In total contrast Santa Fe Opera now presents Benjamin Britten doing a comedy in a small-scale (“Billy Budd” and “Peter Grimes” are Big Time grande opera indeed), chamber opera written for twelve musicians designed for budget-oriented presentations. But it was no small-scale casting for this one.  Grandly commanding the baton in his Santa Fe debut was internationally renowned conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

[Sir Andrew Davis, music director of the Lyric Opera, Chicago (whose lobby is the background of this photograph), conducted "Albert Herring"; edited image, based on a photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

International super-star Christine Brewer headlined the cast as the over-bearing, imperious Lady Billows (aka like that wicked witch school principal you had in grammar school – I certainly had a totally forgettable one!). Judith Christin was cast to utter perfection as Mother Herring, giving her yet another chance to excel at her well known comedic antics so frequently bringing down the house here.  No one, but no one, does side-splitting facial expressions better than Judith Christin!!

Soon-to-be super star tenor Alek Shrader (who is also moonlighting here in this season’s final performance of Mozart’s “Magic Flute”) sang the title role.

[Below: Albert Herring (Alek Shrader) minds his mother's store; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Albert Herring is rarely presented and has never been seen in many American houses, but I have had the good luck to have seen it often (mostly in the UK including at Glyndebourne in rain and in my wet tux!). Because of its rarity, here’s a quick Opera-101 overview of this opera based on a short story by France’s great writer/poet/playwright Guy de Maupassant, with the action taking place in Victorian England sited in a small market-town in Suffolk, with the opera first presented at Glyndebourne (now England’s equivalent of Santa Fe’s summer opera festival) in 1947.

Mother Herring is a greengrocer and is our hero’s overbearing, suffocatingly-protective Mom. But the town’s self-appointed custodienne of Morality is the aptly named Lady Billows, a billowing, bossy, know-it-all who comes up with a contest for the town to select a spotessly virtuous Queen of the May Festival to be crowned and given a prize by the committee in charge of these festivities.

Unfortunately, after much diligent searching, no such laudatory Lass-of-virtue could be found to the consternation of all with a Ms Billows noting  of one of the possibilities ” .  .    . exuding moral blame, but stinks of moral shame .  .  . “, so the committee taps our Hero, the young lad Albert Herring who is “pure as new-mown hay” (aka some sort of hayseed? Keep tuned) to be, instead, “King of the May Festival”. Mother Herring is ecstatic, but Al definitely is not, so his mother angrily dismisses him as a Bad Boy.

[Below: the town's elders descend upon Mother Herring's grocery store, from left Mother Herring (Judith Christin), Albert (Alek Shrader), Mr Budd (Dale Travis), Lady Billows (Christine Brewer) and Mayor Upfold (Mark Schowalter); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

The scene changes in Act II to the garden of the vicarage all set up for the banquet with tureens of lemonade on the lovely green lawns in front of the Church, parsonage and some houses of this charming little village. Now comes the fun – Al’s buddy Sid secretly spikes Al’s lemonade with booze! Meanwhile the speeches are given, and Al is crowned and awarded the 25 quid prize, then staggers home with more than just a buzz, but meanwhile overheard Sid and another friend Nancy saying how sorry they are for Al that he’s such a momma’s boy – totally suffocated and domineered by his Mom – that he ought to get out more . Well, that gossip ruminates in Al’s head – then Rebellion! Albert Herring runs away from this cozy nest to go out and discover the Real World, saying to Mum, and proclaiming he’s not Mum’s “sugar plum”.

[Below: Sid (Joshua Hopkins, left) and Nancy (Kate Lindsey) have a bit of fun with Albert (Alek Shrader); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

Act III, always wildly funny, starts with all in consternation as Al is missing – but eventually the local constable, ably played by Dale Travis (who, had stepped in to replace an indisposed Wayne Tigges the prior evening as the four Villains in “Tales of Hoffmann”) comes in with the crushed, muddy “coronation” hat that Al had been crowned with, as Al’s Mum almost collapses in grief. This is the only solemn passage in the piece, but loaded with fabulous music, as the others pay sympathy – but patronizing – to Mum.

But suddenly Al comes stumbling back to the party having spent lots on cheap likker, totally dishevelled – skunk-drunk. He’s besieged with disdain, disgust and sarcastic rebukes from the locals. Mum says loudly, “You’ll pay for this, my boy”. Then, emboldened with that booze, Al proclaims loudly that it’s all his overbearing mother’s fault that he’s such a mess.

[Below: Albert Herring (Alek Shrader), having lost his inhibitions to alcohol, tells everyone what he really thinks; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]

All his buddies and the young crowd loudly cheer him on, but the oh-so-moral townsfolk grimace and turn their backs on these hopeless kids, as completely humiliated Mother Herring, wrenching in anger, embarrassment and disgust, has a fit – and Judith Christin does this with, well, sheer genius. Al has the final words, “That’ll do, Mum”. And on that sweet note the piece ends with roaring applause from a most enthusiastic audience.

Christine Brewer has graced Santa Fe’s stage before in the fabulous 2005 Peter Grimes, Richard Strauss’ “The Egyptian Helen” in 2001 and Gluck’s “Alceste” in 2009. Judith Christin has graced the Santa Fe stage for years in many roles, as well as in most other American opera houses.

[Below: Lady Billows (Christine Brewer, right) shares her thoughts with Florence Pike (Jill Grove); edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of Santa Fe Opera.]

