Performance

It was not a big crowd for HD Live in Spaulding. Not “Live” of course, since it was a day later, and the actual live event had been the day before at Loews. But it did allow a front row seat in Spaulding for this show.

This is a opera with beautiful and memorable music. Clémentine Margaine had the lead as Carmen, and she definitely embodied the role. Don José and Micaella were played by husband and wife team Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak. This must be fairly unusual in the opera world. I also enjoyed the Russian baritone Alexander Vinogradov who played the bullfighter Escamillo.

The stage was unusual with two concentric rotating circles that could open and close a scene. The complexity really came out when they show what happens behind the curtain in the video.

This was going to be an experiment. At the Top of the Hop, professor Bruce Duthu talked to Andre Bouchard, curator of the show, and Jami Powell, Associate Curator of Native American Arts at the newly re-opened Hood Museum. Andre is the only agent for Native artists in North America (and he is looking for an intern), and Jami is one of the few Native people curating Native art.

The show was in the Bentley, and was well attended for artists that are relatively obscure.

The show opened with Storme Webber reading some poems with a backdrop of archive slides. This was a bit clumsy in that Storme said she had just reworked the stories, and also commented at several points about how she only had time to do several more, then one more. It seemed a bit disorganized. The stories seemed kind of random, and the best parts were when she broke into song

The second part was a trio of singers doing songs from the Carlisle Project. This was in relation to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School founded in 1879 in Carlisle, PA. The songs were well done, particularly Sarah Corey.

The last, and my favorite act, was Scotti Clifford and Spirits Cry. This was father Scotti with 19-year old son Welby June, and 17-year old daughter Wahpe Louella on drums. They did some fun uptempo rock songs, and it was a good way to end the evening.

The Dartmouth article

It is always impressive to see a full blown opera in our small town, at the aptly-named Lebanon Opera House in this case.

I tried to read to read the synopsis from the program, but didn’t really understand.  Fortunately it wasn’t too important, and the story became clearer as it unfolded.  The prologe and epilogue framed three independent acts focussing on a past love of the German poet Hoffmann.

The singing was beautiful, with the duets and trios in particular as highlights.  Even though I was sitting right next to the orchestra (on the front left side of the theater), the voices were strong and clear.  All the leads were great singers, and the campy villain was quite amusing, especially as Doctor Miracle in the second act.

An unusual touch was the admonition by Evans Haile before the start for the audience to shut of their cell phones of course, but also to unwrap their lozenges before the show started.  He had a good point, as the elderly crowd is wont to do that (and I can attest from the many chamber music concerts that I go to).

Valley News review

Rutland Herald review