The Critical Ear Classical Music
By CRAIG SMITH, IMAGES COURTESY SANTA FE OPERA; PHOTO ROBERT GODWIN; PHOTO BY KEN HOWARD
Love me tender, leave me not
When it comes to affection, Shakespeare said it all: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” In fact, I’ve always felt that Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was musing on love’s theatrical curse rather than its human course.
Think about it. Opera tragic or comic, musical comedy or melodrama — lovebirds get it in the neck as often as not. Families, fate, misunderstandings, malice, accidents, attitudes — there’s always something.
Many love stories end in tears: Manon, La Forza del Destino, Lohengrin, West Side Story. Others end in laughter or escape, with wedding and bedding just around the corner: The Barber of Seville, Gianni Schicchi, Oklahoma!, L’Heure Espagnol.
A few even leave the denouement uncertain at curtain fall. In Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the heroic Porgy goes off in his goat cart to follow Bess, who has been seduced away from Catfish Row by Sportin’ Life. Even if Porgy finds her, will she return with him? No matter which way the dice roll, c’est l’amour.
The Santa Fe Opera comes down on the lighter side of love for its 2008 preseason performance of a one-act comic opera, the third in as many years. Bizet’s Dr. Miracle, which included the cast cooking and eating an omelet onstage, was mounted in 2006. In 2007, it was The Night Bell, Donizetti’s tale of thwarted-lover revenge.
This year, Nino Rota’s The Timid Twosome (I due timidi) is the choice. It seems that while sweet, young Mariuccia and ardent lad Raimondo are in love, they’re too timid to lock eyes, let alone lips. When Raimondo is knocked out in an accident, amorous
consequences follow.
Rota’s (1911-1979) huge canon of film scores include Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, and the first two films in Coppola’s The Godfather series. He also wrote well-received operas, ballets, and orchestral works. Santa Fe Opera gave the American premiere of The Italian Straw Hat in 1977.
The Timid Twosome, which runs one hour, plays at the Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, and on Wednesday, June 4. It continues at 7 p.m. on June 6, 7, 11, and 13. There are 4 p.m. matinees on June 7 and 14.
Tickets are $10 (main floor) and $5 (balcony) at the door and are on sale an hour before curtain. For information, call 986-5955.
Note: At 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, the Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, presents, as part of its current series dealing with opera and film, “Nino Rota: Stage and Screen.” Critic John Simon explores Rota’s works using clips from La Dolce Vita,
I Vitelloni, The Godfather, and other films. Tickets are $9, $8.50 for students and seniors; call 982-1338 for information.
You go, girl
M.J.J. is back. Mary Jane Johnson, that is.
The American soprano, a longtime Santa Fe Opera favorite and international star, returns to Northern New Mexico in June for the first Taos Opera Institute. The four-week intensive runs from Sunday, June 1, to June 29, at the Taos Ski Valley and is for young singers interested (or who think they may be interested) in pursuing an operatic career — but aren’t ready for a formal apprentice program.
“I’m excited,” Johnson said from Amarillo, Texas, speaking with her trademark happy twang. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. I’ve been going to Taos forever. It’s the perfect place to have an opera institute.” In fact, the institute joins two other notable summer arts schools: The Jillana School for ballet and the long-established Taos School of Music, which concentrates on chamber music.
“I was teaching at the Graz [Austria] institute last year, and it was a great experience,” Johnson explained. “A guy at the University of Texas at San Antonio was there too, and we thought we’d do it together. When you get down into it, it’s a helluva lot of work, but we have loved doing it.”
Besides Johnson, the faculty is soprano Linda Poetschke, tenor Joseph Evans, baritone Donnie Ray Albert, and coaches Russell Young and Christine Debus. Guest instructors include tenor Neil Rosenshein, mezzo-soprano Regina Sarfaty — both Santa Fe residents – - life coach and author Alma Thomas, and David Holloway, SFO apprentice program director.
“It’s not like most situations; it’s to get students in the middle ground,” Johnson said. “We are in between college and grad school. But we have some students who are 30, who were in choral music but discovered they had this voice and want to see if they can cut the mustard after working here.”
The course sounds fun but hefty. Each student will have four or five daily sessions, including a voice lesson, aria coaching, language drill, instruction in audition deportment, and sessions on competition psychology and stagecraft.
In addition, all students and faculty will participate in daily exercise, including yoga. “Yes, even faculty,” Johnson said. “Some of them are throwing a fit! We know you have to be in good physical condition, especially at altitude, to sing. When I sang in Santa Fe,
I always exercised every day.”
Several performance opportunities are built into the program.
At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30, Johnson and tenor Eric Barry perform. Admission is $10; proceeds benefit the Taos Ski Valley Emergency Medical Services. Free student performances continue through June 30; call the Taos Ski Valley Chamber of Commerce, 575- 776-1413, for information about venues and schedules.
Johnson’s career took off when she was a successful entrant in the 1986 Opera Company of Philadelphia/Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition. The famous tenor heard something special in her voice and overruled his lukewarm fellow judges to make her one of the winners. In the 22 years since, she’s sung a wide range of roles all over the world to notable success, especially Minnie in Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West. Her Texas background came in handy for that part, in which the soprano comes galloping onstage in the last scene.
“I came from a very different background than a lot of singers,” Johnson said. “I’d been teaching in Amarillo for seven years, and
I decided I wanted to sing. I did the Met auditions, and went to New York, and I was ready.
“That’s what it’s all about. Timing, timing, timing.” And, she added, being ready when the time comes — and a little bit of luck.
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