Alek Shrader, who well and truly earned the top applause, will surely be welcomed on any return here and clearly will be seen everywhere shortly. This ripping production was directed by Paul Curran who also did the 2005 Peter Grimes here, with sets and superbly appropriate costumes by Kevin Knight. The principal cast rounded out with Sid being sung by Joshua Hopkins and Nancy by Kate Lindsey,  the school marm by Celena Shafer to gales of laughter – a graduate of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice program, and the Vicar played by a current Apprentice Jonathan Michie – and very well indeed!

And let’s all hope Sir Andrew will command the podium here again – soon. This was a real treat – by far the best reading of “Albert Herring” I’ve ever seen, and the sound he conjured from the the twelve piece orchestra seemed like an almost full symphony orchestra.

Over the years The Santa Fe Opera has also done three other Benjamin Britten operas, “Owen Wingrave” in 1973, “The Turn of The Screw” in 1983, and “Noah’s Fludde” in 1996 and 1999, but none can equal the “Peter Grimes” and “Billy Budd” noted above.  This reading takes its place of honor along side these two masterpieces in the hands of the most able Santa Fe Opera team. Bravi! Bravi!

In fact, it is my pick for one of this website’s “Superlatives” – so far, the best production of a mid-20th century opera that I have experienced.

Leading the team that collaborated on the new production was Scottish Director Paul Curran, who, at the end of this year assumes the position of Artistic Director of the Den Norske (Norwegian) Opera.  The opera’s conductor was Edo de Waart.

[Below: the impressment of Billy Budd and two other seamen aboard the "HMS Indomitable"; edited image, based on Ken Howard photo provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

This is Curran’s second production developed for a  Santa Fe Opera premiere of a major Britten opera. Three seasons ago he directed a well-received ”Peter Grimes” starring Anthony Dean Griffey.

As in the 2005 Santa Fe “Grimes”, Curran’s set and production designer was Robert Innes Hopkins and his lighting designer was Rick Fisher. (Washington National Opera will be mounting the Santa Fe Curran-Hopkins production next March starring Christopher Ventris, while Griffey travels to San Diego Opera in April to perform Grimes in a John Copley production.)

For almost 50 years, the “standard” production of “Billy Budd” has been a shortened two-act version that Britten developed in 1960 for a BBC telecast. Britten had been upset with his original four act version with multiple intermissions and some other weaknesses he perceived in it and made some sizable cuts in the opera.  Because this version seemed to have the Britten imprimatur, it was considered the composer’s final thoughts on the opera.

Even so, in the BBC interviews that took place in association with the telecast, he can be heard saying “If I’m any good as a composer, the music will show a greater depth than perhaps I’m intending”.

In the Santa Fe production, when one hears the restored music (heard also in the 1997 Kent Nagano recording of the opera with Thomas Hampson) and sees the accompanying drama that Britten cut from the original version for the BBC, it becomes clear that there is indeed greater depth in the original music of the opera than perhaps Britten himself recognized.

A “Billy Budd” Sea Change

Even though wonderful music from the 1951 production is restored, Britten’s critique of his initial version has been heeded.  Importantly, the two act scheme for the BBC has been maintained.  In fact, the first act is very close to the BBC version which is usually performed.  The restored music is virtually all in what is now the second act.

The Curran-Hopkins production very cleverly uses modern stage design techniques and machinery to move quickly from the main deck to below decks or to the captain’s cabin.  Some of the concepts, including an especially striking penultimate scene, are breathtaking.

In fact, the Santa Fe production solved many of the riddles about how to make this intriguing opera a fast-paced, highly emotional experience.  One can propose that the Curran-Hopkins technical solutions be regarded as a point of departure for a major re-evaluation of this work.

Trawling the Source Material

Most of the standard opera repertory consists of operas adapted from “other media”.  More often than not (always excepting The Bard, of course), the work on which the opera is based is of little use to us in  really understanding the opera itself.

One can read, say, Scott’s “The Bride of Lammermoor” from cover to cover without gaining much insight into Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”, and one would do well to stay away from Belasco’s politically very incorrect plays ”Madame Butterfly” and “The Girl of the Golden West” entirely.

[Below: Captain Vere (William Burden) listens to the false testimony of Sergeant-at-Arms John Claggart (Peter Rose); edited image, based on Ken Howard photograph, provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

At first reading, Melville’s novella “Billy Budd” seems as episodic and rambling (digressive is probably a politer term) as the opera is taut and brisk.

Melville would surely have found much in the opera that had nothing to do with what he wrote – most obviously, Captain Vere’s tormented survival into old age – but much else also would have seemed foreign to him.

However, there are elements of the novella that give us some clues about the opera.  It gives us perspective on the mutiny on H.M.S. Nore, and how that event in time led to Admiralty reforms in the way ship’s crews were treated and disciplined (even if those reforms took decades to implement).

It answers some possible “viewer” questions about details - e.g., the ship that Budd was taken from  – The Rights of Man - was named by a shipowning fan of Thomas Paine. “Starry Vere” was a nickname (with an unimportant backstory) to differentiate a younger member of a nautical family from a famous relative.

It also gives considerable importance to explaining Vere’s rationale in trying and immediately executing a person who has killed a superior officer, regardless of the circumstance, rather than just waiting to turn Budd over to the admiralty courts.

And the novella’s dedication – to Jack Chase, Englishman, Captain of the Maintop of the US Frigate United States – demonstrated that Melville had a specific inspiration for his fictional title character.

Melville’s biography provides us with deep background for the Vere rationale for swift justice when a crime occurs at sea, in what is almost certainly a plot source. A cousin personally close to Melville was a naval officer who had participated in a drumhead court on the USS Somers leading to the execution of three sailors rumored to be plotting a mutiny (one the son of the U. S. Secretary of War).

