Vocalist.org archive


<
From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Mon Oct 1, 2001  6:43 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Question about two modern operas


On Mon, 1 Oct 2001 ODivaTina@a... wrote:

> Hi List
> Are any of you familiar with the two operas "Patience" and "I Was Looking at
> the Ceiling, and Then I Saw the Sky"? I am wondering if there are any roles
> in either of them for a young spinto mezzo.

Are you talking about Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta PATIENCE? Or are you
talking about Paula Kimper's folk opera PATIENCE AND SARAH (which has been
compared musically with Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber)
which premiered at the Lincoln Center Festival in 1998? If the latter, the
role of Martha White would be ideal for a "young spinto mezzo". Amy Ellen
Anderson, the mezzo who created the role at Lincoln Center, has also sung
Carmen, Britten's Lucretia, Charlotte in WERTHER, Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI
SIVIGLIA, and Martha in Gounod's FAUST, and Dame Carruthers in G&S's
YEOMEN - a resume that suggests a full lyric mezzo with some agilita and
good chest register but also good upward extension.

I WAS LOOKING AT THE CEILING... is called a "song play" by its composer,
John Adams (of NIXON IN CHINA and DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER fame), rather than
an opera, and it's instructive that the recording was made with
musical theatre singers Audra McDonald (Consuelo), Angela Teek
(Leila), and Marin Mazzie (Tiffany) rather than opera singers - because
the music is much more reminiscent of Sondheim with some jazz and R&B
influences tossed in than of anything operatic, or indeed of Adams'
previous operas (except for the persistence of his essential minimalist
idiom, now brought to the musical theatre genre - because CEILING is much
more a musical in spirit and intent than it is an opera). This said, the
"mezzo" role in the opera is that of Leila, who sings the softly torchy
song "Alone (Again or At Last)".

Karen Mercedes
===
On Neil Shicoff - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
On yours truly - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html

+-------------------------------------------------------+
| For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that |
| appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. |
| - James 4:14 |
+-------------------------------------------------------+


emusic.com