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A tame ‘Tamerlano’ at L.A. Opera
November 22nd, 2009, 12:16 pm · 10 Comments · posted by TIMOTHY MANGAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW SLIDE SHOW
REVIEW: Placido Domingo takes on the tenor role in Handel’s showpiece. The Orange County Register, Nov. 22, 2009. SEE SLIDE SHOW
One’s heart sinks a little when the curtain is raised on Los Angeles Opera’s production of Handel’s “Tamerlano,” which opened Saturday for five performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It’s one of those minimalist, modernist jobs.
The set looks like a conference room in a large chain hotel. There’s a table with folding metal chairs on one end, a couple of crates and books on the other. That’s pretty much it. Police stand around. They look like the police that you used to see in old episodes of “Mission Impossible,” sharply dressed, leathered up, Lugar-toting. In walks a prince, wearing a dark gray coat and tie. As the evening unwinds, it’s amusing to spot the clichés of this production style, but not exactly illuminating.
Tamerlano (or Tamerlane or Timur) was of course an historical figure, a Mongol conqueror (c.1336-1405) who invaded wide swaths of Asia, the Near East and the Middle East, and whose many accomplishments included things like sacking Baghdad. (He was also a patron of the arts.) At the Battle of Ankara in 1402 he captured the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Bayezid I, known as Bajazet in Handel’s opera, and sung by Plácido Domingo here.
Not that Handel’s opera, written in 1724 in 20 days, has much to do with actual history. The plot is merely a collection of potentates and potential potentates enraged at each other or in love with the wrong one, or both. The opera unwinds as a series of recitatives, in which one person or another makes a move, and arias, in which another person sings about their feelings of wrath or tenderness or betrayal or revenge at that move. You do get the idea after a while.
Director Chas Rader-Shieber (who gave us a pistol-packing Don Giovanni at Opera Pacific a couple of seasons ago) and set and costume designer David Zinn seem to have thrown their hands up in the face of such operatic formula. They don’t attempt to redefine the drama or even, really, define it. One searched in vain for fresh ideas.
The thrills, such as they were, came from Handel’s virtuoso arias, and from when he breaks the rules of the form, as at the ends of Acts Two and Three when the recitative/aria succession is disrupted and something like genuine drama is achieved.
Domingo, dressed in colorful Turkish robes (did he insist?) as the imprisoned Bajazet, said to be the first major tenor role in opera, was not entirely in his element. The Baroque style is not really his forte, and he dispatched the quick running figures, the ornamental filigree and trills of the part with something less than aplomb. Still, he found plenty of lyrical passages with which to float and exude impressively and he was a dramatic force in the recitatives. Good dying scene, too.
As the be-suited Tamerlano, countertenor Bejun Mehta took on the role originally written for a castrato. Though it’s common practice these days, it’s still a little odd, at least at first, to hear a rugged looking chap, and an evil king no less, singing in a soprano voice. (Perhaps there is no ideal solution to the castrato problem.) But Mehta was something else, graceful, agile, fully in command of his high-flying act, with resources of power good enough to get his points across. His Tamerlano is an impressive piece of work.
Soprano Sarah Coburn gave resplendent sheen and expressive variety to the suffering Asteria, daughter of Bajazet. Mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon (in a suit, with loosened tie) managed a sympathetic portrayal of the vulnerable, faithful prince, Andronico (or should it be Androgyno?), though parts of the role seemed lower than her perfect comfort level.
Donning a pair of fashion eyeglasses by way of disguise (of course it worked), mezzo-soprano Jennifer Holloway portrayed Irene, betrothed to Tamerlano, with a (welcome) comedic attitude and girlishness. Bass-baritone Ryan McKinny made the most of the small part of Leone, putting over his lone aria with compelling conviction.
Conductor William Lacey, making some judicious cuts as well as additions to the score, led the orchestra that included pairs of harpsichords, theorbos and recorders with lively elegance and clarity. But ultimately it proved a little tame, like the entire production. You wanted him to dig in more, to capture the fire in Handel’s music, which the singers were doing pretty well.
- ‘Tamerlano’
- Who: Los Angeles Opera
- Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
- When: Nov. 21
- Next: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23, 25 and Dec. 1; 2 p.m. Nov. 28.
- How much: $20-$260
- Call: 213-972-8001
- Online: laopera.com
photo: robert millard
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Well, we certainly saw the same production on this one. Maestro D’s baroque technique is, like his Wagnerian stuff, serviceable (barely in the Handel) but a long way from the real thing. And in this case, costumed in a totally different style and time from the rest of the production and wandering on and off the stage like maybe he was doing First Emperor in the theater next door and got lost, it was a case of almost complete disengagement.
Bejan Mehta was glorious (not surprising) and DOES have the technqiue and the equipment to deliver. What thrilling spots there were, he supplied. And I don’t know many opera people who would find it “…a little odd …” to hear a great contemporary countertenor taking on a villainous role written for a Castrato in a different age and knocking that particular ball out of the operatic park. Just a small quibble.
I have to admit I didn’t make it through the whole thing. Not being a critic, I am not ethically obligated to sit through long periods of complete boredom. But I’ll be interested to hear what latimes has to say, and maybe I’ll try it again before the close — but I doubt it. I just had too good a time and too much laughter and delight at Albert Herring to want to go back to the tedium.