Because the drumhead court and execution occurred on a homebound vessel (considered an extraordinary departure from normal practice) and no real evidence of an act of mutiny had been presented, it proved very controversial, but Melville’s family supported the cousin.  To add to the presumed significance of the USS Somers experience to the novella’s plot a memorable episode occurred – at the hanging on the yardarm, one of the condemned sailors cried out “God Bless the Flag!”.

Although there are alternative explanations about what Billy Budd – The Opera is about (and I am planning to post a commentary on these alternatives at a later date), I think the best “fit” is to consider it an allegory of the struggle or good against evil, as in a John Milton epic poem, into which is introduced a Miltonian ambiguity. And with Britten, as with Milton, that struggle has historical and political overtones, as will be discussed below.

Britten and his life partner Peter Pears had deeply held moral convictions against all war, and were expatriates from Great Britain at the beginning World War II.  But recognition of Hitler’s savagery overrode their pacifist principles and they wished to stand with their home country. They returned to a Britain skeptical of the pair and formally applied for and ultimately received conscientious objector status.

Although the West had been pretty unanimous during the War that Hitler was a dangerous enemy, a full portrait of his depravity had to await the incontrovertible proof of widespread genocide. After the war Britten toured one of Hitler’s concentration camps with Violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Within four years Britten authorized work on the “Billy Budd” libretto by his collaborators, the famous author E. M. Forster and BBC television’s Eric Crozier.

In the opera, even more so than in Melville’s novella, evil is represented by Claggart, a character as misanthropic as Iago in Verdi’s “Otello” or Hagen in Wagner’s “Goetterdaemmerung”.  Yet, any student of one of history’s great human rights campaigns – the anti-flogging movement in Britain – will understand that Claggarts existed throughout both the Royal Army and Royal Navy.

[Below: the Novice (Keith Jameson), to protect himself against any further floggings, agrees to be the operative of Claggart (Peter Rose), for anything he wants him to do; edited image, based on Ken Howard photograph, provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

As the novella and opera informs us, through  the “press gangs” the British seized their own citizens and made them slaves of the Navy or Army. Only in that way were they able  to maintain the fighting force levels they felt they needed.

As a historical footnote, a “King’s Opinion” was issued in 1807, exactly ten years after the date in which the opera takes place, declaring that a flogging of 1500 lashes - one came to the attention of the authorities that was actually administered for a non-capital crime – should be deemed excessive, and that future floggings should be limited to no more than 1000 lashes. The opinion was widely ignored in both the Army and Navy, whose representatives maintained that military discipline could not be maintained without such repressive measures.

As a sergeant-at-arms expected to administer such a system, Claggart probably is no less evil than many of his peers.  Perhaps his speech about his depravity can be thought of as self-loathing that he has to be such a system’s operative.  But were he not there, another person cut from the same cloth would replace him.  Claggart is both personally evil and the symbol of a totalitarian military regime.

Good is represented by Billy Budd.  Systemically, he demonstrates that the reforms so resisted by the “powers that be” do work.  He loves his shipmates.  Once he has come aboard, the mood of the ship changes.  Captain Vere, himself a reformer at heart, understands that Budd, the agent of reform, represents the future that Vere desires.  Just as perceptibly, Claggart, the agent of the established system of terror, understands that Budd must be destroyed for the old system to prevail.

But Vere’s further perception is that one cannot reform a system that is itself smashed by disorderly mobs.  The “floating republic” declared by the mutineers of the HMS Nore would have crushed his desired reform movement as surely as the guillotine and Reign of Terror crushed reform in enemy France.  It was Vere’s perception that the swift and total destruction of the Nore mutineers was essential for any reform to take hold.

Perhaps this analysis goes further than most commentators on the opera have gone, but, if you think of the opera and of the Curran production in these historical and political terms, every piece of it falls into place.

As Conductor de Waart leads the sizable orchestra (quite large when compared to those of most Britten operas) in the first notes of the prologue, we are on the Indomitable main deck. William Burden, as the decrepit, elderly Captain Vere, walking with a cane, begins his first monologue. At its end he walks up the stairs to the captain’s level. The deck comes alive with able seamen swabbing the decks or hauling the rope lines, while foretopmen leap up and down the rope nets.

We meet Vere’s two top lieutenants, played by two veteran international opera stars Richard Stilwell (Mr Redburn) and Timothy Nolen (Mr Flint), who proved excellent character actors, both in extraordinary voice.  Three men have been seized from a mercantile vessel, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, John Claggart (Peter Rose) is called on deck to question them.

Claggart’s dark theme, played by tubas and other instruments consigned to the bass clef, is sharply contrasted with the vibrant themes associated with the impressed seamen, Billy Budd.  Curran has Budd  (Teddy Tahu Rhodes) instantly and warmly interact with his shipmates – enthusiastically shaking their hands and grasping their shoulders.

[Below: Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Billy Budd), foretopman, above Peter Rose (John Claggart); edited image, based on Ken Howard photograph, provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

When he is assigned to the foretop, Rhodes immediately climbs the rope ladder with impressive athleticism.  An appealing Billy Budd, Rhodes proved that he possessed the vocal power the part needs.  But he also proved to be both physically fit and the inhabitor of a fine physique, at one point shedding his shirt to confirm the point.

Peter Rose was uncommonly effective in Claggart’s monologue. In his sadistic quest for bright but weak seamen to form his group of spies and operatives, his encounters with the Novice, reeling from the pain of a mere 20 lashes with a cat o’nine-tails - a memorable performance by Keith Jameson – were especially noteworthy.

