'Angels' is an opera -- but is it one that's worthwhile?
There probably isn't much point in arguing whether Peter Eotvos's ``Angels in America" is really an opera or not. Defining genres is not a useful way to approach art because the function of important artists is to redefine genres, breaking down barriers.
Yes, there is a lot of spoken dialogue in ``Angels," which has its final performance in Opera Unlimited's production tomorrow afternoon. But there is spoken dialogue in a lot of operas, including ``Carmen" and ``The Magic Flute."
Yes, ``Angels" is a Cliff s Notes condensation of Tony Kushner's original play -- but Verdi's ``Otello" and Britten's ``Midsummer Night's Dream" are radical abridgements of Shakespeare .
Yes, ``Angels" is written for amplified voices, anathema to traditional opera composers and audiences. ``Nixon in China" crashed through that barrier in 1987.
But there is some point in considering whether ``Angels" is a good opera or not, whether it succeeds in its aims.
The reduction of the play to a bouillon cube makes the story difficult to follow; it is full of loose ends, and the whole strand of the plot involving the monstrous, loudmouthed lawyer Roy Cohn makes no sense. The cuts diminish the reverberations of the play, and the music adds none of its own to make up for them.
The spoken dialogue turned out to be more effective than the musical setting. The play is full of duets and quartets -- events separated in time and place but occurring simultaneously onstage. Until the last few minutes, there are no real ensembles in ``Angels," no arias either. Of course, critics complained about that in Debussy's ``Pelleas et Melisande" until they recognized how inspired his musical inflection of the text was, how deft and atmospheric the colorations given it by the orchestra.
Each of Kushner's characters speaks his or her own highly individual language. But at least on first hearing, each of Eotvos's characters doggedly delivers the same sing song, with only the Angel allowed to soar, and Belize, the campy African-American nurse, delivering a predictable touch of the blues.
To these ears, the amplification seemed unnecessary and an aesthetic mistake. For part of ``Nixon" it did work -- the first two acts are about public dignitaries functioning in their official capacities. Eotvos's stated aim was to make sure that every subtle, personal inflection of the text was audible, but what the amplification did was exactly the opposite. It destroyed the intimacy of the parts of the drama that Eotvos and his librettist chose to focus on, and turned them public and proclamatory.
His contract is for five years, during which he will spend a minimum of two weeks at the music center, conducting as many as four concerts there. As a teenage pianist and bass clarinetist, Lockhart attended Brevard and since 1996 has returned regularly as a guest conductor.
Leighton was a valued colleague and friend to me, and for more than 40 years his work instructed and entertained readers of The Village Voice.
Leighton had strong local connections. He was born in Somerville on Jan. 11, 1927, and studied mechanical engineering and journalism at Tufts University and Boston College. He began his career at Women's Wear Daily. The obituary in Opera News told me something I hadn't known before: It was at the suggestion of novelist Norman Mailer that he went to The Village Voice in 1957. Leighton officially retired from the paper in 2003 but continued to contribute listings until not long before his death. He also wrote regularly for Opera News and other publications.
He had indefatigable work habits, a keen ear, a long memory, and a lucid intelligence. He was able to write in whatever style current journalistic fashion dictated without ever compromising his integrity or standards. Although he was a completely unpretentious person, his writing was always elegant.
His enthusiasm for music, and for the people who compose it and perform it, was boundless, and nothing was too obscure for his attention and interest. For many people, the permanent standard remains the artists they loved in their youth. Leighton was always eager to hear something or someone new. That's why his mind remained youthful. It came as a complete surprise to me to learn that he was 79 when he died -- to me, Leighton was always ageless.
