Monday, October 19, 2009
Concert review: Budget constraints don't dampen Opera Roanoke
Roanoke audiences are historically quick with bravos and standing ovations.
But Opera Roanoke’s Saturday night concert performance of Wagner highlights deserved the enthusiastic ovations it got from the 850 concertgoers at Shaftman Performance Hall .
Director Steven White, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and three young singers from the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., staged representative moments from four of the master’s music dramas.
But “staged” is the wrong verb. Because of budget woes, Opera Roanoke is forgoing full productions for this season’s works. This will disappoint those for whom opera means spectacle: acting, beautiful costumes, lush sets.
On the other hand, Wagner’s monumental epics are so expensive that most companies can’t afford full productions even in flush times. So the highlights from “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” “Tristan und Isolde” “Die Walkure” and “Gotterdammerung” were as close as Roanokers likely will get to a local performance of these massive works.
The RSO was big for this performance, with instruments not normally seen on Roanoke stages, including rotary-valved trumpets and a bass trumpet (but no Wagner tubas).
White consistently gets great results from the RSO, and Saturday night was no exception. The overture to “Die Meistersinger” was thrilling: full-bodied, noble, magnificent. The tremendous crescendo to the finish was breath taking and evoked immediate yells of approval.
Bryan Register’s tenor was firm and well-controlled in the “Prize Song” from “Die Meistersinger.” He was similarly expressive in the Act I finale from “Die Walkure,” which he sang with soprano Julian Rolwing .
Soprano Othalie Graham ’s vibrato was too wide for my taste in the “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde” (in its concert pairing with the Prelude from the same work).
But she did a fine job with the colossal immolation scene as Brunnhilde in “Gotterdammerung.” There were moments when she even reminded me of the great Hildegard Behrens .
As a fragment of “The Ride of the Valkyries” rushed past, the baby boomers in the audience may have been thinking, “Kill de wabbit.” But the contrast with the Bugs Bunny homage to Wagner only made the real thing more exciting. Graham, White and the orchestra earned thunderous applause to bring the concert to an end.
Seth Williamson produces “Morning Classics” and “Back Roads & Blue Highways” on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
But Opera Roanoke’s Saturday night concert performance of Wagner highlights deserved the enthusiastic ovations it got from the 850 concertgoers at Shaftman Performance Hall .
Director Steven White, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and three young singers from the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., staged representative moments from four of the master’s music dramas.
But “staged” is the wrong verb. Because of budget woes, Opera Roanoke is forgoing full productions for this season’s works. This will disappoint those for whom opera means spectacle: acting, beautiful costumes, lush sets.
On the other hand, Wagner’s monumental epics are so expensive that most companies can’t afford full productions even in flush times. So the highlights from “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” “Tristan und Isolde” “Die Walkure” and “Gotterdammerung” were as close as Roanokers likely will get to a local performance of these massive works.
The RSO was big for this performance, with instruments not normally seen on Roanoke stages, including rotary-valved trumpets and a bass trumpet (but no Wagner tubas).
White consistently gets great results from the RSO, and Saturday night was no exception. The overture to “Die Meistersinger” was thrilling: full-bodied, noble, magnificent. The tremendous crescendo to the finish was breath taking and evoked immediate yells of approval.
Bryan Register’s tenor was firm and well-controlled in the “Prize Song” from “Die Meistersinger.” He was similarly expressive in the Act I finale from “Die Walkure,” which he sang with soprano Julian Rolwing .
Soprano Othalie Graham ’s vibrato was too wide for my taste in the “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde” (in its concert pairing with the Prelude from the same work).
But she did a fine job with the colossal immolation scene as Brunnhilde in “Gotterdammerung.” There were moments when she even reminded me of the great Hildegard Behrens .
As a fragment of “The Ride of the Valkyries” rushed past, the baby boomers in the audience may have been thinking, “Kill de wabbit.” But the contrast with the Bugs Bunny homage to Wagner only made the real thing more exciting. Graham, White and the orchestra earned thunderous applause to bring the concert to an end.
Seth Williamson produces “Morning Classics” and “Back Roads & Blue Highways” on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