One of the Curran-Hopkins production features is the use of a device like an opening clamshell, by which the main deck is raised from a point mid-decks at an angle that opens to the audience, creating a space that becomes the lower decks. As it opens, cast and chorus members who have crouched in the narrow “below decks” space as the scene opens are there for Budd’s lively scenes with his shipmates.

[Below: Donald (Lucas Meachem) and Billy Budd (Teddy Tahu Rhodes), center, lead their shipmates in dancing; edited image, based on Ken Howard photograph provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

Another fast-moving scene change creates the Captain’s cabin, merely by having some seamen pull a panel across the front deck while others bring in the Captain’s table and candlelabrum.  (At scene’s end, Burden carries the lighted candelabrum across the darkened deck to disappear into the officers’ decks.)

The first major restoration of previously excised music occurs in the second act, with a much longer time allotted to the preparations for engaging a French warship than in the standard version.  Curran makes great use of the more expansive time.  Very young boys are on deck to carry small powder kegs to the ship’s cannons.  The seamen are not the only inhabitants of the ship.  A coterie of red-jacketed Marines are there, their rifles at hand lest any sign of mutiny be in evidence.

Claggart, to rid the ship of Budd, who undercuts his authority, and thereby the entire system, concocts the scheme to frame Budd (as many think the hanged mutineers on the USS Somers were framed) with the charge of mutiny.  When Vere arranges for the accuser to confront the accused in his presence, Budd, so shocked he is unable to speak, strikes out impulsively and kills Claggart.

[Below: Billy Budd (Teddy Tahu Rhodes) in chains on the night before his death by hanging; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, provided by Santa Fe Opera.]

In the novella (and the opera as well) Vere has a private meeting with Budd after the verdict and sentence, whose content is, according to Melville, unknown. But we can be reasonably certain that Budd and Vere talked about good and evil.  Budd, in chains, sings one of the most illuminating of the restored cuts from the original version – he will hang, like Christ hung. Just before his death, Budd blesses Vere.

Another sizable restored cut is the extensive discussion by Vere and his lieutenants about the characteristics of the mist that foiled their attempt to sink the French warship.  The metaphor of the mist, of course, ultimately extends to Vere’s own mind.

Vere, the ship’s captain, when he believes forceful action is required, with self-confidence requires the guilty verdict and death sentence for Budd’s unintended killing of Claggart.  But, after Budd is hanged, in Britten’s transformation of the story, Vere is plagued through the rest of a long life with self-doubt about his refusal to save him.

The production team of de Waart, Curran, Hopkins and Fisher must be considered one of the most perceptive in the performance history of this opera.  The trio of lead roles – Rhodes, Burden and Rose – were uncommonly good and the supporting roles – Stilwell’s Redburn, Nolen’s Flint, Jameson’s Novice, as well as Thomas Hammons as Dansker, Lucas Meachem as Donald, Jeffrey Behrens as Squeak and John Duykers as Red Whiskers were invariably well-sung and impressively acted.

My comments conclude with what is perhaps the most extraordinary image of this production.  All the ship’s men have been required to be present for the execution. The first person on deck is the Novice, the person who benefited more than anyone from Billy killing Claggart.

There has been talk of mutiny. The marines are at ready to fire upon anyone starting trouble. But through Dansker, Billy has gotten the word out to key members of the crew to let his sacrifice take place.  He sings out his blessing to Vere, which is taken up by the crew.

Then Billy climbs up to the yardarm.  Sails are unfurled and through the mainsail, we see the image of Billy hanging. The crew mutters inarticulately. And with this image continuously visible through the sail, the elderly Captain Vere returns to the main deck to intone the final words of resolution ending this amazing production of Britten’s great opera.

Tom will add to the new category with his own review of Puccini’s “Turandot”, presented a decade ago in the Forbidden City. As we turn our eyes to the Beijing Olympics and celebrate the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth, this seems a propitious time for a remembrance of this stellar event. 

Tom’s Superlative: Puccini Opera in Beijing

In often highly animated discussions among opera lovers (sometimes with really operatic gestures on our part), we are all wont to note the superlatives in the wonderful, wide world of opera that we’ve seen over all the years – like the best La Boheme, the most sublime Magic Flute, the ultimate Wagner Ring. 

All of us can come up almost instantly with the best productions of beloved pieces we’ve enjoyed – the finest casts, the best tenor/soprano/basso, our own Luciano Pavarotti or Maria Callas experience.  In just a year’s interval I’ve seen the best Rosenkavalier ever and the most ghastly Madama Butterfly in 50 ++ years of seeing it.  I’ve reviewed both on this website!!

I’ve screamed bravi, bravi at the top of my (distinctly non-operatic) voice, and have stood on my toes with hands cupped around my Big Mouth to amplify my shouting Boooooo, Boooooo. We’ve all walked out, or have been sorely tempted to do so.

In this spirit, we invite you, our opera-loving readers, to join in and share your own opera superlatives with this website’s readership. 

To start off this newly established category of Opera Warhorses features, I offer my candidate for a number of superlatives: Puccini’s beloved Turandot in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. For me it was (1) the most exotic venue I’ve been in for an opera, (2) by far and away the most extravagant production of opera I’ve ever seen, (3) the most I’ve paid for an opera ticket by far, and (4) the farthest I’ve ever traveled to see an opera. 

The Italian Girl in Beijing

In March 1920, near the end of his life but at the peak of his stupendous powers, Puccini read the popular Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi’s Turandotte, a subject that had been explored in a totally unsuccessful opera by one of  Puccini’s teachers and by the avant-garde Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni whose opera Turandot took an entirely different tack to the story. Puccini became oriented – wordplay intentional – to his own Turandotte-project.  

