Reports of my death of been greatly exaggerated!

So...I have heard recent rumors that American Opera Theater is no more! But, indeed that is thankfully not the case at all. I suppose not blogging in a month hasn't helped any. I must apologize. I have been traveling a great deal and as much as I admire Brian Dickie's ability to keep at the blog when on the road...I just can't do it. I spent a wonderful time in Mobile, AL with the folks at Mobile Opera before heading to the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where I am teaching a month long scenes workshop. After that I will stay on to work on a production of "She Loves Me" with the IU Summer Music Festival, and eventually end up in Italy for a series of chamber music concerts. All before returning to the US for the next works of American Opera Theater.

Which brings me to a few updates on the company and the coming season. Unfortunately we have canceled September's production of "Calisto". The timing with the University and a desire to get the production just right have made this seem like the best decision. In its place we are going to present a burlesque evening featuring many AOT favorites in a diverse array of performances alla the classic variety show. In an effort of perform more in Baltimore we will present this both in DC and in Baltimore.

In the last week of September and the first week of October we return to the Baltimore Theatre Project with a brilliant new cabaret production of Bizet's "Carmen". In a unique theater experience that only AOT can provide, this immortal score comes to life in a dark and witty production that combines a theater transformed into a Paris cabaret of the 1920s, with a tale of backstage lust, prostitution, love, and death - with an international cast of rising stars and all led by a depraved Master of Ceremonies. Music director will be JoAnn Kulesza, with lighting be Kel Millionie, and a special appearance by yours truly. This production will be a Baltimore exclusive.

In January, AOT will present Phillip Glass's "Hydrogen Jukebox". This mesmerizing piece combines Glass's atmospheric score with the poetry of Allen Ginsberg to paint a picture of America - from beginning to end. This will be a rare opportunity to see this work staged, and it will be a Washington, DC premier. More information to come on this important new production, but it is a unique opportunity not to be missed, and it goes up just days before the inauguration.

In April AOT will continue its budding relationship with Virginia Tech with a new double-bill production of Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and John Blow's "Venus and Adonis". To be presented at Virginia Tech, this new production of the Blow and resurrected production of the Purcell will be a workshop to prepare for a fully staged production in the 2009-2010 season. As the first AOT production, this is the perfect way to usher in our 5th anniversary season.

Finally, AOT's most acclaimed production "Acis + Galatea" returns during the summer of 2010. Called "The Future of Opera" by the New York Times, "Acis + Galatea" represents AOT at its most inventive. It is a performance that captures the imagination of young and old alike and has delighted audiences around the country. Don't miss this opportunity to see a soprano sing while hanging upside-down, a tenor ringmaster on roller skates, or the antics of an alto dancing bear.

There is a lot more exciting news to come that I can't share just now. This post is just to let you know we are still here and that the work will just keep coming and getting more exciting with each production!

My point exactly...

I received this wonderful email yesterday (much needed solidarity indeed) and the sender graciously agreed that I could include it in a post. I'm too tired to get into a heady discussion of the nature of art, and why and for whom it exists...but this sort of email means more than a good review ever could. We don't produce for the critics.

Hello Mr. Nelson,

I wanted to thank you and all the members of AOT for the wonderful performance of David et Jonathas this past weekend. My partner and I attended on Saturday and were so moved by the music, singing and artistry that we returned for the Sunday production. We have long been opera fans, but frankly we have grown weary of productions that, though technically dazzling, are too often stodgy and passionless. This weekend, for the first time in years, we were both moved to tears by a work of opera--of course, the company's creativity and musical prowess were first-rate, but it was the soul and utter humanity of your production that enraptured us. Though you may find that some audiences and critics are not prepared for opera that actually engages them emotionally, still less opera that challenges them to think and respond, please know that we loved it and we know that many other people will also.

The Non-need for Narrative

I have promised myself never again to respond the reviews! It is a bad idea and a waste of energy for all concerned. Critics are in general a mixed bag themselves, rarely of much insight or foresight, and on the whole inconsequential. Still, it is a promise I have a hard time keeping at times like this and I am going to try squeak through on this one.

