Music and dance share the opera stage for Harriman-Jewell Series premiere.
Kansas City audiences have come to regard the Harriman-Jewell Series as the preeminent importer of music and dance events from across the country and around the world. But for the Series’ 50th anniversary season, the acclaimed presenting organization is also participating as a partner in the creation of one of this season’s premier offerings.
“We wanted to provide for our patrons spectacular events to commemorate our golden anniversary,” says Harriman-Jewell Series Executive and Artistic Director Clark Morris. “And one way was to exert more influence on the quality of performances we present by commissioning new works.”
The production that will take the stage of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre on February 6 and 7 is not just a reworking but a total reimagining of Acis and Galatea. As one would expect with the acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris at the helm, the new work relies as much on dance as on music in the retelling of the pastoral love triangle between a shepherd, a sea nymph and a Cyclops set against the verdant landscape of ancient Arcadia. The work with English libretto by John Gay based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis originated with Handel in 1718. But it was the orchestral enhancements and revisions made by Mozart in 1788 that initially attracted Morris to the piece.
“Mozart made decisions in the music that led to it being more emotionally direct,” Mark Morris told The Boston Globe prior to the opera’s East Coast premiere in May. “He wrote through the recitatives, he orchestrated and arranged them so they’re fixed and lead more aggressively in dramatic situations. It’s beefed up and it swings, and that works better in bigger theaters. I just love it.”
Mozart’s approach influenced the creative direction Mark Morris led his team of designers when preparing the production for the stage. His collaborators included visual artist and scenic designer Adrianne Lobel along with fashion and costume designer Isaac Mizrahi.
Morris knew that he wanted no props or furniture for what he is calling his “through-danced opera” in which the solo singers are placed onstage and occupying the same world as the dancers, and in which both music and dance forms are completely integrated. His creative vision called for four painted backdrops to suggest scene changes.
For costume designer Mizrahi, music is evocative of colors, and green was the color that Handel’s music evoked for him. Mizrahi’s designs also play directly off of scenic designer Adrianne Lobe’s paintings, which are inspired by forest scenes.
The dancers for Acis and Galatea are from the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Group, and an all-star cast of singers led by tenors Thomas Cooley and Isaiah Bell, soprano Yulia Van Doren, and baritone Douglas Williams, will sing the principal roles. Cooley has both national and international performing credits, including appearances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and opera productions in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Bell was praised by La Scena Musicale as “a singer to watch, not just for his attractive stage presence, but for his elegant tenor.” Van Doren recently made her debut at Lincoln Center and has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Williams’ smoldering movie-star looks and resonant bass-baritone voice have earned him recognition as one of the opera world’s “barihunks,” with appearances at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.
The orchestra and choir conductors for the production, along with the instrumentalists and choir singers, will have Kansas City connections. Conducting the orchestra is Colin Fowler, a Kansas City, Kan., native and a graduate of The Juilliard School whose music directing credits include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and helming the pit orchestra for the Tony-winning Broadway production of Jersey Boys. The choir will be prepared by Anthony Maglione, director of choral studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., where the Harriman-Jewell Series began and is administratively rooted.
The Series’ Clark Morris noted that the co-commission of Acis and Galatea in partnership with such prestigious presenters as New York’s Lincoln Center and Boston’s Celebrity Series, is a special gift to Kansas City audiences on behalf of the region’s most prominent presenting organization. “Commissioning allows us a new way to offer unique arts experiences for our audiences,” he explains.
For tickets to Acis and Galatea, select seats at hjseries.org, or call 816-415-5025.
–Robert Eisele