After Madama Butterfly, the most popular 20th century Italian opera, Turandot had been produced for decades, almost never giving attention to fixing the opera’s geographical location. But there is something about the Forbidden City itself evokes thoughts (at least for me) of Puccini’s exotic Italian fairytale opera about a Princess of Ice.

An often-heard opinion of the opera is that Puccini infused humanity into one of the characters, the slave-girl Liu, but that the other characters were as unreal as those in Gozzi’s fairy tale.

[Below left: Cixi, the Empress Dowager, who ruled from Beijing's Forbidden City.]

 I had been in Beijing at length in 1996 and 1997 and during that time I explored Beijing’s Forbidden City. I was intrigued by the photographs of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who sternly ruled China from her home in the Forbidden City when Puccini was a young composer.

Few would argue that Cixi  (no, it’s not Chicksy, it sounds like Tsuh-she) must have had some influence on Puccini’s concept of this Ice Princess Turandot, but as one learns more about this austere woman, the idea of an Ice Princess controlling the affairs of China – even using terror when its suits her purposes – becomes rather plausible.

The Dragon Lady

The Empress Dowager Cixi, was literally the power behind the Dragon Throne for more than 50 years. She had began her life as a commoner, became the emperor’s concubine, and ultimately  seized total control of the emperor and his court).

If ever there was a Dragon Lady, Cixi surely had to be it – complete with the gold, scorpion tail-like fingernail covers for her three inch plus fingernails.  (Note her photo.)

Cixi died in 1908, followed by a cataclysmic revolution in 1911 that toppled the Ming and Qing (say “Ching”) dynasties, who had ruled from 1368 to 1911 and who had built the Forbidden City.

Cixi’s Legacy

At most times, Cixi resided in the Forbidden City’s innermost sanctum, the Palace of Heavenly Purity, but in later years she spent much time at the stunning Summer Palace, seven miles away, which had been sacked by foreign troops during the Boxer Rebellion. Starting in 1888, she largely restored it. Usurping the vast funds appropriated to build China a navy, she restored the palace. Perhaps as a gesture to the country’s deficiency of warships, she fully restored and embellished a flagship for China – a dazzling marble barge with stained glass windows (it doesn’t float), which she used as a teahouse.

Shortly thereafter in 1895 Japan’s world-class Imperial Navy sank China’s small and underfunded Navy – Japan’s admirals doubtless toasting Cixi!

[Below right: the Forbidden City's Temple of Supreme Harmony; photograph by Tom.]

I often thought of the opera when exploring the Temple of Supreme Harmony in the very center of the Forbidden City – maybe suggesting Puccini’s supreme harmonies we hear in his Turandot?

The opera’s performance site

I learned that in 1998 Turandot would be staged IN the Forbidden City. How wildly appropriate! I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.  Thus, what better site in all the world to stage Puccini’s Turandot, not only in the The Forbidden City, but in the inner court of Cixi’s Palace of Heavenly Purity.  Cixi could not have been all bad, an opera lover might argue, as she loved and lavished funds on Chinese Opera performances in the Forbidden City!

The production was staged and presented by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Teatro Comunale whose orchestra and chorus was conducted by Zubin Mehta. Having opened the Los Angeles Music Center in 1967, his operatic performances are on a world scale. When interviewed on Beijing TV, Mehta said this would be his superlative in conducting opera anywhere!  They presented the opera eight times to audiences totalling 32,000 (a large number of whom were toting cameras – no flash please!)

[Below left: the Tiananmen Gate of Heavenly Peace, entrance to the Forbidden City; photograph by Tom.]

One gains entrance to the opera’s performance site through Tiananmen Square.  You enter the immense complex through the Gate of Heavenly Peace dominated by Chairman Mao’s portrait, then proceeding due North along the precise North-South axis of the The Forbidden City to the very forbidding Meridian Gate. 

Then you go onward through the Gate of Supreme Harmony, and then the Hall of Central (or Middle) Harmony to the Hall of Preserving Harmony. Finally, you enter the inner sanctum’s Inner Court through the Gate of Heavenly Purity, where this production took place.

The Performance

The opera opens with a very imperious Mandarin proclaiming the Law to the people in the Forbidden City – Popolo di Pekino (People of Peking) – to the rollicking laughter and applause of the almost entirely Chinese audience. Mehta grinned broadly, as did most of the orchestra.  (I got to be in the front center section, camera in hand.)

[Below right: A partial view of the "Turandot" stage setting; photograph by Tom.]

The sets completely surrounded us.  After all, the whole Forbidden City was this production’s set, as well as the opera’s designated setting!

The stage was placed against the Inner Court facade of the Palace, with miniature temples which matched the Palace’s decor changing positions for various scenes. In place of a stage curtain, huge red and gold-leafed panels were moved in and out from the sides.

Merely walking to the opera’s performance site was an overwhelmingly moving experience, the palace complex anticipating Turandot herself in her own cozy palace!

Costumed performers were not limited to the stage.  Those participating in this Turandot were in the hundreds and were everywhere. Almost 1500 special constumes were created, with every effort made to place the costumes and makeup in the style of the Ming Dynasty.  The words super, dazzling and extravagant aren’t nearly strong enough to describe the show.

(Up until the Beijing experience, Franco Zeffirelli’s Turandot production for the Met – available in their DVD series – was the most opulent of this opera – one of my five absolute favorites – of which I can’t get enough.)