By all signs this weekend's production of "David et Jonthas" worked, this is spoken to by the reviews by Anne Midgette and Charles Downey. Some of you might find it strange to hear me say this, since neither of those reviews were really positive. Well, in general the people I respect are artists and not reviewers, so it becomes a process of sifting through the perfunctory text of what a critic says to glean any meaning from it. What I got from their reviews is that the plot as such is indeed obscured, time and setting made ambiguous. And to that I say “and...?”.

This was by no means accidental or because of an oversight in the production. It is a product of the piece in modern performance that the company chose to embrace instead of correct. The work is not about narrative and neither is the production. Okay, so what is the problem? Well, this isn't for everyone, and it especially isn't for all traditional opera audiences. A style of theater that is not about linear narrative is nothing new. This is Beckett, this is Ionesco, and many of the works of their successors like Stoppard and Albee. As with this production specifics are hinted at with references or imagery, but focus is not put on the chronological journey, and actually the ambiguity lends a clarity to other aspects of the production. This is just not done in opera though. It requires more of an audience. It requires an audience to meet the production halfway, to work. It is difficult to sit back complacently and enjoy this style of theater without being actively engaged, without thinking. A lot of opera audiences have not made this leap yet as theater audiences did years ago. I can't say it is not more the fault of conservative companies in America actually. Regardless, critics largely represent the past aesthetically and it is little surprise that they wouldn't “get” it.

It appears to me that some of the reviewers of this piece weren't able to make this leap either, regardless of claims of opera in DC being conservative (which of course it is). It is easy to be for "inventive" stagings, as long as that means simply transferring the plot to a different time or place. But, messing with the primacy of narrative is a harder pill to swallow, and requires an openness of mind that some people don't have. It is easy to claim to be forward in ones thinking if all that is being adjusted is the surface. When the rules of the game themselves are questioned and altered, people's real colors come out.

Now this might sound elitist, but actually it is the opposite. I'll explain. People love this work. They weep and they stand (something not mentioned in either review). It is a moving experience for loads of people regardless of its lack of explicit narrative. Those that enter the theater without erudite expectations of what opera “should” be get it, and in a way that is the goal of AOT, not pandering to a class of traditional opera goers that like things just the way they are and don't at heart want to try anything new (this is by NO means true of all opera goers, many of whom have extremely open minds and don't come to an experience with expectations for its result). This is why the company is able to reach out to wider audiences that aren't part of the “opera class”. Some traditional opera folks will be challenged by that and some will revel in it. It is what it is, and it will all wash out in the end. For me, I like what Dylan did with electric.

I think that there was actually a lot of valuable information in both the Post and the Ionarts reviews from which this young company can learn. I mean that, and I don't want anyone to think for a moment that I blindly ignore criticism. I think the largest dramatic point in both articles is irrelevant however. One has to finally make a choice as to whether to listen to critics of questionable skills and intentions, or to oneself. The answer is obvious of course, and as far as deciding whether one has made the right choice, it is difficult. It helps to know personally that a large body of the audience were moved and had an intense cathartic experience, something increasingly rare in American houses. That is not a completely reliable gage of a production's success either of course, but it is vastly more accurate than the words of status-quo critics.

Critics, not necessarily these, but as a group, belong to a noble and I would even saw important profession. Posterity has shown however that, as a general rule, their societal role is rarely connected with feeling the pulse of aesthetic change or being aware of larger truths. What we know from posterity is that more often than not critics get it wrong, and more importantly, they just don't matter too much in the long run.

A Gay Opera?

One of the realities of living in Europe and running a company in the United States is that the production calendar gets somewhat compressed (somewhat being a gross exaggeration). I arrived back on native soil last week and have been body deep in supervising set and costume construction, preparing to rehearse with the choir, prop acquisition, you name it. I am going to take a break from that to write a new entry on "David et Jonathas".

As my previous posts show, there is a lot about this opera that makes it unlike anything else of its time. One particularly compelling aspect is that of the relationship between David and Jonathan, a historical relationship that has for a very long time been held by many to be romantic and even sexual in nature. In deciding to produce this work, one has to decide how to portray the relationship, which side they stand on, if not in relation to the biblical truth, than at least to an the issue of same-sex love in 17th century French society.

