New Broom at Glimmerglass Opera Festival: Michael MacLeod sweeps all before him (SL)

 

 

Michael MacLeod

If Michael MacLeod said it once, he said it several times when I met him between operas at Glimmerglass this month: “I owe so much to John Eliot Gardiner – I worked with him for more than ten years and I can’t over emphasise what a marvellous opportunity it was for me and I can only express my admiration and gratitude.”

Organising the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra’s famous World Tour, then spearheading Gardiner’s project to conduct and record all seven of Mozart’s mature operas, and following that with five years as Director of the City of London’s Festival, must have been an ideal training ground for this quietly-spoken Scot’s latest venture on the scenic shores of Lake Otsego where he has taken over the helm as General & Artistic Director from the much-admired Paul Kellogg.   If the wooded hills surrounding Glimmerglass Opera remind him of his native land, he isn’t saying, but after earlier times with both Scottish Opera and the Scottish Baroque Ensemble, it must seem a little like coming home – even if the nearest town of Cooperstown 8 miles further south on the lake-shore is, in contrast, a hotbed of that very American obsession, baseball.  To speak to almost any of the town’s August tourists is to very quickly realise that it is that sport’s Hall of Fame Museum, and very early example of a ball-park, which draws them. “Opera?  Is there opera here? I guess I didn’t know that” is a typical comment.

No matter – since its inaugural season in 1975 when La Bohème was played to 1,200 local residents who did want more than baseball, Glimmerglass Opera has continued to thrive, to grow and to gain a now-international reputation, and to become what Opera Now recently described as “the most consistently interesting and forward-looking opera in the U.S. today.”   Much of that reputation must be down to the vision and hard work of Kellogg, and although MacLeod is the first to recognise the debt of recent history, he has his own vision and his own plans for this very American enterprise where, this year, we see the outlines of his grand design with a complete season devoted to the myth and music of the Orpheus legend.  From Monteverdi’s seminal work of 1607, through the new Bärenreiter edition of Berlioz’s arrangement of the Gluck French version, via Offenbach’s fizzy delight in a new English translation by Glimmerglass’s own Kelley Rourke to the 1993 Orphée of Philip Glass, MacLeod has obviously laid down his blue-print for the future.  If Glimmerglass is an opera festival, then this year it is a real Festival with not only a theme, but an entire operatic and artistic experience surrounding and supporting it.  As well as the four staged operas there are two concert performances, somewhat abridged, of the less well known Haydn take on the story: his L’Anima del Filosofo, plus showings of the films “Orphée” and “Black Orpheus” – not to mention talks, seminars, recitals, and art exhibition by one of the singers, and “meet the artists” events.  To spend even a few days on the lake shore is to experience total Orpheus-immersion.

If Glimmerglass is now renowned for it’s commitment to young singers through its Young American Artists Program, it is equally admired for the wealth of new productions that are hosted, year after year.  Both aspects attract some of the world’s best artists who come not only for the relaxing surroundings, but also for the guaranteed generous rehearsal time – a boon to directors and singers alike these days.   This 2007 season is no exception and, as the first season entirely under his control, MacLeod has ensured that all the Orpheus-inspired works are either entirely new productions, or new to that stage.  And with the likes of directors Christopher Alden, Lillian Groag, Eric Einhorn and Sam Helfrich in control on the stage, collaborating with some of America’s most talented and exciting young singers such as Michael Maniaci, Michael Slattery, Jill Gardner (all ex Young American Artists), and Lisa Saffer, then it is clear that we have a recipe for both stimulating, and sometimes provocative, opera.

There is, however, one aspect of Glimmerglass’s future that is still shrouded in mystery: that of who will be its new Musical Director.  The post is open, and it was clear this summer that it is both much-needed and that the competition is hot.  There were signs in some of the operas of some confusion as to musical focus and style, but there was also the chance to see some talented and aspiring young conductors at work, sometimes even within the same piece.   It was particularly puzzling when a concert performance of Haydn’s L’Anima del Filosofo with its three singers was split between two batons: those of Antony Walker and Anne Manson.  MacLeod explained: “we needed to give an equal chance to the contenders for the post and each is expected to conduct both a work with chorus, singers and orchestra, and then also a work with no chorus.  The only way with the Haydn, where there is no chorus, was to split the conducting.”  The other two conductors at work on site are Julian Wachner (Gluck/Berlioz) and Jean-Marie Zeitouni (Offenbach).   If a racing bet were permitted, I would put short odds against either Manson or Walker.

Whoever is chosen will have a chance to build a new artistic fiefdom within the MacLeod empire and we can expect some interesting times ahead for Glimmerglass.  One glimpse into that future might have occurred this summer already as MacLeod made clear his sponsorship of some challenging productions and castings.  Building on the company’s 2005 collaboration with the Leeds-based Opera North in the UK, he brought over from there Christopher Alden’s spiky and thought-provoking take on Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo.  This reading, which has the poet/singer transposed into some kind of grunge-king pop idol, surrounded by asexual acolytes inhabiting perhaps a drug-baron’s palatial pad, certainly left the surprisingly-conservative Glimmerglass audience somewhat unsure – to say the least.   Another challenge was laid down with the courageous and, as it turned out, inspired casting of young male soprano Michael Maniaci in the title role of Berlioz’s lushly augmented adaptation of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice.  Maniaci was a dramatic and vocal delight, relishing the emotional and technical demands with an élan that cheered the soul and totally vindicated his selection.  The audience noisily agreed.

When matched with the perhaps surprising success of the Glass, and the more obvious attractions of the Offenbach, it is no surprise that this inaugural MacLeod season has already been deemed a triumph.  What next from the Brit in the land of baseball?   Well, how about a Shakespeare season?  Next year all four productions new to the Glimmerglass Festival are to inhabit just one iconic set - that of an Elizabethan theatre.   “The four operas – Wagner’s early comedy, Das Liebesverbot, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate and Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi – will demonstrate far more diversity on one set than would have been seen in four plays at the Globe in Shakespeare’s day, and it will be the music, costumes and lighting that will emphasise the variety among the four works”, MacLeod says.  He’s already contracted and drawn up some short lists of young singers who revel in the more dramatic aspects of their work.  If 2007 was an earnest of the new Director’s intentions, then 2008 is going to be the real thing.  Be there if you can.

 

 Sue Loder © 2007

Picture © George Mott / Glimmerglass Festival Opera

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