For all the bogus boilerplate about how classical music is dead or even well-intentioned words regarding how she can stay breathing, precious few--performers, ensembles and institutions--are actually doing anything to change both conversation and prognosis.
Moreover, when it comes to remounting baroque opera in our digi-epoch, fewer still have the informed perspective, due diligence and, well, cojones to really make a difference.
Save for one R.B. Schlather, of course.
Equal parts Peter Sellars and Rick Owens, last fall, Schlather's installation of Handel's Alcina at Whitebox Art Center on the Bowery was, itself, equally informed, diligent and brimming with ballistic inspiration. Only a few scant months removed from that triumph, he's is back in black for Handel's second installment of opera seria, Orlando (HWV 31), with the same cast (Drew Minter, Kiera Duffy, Anya Matanovic, Hadleigh Adams, Brennan Hall), the same music director (Geoffrey McDonald) and the same production team: Paul Tate dePoo III (sets), Terese Wadden (costumes) and JAX Messenger (lighting).
Never one to repeat himself verbatim, this time on Broome Street, Schlather's take on that furious solider in Charlemagne's army is even more "downtown." Presented as a gallery-like exhibition where Chinatown meets the LES, as he duly notes, the installation, the rehearsals, the livestreaming are all as important (perhaps even more so, at least conceptually) as the three performances proper.
You say you want a revolution? Well, you must know R.B. Schlather.
Classicalite: Orlando is your second production in G.F. Handel's so-called Ariosto trilogy. What is about Handel's Italian opera, written for Britons that first grabbed you? You've made quite the investment here.
R.B. Schlather: It was an instinctual reaction to [Whitebox Center]. I went to an art party there and liked the flow of people in the architecture, and I immediately thought that Alcina would be a good fit for that space. Handel is honestly what I listen to around the house and on the subways. So, it's always on my mind, in a way. The trilogy really came out of the excitement of making Alcina in September--music director Geoffrey McDonald and I started talking about Ariodante (since Handel wrote both Alcina and Ariodante for the same cast of singers) and imagining how to locate that in the architecture of the gallery. And after the totally enthusiastic reaction to Alcina, I was invited by Tony Guerrero at Whitebox to quickly continue with the next two in the trilogy, to complete within the year. An ambitious plan, but this way of presenting opera production as process art exhibition has demonstrated enormous currency in New York City.
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