Really, there are three temporal locations for this consideration.

The first is biblical. Many scholars argue on both side of this issue. The text of Samuel I and II clearly indicates the primacy of David's relationship with Jonathan. But it isn't that easy to find the context. While this part of Samuel deals largely with the relationship between the two men, and lines such as "love more than that of a woman" abound, the text also indicates that David weds a daughter of Saul and has children with her (and of course we know what happen is Basheba). Some would argue that same-sex romantic and sexual relationships were a norm at the time, and that David's marriage was pursued in order to create heirs (the ancient equivalent to a 501K plan). The answer this question will probably never be known, and both sides make excellent points.

The second temporal consideration is the period in which the work was written, 17th century France. Regardless of the actual nature of the historic relationship, how did Charpentier and his contemporaries view it, and thus portray it. Again, no clear answer emerges. On the one side, the is a lot to be said for the existence of same-sex relationships, in fact an entire culture of such, in baroque Europe. Ellen Harris wrote a noteworthy look at Handel through the context of his secular cantatas. While I'm not sure I buy into her conclusion of Handel as a homosexual, she does establish a tradition for homosexuality during that time. At the same time, writing for a Jesuit college, it seems circumspect to circumspect that Charpenter would be writing a "gay" opera. This is probably unlikely. Instead it seems that a type of male-male relationship existed in the 17th century that does not exist today. A close, largely non-sexual, but extremely intimate relationship. This closeness between men is at least viewed with curiousity if not open dismay today.

Finally there is the here and now. For me this is what is important. We have no idea as to the nature of the historic David and Jonathan's friendship. At the same time Charpentier's "David et Jonathas" could very well have intended to portray a type of male-male relationship unknown today. Instead I have approached the text as organically as possible, trying to react honestly, and I think I have come to the same place most audience member would when encountering this libretto and viewing it as a new modern work, without historical or generative baggage. I have purposely ignored what I know about the historical life David following the death of Saul, as well as what seems the most likely way the first Parisan audience understood this story.
Lines like "despite the harness of my fate, at least I can still tell you that I love you” (Jonathas to Daivd, Act V) and "Lord, I have lost everything that I love, for me all is gone" (David talking about the death of Jonathas, Act V), abound through the piece and I think have a clear implication for the contemporary reader. Just as I am uninterested in baroque staging because we are performing for a contemporary audience, I am also uninterested in the historical or originally intended portrayal of this relationship. Instead I am interested in what will emerge for an audience what the work today, it is in this way that masterpieces rise as phoenixes..

So, yes, for me "David et Jonathas" is a "gay" opera. But seen as such, the work becomes more beautiful for what it is not about rather than what it is about. That David and Jonathan are lovers is not at issue, it is never brought-up, and has no function in the unfolding plot. This a tragic love story, the type almost cliché to opera. The only difference is that the central pair of star-crossed lovers are two men. Because of this the piece is even more breathtaking in its restraint and simplicity. Seeing these two male characters embrace freely on the opera stage is a powerful and moving experience.

Now I am off to rehearse with the Virginia Tech Chamber Singers who will be joining us for the production. Tonight I introduce them to the French Baroque concepts of inégal and ornamentation.

This photo is another one of my favorites from the workshop.

Wearing multiple hats.

A small break from the "David et Jonathas" saga: Thanks to Clayton Koonce for drawing my attention to thisact of conductor filling in as tenor.

I worked with Antony at Wolf Trap and he is one of the brightest and most versatile conductors around, as this clearly indicates.

DAVID ET JONATHAS - Accidental structures and the silent character they create.

I have often said the "David et Jonathas" is unlike any opera of its time. This is not simply because the music contains an emotional musical directness that predates verissmo, and a through-composed formal structure of which Gluck would have approved. It is also because dramatically the work has more in common with much more modern, even absurdist (and indeed I used “The Myth of Sisyphus” and other writings by Calmus to develope my initial concept) theater styles, than it does with other contemporary works of the baroque.

