| . | 12/19/2009
Penelope
By: Joel Benjamin
photo by Carol Rosegg Victoria Vargas, Lori Guilbeau & Cooper Nolan
One of the great benefits of living in New York City is having access to so much music presented by so many performing organizations. On top of the list is the Opera Theater of the Manhattan School of Music, which has garnered a well-deserved reputation for presenting operas most other opera theaters can’t or won’t present in sumptuously professional productions. The most recent production to bolster this acclaim is Gabriel Faure’s Penelope, performed before a packed house of opera lovers on the lookout for a “find,” which they got.
Penelope, with a libretto by Rene Fauchois, is based on the last chapters of Homer’s masterwork, The Odyssey. Penelope awaits the return of her husband Ulysses (the Roman version of the name Odysseus). She is besieged by suitors who belligerently force themselves on her, all hoping to marry the “widow” of the great Ulysses who is assumed to be dead and take possession of Ulysses’ estate and his conjugal bed. Ulysses went off to fight the Trojan War and appears to have disappeared en route home from that war. The faithful Penelope never loses hope.
Ulysses does return in the guise of an Old Beggar and is given refuge and comfort by Penelope. He is recognized only by the old nurse, Eurycleia, who is sworn to secrecy. The suitors become more and more insistent and boorish in their demands using up both Penelope’s patience and all the resources of her island kingdom. The shepherds, led by Eumaeus, are also fed up as their flock is exhausted to feed the greedy suitors.
Of course, Ulysses destroys all the suitors in the end with the help of the loyal local shepherds and his trusty bow, which only he has the strength to bend.
Though the Faure score didn’t prove to be a revelation of beauty and memorable melody, it was complex and subtle, employing a wide palette of sounds to underscore the action and libretto. The music ranged from drifting, sultry Debussyan chromatics under the longing arias of Penelope to the Wagnerian thundering of the final massacre of the five suitors.
The singing throughout was first rate. Lori Guilbeau who sang the title role was voluptuous, with a sumptuous voice that communicated Penelope’s frustrations and eventual happiness. As Ulysses, Cooper Nolan was effectively convincing as both the hunched Old Beggar and the upright, virile warrior, even singing through a face mask.
The five suitors, John Myers (Antinous), Marc Khuri-Yakub (Laertes), Joo Won Kang (Eurymachus), Andre Chiang (Ctesippos) and Michael O”Halloran (Peisander) sang much better than they acted or moved. Maybe it was a directorial choice to have them behave like contemporary teenagers, but it didn’t quite work.
The Eurycleia of Victoria Vargas, though not convincingly aged, was warm and subtle and Robert E. Mellon’s lead shepherd, Eumaeus was vigorously well-sung.
From the simple grey dresses of the handmaidens to the layered ancient tunics of the suitors, Miranda Hoffman’s costumes enhanced this production. Particularly beautiful were the uncomplicatedly elegant gowns that Ms. Guilbeau wore which both evoked the ancient times and were still clean and modern in their lines. The lighting by Josh Epstein was also a big plus, but the same cannot be said for the set design of Martin T. Lopez.
The set was ill-conceived: neither beautiful nor particularly functional. Its vertical towers were too stark and didn’t evoke either the time and place of Penelope, even with some superficial pretty touches such as scrims painted with roses and an artful presentation of a starry sky. Even a large overturned “marble” head didn’t help suggest the era of Penelope. One audience member used the colorful word “ungepatchked,” a Yiddish word that means disorganized or patched together. Also, the famous legendary bow of Ulysses might have been just a tad more imposing, but that’s, perhaps, nit-picking.
The stage director, Lawrence Edelson and the conductor, Laurent Pillot kept the action moving smoothly, although more attention might be paid overall to the acting which was neither appropriately stylized nor layered.
The Manhattan School of Music’s Opera Theater and its artistic director, Dona D. Vaughn deserve praise for putting on this neglected work and for a history of fine productions. Coming up in the spring will be Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Mozart’s masterpiece, Le nozze di Figaro.
PENELOPE by Gabriel Faure
The Opera Theater of the Manhattan School of Music
John C. Borden Auditorium
120 Claremont Ave.
New York, NY
December 9th – 12th, 2009
Tickets & Information:
http://www.msmnyc.edu/917-493-4428
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