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TR579
Pasatieri
The Seagull
Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater - David Gilbert, conductor
THE SEAGULL
Opera in Three Acts after the play by Anton Chekhov
Music………………………..Thomas Pasatieri
Libretto…………………..….Kenward Elmslie
Conductor…………………..David Gilbert
Stage Director………………Mark Harrison
Chorus Master……………..Richard Cordova
Cast:
Constantine………………...Raymond Ayers
Arkadina…………………...Amy Gough
Nina…………………..…….Amy Shoremount
Trigorin………….…………Matthew Worth
Marsha……………………..Kerry Behan
Sorin………………………..Maxime Alvarez de Toledo
Doctor Dorn……………….Alvaro Vallejo
Medvedenko………….……Isai Jess Munoz
Shamrayeff………………...Thomas Pertel
Pauline……………………..Sarah Kraus
Chorus:
Sopranos: Hadley Combs, Yu Jung Chung, Kristina Sharron
Altos: Nicole Warner, Sarah Heltzel, John Gaston
Tenors: Tim Farrell, Nick Tamagna, Christian Reinert
Basses: Charles Clayton, Benjamin de la Fuente, Kwang-Mo Goo
Composer's Notes:
(Written prior to the opera's 1974 Houston premiere:)
It is always difficult to describe why a composer picks a particular subject. It's an almost intangible quality…that cries out for music. I thought that I would be able to translate [The Seagull] into my own operatic terms. I think of the psychological levels of the characters and the way they relate and don't relate to each other. One is the character of Masha, who is not very important in the play; but she struck me as being so interesting psychologically, so deep, that she became a very important character in the opera. Musically, I have found it very interesting to describe the many moods of this girl.
First, Kenward and I sat down and discussed the shape of the opera. The play is in four accts; the opera is in three. We discussed and highlighted the potentially “musical” spots: for instance, I wanted a trio for the three ladies to sing, and he found a situation in the play where that could very easily happen; I wanted certain duets, certain solo pieces, certain ensembles, and he found spots in the play to fashion them. Then he wrote the libretto, and as he would send me a scene, I would set it.
When I had finished the first act, he came down from Vermont where he was writing the libretto to hear it. We then talked about the second act and proceeded from thee. We made some revisions. For example, there were first revisions of the libretto with Kenward himself. In one instance a duet in the second act that I wanted him to do. I described a certain feeling I wanted and he proceeded to write words that were not in the original p0lay. There were some things for Arkadina: I wanted her to sing a very impassioned second act aria to Trigorin. We discussed the kinds of things that she would say. We also gave her a scene from Oedipus, because she is an actress and it would make, we felt, an exciting finale for the opera. Then, when we worked with the director, there were still other changes. There is a scene in the last act between Constantine and Nina in which they meet for the last time. The director [Frank Corsaro] thought it would be better. So I rewrote the scene…
I wanted to write a piece which would speak to the audience with luscious vocal lines and beautiful orchestration. So that's what I did with this piece. I was no longer concerned - am I “modern” or not?
(Written prior to the December 2002 production:)
Over 28 years have passed since the premiere of The Seagull, half a lifetime for me. Of my 17 operas, it remains my favorite child. The musical atmosphere has changed greatly in the interim and the lyric, romantically tonal is no longer the exception, but now the standard. Critics are no longer shocked by a flow of melody from composers, and the love of audiences for a new work is no longer suspect. For this production, I have written two new interludes to accompany the act divisions and stagecraft. As I wrote them, I was flooded with the feelings of my 26-year-old self and so grateful that this opera has survived and is still being produced. It has been twenty years since I have written an opera and I have in all that time refused to do so. But now my heart and mind have changed and as I pored over the score for this New York production, and in preparation for next season's in San Francisco, I begin to hear faintly in the back of my mind…music…operatic music. Perhaps soon there might be number 18.
Librettist's Notes:
(Written prior to the opera's 1974 premiere)
I re-re-read the play. It seemed a hopeless mystifying project. It sat there on the page, a cryptic presence wanting only to be left alone. Then I went to see my friend Stella Adler, knowing that she knew about Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theatre and Chekhov. She sat down, a copy of the play in her lap, and began to talk about the play's opening moments - Mash…a storm about to break…the air is unbearable…it's dusk and Masha wears black…his dirty fingernails…no one makes love to her…
I realized the way to proceed was to mine the under-the-surface structure, the labyrinth of details that had at first put me off in Chekhov's plays. Time onstage moves like real-life time - in a muddled way, with stars and stops, with sad high points that are cut off abruptly, turning into absurd low points, which drift on and on, and become funny or suddenly heart-breaking, and sometimes nothing seems to be happening, and the initial boredom of nothing happening, the slowness, becomes riveting. That was the challenge: to try to create this complicated `real life' time sense for the first time in an opera.
- Kenward Elmslie
Plot Synopsis
Act I
The garden of Sorin's summer estate.
