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Atlanta Opera’s High Concept ‘Madama Butterfly’
OPERA REVIEW Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" Atlanta Opera. Saturday at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Repeats Oct. 7, 10 and 12. 404-881-8885, www.atlantaopera.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It lasted just a moment, but oh what promise.
Cio-Cio-San made her entrance, rapturously, down a long curved ramp at the back of the stage. Her family entourage, dressed in colorful, modern-styled kimonos, formed a long hedge with umbrellas twirling. Circular rings painted on the floor evoked ripples in a Japanese garden pond. The brilliant twilight sky bled from fuchsias to deep reds.
Then Polish soprano Joanna Kozlowska, the tragic heroine of “Madama Butterfly,” sang of her impending marriage — a step in the joyous cycles of life and death — in gleaming tones at once steely, creamy and opulent, piercing through the orchestra, filling the room.
Opening Atlanta Opera’s 29th season Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Kozlowska was the soprano to carry Puccini’s most fail-safe opera, with set and costume designs by Jun Kaneko, a celebrated Japanese-American sculptor and painter.
Kaneko’s production premiered in 2006 at Opera Omaha, in the sculptor’s adopted hometown, and has already been rented by several regional opera companies.
It’s the latest in a distinguished history of collaborations, where the most cross-pollinated of performing arts receives an injection of fresh insights or hip attitudes from comprehensive artists. Opera designs by Picasso (for Stravinsky) and David Hockney (for Mozart), for example, are still revived in the theater and are masterpieces in the realm of aesthetics-meets-function. (Kaneko’s designs for “Butterfly” are now on display at a SCAD-Atlanta gallery.)
Yet after the initial, giddy radiance of both Kozlowska’s voice and Kaneko’s visuals, neither offered enough to keep this “Butterfly” afloat.
In both cases, in fact, neither seemed to know what “Butterfly” was about. Primed to dominate the evening, they were at best uneven in appeal and substance.
Kozlowska has sung mostly at the major opera houses in Europe and reportedly hasn’t sung in the U.S. in a decade. Saturday night she blew her top-tier pipes but displayed paltry communication skills and static acting ability — either in physicality or, more crucially, in acting the role with her voice.
Puccini’s fragile Butterfly, the retired geisha, is all of 15 and marries for love B.F. Pinkerton, an American sailor. He’s in the arrangement for carnal purposes. She’s one of the composer’s few female creations whose character and maturity develops as the plot progresses.
Yet Kozlowska, a severe introvert on stage, never opened up, never gave us reason to sympathize. For “Un bel di” — singing of a hopeful tomorrow after three years abandoned — she rushed ahead of the orchestra and clipped her phrases and seemed to have no idea how to wring the juice from the opera’s greatest-hit aria.
There was much to admire in Kaneko’s designs, which played off traditional Japanese culture — including “shadow men” drawn from Bunraku theater — while effectively offering one artist’s unique vision. Too often, though, instead of complementing and augmenting the music and drama, his scenic elements distracted badly from the singing.
What was the message of the wavy red and blue computer graphics projected at the end of act one, during the big love duet? Pinkerton’s growing ardor? If so, it was too distracting, too obvious, a gimmick for showing us something that the music had already made palpable.
Thus strongest contributions came from the veterans.
Tenor Richard Leech, a leading Pinkerton in years past at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and also making his Atlanta Opera debut, sang with blocky phrasing and a pleasing, appropriately gruff “bite” in his tone that’s part of a warm embrace of a voice.
Conductor Joseph Rescigno didn’t so much impose an interpretation on the performance as step out of the way of the singers, breathing with them and keeping the orchestra tight.
The smaller roles were generally well cast. Weston Hurt was a vocally handsome Sharpless, the American consul. Jennifer Hines as a meek Suzuki, Butterfly’s servant. Joel Sorensen played a memorable Goro, the comic marriage broker, who seemed to have stepped out of some other, more stimulating production.
Sorensen’s sharp character acting revealed that Bernard Uzan, the stage director, didn’t ask for, or get, much from his cast — perhaps swamped, like the rest of us, by Kaneko’s concept.
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Play ‘Wicked’ lottery for $25
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Those “Wicked” producers sure know how to stir up the tween spirit.
As if youngsters of a certain age weren’t excited enough about the tale of the green witch and her pretty blonde friend, a ticket lottery has just been announced. (OK, everybody squeal!)
