Contemporary Classics October 31, 2017 Contemporary Opera and Interview with Michael Ching

The first hour we have an ingerview with composer Michael Ching.  This interview can be heard by clicking below.

The second hour is inspired by Thomas Adès’s “The Exterminating Angel,” based on the classic, darkly comic Luis Buñuel film, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera  last Thursday, Oct. 26, and runs through Nov. 21.   So the theme for the rest of the show is 21^st century operas

Beginning in December WRUU will be hosting the live from the Met on Saturaday afternoons.

We are going to begin this hour with Nico Muhly: Two Boys which was a feature of the  Metropolitan Opera's 2013-2014 season and the production had conductor David Robertson and director Bartlett Sher

The opera takes place on March 2001 in an English industrial city, before widespread use of the internet. Detective Anne Strawson is given a case she does not want: Jake, 13, has been stabbed in the heart and remains comatose; Brian, 16, stands accused but maintains his innocence. Brian regales Anne with a preposterous narrative, claiming to have been ensnared online in a web of outrageous and melodramatic characters including wealthy, beautiful Rebecca, 17, her genius brother, Jake, their “Aunt” Fiona, a professional spy

Recorded live during the Metropolitan Opera’s 2013 production with conductor David Robertson and director Bartlett Sher—on September 30, 2014.

Here we have Act 1 Scene 1 where Brian arrives at the police station indicating his friend has been stabbed. as Detective Inspector Anne Strewson is given the case despite her objections to taking the cases as Brian is the age of the boy she had give up for adoption years ago.  This excerpt feature

Alice Coote mezzo-soprano as Detective Inspector Anne Strewson  and Paul Appleby tenor as Brian        

This is followed by Act 2 Scene 1 where Alone in her office in the middle of the night, Anne Strewson now with transcripts of emails related to the case reviews the evidence from every possible angle: how could Brian’s stories be true? She asks her boss to comb the morgues to see if Rebecca’s body has turned up, and to contact MI5 about “Aunt” Fiona.  Here again is featured Alice Coote mezzo-soprano as Detective Inspector Anne Strewson

Nico Muhly: Two Boys  Metropolitan Opera s 2013-2014 production with conductor David Robertson

Next is from an earlier Thomas Ades opera  The Tempest

The Tempest, Act 2: Scene IV: What Was Before with Ferdinand, Miranda, (and Prospero unseen)

The couple expresses their love for each other and Miranda frees Ferdinand leaving Prospero to accept the loss of his daughter: "Miranda/ I've lost her/ I cannot rule their minds/ My child has conquered me/ A stronger power than mine/ Has set the young man free".

Simon Keenlyside, baritone as Prospero; Toby Spence, tenor as Ferdinand &  Kate Royal, soprano as Miranda 

Act 3  Scene 5: Caliban alone, with Ariel offstage

Caliban stands alone on the island musing on the changes: "Who was here/ Have they disappeared?". Ariel's voice is heard off stage.

Ian Bostridge  tenor as Caliban & Cyndia Sieden coloratura soprano as Ariel

Next are two arias from Tobias Picker  Terese Raquin  

Thérèse Raquin is an opera in two acts composed by Tobias Picker to a libretto by Gene Scheer based on the novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola.

Therese Raquin is married to her cousin Camille who she does not love and married him our of  obligation to her aunt.   Camille friend Laurent arrives to paint Camille’s portrait and in time Therese falls in love with Laurent.   In a moment of passion Laurent suggests killing Camille. Therese responds that she will do anything in order to be with him. Laurent wakes Camille, and although Camille and Therese cannot swim, he proposes that they all rent a boat and row out to watch the sunset. Laurent rows out to the middle of the river and attacks Camille who is too weak to resist and is thrown overboard. Therese and Laurent, clutching each other, watch as Camille drowns.

Two arias from Terese Raquin  Act 1 Scene 3 You Were With Me featuring Sara Fulgoni Mezzo-Soprano as Thérèse Raquin

Act 1 Scene 3 Come On Wake Up  featuring Gordon Gietz Tenor as Camille Raquin;  Richard Bernstein Baritone as Laurent LeClaire & Sara Fulgoni Mezzo-Soprano as Thérèse Raquin

Our last opera for tonght is Doctor Atomic by John Adams traces the development of the atomic bomb,  The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb (the "Trinity" test) was being prepared and the personalities of those involved in the development of the bomb and Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty. The first Act mostly takes place at Los Alamos  NM during the bomb’s development and the second Act is the day of the explosion at the Trinity test site outside of Alamogordo NM.  Here are two arias from Doctor Atomic.

In the aria “Am I in Your Light ?”  in Act 1 Scene 2         Kitty expresses her love for Robert Oppenheimer but is concerned her presence is distracting him from his great work.

Here in an arrangement for for Voice and String Quartet)  is Anne Sofie von Otter & Brooklyn Rider  from the album     So Many Things         Naive        

The aria Batter my heart is sung by Oppenheimer  at the end of Act 1, This is sung at the Trinity Test site outside Alamogordo NM when he is concerned about the bomb working and now the weather which has turned bad.  The aria uses text from Donne's Holy Sonnet 14.

Batter My Heart sung by Gerald Finley   along with the   London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner   from the album Great Operatic Arias (Sung in English), Vol. 22: Gerald Finley