Davóne Tines saves the day in the Met Museum’s El Cimarrón

By Kurt Gottschalk, 12 May 2019

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Reviewed at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, New York City on 10 May 2019

Henze, El Cimarrón

American Modern Opera Company

Zack Winokur, Director

Davóne Tines, Bass-baritone

Matthew Aucoin's Music for New Bodies at Lincoln Center

Kurt Gottschalk, 10th July

Aucoin, librettist Jorie Graham and director Peter Sellars make New Bodies more a haunting mood piece than a cautionary tale for the American Modern Opera Company.

****1

Opera by committee: Opera Philadelphia premieres Complications in Sue

Cameron Kelsall, 4th February

Opera Philadelphia commissions ten composers to tell the story of an ordinary woman's idiosyncratic march from cradle to tomb.

****1

A didactic Decameron: The Seasons at Opera Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 20th December

Conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Sarah Ruhl, this high-handed pasticcio sets the climate crisis to a soundtrack of Vivaldi.

***11

Dutch Reisopera’s winning A Little Night Music

Nicolas Nguyen, 26th March

Programming Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is quite a daring move in a country with no real tradition in musical. This production by Nederlands Reisopera shows that fortune favours the bold.

****1

Six singers on a bare stage in scenes before marriage

Mark Valencia, 3rd July

Ana Sokolović Svabda (Marriage) leaves six singers in search of an opera on Aix's Théâtre du Jeu de Paume stage.

**111

Millepied reste le maître : le L.A. Dance Project puissance 4

Julie Jozwiak, 1st November

Le L.A. Dance Project présente un programme où quatre esthétiques fondamentalement différentes se côtoient : une conception artistique très intéressante. Retour sur la variété de ces écritures contemporaines made in L.A.

***11

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Kurt Gottschalk

Kurt Gottschalk is a journalist and author based in New York City. His writings on contemporary and classical music, jazz and improvisation have been published in outlets throughout Europe and America and he has two volumes of short fiction to his name. He produced and hosted the Miniature Minotaurs radio programme on WFMU and currently hosts Afternoon New Music on WKCR.

Davóne Tines saves the day in the Met Museum’s effective, if dated, El Cimarrón