The excellent cast was entirely Western and nearly all Italian, with Giovanna Casolla in the title role as the formidable Ice Princess.  Barbara Fritolli was a most sympathetic Liu and Sergej Larin striking as Prince Calaf, who solves the three riddles and wins the hand of Turandot.  The ovation for this colossal epic production was the most tumultuous, roaring, excited and exhilarating I have ever witnessed for any opera, anywhere, ever. (How’s that for superlatives!!)

[Below left: the Entrance of Turandot; photograph by Tom.]

The production was ultra-lavishly extravagant.  No expense was spared. This is illustrated with the picture of Turandot’s arrival. A seeming legion of soldiers dressed in Imperial yellow Ming-style armour most effectively slugged drums of that era to announce the opera and at other critical points. When Larin superbly sang the famed Nessun dorma, he almost brought down the house (which we recall is the Palace of Heavenly Purity) to wildly ecstatic cheers (and from me too!)

The majority of the audience were young, well-dressed Chinese most anxious to speak English and to express how thrilled theywere to see this spectacle, hoping to see more.  They urged us to see Chinese Opera in Beijing, giving us some tips on which ones to see (and which ones not) among hundreds of options.

Epilogue for the Dowager

There can be no doubt that in 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi  proceeded to that heavenly Western Paradise of Asia, when she ascended from this mortal, terrestrial planet to dwell among the Gods of the Dragon Throne – in all probability on Cloud Nine (an auspicious number in China). 

We know this much for certain. Cixi would have swooned over this production of Turandot in her very own little Palace of Heavenly Purity, and probably was gazing down from her heavenly Cloud Nine as we all watched it too! I know that as I left, I defintely felt like I was on Cloud Nine, vowing to see the production again ASAP!

Chinese Opera in Beijing: Extraordinary Experience and Acquired Taste

[Below left: scene from a Liyuan Theatre Chinese opera performance; postcard handout courtesy of Liyuan Theatre.]

Very much like opera in the West, Chinese opera features elaborate costumes and especially makeup, historical dramas, love stories, lots of swordplay (think of all the Italian operas with swords!), acrobats, dance, mime, solo numbers, choruses, an orchestra (often on stage to the side), highly dramatic gestures, etc. But it does indeed sound different – really different – to our unaccustomed Western ears. 

As in most Western opera, Chinese opera singers generally don’t sing like ordinary cabaret crooners. They have a highly specialized musical dimension unique to their opera stage, which the Chinese audiences adores much as we do when hearing Puccini’s music! There are operas the Chinese public sees again and again, just as we trek again and again to weep in Madama Butterfly or rise to our feet in ecstasy as Turandot ends!

But unlike in Western opera houses, the Chinese audience comes and goes, talks, eats, drinks (and how!), listens to ear-phone radios, etc. Like us, they laugh, boo, hiss, jeer. Certain artists get wild applause during the piece, and the opposite. You have to see to believe it.

Don’t start out by just selecting an opera theatre at random from many options. Do get started by a short stint of it at the best of the best, which “old China hands” assure me is the Liyuan Theatre in the Qianmen (say: Chee-yawn-men, meaning front gate) Hotel (174 Yongan Road; telephone 301-6686). This is about 2.2 kilometers south of The Forbidden City. It lasts just an hour and a half, which is plenty for the first time! 

[Below right: scene from an Liyuan Theatre Chinese Opera performance; postcard handout, courtesy of Liyuan Theatre.]

The operas have supertitles in English and are very much aimed at Western audiences.  The Liyuan hands out postcard photos, two of which are shown. 

You can hear classic Chinese Opera on FM radio at 94.5 and 98.2 on your dial, which also carries wonderful Western classical music!

NB: Don’t miss this: At the Liyuan Theatre, you can get gussied up in Chinese Opera costumes, and they will put on all the makeup if you like. Sans doubt an opera lover’s best photo-op in China!

In recent years, Chinese Opera is becoming much more Westernized with larger orchestras, more classic Western-influenced melodic content (based on clips I’ve seen and some of the Chinese opera touring company’s shows here), but don’t expect Puccini. Chinese audiences greatly enjoy clashing cymbals, gongs, shrieking high-pictched ultra-high soprano dissonant numbers with excruciating sounds never heard in the West. It does, indeed, take some getting used to. But at its best, as with Liyuan Opera, it’s most entertaining and worth the effort, but it distinctly is an acquired taste.

Some Tom’s Tips for Beijing: Side Trips

Whatever you do, don’t miss the marvelous Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) Complex and Park due South (about 2 km) of The Forbidden City. The round, blue, conical Temple itself is nothing short of sensational given where it is and what it signified in old China. You could easily believe you are in the center of the World as did the Chinese of yesteryear.

[Below right: Your Tipster Tom at the Great Wall during the Christmas season; photograph supplied by Tom.]

Whatever else you do, you have to go to see the Wall of China. There is now the Great Wall Expressway going out to Badaling, where the Wall is fully restored. It has all the amenities, including good restaurants and shops, film, brochures, etc. You’ll not be alone. It’s bloody crowded, but by far the best place to see the Wall, with fabulous photo-ops.  (See your Tipster doing a Christmas shot!)

Certainly the most intriguing, photogenic and colorful temple site is the Lama Temple, about two and a half kilometers North of the Forbidden’s City’s North gate. Here you’ll see Buddhists in worship, some in full prostration, incense cauldrons and sticks, great gongs and a 75 foot high status of the Maitreya Buddha, which is magnificently imposing.

Since you’re already there, just a block West and another South is the very elegant Confucius Temple, where you can do your photo in front of his statue, entitling you to say with authority what Confucius said.

[ Below left: the Lama Temple, photograph by Tom.]

Forget the Ming and Qing tombs unless you have lots of time. But you might enjoy seeing the Olympics Games site and Olympic Village. They have been working on this for years with spectacular results.