This is not the case because Charpentier and Bretonneau were interested in early modernist dramatic concepts. Rather, it is a product of the magic touch and infinite wisdom of history. The work was originally composed to be performed at the Jesuit school for which Charpentier worked, interspersed with a spoken tragedy titled "Saül", also by Père Bretonneau. Each act of this spoken Latin tragedy would be followed by an act of the sung French piece. While the spoken play propelled the dramatic action, the musical portion reflected on the emotional states of the principle characters. We perform "David et Jonathas" as a five act opera with prologue, but this is not how it was imagined. As such the work takes on a new dramatic affect that reflects a much more modern theatrical aesthetic.

There is almost no true "action" in this work. Rather there are four character portraits bookended by the prologue, which sets the tone of the work, and the final act which portrays the tragic consequences when these emotional states meet each other. Each of those four acts contains a large central scene for one of the characters (David, Jobel, Saül, and Jonathas), and it is indeed these monologues where time freezes that the work's most profound music lies. As such, the modern work "David et Jonathas", without the spoken action of "Saül", becomes a portrayal of humanity's core themes - love, fear, and faith.

Because so much of the work is devoted to monologues, a curious theatrical coup occurs. This is a biblical work, and the majority of these monologues are addressed to a "God" - some external force, deity, fate, or simply the vast universe. These external force is so strongly present in the text of the work, that it becomes an ever silent omnipresent principle character to which the fundamental questions are posed and from which no answer returns. Man is met with the implacable silence of the universe. In the words of Pascal:

“the eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me”.

That captures it perfectly for me.

The trajectory of this work's "meaning" is of great interest to me. Just deciding to produce it, without the spoken Latin text, creates a completely new work. Arises a theater piece with modernist/absurdist aesthetic of which Charpentier could not have conceived. Emerges an utterly crucial, but non-tangible eleventh character. And, the work takes on an additional central theme - that of man's struggle to reconcile logic with the seemingly arbitrary and, as such, unfairness of God's/the Universe's law.

And a few photos that capture some of these moments of man vs. silence (Jason Buckwalter as Saül, Brian Cummings as David, Matthew Walker as Jonathan:

DAVID ET JONATHAS - It Begins...

In a month from today American Opera Theater will give the North American professional premier staging of Charpentier's 1688 masterpiece "David et Jonathas" (for those of you that knew us when we were Ignoti Dei Opera this might seem a bit confusing - we workshopped D+J in 2005 with our young artist program Les Enfants Terribles at the Baltimore Theatre Project and a tiny band - this will be a full mainstage production with large forces for both the orchestra and choir). This is an important step for the company, and after 3 performances in Washington, DC we make our New York debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music...more than a touch scarey, but exciting all the same.

Inspired by Opera Vivente director John Bowen's blog posts leading up to their performance of Jonathan Dove's "Tobias and the Angel" (a show that got great reviews and I hate to have had to miss it - congrats to John and the whole company!) I have decided to embark on the same pre-show path. I must admit that John's dilligence in this is a little daunting, but I will try all the same. With each post I will also include one or two production photos from our 2005 workshop (beautifully shot by Greg McKleskey).

For this first in the series I am going to take the easy way out (because I am running out the door to rehearse for a concert of rare Spanish violin sonatas I am playing with ID violinist Daniel Boothe this Friday!), and will post the description of D+J on our beautiful postcards designed by Kel Millionie. Still, I hope it will wet your appetite.

This photo of Jason Buckwalter as Saül is my favorite from the workshop.

As a piece mainly about man's relationship with a higherpower, be it fate, God, a vast space,

I think that this photo captures it perfectly.

The American Opera Theater completes its 2007-2008 season and makes its New York debut with Charpentier's remarkable 1688 opera "David et Jonathas". This work is a breathtaking masterpiece of the French baroque, yet strikingly contemporary in its themes. "David et Jonathas" explores the relationship between three timeless figures and mans relationship with the universe. In profoundly beautiful music Charpentier creates a heartbreaking portrayal unlike any of its day. The Baltimore Sun says the opera "set to music of immense beauty, couldn't be more straight-to-the-heart...as noble as anything by Wagner, as emotionally wrenching as anything by Puccini". With the acclaimed Ignoti Dei period orchestra and an international cast of soloists, AOT is also particularly proud to be joined by the Virginia Tech Chamber Singers in these performances. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see this rare and profound work come to life on stage in a New World premier production.