Some performances save the best for last
Local productions of “Parsifal” and “El Niño” benefited from the unexpected.
By Mark Swed
Times Staff Writer
December 21, 2005
The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays most of its concerts three or four times. Los Angeles Opera typically has twice that many performances of its productions. But in any theatrical run, there is no way to know which performance will be best.
The theory goes like this: Opening night is a glorified dress rehearsal, so avoid it. Everything comes together about the middle of the run. By the end, the performers are starting to get a bit bored, and it’s best, once more, to stay away. Oh, and matinees are never as inspired as evening events.
But the situation is not nearly so simple. Last weekend, I caught the end of L.A. Opera’s run of Wagner’s “Parsifal,” on Saturday in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the third of the Philharmonic’s three readings of John Adams’ “El Niño,” at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday. Both performances were matinees. Thursday night, I attended L.A. Opera’s penultimate “Tosca.”
“Parsifal” and “El Niño” had pleased me greatly at their openings, but these final matinees rose to an altogether higher level. “Tosca” I had been unable to attend before. I can only guess as to how it might have changed, but this much I could tell: The operatic ship was running on autopilot and was just about out of gas.
Let me propose a new theory: A performance that begins with proper commitment will likely just keep getting better. One that starts out cynically or inherently weak will tend, like a small crack in a windshield, to get only worse.
But it is not that simple either. “Parsifal” — and perhaps “El Niño” — benefited from the unexpected.
I had returned to “Parsifal” in hopes of seeing how Plácido Domingo had settled into Robert Wilson’s abstract staging. It had been a real challenge for this aging enthusiastic Latin tenor to stand inexpressively in stylized poses. He managed it remarkably well, all told, but opening night was his first time in a Wilson production.
Domingo didn’t, however, sing Saturday. He had a cold. As had been the case the previous Wednesday, his understudy, Gary Lehman, was a last-minute substitute. Lehman had the pressure not only of filling a star’s shoes in a demanding Wagnerian heldentenor role but of having to make sure those shoes stood in exactly the right spot, given Wilson’s demand for high-wire precision. On top of that, Lehman, previously a baritone, was making his debut as a tenor.
This prescription for disaster resulted instead in a glowing (literally, given the brilliant lighting) success. The new tenor proved a Wilsonian from stock-still head to unbending toe. Lehman’s voice may not yet have a Domingo-like bloom, but he sounded as secure vocally as he looked physically.
Wilson productions sometimes get sloppy once the director leaves town (which is generally after the first night). But Saturday, I had the impression that everyone in the cast was made especially alert by a new Parsifal. The orchestra, with six performances under its belt, played Wagner’s intricate score beautifully under Kent Nagano. That the baritone Matti Salminen was himself suffering a cold mattered hardly at all. He rose to the dramatic and musical occasion as did everyone else.
No personnel changes affected the Philharmonic’s “El Niño” on Sunday afternoon. Possibly what put everyone on his or her toes, though, was a mishap the night before, when baritone Willard White reportedly came in once at the wrong place. I’m told it was no big deal, that things quickly righted themselves and that few in the audience knew it had happened at all.
But whatever the case — maybe the orchestra just needed a bit more time to feel completely comfortable with the music’s rhythmic complexities — Sunday’s performance of Adams’ deeply affecting Nativity oratorio had what felt like a brand-new emotional punch and sense of musical occasion.
Esa-Pekka Salonen elicited from his orchestra a fervor not quite achieved Friday, and that may have helped the singers feel free. Dawn Upshaw, in particular, gave one of her most memorably nuanced and riveting performances.
I only wish the singers across the street in “Tosca,” if they were still sleepwalking and sleep-singing their way through the last matinee before picking up their paychecks, could have witnessed the commitment of this “El Niño.”
People tell me that “Tosca” did not start out so bad. How then to explain the sheer vacuousness of Thursday? Violeta Urmana mimicked Callas’ vocal mannerisms without revealing any of her theatricality — what a moving Mahler and Wagner mezzo-soprano Urmana was before selling out to money soprano roles in which she has little original to offer. That Samuel Ramey (also fighting a cold) sounded past retirement was less a problem than that he acted as if he was already in retirement.
Tenor Salvatore Licitra was dreariest of all. He had a big moment at the Metropolitan a couple of years ago, saving the day when he filled in for an ill Pavarotti. Now he’s already burning, maybe even flaming, out. I doubt that there was any way this production could have improved over its run, absent a “disaster” to wake everyone up.