Tickets for the Broadway musical, which runs Wednesday through Nov. 2 at the Fox Theatre, are still on sale, and range from $31-$70. But lucky thrift-seekers can get $25 orchestra seats through a lottery system before each and every show.
Here’s how it works:
Show up at the Fox box office 2 1/2 hours before the show, and put your name on the list. Winners will be announced 30 minutes later. It’s cash only; limit two tickets per person.
If you don’t want to take the chance, you can purchase tickets from Ticketmaster: 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com.
By the way, Wednesday night’s performance is a preview. The official opening is Thursday. Look for my review on this blog Friday morning; or check out Saturday’s Living section.
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‘The Little Prince’ @ 7 Stages
THEATER REVIEW. “The Little Prince.” Grade: D+ 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 26. $15-$20. 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave., Atlanta. 404-523-7647, 7stages.org. Bottom line: We don’t get it.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert and soon encounters a pint-size traveler with a corona of golden curls. Claiming to be from a tiny faraway planet, the Little Prince prattles on about roses and sheep, stars and volcanoes — and describes his random adventures with a king, a geographer and a fox.
First published in 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince” reads like a whimsical answer to the author’s French existentialist contemporaries Camus and Sartre. But while the nihilists espouse bleakness and despair, the Little Prince comes to realize that the essence of life is found in the heart.
Saint-Exupery’s charming line drawings and sweetly sentimental philosophy have captivated generations of readers, including 7 Stages artistic director Del Hamilton (gasp!). Though better known as a hard-boiled aficionado of Albee, Beckett and Sam Shepard, Hamilton confesses a soft spot for the tale of the stranded aviator and the wee wanderer. So this explains why his edgy, experimental theater has chosen to produce Rick Commins and John Scoullar’s stage treatment of the family classic.
Though I was looking forward to what director Hamilton and company might bring to this unexpected programming choice, I couldn’t wait for the whiny Little Prince to return to whatever strange planet he fell from. Poorly designed, executed and cast, the show’s magic is indeed petite and discreet. Dime-store Plato.
Performed on a mound-shaped set meant to suggest the undulating sands of the Sahara and the curvy contours of the various planets the Little Prince visits, the play boasts some fine character work by the delightful Doc Waller (as the fox, the geographer, etc.) and a likable enough performance by John Benzinger (as the aviator).
But Portia Cue, who plays the lead, manages to be both physically energetic and metaphysically leaden. Speaking in a nasal monotone and a hodgepodge of accents, this banal little fellow is more annoying than chipper, and I suspect that viewers of all ages will be hard-pressed to fathom the mysteries of this waifish and androgynous Don Quixote wannabe.
My colleague and I left the theater scratching our heads and wondering what it all meant and why we should care. With its talking flowers, precious musings and biblical allusions, “The Little Prince” is a big old bore.
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‘Looking Over The President’s Shoulder’ @Theatre in the Square
THEATER REVIEW “Looking Over the President’s Shoulder” by James Still. Theatre in the Square in Marietta. 770-422-8369, www.theatreinthesquare.com Grade: B-
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“If it falls your lot to sweep streets in life,” urged Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at Atlanta’s Big Bethel AME Church in 1957, “sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music.”
That self-empowering, laborer-as-artisan spirit perfectly describes Alonzo Fields. Educated in Boston to sing opera, he instead found a job as a butler in the White House at the nadir of the Great Depression. Grandson of a slave, he was soon promoted to chief butler and served four presidents over 21 years.
James Still’s one-man play “Looking Over the President’s Shoulder” imagines Fields on his last day on the job. Premiered in 2001, it is running at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square through Nov. 9.
Still’s language for Fields is direct and unadorned — “Culled from Fields’ private papers, diaries and interviews,” a program note says. A few youthful memories aside, we hear next to nothing of his life outside the executive mansion.
“I heard everything that went on,” Fields tells us early on. But that tease deflates to the realm of the de-personalized and generic when he adds, “it was like being in the front row and watching the passing parade of history.”
That “everything” proves not much. Nowadays any school kid learns that Franklin Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, that Eleanor Roosevelt was a firecracker, that Winston Churchill was extraordinarily eloquent and loved his Scotch, that Harry Truman was a decent human being.
Yet even a dusty history lesson can show us something beyond. An edgier or more politically-charged production might have linked, in sneaky or overt ways, the clueless Herbert Hoover to the current occupant of the White House, or made some commentary on the leap from when a servant’s job at the White House was the best a smart, talented black man could hope for — to the day when a black man has a realistic chance of winning the presidency.
