| . | 05/09/2002
Philharmonic in Fairly Refreshing "Entführung"
By: Bruce-Michael Gelbert
It must be just coincidence, with performing group's spring schedules likely to have been planned well before last September 11, but recent weeks have afforded local concert hearings of two works from a possibly more innocent era in which East meets West constitutes the central conflict. Following the Collegiate Chorale's investigation of Carl Maria von Weber's "Oberon," late in April, came the New York Philharmonic's exploration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), at the start of May. Sir Colin Davis led the Philharmonic and a high-level cast in a realization of Mozart's Singspiel which did not want for vitality.
Elizabeth Futral played Konstanze, the Spanish noblewoman trapped in the Turkish Pasha Selim's harem. Her performance, which would have been impressive coming from almost anyone else, was, unfortunately, below the standard she has set for herself. Futral's singing failed to flow in as seamless a silvery stream, in either her demanding bravura arias or her plaintive legato "Traurigkeit," as her fluently sung New York City Opera Lakmé, Baby Doe and so on, have led listeners to expect. Perhaps she was trying too hard to make her lovely light instrument sound more dramatic. Perhaps she was just having an off night. Tenor Kenneth Tarver, as Konstanze's love, Belmonte, displayed a fairly sweet and agile lyric voice. Neither the coloratura nor the long breath lines of his four arias fazed him.
Mostly gruffness and bluster, in keeping with the crude character of the Pasha's servant, Robert Lloyd also fully filled out the deep bass lines of Osmin's cruelly jubilant "O, wie will ich triomphieren." High soprano Tracy Dahl dispatched the comic seconda donna part of Blonde, Konstanze's English maid, with élan. She placed the consecutive high Es near the end of "Durch Zärtlichkeit" with ease and added to her accomplishments a facile descent into Osmin's cavernous vocal territory when mocking him in their duet. Tenor Richard Clement ably partnered Dahl as Pedrillo and sang his third act serenade dulcetly.
Abbreviated spoken dialogue, in librettist Johann Gottlieb Stephanie's original German, was augmented by English-language narration delivered by actor (and writer) John de Lancie in character as Pasha Selim. Kudos to the New York Choral Artists for a pair of lively salutes to the merciful Pasha.
Avery Fisher Hall,
10 Lincoln Center Plaza
212/721-6500
May 2-6 Tickets $21-82
|
|