Constantine, a young, would-be writer is presenting his avant-garde play, performed by Nina, an aspiring artist with whom he is in love. The audience are guests - Sorin, a semi-invalid bachelor; Doctor Dorn; the estate manager Shamrayeff; his wife Pauline and daughter Masha; and the schoolteacher Medvedenko. Also present are Constantine's mother Arkadina, a celebrated actress and her lover Trigorin, a successful author. Arkadina disrupts the performance with disdainful comments, humiliating her son. Nina meets and is attracted to Trigorin. Night falls; voices are heard across the lake, prompting Arkadina to recall the love affairs of old days when the lake seemed magical. As the party drifts indoors, Masha confesses to Dr. Dorn she is secretly in love with Constantine.
INTERLUDE
Act II
Scene One: A summer picnic on the estate.
Arkadina reveals the secrets of her youthfulness to a bored Masha and to Nina, who takes notes. A quarrel erupts when Shamrayeff will not spare any horses to take Arkadina to town; she threatens to cut her visit short. They both stomp off. Constantine appears with a seagull he has hot; he lays it at Nina's feet, bitter about the failure of his play and at Nina's subsequent coolness. He senses her attraction to Trigorin, who arrives. Attempting to deflect Nina's hero-worship, Trigorin modestly describes his own empty life as a writer. He is intrigued by the dead seagull and imagines a story of a young girl devastated by a man passing by her lakeside home. From the house, Arkadina announces that they will stay after all.
Scene Two: Sorin's dining room
Masha drunkenly tells Trigorin she will marry Medvedenko. Constantine has made a clumsy attempt to shoot himself and failed. Alone with her son, Arkadina soothes him and they recall his happy childhood when they were always together. Abruptly, Constantine bereates his mother for her affair with Trigorin whom he has challenged to a duel. They quarrel but then reconcile. Trigorin enters and reveals his attraction to Nina, infuriating Arkadina. She speaks of her great passion and Trigorin's resistance crumbles. Trigorin agrees to depart at once, remaining long enough to whisper to Nina to secretly meet him in Moscow. She has decided to leave home and pursue a career as an actress.
INTERLUDE
Act Three
Sorin's Study. Several years later.
Masha quarrels with Medvedenko. Arrkadina and Trigorin arrive. When the guests go in for dinner, Constantine remains behind and Nina bursts in, weary and frightened. He claims he still loves her, despite her affair and death of her child with Trigorin. But she goes off alone, leaving Constantine behind, desperate. The guests return from dinner. Arkadina remembers her triumph as Queen Jocasta and re-enacts the scene. She is interrupted by the sound of an explosion. Constantine has killed himself.
Violin I
Robert Moose, concertmaster
Kyung Ha Ko
Bryan Hernandez-Luch
Sarah Hitch
Roslyn Huang
Robert Laliberte
Batya MacAdam-Somer
Violin II
Alexandra Sweitzer*
Anaar Desai-Stephens
Aleksandr Khytoryansky
Eun Jung Lee
Mi-Hee Park
Ayumi Takeshima
Viola
Jessica VanVelzen*
Jaime Amador-Medina
Chu-Ying Hu
Laura Huang
Tony Huang
Kenny Wang
Cello
Jennika Anthony-Shaw*
Ren Ariizumi
Seung Hee Kang
Leigh Stuart
Bass
Sean Baker*
Maurice belle
Flute
Mercedes Smith*
Yulia Musayelyan
Oboe
Shen Wang*
Sandra Lloyd
Clarinet
Aaron Rose*
Schyler Fung
Bassoon
Gabriel Bergeron-Langlois*
James DelGaudio
Horn
Ryan Walther*
Susan Babcock
Caia LaCour
Adam Ward
Trumpet
Robert Blumenthal*
Eileen bedington
Trombone
Joseph Robida*
Freddie Zufelt
Tuba
Armen Dohanian*
Harp
Yun-ju Yeh
Timpani
Andrew Blanco*
Percussion
Jason Niehoff*
Ionela Christu
* = principal
Librarian: Michael Powers
Orchestra Manager: Erica Hansen
Recorded live at Manhattan School of Music, December 2002
Manhattan School of Music's renowned Opera Studio provides professional training for singers interested in pursuing an operatic career. Classes in professional development, stage deportment, period style, and outreach training are augmented with two fully staged productions with orchestra each year. Students receive extensive coextensive coaching in diction and musical style. Ensemble performance is a touchstone of every production. Opera alumni from Manhattan School of Music perform on opera stages the world over.
Manhattan School of Music's Opera Theater repertoire includes important revivals of American works, a re-examination of neglected works from the classical repertoire, and New York premieres of new works. Other MSM operas recorded by producer John Ostendorf include Ned Rorem's MISS JULIE, William Mayer's A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, Daniel Catan's RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER, Bernstein's TROUBLE IN TAHITI, Robert Ward's ROMAN FEVER, Scott Eyerly's THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES and the fiftieth anniversary recording of Britten's ALBERT HERRING.
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