David Walton, Peter Kendall Clark
Photo by Dan Donovan

No, Glory Denied is hard to watch because it does such a compelling job of presenting the true story of Col. Floyd James Thompson, the Green Beret whose nine-year ordeal as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese made him the longest held prisoner of war in US history. Subjected to torture (or, as we say in this country, "enhanced interrogation") by his captors, Thompson was eventually returned to the USA, only to find both the country and his life drastically changed.

We see how the seismic shifts in American culture between 1965 and 1973 have left him baffled and angry. Worse yet, his wife Alyce has, after years of vague, content-free letters from the Pentagon, decided to move on with her life and start a new family. "I want what I left," he cries at one point-an impossible desire. An attempt at reconciliation fails, and Thompson is finally left a broken man.

The cast of Glory Denied
Photo by Dan Donovan

Based on the book by Tom Philpott, Mr. Cipullo's libretto sticks closely to things the real-life characters actually said, along with actual documents like letters from the Pentagon, press releases, and even excerpts from the peace agreement that ended the Vietnam War. That gritty realism means that there are no obvious heroes or villains in Glory Denied and no easy answers to the questions the opera raises.

Running around 110 minutes, including intermission, Glory Denied whips back and forth through time and uses an impressive variety of musical styles. There are only four characters: Young Thompson, Old Thompson, Young Alyce, and Old Alyce, although the singers playing them sometimes take on other characters as well.

L-R: Peter Kendall Clark, David Walton,
Karina Brazas, Gina Galati
Photo by Dan Donovan

The kaleidoscopic first act, filled with hard dissonance and complex four-part harmony, details Thompson's abuse at the hands of his captors juxtaposed against Young Alice's sweetly banal letters of home life and Old Alyce's increasingly bitter exchanges with the military. The second act, in contrast, sounds more conventional, with clearly delineated musical numbers offering equally clear cues for applause. Time is less fluid and scenes more conventionally structured. The opera's structure, in short, changes with the narrative.

All this sounds like a real challenge to perform. The wide vocal ranges of the roles and constantly shifting meters of the score would seem to require heroic levels of concentration from the performers-a feeling reinforced by comments by the cast at a post-show talkback on opening night. Fortunately, Union Avenue has a quartet of singers who are more than up to those demands.

David Walton, Karina Brazas
Photo by Dan Donovan

Peter Kendall Clark's Old Thompson is an astonishing achievement. His character goes through Hell, and Mr. Thompson portrays it all with impressive authenticity. "Welcome home," the second-act number in which he reels off an exhaustive list of all the changes in his world, had the staccato aggression of tracer bullets. Most impressive of all, though, was the final scene in which Thompson, forced into retirement by a stroke, wanders around the stage bewildered, drunk, and fuming with resentment over the lack of recognition for his ordeal. Mr. Clark made the character's pain uncomfortably real.

Kudos as well to St. Louis's own Gina Galati as Old Alyce. The lyrical Act II aria "After you hear me out," in which Alyce tries to make Old Thompson understand the difficult changes in her life, was beautifully sung and, like the rest of Ms. Galati's performance, convincingly acted. The character has to make some hard choices, and Ms. Galati insured that the cost of those choices was plain.

As Young Thompson, David Walton's contorted posture in Act I compellingly showed the character's physical torment. His powerfully sung litany of torture contrasted sharply with the sweetly foolish letters from home sung so clearly by Karina Bazas as Young Alice. Together, they were a poignant reminder of what their older selves had lost.

L-R: Peter Kendall Clark, David Walton,
Karina Brazas, Gina Galati
Photo by Dan Donovan

Glory Denied is scored for a small orchestra-nine players in this case. That means every one of the musicians must have the kind of virtuosity and close communication of chamber players. Under Scott Schoonover's expert direction, the small band gave a faultless account of this difficult and mercurial music on opening night. I was especially taken with work of cellist Marcia Irwin and pianist Nancy Mayo in the second-act mini-concerto that underscores a slide show of images from the lives of the Thompsons, along with documentary images from the war.

Director Dean Anthony deserves praise as well for his imaginative staging, in which the playing space becomes more cluttered with documents as the lives of the characters spiral out of control.

That said, Glory Denied ultimately fails as drama for me, even as it succeeds as documentary theatre. It powerfully illustrates the hard choices faced by returning POWs and returning veterans in general, but otherwise has no clear point of view and offers nothing much beyond recognition of that grim reality.

Peter Kendall Clark
Photo by Dan Donovan

Glory Denied is currently one of the most frequently performed American 20th-century operas, but I'm not sure how long its shelf life will be. It captures a moment in American history with great clarity, but some of the historical and cultural references of that moment are already fading. Old Thompson's obsession over not getting a POW bracelet, for example, had to be explained for one younger audience member during the talkback session. Without a broader perspective, the opera risks becoming yesterday's news.

