Through non-entities, we learn about Anthony and Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Enobarbus tells us: “Age cannot wither, nor can she be customized for her infinite variety.” When he says so, we meet the queen and form our own impression. Depending on the way you bring her, the Enobarbus description may be like confirmation, or maybe like a rotation.
Spin – and the darker cousin, promotion – everywhere in the work of John Adams produced by Elkhannah Pulitzer Anthony and Cleopatra,,,,, After premiering at the San Francisco Opera in 2022, the Metropolitan Mets cut some cuts in the first half and added ballet from Annie-B Parson. Elkhannah Pulitzer’s work attracted most of the images of the 1930s news and fascist propaganda flick. It’s not about Hollywood, even if it was set in the age of the city’s golden age, but about another industry that manipulates the facts that make people look like gods.
Adams himself scored, neatly synthesizing a lot of what we heard in his other operas. Rhythm progression, excellent mastery of choreography and natural dramatic statements. It is not a masterpiece, but for the most part it is a highly competent contemporary opera, especially in slim form. Cleopatra (Julia Bullock) and Anthony (Gerald Finley) were introduced almost in the public. These are public figures, and sex is also public. Why let go? Pulitzer’s blockage is usually highly dynamic and physical. The characters are not afraid of grabbing, pushing, and spinning each other. All leaders are Histrionic to varying degrees. Anthony is impulsive and violent. Caesar cut and unsafe; Cleopatra seems to be the most reasonable, but it turns into a little scream and a slap again.
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Pulitzer’s environment has many worthy resonances. Ancient Rome was filled with primitive myths, most of which were occupied in the 20th century. Caesar’s style is like Mussolini, Antony and Cleopatra are a bit like Edward Viii and Wallace Simpson, a companion to another couple’s desires lead to responsibility and media fanaticism. There are everywhere people are taking pictures and taking pictures as they enter and leave the Hall of Power. As the dancers parade with sinister Grace and goose steps for a long time, Parson’s choreography foreshadows the scenery’s disaster. The stakes are high for Anthony and Cleopatra’s love affair, and they only partially know.
Mimi Lien’s clumsy black kit is observed through giant camera lenses, with its aperture enlarged and contracted to reveal various interiors of Alexander, Rome and Athens, and temptingly glimpses of water in the backstage. Unlike many of Julia Bullock’s predictions, this is an effective device. Another time, it reveals Cleopatra’s film soaked in the golden Lamé, as if she was participating in the 1930s craze. Constance Hoffman’s outfits are instantly stylish and splendid, with the palette ranging from neutral sand and flavors to metallic flashes to rich jewellery tones. This is a very good work and must be well shot.
The opera is most fully life-like during Anthony’s confrontation with rival Caesar. Caesar was powerful, but had a lower command rate than his older counterparts. Anthony’s brooding was in the chair like a lion, while the Caesar waterskier was angry in the anger around the office. Here, Adams’ music is very intense, predicting the final reversal of male power, with Caesar accompanying Caesar’s Tuba stronger than Antony’s indecisive Cimbalom.
Paul Appleby is always a great Caesar, with the firmness of Caesar, the tenor of determinedness cut like a dagger. Gerald Finley also had a great night after a tough start, turning from a motivated ambitious baritone to something sweet and soft in the second act. Jarrett Ott and Taylor Raven made their debut as Charmian, servants of Agrippa and Cleopatra, respectively. Ott has a fascinating sober baritone, while Raven has effective contradictions. Alfred Walker carries the weight of Shakespeare’s monologue, and as Enobarbus, his bass-baridone has an amazingly subtle advantage.
Julia Bullock is a woman with more perceived power than feels, a dramatic powerhouse. She moves with tempting physical strength, whether she is tempting, scrapped or patched up in histrionics attitude, with rich middle sounds. But the high treble means that this infinitely diverse queen has no sound color matching her presence, especially when fatigue surpasses her in Act 2.
The first half found characters fixed by conflicting desires, with lots of musical and dramatic tension. Adams’ score, with cimbalom, celesta and double wear, thrums and jangles thrund torque, spreads poor Octavia (Elizabeth Deshong), spreads nervous tenderness (Elizabeth Deshong, their voices burn slowly but ultimately gain beautiful richness).
The second half just doesn’t move, which is a mistake, which is bigger than the musical structure of the opera and Pulitzer’s production. Enobarbus, Caesar, Antony’s Arias and Cleopatra themselves are dramatically static, especially one after another and almost diverse, and are often blocked without much action. Caesar’s speech, which mainly recalls the balcony scene Evita, Ironically, pouring Appleby into a box made his voice muffled from the inside of the wall. Although Pulitzer’s use of images and colors is still shocking – Artie’s last aria sees him in the projected clouds, while Cleopatra returns to die under the huge, dim moon, they are frustrated by the visual style of the rest of the opera house.
The camera angle is completely gone, leaving behind the dramatic center of the opera that should be just the opera: a love story between these two futile and confusing people. But here, Adams got his own way, because music became the most predictable, just as opera should reach emotional peaks. The final scene of Cleopatra is strange to this character who is bigger than life. Somehow, it feels like we know less about her, even though she finally tells us who she is.
In Adams’s (in Shakespeare’s), it’s a strange irony, in which Cleopatra is more interesting than reality. But then again, so did Anthony, and everyone did not describe him accurately. Cleopatra himself was the worst criminal, but Caesar’s eulogy was just as strange, trying to bury Anthony in praise of him. Gentle? noble? Outstanding? We can see nothing, only one man lashes out at his lover when he fails, reducing her from a multifaceted creature to a flat epithelial “Egypt.” He rewritten the narrative. Pulitzer’s work recognizes most sharply that the opera is about propaganda and political propaganda. Love and death make us all spin doctors.