Lodging

Beijing has been very much in the news with the Olympic Games. The world has learned that Beijing is a huge, very modern city (that looks much like L. A.) with all the amenities of a great capital.  By this time, a much-needed new international airport has opened, many new expressways have been built and furious construction has taken place everywhere.

Every major international hotel chain has offerings, some huge (1000+ rooms) like the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel.  But the most noteworthy sites are close to The Forbidden City in the very center of Beijing.

Just two blocks west of The Forbidden City is the major upscale hotel and shopping street -Wangujing Street – which lies on a North-South axis like The Forbidden City.  There such five star hotels as the Grand Hyatt Beijing, the Raffles Beijing Hotel and St. Regis Beijing are located.  

In this vicinity of Beijing’s finest hotels, can be found the creme de la creme Palace Hotel – very Western, with excellent restaurants, but pricey (telephone 512.5711) on a small street Jinyu Hutong, just West of Central Wangfujing.  Across the street is the more affordable Peace Hotel (telephone 512-8833) – I’ve enjoyed this one very much, as I have the terrific Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (telephone 513-3388). From these Wangfujing hotels you can easily walk to The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Mao’s Mausoleum and the great museums.

Near Wangfujing’s South intersection with Beijing’s main East-West throughfare (Dong [east] Chang-an) is the venerable (1900) landmark Beijing Hotel Complex (at #33 Chang-an, telephone 513-7766), featuring superb dining (this is where I often dine in town), a great bar, and excellent shopping.

Across the street on the Northeast corner is a McDonald’s that you might find appealing if you’ve had too many strange mushrooms, sea urchin soup or sauteed octupus. (There’s a KFC at Wangfujing’s North end, and Pizza Hut is all over town.)

Not to be missed on Wangfujing is the extraordinary Beijing Department Store – embroidered silks, cloisonne, stone carvings and other fine handcrafted arts, clothing and table linens. The fabulous Friendship Store at #21 is within walking distance – several easy blocks from the Beijing Hotel going East on Chang An Avenue (which becomes Jianguomennei Avenue). This is like the one by the Star Ferry in Kowloon, but is much better – loaded with the best art China has to sell, but no bargaining here.

As mentioned earlier, virtually all of the major international chains are represented in Beijing, and those with which you have affinity and have established trust can often be an advantageous base of operations. Many of my friends are “old China Hands” and join me in recommending the Holiday Inn Lido, my personal first choice of Beijing Hotels, which is Northeast of the Forbidden City, halfway to the airport by the Airport Expressway.  It’s a large complex with a wide variety of restaurants (including a wonderful German spot, Tex-Mex, Japanese, and traditional Steakhouse).  It has a lovely lobby centered around a grand piano on which young artists play Western classical music (often Chopin) during Happy Hour.  Yes, you can have your favorite scotch-on-the-rocks! There is good transportation. The hotel provides jitneys to run you the 10 to 12 kilmonters into Downtown and also to the airport. 

As a caveat, be sure you take a card from your hotel to show your taxi, bus, metro operators or police where you want to go.  Assume no one will speak or read English, like the desk people of the hotels we have recommended and mentioned do.  Also, have the desk write out in Chinese characters where you want to go.

Dining in Beijing

Although there are thousands of Beijing restaurants, few have Western cuisine. The big international hotels – including all mentioned here – do have Western restaurants.  Next to the Lido is the Sichuan Yandianzi Restaurant (437-3561), a charming house serving rich Sichuan cuisine, which is lots of fun with local color. If you want to sample Imperial Chinese cuisine served in luxurious settings, try to famed Fangshan on the beautiful Jade island in Beihai Park near the Forbidden City’s North gate.  (Just go out that gate, turn left a couple of blocks or so, turn right onto the bridge to the island. It’s on the North tip (401-1889). They speak English and you dine in the Hall of Rippling Waves.

Check out the view from the Windows of the World (telephone 500-3335) on the 28th floor of the CITIC Building. (All the cabbies know this one.) The more you are willing to pay, the better the cuisine, view, service and politeness – What a surprise!

[The Tinliguan Imperial Restuarant, located in Cixi's Summer Place within the Forbidden City; photograph by Tom.]

A wonderful experience is the Tinliguan Imperial Restauarant  (256-2504) where Cixi had opera and concerts (called Listen to the Orioles Hall). English is spoken. The food is the best I’ve been served in China with Dragon Seal chardonnay from a French-Chinese joint venture. The wine arrived in a silver plated ice bucket festooned with sculpted dragons.  My chopsticks were of green jade.

Again the restaurants in the Beijing Hotel are all fine – really good traditional Chinese cuisine in their salubrious Yiyuan Garden Restaurant (513-7766).  (With the Olympic Games, it is possible that some of the telephone numbers have changed.  Get a copy of the abundantly available English language guides in hotels, the Beijing Official Guide and (better) the Beijing Scene, both freebies.

By all means relax and have fun, pop into a Chinese opera and try some authentic Chinese food. It doesn’t even remotely resemble what you have had at home. Egg Foo Yung,  you say? They’ve never heard of it!

Superlative: “Phantom” in Las Vegas surpasses any “Phantom” Production, Ever

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” opened in London in 1987, starring Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Webber’s then-wife Sarah Brightman. By now, nearly everyone has seen a production in some city in the world. However, none of these stage productions remotely compares to the new production in Las Vegas, produced by the now beknighted Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and again directed by its original director, Harold Prince.

