Brief Recap of OTSL

June 23, 2008 - I'd meant to write this review/recap of my time in St. Louis as it was happening but ended up spending too much time under the tent reconnecting with old friends and meeting singers. Then I'd meant to do it immediately upon returning to Baltimore, but ended up returning to a number of crises at Emmanuel which required my immediate attention. So now, quite frankly, I'm up late typing this post in order to stave off a panic attack brought on by the realization that I've simply got too much to do. The reasoning was a little like this "Well, if you go post on the blog, at least you won't have to stress out about that any more". So here goes:

The first show I saw was Offenbach's chaotic and unfinished (at least in any definitive sense) masterpiece, The Tales of Hoffman. Renaud Doucet and Andre Barbe (a favorite husband and husband director/designer team at OTSL) have put their customary visual panache into this production but I must say that I thought the riot of sheer "stuff" onstage meerly served to further obscure a story that is already somewhat prone to obtuseness. On Wednesday, I had a double-header; in the afternoon a matinee remount of Colin Graham's powerful Madame Butterfly starring Kelly Kaduce. It was magnificent and proved that clear intention coupled with masterful performance can trump the most lavish stage business every time. After a supper interval, it was time for Una cosa rara, a Soler rarity known mostly today due to the fact that Mozart quotes a tune from it in the finale of Don Giovanni. Clever, funky, fun production of a piece of fluff that by the middle of the first act really shows just how transcendently more talented Mozart was than any of his contemporaries. Finally, Thursday night brought the much-anticipated opening of Walton's Troilus and Cressida. For me, I have to say that this work, while lovingly presented by OTSL, simply points up that Walton was a great film composer and a not very great opera composer. Too often the music simply evokes a scene or accompanies what's going on rather than driving the action forward with a musical dialectic. Perhaps some judicious editing would help. One thing I will say: Walton could not have hoped for a more passionate advocate of his music than conductor Antony Walker. Bravo, maestro!

Okay. Now I can check that off the list and hopefully sleep a bit more easily tonight. See you at Artscape, of which I will blog more anon. - John Bowen