Still, it's worth seeing, if only for the sheer brilliance of the performances and high quality of the craftsmanship of its construction. Glory Denied continues at Union Avenue Opera through Saturday, August 24th, at the Union Avenue Christian Church in the Central West End. It concludes what has been a exceptional 25th anniversary season; I hope there will be many more.

Opera Review: The poor people of Paris

Although copies of Henri Murger's 1851 short story collection Scenes de la vie bohème are no longer the common sight on bookshelves that they once were, the principal characters have never fallen out of favor. The stories (originally published in a Paris literary magazine) inspired, among other things, an 1849 play, two operas, and the wildly successful rock musical Rent.

Jesse Donner and Lulia Lysenko
Photo by Dan Donovan

It's Puccini's 1896 opera La Bohème, however, that should probably get most of the credit for embedding the image of the starving artist in a Paris atelier into Western consciousness. A staple of companies around the world, it finally came to the Union Avenue Opera stage in an admirable production that concluded last Saturday (August 3, 2019).

For those of you who have somehow missed being exposed to this tale of starving artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris, here's a quick summary. On Christmas Eve, the poet Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline, and the musician Schaunard are young, creative, broke, and preparing to burn some of their work to heat their squalid Parisian apartment when the equally poverty-stricken seamstress Mimi comes knocking. Before the first act is over, she and Rodolfo are smitten. The opera chronicles the highs and tragic lows of both their relationship and that of Marcello and the singer Musetta. Mimì dies, Musetta doesn't, and nobody lives happily ever after.

Back row: Nicholas Ward, Andrew Wannigman
Front row: Isaiah Musik-Ayla, E. SCott Levin,
Jesse Donner
Photo by Dan Donovan

So, yeah, it's a tragedy, but it's a tragedy with more than its fair share of comedy. Until Mimi's entrance near the end of the first act, for example, La Bohème is largely about the good natured clowning of the four friends as they enjoy a bit of short-lived prosperity and prevent their bumbling landlord from collecting the rent. Musetta's famous Act II aria, "Quando m'en vo'," also generates plenty of laughs as she taunts the jealous Marcello.

Under the direction of Mark Freiman (a fine singer in his own right) Union Avenue delivered a La Bohème that honored the comedy in the opera while still delivering all the romance and tragedy that you could ask for. I thought Mr. Freiman did a particularly good job of managing the potential traffic jam Puccini and his librettists created in the Café Momus scene, which fills the stage with café staff, customers, assorted Parisians, a toy vendor, and a group of rambunctious children.

Union Avenue's cast was a splendid one, with impressive singing and acting from all concerned. Jesse Donner's Rodolfo and Yulia Lysenko's Mimì tugged at the heartstrings in their famous Act I duet, "O soave fanciulla." Cree Carrico's Musetta was a fiery comic masterpiece in her early scenes and credibly moving in the final act. Andrew Wannigman's Marcello was an ideal mix of conflict and compassion.

Cree Carrico and the company
Photo by Dan Donovan

There were outstanding performance as well by Isaiah Musik-Ayla as the philosopher Colline, Nicholas Ward as the musician Schaunard, and E. Scott Levin as the befuddled landlord Benoit and Musetta's sugar daddy Alcindoro, who gets stuck with the bill at Café Momus.

Conductor Elizabeth Hastings drew first rate performances from the chorus and orchestra, both of which had a pleasingly robust and full sound. Patrick Huber's sets and Teresa Doggett's costumes were spot on as usual.

Union Avenue's 25th anniversary season concludes with the local premiere of Tom Cipullo's 2007 tragedy Glory Denied August 16th through 24th. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church at Union and Enright in the Central West End.

Backstage at "Lost in the Stars" IV: The heavenly choir

The wedding scene from "Lost in the Stars"
Photo by John Lamb

While I am mostly a music and theatre critic these days I have also been an actor/singer since roughly the late Jurassic Era and still do a show now and then. My current acting gig in Union Avenue Opera's production of Kurt Weill's last masterpiece, "Lost in the Stars" (final performances this Friday and Saturday August 24 and 25, 2018). This is part of a short series of observations from backstage.

Observation 4: The Union Avenue Opera chorus rocks. I have been reviewing Union Avenue for the last decade or thereabouts and have always been impressed with the high quality of the company's chorus. Consisting mostly of local singers, the chorus has consistently delivered vocal power, crisp enunciation, and a solid theatrical sense for many years now. The singers this time around are no exception. The fact that many of them also turn in compelling performances in some of the smaller non-singing roles is another point in their favor.

The chorus in "Lost in the Stars" has a vital role. It advances and comments on the drama, delivering some of the show's most powerful moments. And even when they're not singing, director Shaun Patrick Tubbs has them on stage, posing as mute witnesses to the unfolding tragedy. Give them a big round of applause when you see them.