NYTimes.com: Glimmerglass Festival: [S]trongest vocal performances...came...from the bass-baritone Eric Owens and the soprano Melody Moore in “Macbeth.”

New York Times: Soloman Howard, center, in the Glimmerglass Festival’s production of “The Magic Flute.” Credit Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

New York Times: Megan Samarin and John Holiday in "Cato in Utica." Credit Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

 

 

New York Times: Melody Moore and Eric Owens as "Macbeth." Credit Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

The New York Times

At Glimmerglass Festival, ‘The Magic Flute’ Is Among the Reimagined

By JAMES R. OESTREICH

AUG. 5, 2015

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — No, Vivaldi’s “Cato in Utica” is set not in Utica, N.Y., some 40 miles to the north of here, but in the ancient North African city of that name. Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” on the other hand, is set in the woods virtually next door.

Those two operas, along with Verdi’s Shakespearean tragedy “Macbeth” and Bernstein’s musical comedy “Candide,” make up this summer’s repertory at the Glimmerglass Festival. The 40th-anniversary season of the festival, formerly Glimmerglass Opera, is a beehive of directorial busywork: reconstructing, rearranging, rewriting, reinterpreting.

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Ms. Sayet’s direction is transparent and almost weightless. Once she sets her bold concept in motion, with Tamino in a business suit, lifted from his urban setting and dropped into the forest unawares, the rest of the action follows naturally.

Much credit goes, too, to the players. Sean Panikkar, Jacqueline Echols and Soloman Howard were excellent on Sunday afternoon as Tamino, Pamina and Sarastro.

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Vivaldi’s music is more notable for the opportunities it provides for vocal display than for any enduring quality, and a strong cast made the most of those opportunities on Saturday: Thomas Michael Allen, a tenor, as Cato; John Holiday, a remarkable countertenor, as Caesar; Megan Samarin and Sarah Mesko, mezzo-sopranos, as Marzia and Emilia.

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But the strongest vocal performances of the weekend came on Friday evening from the bass-baritone Eric Owens and the soprano Melody Moore in “Macbeth.” Ms. Moore, dispatching early fears that she might use her strong voice as merely a blunt instrument in portraying Lady Macbeth, settled into a variety of modes of expression, and even showed vulnerability at times.

Mr. Owens, who has repeatedly proved that he can take over a stage even in a minor role, was overwhelmingly powerful here in a major one, as Macbeth, despite being “under the weather,” according to a prior announcement by Francesca Zambello, the festival’s artistic and general director. (“There’s always something with ‘Macbeth,’ ” Ms. Zambello said, encapsulating decades of stage lore.)

James Schuette’s scenic design is memorable mainly for the huge blood-red roses festooning the stage walls. The veteran maestro Joseph Colaneri, the festival’s music director, conducted knowingly here, on Friday, as he did again on Saturday afternoon in “Candide.”

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