Prince, who turns 80 in the new year, has several important operatic productions in his resume that have graced the stages of the Met, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera and elsewhere in the world’s opera capitals. But his principal reputation, of course, is in the musical theatre, with 21 Tony awards (the all time record!) that go back to “The Pajama Game” (1955) and encompass his famous collaborations with Stephen Sondheim (including “Company”, “A Little Night Music” and “Sweeney Todd”) and Webber (“Evita”, as well as “Phantom”).

[Below left: the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, which hosts a lavish production of Webber's "Phantom of the Opera"; photograph by Tom.]

For the glitz capital of the world, something very special was called for, since the production has to compete with over-the-top productions of every other great Vegas show. These include five Cirque de Soleil shows: the overwhelming water spectacle “O” (which receives four stars out of four from Tom), “Mystere” (two Tom stars), “Ka” (three Tom stars), “Zumanity” and “Beatles Love” (two Tom stars). Other shows drawing big crowds include Monty Python’s “Spamalot” (two Tom stars), “The Producers” and “Mamma Mia!”.

After all, not all of us come to Lost Wages to lose wallet-weight in the slots or at the tables! In that proverbial “nutshell”, Sin City now has some of the best shows and best restaurants in the world, where colossal new mega-billion dollar hotels and casinos are rising every day of the year, each outdoing its predecessors. Some of us thought the magnificent Bellagio was the apogee – but it’s not anymore!

As those who have seen it already know, “Phantom” truly is an opera in every regard, with a plot, full orchestra, solos, duets, multiple arias, choral numbers, a ballet, and set changes. It is well known that Sir Andrew loves opera, especially Puccini. But as the creator of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Cats”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Aspects of Love” and “Evita”, his talents go to places far beyond the traditional opera genre.

I have seen “Phantom” four times in London, at least once in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Orange County, and now three times in Las Vegas. I saw my first “Phantom” within a week of its opening in London, where the concierge at the tres chic Stafford Hotel was able to get us great seats for that very evening, for a price, but my seats were at the rear of the house with a compromised view. But I will never forget that London performance, nor will anyone who sees the new production in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas production closely resembles the fabulous film version (“The Phantom of the Opera, a film by Joel Schumacher”, Warner brothers DVD #38952 (2004), produced by Webber, Prince and Schumacher), which is superior to any of the other stage productions, but not better than the Las Vegas production. Notably, the DVD runs 141 minutes, but Webber and Prince have trimmed the Las Vegas production to 95 minutes without an intermission.

[Below right: "Phantom" banners fly in the hallway of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, leading to the performance site; photograph by Tom.]

The Las Vegas “Phantom” shows each night at 7 p.m. at the Venetian, in a specially constructed opera house created to resemble the interior of the Paris Opera House designed by the great architect Garnier (hence the Parisians’ name for that landmark), in or under which all of the action takes place.

The live audience is surrounded by mannequins, representing extravagantly dressed opera patrons in circa 1911 evening clothes. The golden architectural artwork surrounding and surmounting the stage is literally stupendous.

As one would expect (but much more so in this venue), the famed just-auctioned-off chandelier takes off from under its tarpaulin onstage to the top of the theater as the thunderous music begins. Believe me, if you don’t think you are in for an evening of world class entertainment, think again! The sets and costumes are unsurpassed. The scene in which the “Phantom” rows his beloved into the watery catacombs underlying the Garnier, as the illuminated torchers arise from the waters as the great organ slides in from stage right, is an utter blockbuster.

Shortly after, the Phantom sings the unforgettable goose-pimple raising Music of the Night aria: “Floating, failing, sweet intoxication; touch me, trust me, savor each sensation; let the dream begin, let your darker side give in to the power of the music that I write, the power of the music of the night; you alone can make my song take flight; help me make the music of the night.”

I suspect many reading this have the “Music of the Night” resounding in their ears now as I do – but isn’t that what a great opera aria should do, like in Act I of Puccini’s “La Boheme” when Rodolfo and Mimi express their love, or in the tragic ending scene of Verdi’s “La Traviata” as the heroine sings her last before collapsing?

The fast moving action onstage is truly incredible for its precision and imagination. At one point a full stage view of the illuminated Garnier Opera House appears. The Masquerade scene is a true coup de theatre. Everyone in the cast is excellent, without exception, as one would anticipate, since the cast and stage crew have performed this piece six times a week for more than a year – well beyond the rehearsal time most opera are able to allot. The lead roles change intermittently, but having seen it now three times, all cast members have been superb.

There is no opera house in the world with the machinery adequate to replicate this floor show – the set changes and stage action surpass any production of opera, ballet or theatrical presentation (except, of course, in Las Vegas) I have seen in my decades of opera-, ballet- and theater-going throughout the world. Is it a gaffe for me to say it doesn’t get better than this?

“Phantom” ends in a tear-jerking scene as the unmasked, grotesque-faced Phantom must surrender his beloved to her young, dashing suitor. Let me, using my trial lawyer summation skills, sum it up: from a production standpoint, considering the sets, the costumes, the action, and the drama appropriate to the piece, I have never seen anything better than this anywhere. End of speech!

Tom’s Tips:

Sit as close to the front orchestra as you can get. Telephone 702.414.9000 or access www.PhantomLasVegas.com.

This shouldn’t be the end of your evening. You are out of the theater just in time for a 9:00 p.m. dinner. There are three world class restaurants right in the Venetian complex, including the Las Vegas Bouchon (702.414.6200) of superchef Thomas Keller (aka The French Laundry and Bouchon in Yountville, California and Per Se in New York City), Joachim Splichal’s Pinot Brasserie and Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio. For your convenience, there are ranks of slots and tables to absorb whatever loose change might be left in your otherwise empty wallet or purse.

Tom