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No trick -- New Yorker reviews Tulsa Opera
Published: 10/27/2011 11:17 AM
Last Modified: 10/28/2011 1:12 PM

The Oct. 31 issue of The New Yorker -- the one with the great George Booth cartoon of vampire and cat sitting down for a meal -- also includes Alex Ross' review of Tulsa Opera's recent production of "The Barber of Seville" and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City's first performance in its new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

"Both of the productions that I saw," Ross writes, "had more spark than the Met's first new shows this season, and, unlike the Lincoln Center simulcasts, they provided the irreproducible thrill of live action -- what Walt Whitman once called the 'liquid world' of operatic art."

Ross describes Tulsa Opera to be "known as one of the sturdier and more adventurous organizations in its class."

He described the company's "Barber" as "generally lively and well-rehearsed," although he thought it marred by "jokey detachment (that) had the effect of distancing both performers and audience from the action."

And he had qualified praise for much of the cast. He said, for example, of Sarah Coburn: "She sings with fundamental beauty of tone and pinpoint coloratura agility, adding toneful embellishments and effortlessly reaching to high C and above." All she lacked, he said, was "the emotional urgency that even a comic role like Rosina requires."

But of the orchestra and artistic director Kostis Protopapas, no qualifying phrases were necessary.

"Most impressive," Ross writes, "was the fluid, idiomatic playing of the orchestra, under the direction of Kostis Protopapas....In any city, it's rare to find a conductor who sets the right tempo so consistently, in scene after scene, that you stop noticing he is there."




Reader Comments 2 Total
Fred (last year)
I do hope Mr. Ross didn't actually write "more sturdier" in his review. And I actually enjoyed the "jokey detachment" which to me makes some opera more approachable. Finally, would he have like Ms. Cob urn to exhibit more "jokey detachment" to convey a sense of urgency?
Loved it, laughed out loud, and will agree that the orchestra was superb!
                    
No, Mr Ross did not write "more sturdier" -- as the amended post now shows.

And I agree that the humor in Tulsa Opera's production was far from "detaching" one from the opera's story, and that the orchestra and Mr Protopapas' direction of it was marvelous.
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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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