Summing up Opera Philadelphia’s September festival

Thankfully, it met the challenge. Some of its entries actually were improvements. For example, the high-profile opera at the Academy of Music in 2017 was the Magic Flute imported from Berlin. This year the company mounted its own production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Each of those (the cartoonish Flute and the bleak Lucia) had admirers and detractors, but the Lucia was more impressive because it was new, and local, and it will be shared with the Vienna State Opera next year.

Another positive example was the world premiere of Sky on Swings with music by Lembit Beecher and libretto by Hannah Moscovitch, which showed maturation beyond their shorter 2017 effort, I Have No Stories To Tell You.

On the other hand, I missed a follow-up work to the crowd-pleasing Elizabeth Cree by the esteemed team of Mark Campbell and Kevin Puts which received its premiere in the Perelman in 2017. And I would welcome another piece for large forces like The Wake World with its unique orchestration by David Hertzberg that debuted last year at the Barnes Foundation. Filling that venue this September was Glass Handel, a project helmed by the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. It was an artistic triumph and a popular favorite.

The prestigious locales of the Wilma Theater and the Philadelphia Museum of Art were not employed this year. The Theater of the Living Arts took over those dates, and it’s less convenient and physically less attractive.

Statistically, 2018 had smaller numbers. This was inevitable because the company needed to make a big splash with its first festival. There were 31 performances at O17 (as the 2017 festival was dubbed) and 24 at O18. Ticket sales were $1,290,00 at O17 versus $1,029,000 at O18. The costs, naturally, were lower this year. Those numbers do not cause any concern.

Opera Philadelphia is pleased that many out-of-towners are traveling to Philly for the festivals. Visitors from eight nations came and attended multiple events. On the other hand, I’ve heard complaints by longtime subscribers that some of the offerings fell below their standards. People were put off by the three nights of drag-queen cabaret (even though the performers, Stephanie Blythe and Dito von Riegersberg, are superb at their craft) and by the kinky, cross-dressing new piece that preceded Poulenc’s La voix humaine.

What some attendees call cutting-edge, others called trash. The current goal seems to be a quest for edginess, or for controversy, with a hope that this will attract younger people.

Here’s my concern: Other cities have opted for the festival approach where multiple events are crowded into a short time period. Vancouver and Fort Worth abandoned the rest of their season and were pleased to therefore eliminate year-round staff. It would be awful if that happened in Philadelphia. As things stand now, only two more productions will be staged at the Academy of Music between now and next autumn, plus two intimate pieces by Curtis Opera Theatre at the smaller Perelman.

People like the idea of attending opera on a regular schedule. OCP subscribers tell me that they’ll fill the void by going to New York more often. Then, perhaps, some of them will cut back their OCP patronage. So the content of the rest of each season is something to watch for in the future.

To see the reviews that I posted during the festival, please click these links:

Glass Handel
Lucia di Lammermoor
Ne Quittez Pas
Sky on Swings