In dark corner, young man, typing.

Winter. Twilight.

For Maestra H-. Thank you for not hurrying out.

Comments

[SFMike]

Pretty picture.

Went to the final dress of "Doctor Atomic" tonight, and even got to sit in the grand tier, but after the first act I decided I couldn't stand Peter Sellars' silly schtick, which involved a dance company and an incoherent libretto, a mixture of found historical material and poetry from Baudelaire to the Baghavad-Gita. So I moved to the balcony where I got to spread out in the last row on the center aisle all by myself. It was, as they say, heaven, particularly for an Adams queen like myself.

"Doctor Atomic," it turns out, was much better in an entirely empty balcony in the last row. The music is just extraordinary: rich, complex as hell, and the further one got away from the silly dance stuff and bad super acting and weird supertitle text, the more impressive the Sellars staging sometimes became. There's a moment late in the second act when the women's chorus arrives in a line and does a stooping motion as they're walking and singing syllables that is so enchanting it's hard to believe. The finale, with its fabulous lighting, short amazing outbursts from the chorus, and people just being still, was a total coup de theatre. I loved the fucking thing. But I will never get nearer to this production than the last row of the top balcony.

And it doesn't even have its ideal cast. As The Standing Room has lamented, the wife, Kitty Oppenheimer, was written for the mezzo-soprano diva of the moment, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who IS awesome in performance. But she threw out her back and her doctor told her not to move, essentially, for six months so she canceled everything. So Kristine Jepson, who has a decent voicem is singing it but the part is huge and wonderful and meant for a major singer like Miss Lorraine. Actually, the same could be said for the rest of the cast too.

The orchestra, however, is playing in a league they've rarely ventured into. They're just plain awesome in a great, new, hugely difficult piece of music. Check it out.

[andrea b.]

I ... MUST ... FLY OUT ... MUST ... SEE/ HEAR/EXPERIENCE THIS OPERA!!!

[M. C-]

Sorry to miss you at L'Italiana last night, Mike! Did Albert tell you about our chance encounter?

Thanks for posting this preview review here, btw. I always appreciate hearing your (strong) reactions!

[sfmike]

Dear M.C.- Thanks for the sweet note. I really thought I'd deeply offended you by jumping the gun with my impressions from the "Doctor Atomic" dress rehearsal. When you wrote after your first night viewing that you had read too much about the piece and regretted it immensely, I started feeling REALLY bad.

As for my (strong) reactions, there's actually a review I read in the B.A.R. today by good old Stephanie von Buchau that was basically my impression but much ruder.

Where I differ from her, and where you and I and others meet in (virtual) friendship, is that we don't think that John Adams' music is overrated, and we understand it on some level that is very difficult to express. And though I have a number of issues with Peter Sellars, the director/librettist, he's also midwived three great operas and a major oratorio (not to mention a weirdo musical) out of John Adams, and for that he deserves all credit.

Anyway, it IS exciting living somewhere where one of the great composers in the world is premiering most of his work, and it's a pleasure sharing it with you.