Instead, directed by Gary Yates, the play’s connections are left for the audience to explore at intermission.
In a one-man show, perfect casting is essential. As Fields, Barry Scott has handsome, leading-man looks and a rich baritone speaking voice. Yet Scott is a little slouchy, which doesn’t help animate a man who was surely a sort of robo-servant, precise in every movement, able to stand like a statue then step forward to refill a wine glass in a fluid, uninterrupted gesture. If Fields was an artist among butlers — and his words and confidence suggests he knew he was — then the actor playing Fields should move like an artist.
We’re told that music fires his soul. Scott isn’t a singer, and doesn’t deliver lines with much musicality, so he cannot fully inhabit the role. He can tell us, but can’t make us feel, what Alonzo Fields’ life must have been like, in all its honor and frustration.
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New Eve Ensler play on Katrina headed to Atlanta; Phylicia Rashad, Kerry Washington and Jasmine Guy to star
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eve Ensler, the playwright who made “The Vagina Monologues” a worldwide phenomenon, has created an Atlanta-bound play about the female victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Swimming Upstream” — to be directed next month by Kenny Leon in a True Colors Theatre production at the 14th Street Playhouse — will star Broadway’s Phylicia Rashad, film actresses Kerry Washington and Shirley Knight and former Atlantan Jasmine Guy.
True Colors associate artistic director Todd Kreidler dropped the news over lunch this week to talk about the theater’s 2008-2009 season.
“It’s put together much like ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ “ Kreidler says of Ensler’s new interview-based script. “It’s sort of her bio-journalism.” He said the playwright sought out the collaboration with Leon.
Kreidler also announced that he and Leon are working on a new swing-era musical, “Ivory Joe Cole,” to be produced next summer as part of the National Black Arts Festival. The world premiere is being developed with an eye toward Broadway.
“Ivory Joe Cole,” according to Kreidler, is the story of the sibling jealousy between fictional musician brothers Ivory Joe and Henry. Set in Miami’s big-band era of the ‘50s, it is loosely inspired by “Othello” and the biblical story of Cain and Abel. The original concept, which Kreidler is reworking, is by playwright Kelly Ward, composer Michael Tavera and lyricist Steven Santoro.
Leon and Kreidler are also working on a previously announced Broadway-bound adaptation of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Kreidler is rewriting the script and says the play could open in New York next spring.
Here’s the True Colors season lineup:
“Swimming Upstream.” Nov. 6-16. 14th Street Playhouse.
“Black Nativity.” Choreographer Patdro Harris and musical director J. Michael, who frequently collaborate with Leon, will stage the Langston Hughes classic. Dec. 20-Jan. 9. Rialto Center for the Performing Arts.
“Miss Evers’ Boys.” David Feldshuh’s Pulitzer-nominated drama about the infamous Tuskegee Study. March 4-29. 14th Street Playhouse.
“Ivory Joe Cole.” July 15-Aug. 2. Alliance Theatre.
“Wedding Band.” Andrea Frye directs the Alice Childress classic about an African-American woman’s love affair with a white man. May 6-17.14th Street Playhouse.
For tickets: 404-588-0308, truecolorstheatrecompany.com
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Very thorough and accurate evaluation. As beautiful as the set, costume and lighting designs were, they seemed to distract from rather than support the story. The evaluations of the singers is also dead on. Thanks for the fair and even-handed review.... read the full comment by Ron Smith | Comment on Atlanta Opera's High Concept 'Madama Butterfly' Read Atlanta Opera's High Concept 'Madama Butterfly'
I pretty much agree. The point of my comment is to show that I have read the review. Please keep the art reviews coming. Thank you. J. Vilanova... read the full comment by J. Vilanova | Comment on Atlanta Opera's High Concept 'Madama Butterfly' Read Atlanta Opera's High Concept 'Madama Butterfly'
Dear “Frenchy” — Save the political views for the Editorial Page! YOUR personal political views have no place in a theater review. Randall B Brannon Roswell, GA... read the full comment by Randall B. Brannon | Comment on 'Looking Over The President's Shoulder' @Theatre in the Square Read 'Looking Over The President's Shoulder' @Theatre in the Square
As a French teacher who has taught this wonderful story of “Le Petit Priince” for over 20 years, and read and seen many interpretations, I was delighted with this production. I found it very faithful to St Exupery’s timeless tale, entertaining... read the full comment by Madame Mary D. | Comment on 'The Little Prince' @ 7 Stages Read 'The Little Prince' @ 7 Stages