#oteditor

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Committee

The Capital Opera Teens, thanks to Ms. Ashi Day and the Kennedy Center Education Department, saw another memorable WNO opera production, Champion.  Composed by Terence Blanchard, with a libretto by Michael Cristofer, the opera was based on the life story of a boxer Emile Griffith, who famously said, “I kill a man and most people forgive me. However, I love a man and many say this makes me an evil person.” 

Champion, like Dead Man Walking, explored the power of forgiveness and redemption as it also depicted vividly not only the physical but also the psychological harm that can be inflicted on another person. Griffith was tortured emotionally and psychologically by an unyielding and unforgiving society, and yet in the boxing ring, he was the one causing damage—albeit physical. WNO’s production captured perfectly the pain that Griffith must have felt as a man who had to hide his true nature because society had deemed it to be “wrong.”

Blanchard’s score, with its jazz-like feel, put the audience squarely in the historical time frame and added immeasurably to the sentiment the opera inspired with its free, unencumbered resonance. The set and the costumes drew us in as well. What struck me the most was the staging of the infamous 1962 Griffith-Paret fight at the end of Act I, in which Griffith killed his opponent, Benny Paret. The scene was flawless—we were at the edge of our seats, knowing the outcome and yet fervently hoping, praying that Paret would survive. He did not, and Griffith would face the repercussions of that event for the rest of his life. However, Griffith would have some comfort later in life when Paret’s son ultimately forgave him. 

Once again, the voices and the orchestra were at a level that transcended what we might have considered normal, and each character and each arrangement was integral to the story. I have to mention the incredible instrument that Denyce Graves, in the role of Griffith’s mother, had. Hearing her would have been enough that night, but the opera went beyond talent. We left the Opera House with opinions, notions, and perceptions that we will ponder for a lifetime. And in deliberating and discussing and transforming our lives and our society to conquer the difficult issues raised in this opera, we will, as Gandhi said, change “the attitude of the world.”

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Committee

I continue to be grateful that not only do I live in a cultural mecca like Washington DC, but that Francesca Zambello is the Artistic Director of the Washington, DC-based NATIONAL opera company (otherwise known as the Washington National Opera or WNO). Ms. Zambello’s creativity and brilliance are matched by her choice of operas to bring to the Kennedy Center Opera House. She and the WNO have as their mission to showcase American operas, which often confront issues significant and relevant to our society, together with the standard opera fare we all know and love.

I saw WNO’s Dead Man Walking, composed by Jake Heggie with the libretto by Terrence McNally, with the Capital Opera Teens. I already had some exposure to it, since my youngest sister Arya was in the Children’s Chorus. That night each and every opera teen was moved by the powerful opera—a gripping story of the value of human life and the power of love and redemption. Beginning with its painfully real opening scene, which depicted the crimes that led to the incarceration and placement on death row of the convict, Joseph De Rocher, the opera took the audience on an emotional journey.

We started this journey by desperately wanting to shut our eyes to the assault and murder on stage—to close our ears and drown out the primal screams of the teenage victims. We then felt the devotion and genuine care of Sister Helen Prejean as she tried to become “the face of love” for convict De Rocher. We cried with De Rocher’s mom as she insisted her son was innocent. (Susan Graham, who premiered the role of Sister Helen, was extraordinary as Mrs. De Rocher). We wanted revenge on the victims’ parents, and yet understood it would do no good. We realized that asking for forgiveness must be accompanied by real remorse and that forgiveness is universal, and necessary, and human, and divine. We decided that we will kiss our own parents goodbye when we leave our own homes so that our last words to them aren’t about not “cleaning our rooms” or “doing our homework,” but are instead “I love you.”

WNO’s Dead Man Walking was what every great opera should be: a transformative emotional event, with stirring music and exceptional vocal and instrumental talent, cocooned in a set and costumes that complete the story and resonate with each audience member.

I am indebted to the WNO, especially Ms. Ashi Day, for giving the Capital Opera Teens the opportunity to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Committee

Capital Opera Teens (COT) had the great fortune to attend the orchestra dress rehearsal of the Washington National Opera’s production of The Valkyrie, the second opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The evening started off with a pizza dinner from Campono’s, the Neapolitan pizza cafe extraordinaire next to the Kennedy Center, graciously provided by the COT moms. After dinner, the whole team went into the opera house to see the opera. Ms.Ashi Day of the Kennedy Center Education Department kindly provided us with orchestra seats that were right in the center of the Opera House. A few of the performers from the other operas of the Ring Cycle sat directly behind us, and we spoke with them during the intermission to understand their insight and impressions about the Ring Cycle. Ms. Day has been a great supporter of COTs, and we are very grateful to her for making this entire evening possible. Around 18 teens and their chaperones went to see this opera and most stayed for the full five hours (which included intermissions).

The Washington National Opera’s Ring Cycle was a masterpiece, blowing away audiences and critics. I will not attempt another review; suffice it to say that we all felt truly privileged to see this once-in-a-lifetime production, directed by the brilliant Francesca Zambello. Here is just one review by the Washington Post, as a representative sample: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2016/05/03/two-critics-trade-thoughts-on-wagners-ring-in-dc-the-long-version/

During the orchestra dress rehearsal, when it is always announced that the show is not finished and things can happen, something did happen! The first act went smoothly; the music breathtaking, the staging exactly on point. The myth itself--the story--is disconcerting and Wagner perfectly reflects this in his music. The performance was hair-raising. Then, in Act II, we get to the part where Wotan, the king of the gods, tells sent his daughter Brunhilde to kill our hero Siegmund. Suddenly, the singer playing Brunhilde slipped and injured her foot! The whole audience gasped. A consummate professional, Catherine Foster (Brunhilde) gently limped off the stage after finishing her scene--it was barely obvious. We all held our breath to see what would happen. In the next scene, her cover came on stage and delivered an amazing performance. Ms. Foster was too injured to perform in the first cycle but did ultimately recover.

During the intermissions, a Kennedy Center senior staff member, Ms. Jovita Gross, brought us to an exclusive lounge area within the opera house. We were so grateful. At the lounge, we met supporters of the WNO and the Ring Cycle and enjoyed eating donuts (also provided by the great moms of the COTs), drinking coffee and tea and celebrating the birthday of one of our COTs, Blake.

When the opera was over, we had not had enough! During the car rides home, we could not stop talking about the evening. We compared what we had seen and heard with YouTube videos and discussed it all the way home. The Valkyrie was an opera that left a huge impact on all of us. We were riveted by this journey--not only the extraordinary opera but the entire evening from dinner to the intermission in the lounge to the great camaraderie of all of the opera teens!

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Committee

The perennial holiday classic Hansel and Gretel was performed admirably by members of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo Cafritz Young Artists in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in December 2015. Holding a little under 500, the theater was sold out for the run of the show, and justifiably so.  Engelbert Humperdinck’s music is soaring and beautiful and transports us to a fairy tale time and place that evokes our early pre-school years when we felt scared at times, and yet easily comforted. Though we often associate Hansel and Gretel’s fairy tale with Halloween (witches and candy are a big part of the opera), it is often presented as a holiday show for kids. I guess that’s understandable—it’s fun and lighthearted and can serve as a great introduction to opera for children and adults alike.

Some Capital Opera Teens recognized from the previous production the colorful and playful sets, the fantastic costumes and makeup (especially on the witch, complete with wart on her chin), and the incredibly talented yet smaller-sized orchestra. Superbly led by Mo. Michael Rossi, the music was beautiful, and both the singers and the orchestra were absolutely in sync.

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Council

This past November, the Washington National Opera produced a new version of Philip Glass’ (composer) and Christopher Hampton’s (libretto) Appomattox, which a few of us from the Capital Opera teens were lucky enough to see.

A WNO “world premiere,” it was actually an expansion on an opera of the same name premiered by the San Francisco opera in 2007.  Opening 50 years after the Voting Rights Act and 150 years after the end of the Civil War, Appomattox was, in a word, riveting. The emotion of the audience as a whole was palpable as the opera explored the meaning of race relations from the end of the Civil War through the 2000’s.

The acts were set in front of a white “manor home” backdrop, with costumes appropriate for the different periods: Grant accepting Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House, the apex of the civil rights movement in 1965 in Alabama and the White House, and the more current (2011) epilogue in a prison.

Each act explored the issues of race and racial equality in a series of scenes set in the overarching time period. In each tableau, the audience is left with the feeling that though we as a country ultimately achieved some of the goals toward a more equal society, we have a long way to go.

The opera was raw emotion, with President Lyndon B. Johnson for example, sung by baritone Tom Fox, using many vulgar expressions and yet voicing one of the most powerful addresses on race in the entire piece. Martin Luther King was sung by bass and local DC favorite, Soloman Howard (my youngest sister, Arya, has been in two productions with him, Magic Flute and The Lion, Unicorn, and Me. According to her, he is brilliant, talented, and extremely kind—especially to the children in the operas). Soloman’s capabilities are enormous as he drew the audience in with every phrase he sung.

The music itself was haunting. In Act I there was much dissonance, with beautiful arias scattered throughout to provide contrast. The juxtaposition was potent. In Act II, MLK performed a powerful piece that resonated in contrast to the discord of some of the other music. He engaged in a kind of back and forth with his fellow civil rights activists, which increased the tension and tautness of the scene. In the act’s epilogue, the dissonance of the music jarred a bit with abundant use of recitative, adding to the discomfort we felt as one audience, reacting to horrific racism, still manifested today.

However, it was the final chorus of women that moved the opera to its profound conclusion. The audience was reminded of the meaning of hope; the necessity, as Winston Churchill said in 1941, “Never give in. Never, never, never—in nothing great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor….”

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Committee

On October 17, Capital Opera Teens went to see the In Series’ production of Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land at the historic Gala Hispanic Theatre in DC. We were excited to see my little sister Arya B. in the role of Beth.

It is an opera that is produced only rarely, because as In Series Artistic Director Carla Hübner said in her introduction, “it is not big enough for the larger companies, and it is too difficult for the smaller companies.”

The In Series company, though small, brought the stimulating, yet beautiful music to life. The production emphasized the raw, rural American life of the early to mid-20th century corn or wheat belt and was incredibly successful.

Originally written to be aired on television (it was ultimately not aired), The Tender Land is the story of a young girl, Laurie, about to become the first in her family to graduate from high school. We follow her thoughts and her desire to learn more as she wonders what is next for her. We see her mother (Ma) almost regretting her life choices, her innocent little sister Beth not yet ready for the difficulties of life, and her overbearing but still loving, often misguided grandpa, who serves as the foil for Laurie’s desires.  The other people in Laurie’s life are her neighbors, the postman and his wife, and two itinerant workers who upset the very fabric of life for Laurie and her family. The story is not filled with violence, or over-the-top love, or long death scenes. It is simple and even a little slow, but that slowness is when as an audience member you can listen to the music and let it transport you.

The music was played to perfection by a small, larger-than-chamber orchestra led beautifully by Stanley Thurston, and all of the members wore jeans, suspenders, and plaid shirts to evoke the rural American feel. One of the violinists was even pulled into the opera as the “fiddler” for a rousing dance scene at Laurie’s graduation party. The music itself is clearly difficult, with dissonant sounds and often jarring harmonies. It is beautiful though. The entire ensemble closed Act I, with the well-known Promise of Living aria that left most of the audience wiping their eyes. The end of the opera, too, was incredibly moving, as Beth is silently crying because Laurie is leaving home, without attending her graduation, and Ma is singing a heartbreaking aria about standing up to life and moving forward. Every single member of the audience truly shared the emotions on stage with the characters.

The set was sparse, with a house represented by an almost skeleton structure and the perspective turned around, since the audience faced the side of the home (my sister Arya told me that–it was hard to figure out!). The costumes evoked the dust bowl era, in pale colors, almost threadbare, with the exception of Laurie’s graduation dress, which was a contrast in bright white with blue bows.

The principals were absolutely amazing. Each character found his or her role within themselves and were utterly believable. The voices soared. Laurie and Ma hit notes that resonated with our emotions, while the bass of Grandpa filled the theater. The itinerant workers were incredible as was the rest of the cast, including the postman, Beth, and the neighbors and friends. I felt like I was part of this slice of America and was glad to meet the director Steven Mazzola, after the show.