I commented back when I first heard that Placido Domingo and Rolando Villazon were going to appear in an a new opera based on Il Postino together that I needed to hear more of the work of its composer, Daniel Catán. Well thanks to the wonders of internet radio, tonight I got to hear most of one of his operas that premiered just about a year ago at the Houston Grand Opera, Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (a broadcast of a live performance from HGO) and Act II of Rappacini's Daughter (from a recording made by the Manhattan School of Music). I am very impressed by what I heard - this opera is a keeper. The music may not be instantly memorable or hummable a la Puccini, but it's passionate and usually gorgeous. Most importantly. Catán's work is actually singable, unlike that of so many modern composers who make unreasonable demands on their performers. There is some "Latin" rhythms in his music, but not consistently, and I particularly noticed quite a bit of scoring for xylophone. He is one of the very few contemporary composers who has multiple stagings of his works, and I think he could grow into one of the 21st Century's major opera composers if he plays his cards right. Certainly having promoters like Domingo and Villazon can't hurt.
Soprano Ana Maria Martinez
I was also very impressed by the performers in both works, but pride of place goes to Ana Maria Martinez, one of my favorite sopranos of the new generation, who sings Lucero in Salsipuedes. Her voice is dark and rich with a mezzoish tinge, and it has presence, pathos, and drama. She will make her Met debut on November 19 as Micaela, but I would love to hear her as Carmen. In fact, if I do wind up going to see Carmen this year (I probably will because I usually attend the performance the night before Thanksgiving), I will be going for her and Marcello Giordani, and not for Denyce Graves, the "star" of the production.
Martinez will have a CD of opera arias coming out on November 15 from Naxos, a label for which she has extensively recorded in their fabulous series on American Jewish music - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Naomi and Ruth is a must. Martinez's husband, tenor Chad Shelton, did an excellent job of singing Lucero's lover Ulises, and it was a pleasure to hear Zheng Cao's warm, velvety mezzo as Magali. The lower voices were also fine. The soprano in Rappacini's Daughter was Olivia Gorra, who was apparently a student at MSM when the opera was recorded, but has since sung Liu at the Met and is on this season's roster as a cover. She's got more competition than Martinez, but I would still be happy to hear her.
(Note: I missed most of the plot synopsis, and I don't speak Spanish, so I really don't know what was going on in the operas. NPR describes the plot of Salsipuedes as a cross between Cosi fan Tutte and Springtime for Hitler!)
2 comments:
Attended Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas at the Los Angeles Opera in September of 1997. It was a good afternoon at the opera, and, judging, from the applause, very well-received. Catan himself took a bow afterwards. The performance was particularly memorable in that the young soprano singing Rosalba, having lost her voice, acted and mouthed the role onstage while her understudy sang from the pit--a situation I've encountered neither before nor since.
Actually, while I haven't seen this myself, I've read accounts of performances where this had happened. Although it's less common than the reverse, where singer breaks a leg or something and sings from the wings and understudy acts/momes the part.
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