Although it may seem natural to have a tenor sing the good guy role and a baritone sing the bad guy role, it doesn’t always work that way a in opera or in life. Think of all the short, high pitched male autocrats you have known. At any rate, some of the worst characters in opera are tenors (think Mime in Wagner’s ring) and some of the most charming are bartiones (think of Figaro, by Rossini or Mozart). I would rather have a hunky countertenor sing Tamerlane than a mezzo-soprano (the other answer to the castrato). At any rate Tim, you need to get out and about more. All the best nevertheless.
Give me a break. I’ve heard a countertenor before. You know, he’s the modern male performer who spends years developing a falsetto voice so he can sing like a guy who had his balls cut off a couple centuries ago. Nothing odd about that.
Styles change. In Shakespeare’s time women weren’t allowed on the stage, so men played the female roles. Do you think we should do that now? Maybe both of you should think out of the box a little more.
In the 19th century, it was common for an opera to be performed in the language of the country it was being performed in, not in the one it was written. But when someone these days calls for Verdi or Wagner or whomever to be performed in English, folks like you say ‘oh, no, can’t do that.’
Castration was cruel and unusual punishment. Why don’t you explain how it wasn’t? And why don’t you explain how it isn’t odd, somehow, that we enjoy a man imitating a eunuch a couple centuries later?
Guess I touched a nerve! Liking modern day countertenors doesn’t mean I approved of castration. I think of them as singing the role, not as singing a role formerly sung by a ennuch. Maybe the perfect solution for some is not to produce operas where castrato roles were written or operas where mezzo-sopranos are supposed to pretend to be boys. Each to his own taste. And by the way, I said noting about operas being performed in the language written or in the language of the country. Each to his own taste. One thing we can agree upon is that castration was and is terrible.
I’m not naive. To suggest that “I should get out more” because I think in some sense countertenors are a little odd is unfair.
I do not think that we should do away with countertenors, especially ones as talented as Mehta. Still, I think it would be worth considering transposing those castrato roles for a baritone or tenor, just as I think it would be worth considering doing a Handel or a Verdi opera in English. It’s ironic that the director and designer chose to dress Mehta in a modern suit and tie (and everyone accepts that), but when it comes down to suggesting that someone make the singer himself more modern — Oh, you can’t do that! Get out more!
Operas in general are odd, at least a little, by definition. And countertenors are odder still.
Every reasonable and honest listener i have talked to, including some who liked this production and performance a lot, says that seeing and hearing a masculine-looking male sing a serious role in a soprano register is very odd, at least for the first few minutes. Getting out more has nothing to do with it.
This reminds me of the time i went to see a production of a Shakespeare play by an all-female cast a few years ago in LA. The audience was quite different from your normal Shakespeare crowd, but that is not the point. The point is that even though the play was nicely directed and the actresses did everything very well - the male roles were performed as convincingly as can possibly be done by females - i still could not enjoy the production because of the simple fact that the high-pitched sound of their voices just did not fit the content of the dialogue, and my ears refused to get used to it. When the aural information our brain is receiving clashes with the visual or any other, it feels odd. Blame human nature, not the critic.
Found your review hilarious. My ticket is for the last night and I appreciate knowing what to expect, relish and ? And what’s the rationale behind costumes from different centuries? Confusing.
I have heard Bejun Mehta sing before and I think he is a consummate musician. As a young teenager he was a gifted boy soprano who recorded with Delos revealing maturity beyond his years I hope there is enough work for him especially with Daniels and Asawa, both also super, competing for roles in countertenor repertoire..
Sheila — You have just touched a chord for me and mentioned three consumate artists who are among the great ones singing today. Actors too. One of my personal favorites is David Walker who may not quite be up to that group but is VERY close. I didn’t know the “boy soprano” part of the Mehta history, but I’ll try to find the recording. I’ll bet it’s fabulous. Thanks for the information and the reminder, by the way, that all countertenors are not falsettoists. A few are natural sopranos. What a wonderful variety their range adds to opera appreciation. I can hardly wait to see Glass’s Akhenaton. Wonder when it will come west? Thanks again for your reassuring comments.
Ah God, this sounds completely dreadful! It’s probably the sort of thing that scares the young generation away from opera.
Perhaps they should have done a parody version with Flanders (from the Simpsons) as Tamerlano?
No wait, it sounds like they DID do the parody version…
It’s the “minimalist” opera directors who need to get out more. Sheesh!
No offense was intended by the use of the term “falsetto,” Bill. That’s what it is. Countertenors develop their falsetto (or upper) range beyond what most singers do. All singers, all people, have a falsetto voice, an upper and lower range, between which there is a break. That break can be heard most clearly in the execution of yodeling, where a low note is followed by notes in the falsetto voice, and the break between the two is explicitly left in. You hear the flip between the two registers.
It should be noted, too, that countertenors don’t exactly duplicate the sound attributed in descriptions to castrati. The castrati reportedly had considerable power and depth in their voices. By contrast, countertenors skim the surface, relatively speaking. The argument for countertenors as authentic, in other words, doesn’t really hold.