Eighth Notes

Four performances in four days the week before last proved exhausting, but rewarding. Three productions at Chicago’s Lyric Opera brought assurance that the company continues to travel along the high plateau which has been its pathway in recent seasons.

The Wednesday, November 14 La Boheme was softly aglow with the intimate heart-tugging warmth Puccini wanted for his work. The mastery of Lyric’s Music Director Sir Andrew Davis grows with each passing season; here, he shaped an exemplary performance, moving things along when required and allowing for the occasional expansion that gave wing to the moments that must soar. Serena Farnocchia was a full-voiced Mimi, one of the best in our more than half century of opera-going. Likewise, baritone Quinn Kelsey was a Marcello of one’s dreams, sung smartly with a once-in-every-two-generation voice of unblemished magnificence. Bass Andrea Silvestrelli’s Colline was superbly sung and acted while Nicole Cabell was a saucy, but soft-hearted Musetta.

Handel’s Giulio Cesare the next night was offered in the Glyndebourne production that mixes sound staging with smarmy routines that leave one more irritated than satisfied. Fine conducting by French maestra Emmanuelle Haim and excellent singing by David Daniels (Caesar), Maite Beaumont (Sextus), Christophe Dumaux (a truly nasty Ptolemy) was offset by some unpolished vocalism from Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra.

On Friday night, Lyric Opera presented what was likely the most unreservedly excellent production we’ve seen of anything – ever. Richard Strauss’s monumental Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) was accorded the royal treatment in every regard – cast, staging, chorus, orchestra and conductor. His Straussian bona fides outranking those of any other conductor today, Sir Andrew embraced the sprawling score, extracting all of its color and amplitude while supporting his unequaled cast to the outermost limits. And what a cast! We had the two greatest dramatic sopranos of our time, Deborah Voigt and Christine Brewer as the Empress and Dyers’s Wife, respectively; tenor Robert Dean Smith as a rock-steady, heroic Emperor; bass Franz Hawlata as a grand-voiced, sympathetic Barak; mezzo Jill Grove as a huge-voiced, malign Nurse and Quinn Kelsey as a stentorian Spirit Messenger setting a new standard in the role. Utterly electrifying.

A meaningful gift choice for a music lover this season might well be New Yorker critic Alex Ross’s comprehensive survey of twentieth century music and its meaning, “The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century” (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux). Lucid, thought-provoking and tightly organized, this dense text represents the sort of writing respected and read eagerly by other critics. Our only caveat is that it requires some basic musical knowledge if the reader is to fully grasp the author’s argument; given that, it is a rewarding read, even for those whose level of musical sophistication is high.