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IL MONDO DELLA LUNA
Best “off-Broadway” opera production 2010
Parterre Box – May 20, 2010
WNET SundayArts News (more)
January 24, 2010
“Consider it must-see opera. In a first for the Hayden Planetarium, it will stage Joseph Haydn’s comic opera Il mondo della luna through Jan. 28. Trimmed to 100 minutes sans intermission, the intimate setting, which utilizes a 180-degree dome and gorgeous light projections, fuses opera and stargazing in a night to remember … The production, from the Gotham Chamber Opera, is masterful -- thanks to a remarkable cast and Anka Lupes’ outrageously inventive costumes. Director Diane Paulus, a Tony winner for Hair, keeps the action, performed on an elevated platform, lively. The intricacies of laser technology co-mingle with this fanciful 1777 work, which boasts glorious music augmented by the harpsichord. Plus, a Zeiss Mark IX Star Projector recreates the night sky. Il Mondo is an extraordinary way to experience the medium.”
– Fern Siegel, The Huffington Post, January 21, 2010
“A delightful sound and light show, with projections both astronomical and fantastical exploding on the spherical ceiling overhead.”
– Mike Silverman, Associated Press, January 20, 2010
“Haydn’s music is not just witty but also elaborate, rich and tender, qualities Mr. Goren captured in his conducting.”
– Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, January 20, 2010
“One of the most inspired concepts in recent memory … GCO makes the most of Haydn’s music, cutting the opera from about three hours to 95 minutes. Standouts include a Queen of the Night–worthy showpiece about losing reason in love for Flaminia (sung with bright confidence and character by soprano Albina Shagimuratova); a high-lying lyrical setting for her sister, Clarice (the sweet-voiced Hanan Alattar); and imaginative ascent music for Buonafede. As the sisters’ fiancés, Coppolo and baritone Timothy Kuhn as Ernesto sing and move with gratifying fluidity. GCO artistic director Neal Goren conducts an energized account. Still, visual effects tend to draw the most interest, at least in the moon scenes. An encompassing vortex of swirling color rapidly descends on the seats as Buonafede’s new surroundings take him in. Cirque du Soleil–style dancers twirl glowing hoops, and Anka Lupes’ shimmering space-age costumes are equipped with touches of lights—a corset here, a torch there—that serve both fashion and function. Lupes’ contribution in the earthly scenes is more subtly effective: amid 18th-century ruffs and short pants, the earthier servant characters (mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway as Lisetta and standout tenor Matthew Tuell as Cecco) get contemporary accent pieces, such as fish-net socks.”
– Ronni Reich, Back Stage, January 21, 2010
“Well-integrated projections on the planetarium’s domed screen contribute swirling nebulae and lunar landscapes that take the audience along for Buonafede’s boozy trip.”
– Jennifer Barone, Discover, January 26, 2010
“Director Diane Paulus, who helmed the hit revival of Hair, takes her cue from the hallucinogenic potion given to Buonafede, evoking the fake moonscape as a ‘60s disco complete with glittery mimes, luminescent costumes and trippy projections on the planetarium dome. In a minuscule performing area, she creates a sense of boundless space by balancing the singers on rolling ladders kept constantly in motion. The slight but tuneful score is trimmed to about 90 minutes by conductor Neal Goren, who deftly coordinated the 25-piece orchestra and soloists from a perch high above the stage.”
– James Jorden, New York Post, January 20, 2010
“Outstanding in the well-matched ensemble are Albina Shagimuratova, a fiery coloratura; Hanan Alattar, a sweet lyric-soprano; Nicholas Coppolo, a crafty tenor; and Marco Nisticò, a neat baritonal buffo.”
– Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times, January 22, 2010
“Il mondo della luna is a fantastic and fantastical evening at the opera.”
– Daniel John Kelley, nytheatre.com, January 19, 2010
“What a splendidly inventive idea it was to stage Haydn’s buffo opera Il Mondo della luna (1777) in the Hayden Planetarium of the Museum of Natural History for a five-night run (I heard it Jan. 20). The concept was Neal Goren’s, the artistic director and conductor of the Gotham Chamber Opera, but such an ambitious undertaking involved many more -- not only the museum itself but the American Repertory Theater of Cambridge, whose artistic director, Diane Paulus, directed.”
– Patrick J. Smith, MusicalAmerica.com, January 22, 2010
“Gotham has created one of the more dazzling entertainments of the New York season by presenting this nonsense in the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History, replete with instrument panels, space suits (the elegant and witty costumes are by Anka Lupes), globular space helmets, acrobatic “moon nymphs” and above it all, on the 180-degree dome, shooting stars, exploding galaxies, shots of earth and the moon, and the wildest light show since psychedelia fell from fashion. Viewers of a certain age (mine) may recall The Saint in its heyday, but the music was better at the planetarium and the show a lot shorter. The whole run has sold out, and it’s hard to imagine anyone attending who would not gladly go again.”
– John Yohalem, Opera Today, January 22, 2010
American Record Guide
Music in Concert
Opera Everywhere
Haydn: Il Mondo della Luna
Move over, Avatar!
If it’s science fiction special effects you’re after, then you ought to have caught Haydn at the Hayden: Il Mondo della Luna (The World on the Moon) presented in January at the Hayden Planetarium in a short run by the Gotham Chamber Opera. There, at the spectacularly remodeled facility adjoining the Museum of Natural History (which some of us haven’t visited since elementary school). Haydn’s 1777 comic opera was given amidst the glittering constellations and Phillip Bussmann’s other more fanciful, exotic images projected on the dome.
Seldom has an opera production been so perfectly situated. To make the effect even more flittering, an exhibit of magnificent NASA photographs of the actual lunar surface stopped patrons, making them ooh and aah in wonder on entering and leaving the planetarium.
In the libretto by Carlo Coldoni, the famous dramatist (who didn’t even merit a program credit), some crafty and lusty Italians drug a nasty and impressionable nobleman into thinking he has taken a trip to the moon. There, disguised as moon men, they determine to marry the daughters and a servant that he has under his thumb.
The opera’s lunar landscape was populated by exotic and cleverly lit outfits by costume designer Anka Lupes and acrobats with illuminated hoops. To accommodate the seating plan that guides the eyes generally upward, a platform was erected, surrounded by movable chrome library ladders for the characters to climb on. The orchestra was perched even higher and sounded exceptionally fine under the baton of Neal Goren.
Haydn had not quite the success Mozart did in writing eternally popular operas. Goren skillfully cut quite a bit of what he terms “chaff” from the score—an excellent idea, as I remember being fairly bored at a more complete German production of this opera a few years ago. What was left was an amusing, comparatively brief (100 minutes) set of comic arias and ensembles, sung by a set of youngish performers who sometimes had to struggle to be heard in the challenging space. The opera was given in Italian with English titles projected on the hemisphere.
The two daughters came off best, Hanan Alatter (Clarice), and Albina Shagimuratova (Flaminia). The trio they had with Rachel Calloway (the maid, Lisetta) was staged to be a real showstopper, complete with disco gyrations in Mamma Mia style. This kind of post-modernism—from Diane Paulus, the director of the current Broadway production of Hair—I found enjoyable: it worked in its silly, inoffensive way. The men sang and acted well, especially tenors Nicholas Coppolo as the fake astronomer and Matthew Tuell as the valet. Everyone contributed brightly to the long, impressive finale, which showed Haydn at his most attractive and touching.
The entire production was stylishly done, right down to the graphics in the poster and program. I look forward to future ventures—wherever they may be—but I doubt the logo credits next time will include one for NASA!
Richard Traubner
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