The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) Opera Theater showed off students' talents in a program on November 20, and repeated on the 22nd, entitled "Opera and Shakespeare: the Food of Love," consisting of scenes from diverse musical settings of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (as a prelude), "Romeo and Juliet," and "The Merry Wives of Windsor," the expected ones and some surprises as well. Jorge Parodi presided over the music, with orchestral parts played in a two-piano arrangement, and Gordon Ostrowski staged the scenes.
Beginning the evening on a mostly cheerful note were "Brush up your Shakespeare," and its several encore verses, from Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate," with Blake Friedman and Evan Bennett as the would-be literate gangsters with advice on wooing. Limp wrists, at the mention of Sappho, could have been done without, and I'm not so sure that "Measure for Measure" should refer to crotch size, as suggested here, but Friedman's interpolated climactic high notes were welcome.
Starting off the "star-cross'd lovers" scenes was Lee Hoiby's restrained setting, from his "Romeo and Juliet," of an early moment involving Juliet (Bonnie Brown), her nurse (Megan Gillespie), and her mother, Lady Capulet (Sharee Seal), who would counsel her daughter, but must also attend to household and social obligations. Joseph Deren, Charlie Blueweiss, and Dorian Balis, the last a polished tenor, underutilized here, took other roles. In "Ange adorable," the lovers' first encounter, from Charles Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette," tenor David Sauer and soprano Joo Young Bang displayed refined and youthful lyric voices, so right for the protagonists. Evan Bennett and Meghan Scheibal took supporting parts in this scene at the ball.
We were treated to two aspects of the story, as relocated to mid-20th century New York and set by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, in "West Side Story"-the very romantic, effectively realized by Meghan Picerno and Marc Day, as Maria and Tony, exchanging vows at the bridal shop, in "One Hand, One Heart," and the conflict, in a rousing "Tonight" quintet and chorus, just before the fatal rumble, with Janae Frank, Greg Hoyt and Brian Wahlstrom as Anita, Riff and Bernardo. Completing the tale was the beautiful and dramatic bel canto tomb scene, from Nicola Vaccai's "Giulietta e Romeo," which early 19th century singers often substituted for Vincenzo Bellini's own finale in performances of "I Capuleti e i Montecchi." The promising singers were Ashley Cutright, lending a colorful, expressive mezzo-soprano to the travesti role of Romeo, and soprano Rachel Arky, partnering her as Giulietta.
Bracketing the "Merry Wives of Windsor" scenes were sprightly renditions of the Act One, Scene Two and Act Three, Scene Two ensembles from Giuseppe Verdi's "Falstaff," with libretto by Arrigo Boito, with Jhasoa Agosto (Falstaff), Emily Nicholas and Amanda Gregory (Alice Ford), Ji Hoon Park (Ford), Megan Pachecano (Meg Page), Erica Vogel and Keumran Park (Nanetta), Megan Gillespie and Meghan Scheibal (Dame Quickly), Eric Bowden (Fenton), Charlie Blueweiss (Bardolfo), Raed Saade and Costas Tsourakis (Pistola), and Nicholas Nicassio and Blake Friedman (Dr. Cajus). Scenes in this half of the evening were linked by (mostly) silent, comic vignettes showing Bardolfo and Pistola preparing Falstaff for or helping him recover from his louche amorous errands, on which they looked askance.
Meredith Mecum as Frau Fluth and Anna Murrin as Frau Reich plotted and harmonized in "Nein! Das ist wirklich doch zu keck," from Otto Nicolai's "Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor," and made the coloratura, in which they blended voices, particularly striking. We watched the battle of the sexes, involving the two couples in whose lives Falstaff would interfere, in an ensemble in familiar late 18th century style, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's older contemporary Antonio Salieri's "Falstaff," with George Jo and Anna Viemeister as the Fords, and Scott Lindroth and Irene Snyder as, here, the Slenders, with some florid figures for the former pair. The merry wives and company plotted Falstaff's final comeuppance in music, evocative of Old England, from Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Sir John in Love," sung by Adam Cavagnaro, Hillary Schranze, Joseph Deren, Amanda Gregory (Samantha Dango on the 22nd), Dorian Balis (as Parson Hugh Evans), Blake Friedman, Charlie Blueweiss and the ensemble.
The MSM Opera Theater's upcoming complete opera is primarily art song composer Gabriel Fauré's somewhat Debussyan, somewhat Wagnerian "Pénélope," concerning Ulysses' return to his eminently faithful wife a decade after the end of the Trojan War. Performances take place at MSM, at 120 Claremont Avenue, west of Broadway at 122nd Street, on December 9 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. and 12 at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $20, with lower-priced tickets available for students and seniors. Visit www.msnyc.edu, email concertinfo@msnyc.edu or call 917/493-4428 for further information.
