Gotham Chamber Opera: L'isola disabitata (The Desert Island)

Mark Morris Directs Haydn Mini-Opera

After a season of relatively experimental productions, the Gotham Chamber Opera returns to its core strength with its entertaining production of Haydn's L'isola disabitata (The Desert Island) at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.

Directed by Mark Morris (and attended on opening night by Stephanie Blythe), L'isola desabitata tells the simple-for-opera story of Costanza (Takesha Meshé Kizart) and Silvia (Valerie Ogbonnaya), shipwrecked sisters left to fend for themselves on a desert island after pirates had abducted Costanza's husband Gernando (Vale Rideout). Costanza, who mistakenly believes that Gernando had abandoned herself, has raised Silvia to hate and fear men. But the reappearance of Gernando, together with his steadfast friend Enrico (Tom Corbeil), challenges Costanza and the innocent Silvia to reconsider their points of view.

Sensitively accompanied under the conductorship of Gotham artistic director Neal Goren, the four singers cavort on and about a rotating "desert island" set. They work well as a group negotiating a reworked Haydn score that tests their vocal and expressive ranges, with Ogbonnaya standing out with her charming singing and acting.

I can quibble over various aspects of the production, including the way that dance gestures suddenly asserted themselves toward the finale—fascinating to behold, they nevertheless made me wonder whether director Morris had only been able to do so much prior to opening night. And I could imagine certain musical portions (such as the overture) being enhanced through stagecraft (such as a slide show depicting the opera's backstory). But this entertaining and satisfying production of a rarely performed work is yet another example of what makes the Gotham Chamber Opera a vital player in New York City's music scene.

Remaining dates (all at 8 pm) are Saturday, February 21; Wednesday, February 25; Friday, February 27; and Saturday, February 28, 2009. The running time of the intermission-free production is about 105 minutes, or about 90 minutes if it starts on time.

MUG readers: Click here for La Fille du Régiment.

GOTHAM CHAMBER OPERA: ARIADNE AND BEYOND

This season represents a change of pace for the Gotham Chamber Opera (GCO). After very entertaining stagings of Handel's Arianna in Creta, Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco (with puppetry by Basil Twist), Britten's Albert Herring, and Rossini's Il signor Bruschino, the company embarked on a relatively experimental 2007-2008 season beginning with Astor Piazzola's dance-filled tango operita María de Buenos Aires and a kind of original staged mash-up of gypsy-related art songs entitled Scenes of Gypsy Life. In both María and Scenes, Gotham delivered musically. But for the performance of María, the dancing didn't seem to be fully realized. And for Scenes of Gypsy Life, the mix of songs didn't gel very well with the staging.

So I'm pleased to report that the musical and non-musical elements merge much better in the music-and-dance mash-up Ariadne Unhinged, Gotham's current production and the last of this season. For this work, artistic director and conductor Neal Goren indulged his apparent jones for the mythical character Ariadne (abandoned by Theseus after saving his life) by mashing up Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna (1608), Haydn's Arianna a Naxos (1789) and Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire (1912) in a collaboration with director/choreographer Karole Armitage and scenic designer Vera Lutter (among others), creating what he calls "a songdance of a woman psychologically unhinged" after her abandonment.

Performing the demanding title role last night was Emily Langford Johnson, who alternates with Brenda Patterson. Johnson outdid herself in what amounted to an Ultimate Themed Recital in which the costumed mezzo-soprano offered impassioned vocal interpretations for more than an hour while interacting with the Armitage Gone! Dance company on a fully dressed modernistic set. Artfully veering between the off-kilter expressionism of the Schoenberg and the relative clarity of the Monteverdi and the Haydn, Johnson registered a wide range of mental states in a memorable portrayal of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The deft musical accompaniment came from Daniel Swenberg on theorbo, William Hobbs on piano, Sato Moughalian and Bejamin Fingland on winds, and Christopher Collins Lee and Andrey Tchekrnazov on strings.

Ariadne Unhinged runs at the charming Harry De Jur Playhouse of the Abrons Art Center (466 Grand Street) through Sunday, May 11.

Coming up next season: Haydn's Il mondo della Luna (directed by Diane Paulus at the American Museum of Natural History) and Montsalvatge's El gato con botas/Puss in Boots (directed by Mois&eacu;s Kaufman with puppetry by Twist). Exciting!