Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor. July 26, 2016.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat JJ15, $39.50).

Program

The Illuminated Heart – Selections from Mozart’s Operas

Artists

Kiera Duffy, soprano; Christine Goerke, soprano; Ana Maria Martinez, soprano; Nadine Sierra, soprano, Marianne Crebassa, mezzo-soprano; Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano; Matthew Polenzani, tenor; Christopher Maltman, Bariton; Peter Mattei, baritone.

There were quite a few sales for Mostly Mozart tickets by Lincoln Center and through Goldstar.com, and I have bought tickets for five of these concerts so far.  We decided we will take advantage of our being in New Jersey through early September.

Having been busy with a couple of issues, I didn’t have the time to research tonight’s program, other than it’s selection from Mozart’s operas.  And I made the mistake of thinking the concert starts at 8:00 pm.  Chung Shu came by to pick us up at 5:30 pm – I having turned down his suggestion of 5 pm because of said mis-conception – and we got to Lincoln Center only a little before 7 pm, so we managed to get into our seats a few minutes before curtain after grabbing a quick meal at Europan.  That also meant I had no time to read the Playbill beforehand.

That might have helped.  I will get back to that later.

The selected pieces are from the operas Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Die Zauberflote (1791), La clemenza di tito (1791), Zaide (1779-80), Don Giovanni (1787), and Idomeneo, re di Creta (1781).  The one opera I had not seen – nor had heard of – is Zaide.

As the opera stage, we have a box that tapers a bit, and for different arias different projections were used to depict scenery for the occasion.  The orchestra occupied the first few rows at the orchestra level.  The singers were all in costumes, most period, but some period-indeterminate (e.g., Idomeneo.)

The stage worked quite well.  Although the projections would fool no one, they did provide proper settings for the arias being sung.  Most interesting was what happened during the overture.  Mozart’s signature was projected on to the back of the box, and as the overture progressed a maid was there erasing the signature, and the signature actually disappeared.  I couldn’t figure out what the trick was.

The overture was delightfully performed.  It also illustrated the limitations of the MM Festival Orchestra: as the pace accelerated towards the end, one sensed that the orchestra was barely hanging on and began to lose the crispness called for in the piece.  Since my attention was on the singers after the overture, I cannot comment on how they did.  To their credit the cooperation with the singers was seamless.

The singers all did well.  The two names I recognized were Goerke and Polenzani.  Turns out I had heard quite a few of them at the Met, mostly in secondary roles.  Sierra was a new name, and I was impressed with how well she sang.

Curtain call.  Singers and Langree on stage.  This is Mostly Mozart's Fiftieth Year.

After the concert both Anne and I thought this was an opportunity lost.  Perhaps it is just us, when we think of these operas (except Zaide that we didn’t know anything about), we all have their iconic arias in mind (e.g., the Queen of the Night song from the Magic Flute) and most of them were not sung.  The program concluded with the Act IV finale from the Marriage of Figaro, where all nine singers were on stage.

Before I wrote the above, I had the chance to read up on a couple of articles in the Playbill.  They added some insight into the selection of pieces: they reflect intense moments in the operas.  Indeed, in the Program Notes there is a short description of each of the arias and the emotions associated with them.  But still I insist there could be a better selection of pieces.

We also wonder how much this set up (it is a debut) cost, and if it could be reused somewhere else.  At least today’s attendance was close to a “full house” (no third tier), but I imagine MM can’t be awash with money.

The New York Times review is based on the Monday performance.  Despite all the praise of the individual aspects of the production and singers, the reviewer in the final analysis panned it, describing the program as “while clearly organized with care, it felt a bit scatter shot.  And also a bit insubstantial …”, concluding with “The performance, attractive and polished, didn’t teach us anything about Mozart that we didn’t already know.” (Ouch!)  I think Woolfe is expecting too much of these events.

The 90-minute program was performed without an intermission, so it was around 10:15 pm when Chung Shu dropped us off at home.