Classical Notes: Tales of two opera companies

Classical Notes: Tales of two opera companies

Photo of Joseph Dalton

Arriving early for Opera Saratoga’s opening performance of “Man of La Mancha” on July 8, in the Saratoga Performing Arts Center amphitheater, I scrolled through the program’s excellent though unattributed essays about Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” the theme of the summer season. “Quixotism,” I learned, is a term for anything that’s exceedingly idealistic, optimistic and impractical. Sounds like a good description of an opera company. 

As have so many of our intrepid arts organizations, Opera Saratoga scrambled to come up with a 2021 season that would be safe for the performers and patrons. Temporarily abandoning its intimate home in the Spa Little Theater, the troupe had no problem filling the vast amphitheater with music, thanks to some substantial help from amplification. Thanks to social distancing with ticketing (no longer mandated but still apparent), the spacing of audience members made the substantial crowd seem even larger than it was and also allowed for terrific sight lines. 

If you go

Opera Saratoga

“A Season of Impossible Dreams” includes several performances related to Don Quixote, through July 18
Saratoga Springs,  operasaratoga.org

Berkshire Opera Festival

Season includes Tom Cipullo’s “Glory Denied,” July 22 and 24, at the Daniel Arts Center and
Verdi’s “Falstaff,” Aug. 21, 24 and 27 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Great Barrington, Mass., berkshireoperafestival.org

There was great stuff happening onstage. In the title role, the tall and strapping Zachary James commanded the stage, making for a more sure-footed and rational Don Quixote than usual. Whether speaking or singing, James used the same clear, confident and determined voice. He ended “Dulcinea,” one of the show’s great tunes, in a lovely falsetto.

As Aldonza, soprano Kelly Glyptis was like a caged animal, weary and quick-tempered. Nevertheless, her singing was easy to like. Her eventual transformation into a disciple of quixotism was affecting and believable.

Throughout most of the night, the singing was of a quality you’d expect from a company of opera soloists, rather than musical theater actors. A standout was the jolly and explosive tenor Brian Yeakley as Quixote’s sidekick Sancho Panza. He loves his high notes and at the “Quixotic Opera” showcase of young artists on June 25, he sustained a stunning high F in an aria by Donizetti.

As Quixote and Panza set out on their quest, they appeared to be mounted on horses, played by humans with large masks. When the animals start a little syncopated cantor, it was clear we were in for a good night. The direction and choreography by company boss Lawrence Edelson were up to his usual high standards. Considering the huge width of the stage and the minimal platforms and props, the action remained focused and varied. The costumes by Glenn Avery Breed were appropriately dreary for a 15th-century prison, though some of the wigs seemed out of scale.  

Filling the mise-en-scène above the players was a vast projection by Barry Steele, who also did the lighting. Sometimes the screen provided a still image, such as the bars of a prison at the start of the night. At other points, the imagery was more active, like during the popular “The Impossible Dream,” when a galaxy of stars slowly rotated and twinkled. A golden sun seemed to shine down from film to stage during “Golden Helmet of Mambrino,” and another radiant production number was “The Night of the Mirrors.”

Laura Bergquist led the 15-piece onstage orchestra that included two prominent guitars. The ensemble was in good form and Bergquist negotiated the many segues from background music to full-on songs with ease.

The evening also provided a first glimpse of The Pines@SPAC, the suite of new buildings that were completed last year. Gone is the worn-out structure for restrooms and concessions that made the place feel more like an amusement park than a state park. In its place are now clear views to the rest of the historic campus plus modern new facilities. According to a SPAC official, ribbon-cutting will take place later in the month. 

 “Glory Denied’ finally arrives

In December 2020 when COVID was still raging, the Berkshire Opera Festival made a bold move and announced an expanded summer season with full seating for performances at two indoor venues. Since then, public health conditions have caught up with the producers’ vision and the season is opening as planned with Tom Cipullo’s “Glory Denied.” The one-act opera with orchestra will be performed on Thursday evening, July 22, and Saturday afternoon, July 24, at the Daniel Arts Center in Great Barrington.

The pandemic, though, is still influencing the production. Though the opera was written about 15 years ago and is set in the ’60s and ’70s, it deals with a theme that today’s audiences know well — isolation and its repercussions. In order to highlight this commonality, director Sarah Ina Meyers and designer Cameron Anderson used social distancing as a staging device.

Cipullo’s widely praised and performed opera tells in a succinct fashion the story of Colonel Jim Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner of war. The innovative concept is that there are only two characters, Thompson and his wife Alyce, though each is portrayed by two different performers, for a total cast of four singers. There’s the young Jim (a tenor) and the older Jim (a baritone) and two sopranos of differing vocal character for Alyce in two phases of life. 

“Isolation is the foundation of this story, along with the consequences of distance and miscommunication. All of us have a new understanding of separation and isolation and being alone yet connected,” explains Meyers. “The characters speak to you directly and you hear their honesty and vulnerability. It’s brilliantly done.”

“Glory Denied” represents the start of a new chapter in the short history of Berkshire Opera Festival, which incorporated in 2014 and had its first season two years later. It’s the company’s first time to produce a second-stage opera, its first contemporary opera and first opera to be performed in English.  The season concludes at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington with the Verdi comedy “Falstaff” on Aug. 21, 24 and 27. More info at: berkshireoperafestival.org.

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy.