Even without its signature set, BLO's ‘The Seasons' is no dry run
Early in the opera, The Poet (as portrayed by countertenor and 'The Seasons' co-progenitor Anthony Roth Costanzo) sings: 'You know poets, sometimes we feel the weather inside of us more than we feel the weather outside of us.' Given Wednesday's performance, it's clear that axiom doesn't just apply to poets.
Advertisement
There's no doubt that 'The Seasons' would have been a different show had the six singers and six dancers been working with the visual and tactile elements of Lien and Forman's soapscape set in addition to the lighting, the lithe modern choreography by Pam Tanowitz, the diaphanous costumes by Carlos J Soto, and Vivaldi's music as performed by a zesty Baroque pit band. Regardless, 'The Seasons' was on solid ground musically and visually.
The iconic concertos of 'The Four Seasons' served as the piece's creative springboard, but thoughtfully selected arias, songs, and other pieces from Vivaldi's vast catalogue made up the bulk of the score, blending the familiar with the old-made-new. Baroque arias often manifest emotions through nature or weather imagery in both voice and instrumentation: plinking pizzicato for rain here, twittering birds for spring there, and 'The Seasons' made plentiful and effective use of that trope.
Advertisement
In Ruhl's dramatic scenario, an artists' rustic retreat is disturbed when the seasonal cycle falls out of order due to climate change, and the singers portraying those artists were all outstanding. As the Farmer, soprano Ashley Emerson unfurled luscious melismas while chopping vegetables, and countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim's warm, velvety timbre as the Painter provided a keen contrast to Costanzo's icy, clear precision. In the role of the Choreographer, mezzo-soprano and BLO emerging artist Alexis Peart partnered with dancer Lindsey Jones in a touching and tragic duet for human voice and human body. Every baroque opera must have its rage arias, and soprano Whitney Morrison and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel tackled those with incisive wrath.
Special kudos goes to Ji Yung Lee, who led the pit ensemble from the harpsichord on only minutes' notice after production music director Stephen Stubbs was accidentally injured backstage on his way to the pit and needed to sit the performance out. (A BLO spokesperson confirmed Stubbs was OK, but that's not the first medical emergency
Maile Okamura, front, and other members of Pam Tanowitz Dance in Boston Lyric Opera's "The Seasons."
Nile Scott Studios
The narrative of weather disrupted seems simplistic on the surface. The paradigm of four seasons neatly divided into spring, summer, fall, and winter has only ever been true for very specific parts of the world. And even in those parts that can claim those four seasons, like New England, it gets more complicated than that. I'm reminded of
Advertisement
But therein lies the point: No matter the exact rhythms of the cycle you're used to, the effects of climate change can turn it into disaster followed by disaster. The most powerful tableau of the show featured the violent third movement of 'Summer' from 'The Four Seasons,' as haze effects filled the air and the stage was illuminated in orange with the back wall invisible through the smoke. It's an image
Further productions in New York and beyond are planned for 'The Seasons,' and hopefully by then the complications with Lien and Forman's iridescent setpiece will be resolved. I do look forward to experiencing 'The Seasons' as its creators envisioned it. Still, though the Boston run of 'The Seasons' may not have realized everything it had wanted, the show is not lacking anything it needs. It's even there in the stage directions of Ruhl's libretto: 'Mostly an empty set. And weather.' And so they have it.
THE SEASONS
Presented by Boston Lyric Opera and ArtsEmerson. Through March 16. www.blo.org
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: A breakout star brightens Haymarket Opera's ‘Artaserse'
These days, it seems no operatic mountain is too high for Haymarket Opera. The company's latest enterprise, Leonardo Vinci's 'Artaserse,' is one such intimidating peak. The rarely staged 1730 opera, set to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, hovers around three and a half hours long. Haymarket's production runs four, counting two necessary intermissions. Then, there's 'Artaserse's' casting quagmire. The opera premiered in Rome at a time when castrati, or castrated male singers, took on treble roles; a papal decree forbade women from performing onstage. Vinci, apparently in a treble-making mood, writes 'Artaserse's' very lowest part for a tenor, filling out the rest of the cast with no fewer than five castrato roles. 'And since we at Haymarket do historically accurately …,' general director Chase Hopkins joked in his introductory remarks. In truth, the company's 'Artaserse' — which opened at DePaul University's Jarvis Opera Hall on Friday — cracked the castrato question with a mix of modern approaches. You had your countertenors, men who sing in falsetto or head voice: Kangmin Justin Kim (Artaserse), Key'mon Murrah (Arbace), and Ryan Belongie (Megabise). You had women portraying women, as did mezzo-soprano Emily Fons (Mandane) and men portraying women, as did soprano Elijah McCormack (Semira). A fourth countertenor doesn't sing in this production, but does more than any of his colleagues to shape it: stage director Drew Minter, also a founding member of fellow early-music heavyweights Newberry Consort. Unusually high vocal writing aside, 'Artaserse' invokes Baroque opera tropes aplenty. Artaserse, a benevolent Persian prince, and his equally upstanding best friend Arbace are practically family: They're dating each other's sisters, and Arbace's father, the scheming Artabano, serves in the court of Artaserse's father, the king. Also in the mix is Megabise, a bumbling soldier who pines, one-sidedly, for Artaserse's fiancée Semira. All those relationships are shaken when Artabano murders the king and frames his own son. Rather than rat out his father, Arbace nobly takes the fall, alienating his girlfriend, Mandane, and best friend in the process. Naturally, Artabano's lies and pursuit of the throne catch up to him. A third act that's pretty much back-to-back aria patches things up in record speed, including a clock-stoppingly beautiful love duet between Arbace and Mandane ('Tu vuoi ch'io viva o cara'). Metastasio's libretti don't always flow for modern audiences. (Here's looking at you, 'La clemenza di Tito.') But his 'Artaserse' proves poignant; Alessandra Visconti's supertitle translations, which retain the original libretto's poeticism, are a big help. 'Artaserse' poses questions as flummoxing as they are timeless. If you had to choose between your lover and your family, would you? What's the most moral course of action: administering justice or granting forgiveness? 'Artaserse' may have the prince's name in its title, but Murrah, making his Haymarket debut as the falsely accused Arbace, was unquestionably its breakout star. His timbre, almost unearthly in its purity, could carry over the orchestra and through Jarvis Hall on luster alone. His ornaments had the ease and precision of an instrumentalist — a breezy upper extension, daintily dancing arpeggios. In short, Murrah has to be heard to be believed. Seeing as 'Artaserse' is sold out, though, your next chance is 'El último sueño de Frida y Diego' at Lyric Opera, also his house debut (March 21 to April 4, 2026). Mark those calendars. McCormack — a transgender singer whose CV includes both male and female Baroque roles — was another breakout as Arbace's sister, Semira. 'Artaserse's' arias can be repetitive as all get-out, but McCormack's inspired phrasing and adroit ornamentations managed to make his own sound unfailingly fresh. And in a company which faithfully recreates stiff 18th-century acting conventions, McCormack's unapologetically sassy Semira was a welcome change of pace, drawing the afternoon's biggest laughs. As their wicked father Artabano, Eric Ferring held down the opera's sole low-ish voice with scorching conviction. His tenor, as seductive as it was tensile, balanced Artabano's venomous ambition with wounded, fatherly regret. Fons' Mandane was every bit as gripping, too, sharpening her luxurious mezzo to deadly points in the first act and lacing it with sobs in the third. Murrah's countertenor peers proved more mixed. Megabise is a fascinating figure in Metastasio's drama, with a compelling backstory, opaque motives — is it he who's gotten in Artabano's ear? — and comic opportunities aplenty. Belongie's performance didn't plumb those depths, nor was his peaky voice enough to carry the lowest of the opera's castrato roles. As Artaserse, Kim's performance took some time to ripen on Friday, his voice sometimes vanishingly slender and lagging behind the orchestra in his first aria to Semira. Kim's regretful aria in Act 1 — suspecting his own brother of his father's murder, Artaserse has mistakenly ordered him to be executed — was a turning point. From there onwards, he traversed his considerable range with confidence and power, without ever losing his voice's essential, attractive shimmer. It's an eternal credit to Minter's direction that this 'Artaserse' flows as well as it does, making even minimal stage action engrossing. Stephanie Cluggish's costumes were as opulent as they were attentive, and Wendy Waszut-Barrett, a Haymarket mainstay, again contributed hand-painted sets of layered beauty. The opera's action transpires over the course of a single day; to depict that, the backdrop in the final act is subtly, hypnotically backlit to evoke a just-set sun. Haymarket artistic director Craig Trompeter conducted a 21-piece pit orchestra, one of the company's largest ever. On Friday, the group was still learning how to wield that newfound power, overpowering the cast on occasion. Dicey intonation in the final chorus and Mandane's second-act aria aside, the group's unity and expression was impressive, from exactly seesawing strings to Brandon Acker's bleak, mournful lute under Artaserse's first-act lament. Again, Haymarket's run is, bittersweetly, sold out. But curious listeners will get a chance to hear an even more polished studio account via Cedille Records, at a to-be-announced date next year — just the second commercial recording of the work to date. There's nothing more Haymarket than that: ever innovating, with history as its guide.
New York Post
6 days ago
- New York Post
Art as inspiration can make your wedding as pretty as a painting
To make the moment she says 'I do' as pretty as a picture, Devon McCready is borrowing from the authorities of aesthetics. This August, she will walk down the aisle at her family's home near Cisco Beach in Nantucket with her fiancé, Boston real estate developer Gaetano Morello, surrounded by elements inspired by paintings by the likes of Gustav Klimt, William Samuel Horton and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 'I have a long love of art,' said McCready, who owns an eponymous art advising business that keeps her hopping between Boston, Palm Beach and Nantucket. 'I'm always either studying it or selling it. So when I think about the visuals for the event, my mind always goes to different artworks that I've fallen in love with over the years.' Advertisement 3 Devon McCready is borrowing from the authorities of aesthetics. Her wedding is structured like an elegant garden party, and for inspiration she looked to a detail from Georges Rochegrosse's 1894 oil painting 'Le Chevalier aux Fleurs' and to swirling colors of Renoir's 1879 impressionist painting, 'Spring (The Four Seasons).' Klimt's lustrous golden phase and his later landscape paintings — think 1907's 'Bauerngarten' — influenced the selection of digital wedding invitations, fashion and decor. Meanwhile, a keen-eyed guest might catch a reference to Odilon Redon's 1912 watercolor 'Five Butterflies' on the save the date stationery. Even the reception lighting is intended to reflect the amber glow of 'Nighttime Festivities Held by President Loubet at the Elysée Palace in Honor of Alfonso XIII' by William Samuel Horton (1905). One person who definitely gets the vision is her planner, Maureen Maher of Nantucket Island Events. Advertisement 'When I show her an artwork she's like, 'That's going to look great. I love those colors,'' said McCready. Wedding content creator Emily Cline added that art can do more than just color your wedding — it can become a central figure in it. Cline is on iPhone duty, capturing candid, intimate moments from the big day that the formal photographer might skip, to send your socials swooning. She recently shot a couple's engagement at the Met in front of some of their favorite abstract artworks, as well as a wedding at the Parrish Art Museum in the Hamptons, where the art acted as a sophisticated backdrop. Advertisement 3 Wedding content creator Emily Cline said that art can do more than just color your wedding — it can become a central figure in it. Emily Cline Art museums and galleries are always popular — and even competitive — venues to book in the city, despite the tens of thousands you should expect to pay at, say, the Brooklyn Museum. (Note: The Met doesn't allow ceremonies, but it does host receptions, starting at an eye-watering $750,000). But while most use a museum's massive square footage merely as a grand event space, Cline said it's important to get intimate with what they have on display. She directs couples to simply walk around, enjoy the art, take it in and be present. Of course, she also poses couples in front of stunning sculptures and canvases — prioritizing pieces that are about love — that then become a part of their wedding story. 'It turns out really beautifully, like a perfect date night,' said the NYC founder of Wedding Day Content Creator. 'Art adds a really personal touch and wonderful ambience.' Advertisement 3 The Hall des Lumières is an immersive digital art center. Toby Adler Photography Still, some hot 'n' heavy connoisseurs crave the avant garde. They find it at Hall des Lumières. Located in the landmark Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank at 49 Chambers Street on the edge of Tribeca, the venue is New York City's first permanent immersive digital art center. It allows couples to custom program 360-degree digital projections, lighting and sounds so that you and your guests can step inside your favorite paintings. (Remember that touring Van Gogh exhibit that let you bask inside 'Starry Night'? It's basically that, on steroids.) 'It's so cool to have so much creative control over this one event that's celebrating something so exciting in my life.' Bride-to-be Devon McCready 'We have 130 projectors and a look book, but we can also customize for any event,' said Harley Hendrix, the managing director of the space. 'Young brides tend to want to use it at its full capacity, and then we have some that are more traditional, and just want to keep it to a very nice, elegant, ever-changing backdrop.' This futuristic-meets-beaux arts space has roughly 60 ready-made looks that the system can map out over the walls. They run the gamut from travel themes to Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' and the golden motifs of Klimt. Match those with build-outs and you have a wedding that feels like you are inside your favorite frame. Better still, it can host up to 1,000 guests. 'Everything is customizable, but best of all, it just photographs so well. You can't tell where you are. Every time the projections change, the room changes,' said Hendrix. 'The only limit is your imagination. Want to be Mona Lisa? Fine, you are Mona Lisa.' A wedding is one of those rare opportunities to create something new and exciting, said McCready. 'It's so cool to have so much creative control over this one event that's celebrating something so exciting in my life,' she said. 'I feel like I'm creating my own work of art.'
Epoch Times
21-06-2025
- Epoch Times
A Joint Museum Acquisition of a Rare British Self-Portrait
The British Baroque artist William Dobson (1611–1646) is not a household name, but that may be changing with the international news that London's Tate and the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) have jointly acquired one of his rare self-portraits. The purchase Among modern scholars, Dobson's paintings have been critically acclaimed, especially after two 20th-century exhibitions. Art historians have found similarities between his work and that of such illustrious figures as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, two artists who also have important self-portraiture legacies. However, Dobson has long been forgotten by the general public due to personal and historical circumstances.
