Author Topic: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage  (Read 12416 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« on: January 29, 2014, 09:04:14 pm »


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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/arts/music/lyrical-cowboys-in-love-on-stage.html



Music|Opera Review
Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
JAN. 29, 2014



Tom Randle, left, as Jack Twist, and Daniel Okulitch, right, as Ennis del Mar, in "Brokeback Mountain."



Mr. Randle and Mr. Okulitch.



MADRID — When the news came five years ago that Charles Wuorinen was writing an opera based on “Brokeback Mountain,” the 1997 Annie Proulx short story that was made into an Oscar-winning film in 2005, it seemed at first a baffling mismatch of composer and subject. Mr. Wuorinen, 75, built his reputation as and remains an unabashedly complex Modernist. “Brokeback Mountain” is the immensely sad tale of the impossible love between two Wyoming cowboys.

But over time, the idea of a Wuorinen adaptation of “Brokeback Mountain” grew more intriguing. One certainly did not want some sentimental score for this wrenching tragedy set in the rugged American West. The project seemed more promising still when it was announced that Ms. Proulx would be writing the libretto, her first effort in this genre.

The premiere of “Brokeback Mountain,” one of the most anticipated events of the international opera season, took place at the Teatro Real here on Tuesday night. It is a serious work, an impressive achievement. But it is a hard opera to love.

Mr. Wuorinen has written an intricate, vibrantly orchestrated and often brilliant score that conveys the oppressiveness of the forces that defeat these two men, whose lives we follow over 20 years, starting in 1963, when they take a summer job herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain. But the same qualities in Mr. Wuorinen’s music that can captivate listeners — ingenious complexity, lucid textures, tartly atonal harmonic writing — too often weigh down the drama in this work.

To his credit, there is not one saccharine or melodramatic touch in the score. Still, you yearn for the music to sing, to convey the moments of romantic bliss and sensual pleasure that the uptight Ennis Del Mar and his more daring companion, Jack Twist, experience. For long stretches, though, Mr. Wuorinen’s music comes across as a little too brainy and relentlessly busy.

That this ambitious opera made it to a stage at all, let alone in this starkly beautiful production by the director Ivo van Hove, is due almost entirely to the commitment of the impresario Gerard Mortier, who has championed contemporary opera throughout his career. Mr. Mortier originally commissioned the work for the New York City Opera after he was named its director. When he and City Opera parted ways in late 2008, before his official tenure there had begun, Mr. Mortier brought the project to Teatro Real, where he became artistic director in 2010. The Madrid company took over the project. Then, last fall, City Opera folded, and Mr. Mortier announced he was battling cancer. When he tried to steer the choice of a successor, the Teatro Real board ousted him. He is now an artistic adviser to the company.

There was no hint of tension, though, during a news conference that Mr. Mortier, looking very thin but exuding enthusiasm, held with Mr. Wuorinen and Ms. Proulx at the house before the performance Tuesday. Ms. Proulx made some interesting and pointed comments about the film version, directed by Ang Lee, especially the somewhat romanticized qualities of the storytelling, the lush scenic depictions of the mountains and the invented episodes, like the “trial girlfriend,” as she put it, for Ennis after his marriage breaks up.

Yet, in her libretto, to serve the conventions of the opera genre, Ms. Proulx also opens up the story line and, now and then, lends poetic elegance to the dialogue. In her short story, Ennis is defined by his inarticulate ways: He mostly speaks in short, stunted phrases. In the libretto, he sometimes speaks with a kind of plain-spoken elegance. After he and Jack have their first impulsive sexual experience, Ennis becomes unusually reflective: “We look down on them hawks./We look down on them pine trees./We’re like eagles, Jack.” It’s a poignant touch, matched by a fleeting burst of lyricism in Mr. Wuorinen’s vocal writing.

But fleeting is the word for the score’s lyrical stretches. As he said in the news conference, Mr. Wuorinen practices the craft of “natural prosody,” that is, setting a text to music so the words come through, something he does admirably in this two-hour opera, performed without a break.

Yet, almost continually, no matter what is happening onstage — when Ennis and Jack are seized with fear over being caught, desperate with longing, drunkenly carousing by the campfire or bickering with their wives — some fidgety, skittish, pointillist instrumental line is darting about in the orchestra. There is not enough differentiation of musical character, a lack that dulls the dramatic richness and intensity, despite the pulsing, incisive performance that the conductor Titus Engel draws from the orchestra.

“Brokeback” opens hauntingly. Like some modernist Wyoming version of “Das Rheingold,” there is a low, droning pedal tone in the orchestra, over which flecks of music emerge, swell and fade away. Whenever Mr. Wuorinen, with his keen ear for bracing harmony, allows sonorities to linger without all the busyness, the music becomes more mystical and dreamy.

In his score, Mr. Wuorinen strives to convey that the mountain terrain of Wyoming is a dangerous region where you can easily die from sudden hail, bitter cold, precipitous cliffs or attacking animals. In the opening scenes of Mr. van Hove’s simple, spare and effective production, the mountains are depicted in Tal Yarden’s vivid, flowing and ominous videos, shot in Wyoming.

The cast, to a member, embraces every chance to maximize every lyrical bit in the vocal writing. The rich-voiced bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch gives his all to the role of Ennis. Tall, handsome and an instinctive actor, Mr. Okulitch embodies the character from the moment we first see him, his cowboy hat almost covering his eyes, his stride nervous and halting. Mr. Wuorinen sets Ennis’s initial lines in a half-spoken Sprechstimme. Only as Ennis becomes involved with Jack does he open up some and sing outright.

The tenor Tom Randle brings a youthful voice and eager manner to Jack. Wiry and needy, this Jack knows what he wants and never stops asking for it, though he cannot get Ennis to make the same leap. The scenes of the two bare-chested men in bed together are tender and natural.

The opera gives Alma, Ennis’s wife, an introductory scene that is not in the story or the film. We see her bright and hopeful as she shops for a wedding dress with her mother and spends more than the meager family budget allows. As sung by the radiant soprano Heather Buck, Alma is an impulsive young woman who thinks the sullen Ennis may actually be her means of escaping ranch life and living properly in town. But she is not dumb, as she tells Ennis during a horrible fight, and comes to know the truth about him. The winning mezzo-soprano Hannah Esther Minutillo is the tough-talking, college-educated and ambitious Lureen, Jack’s wife.

Ethan Herschenfeld, as Aguirre, the bullying sheep rancher who gives Ennis and Jack work that crucial summer on Brokeback Mountain, appears later on as the ghost of Lureen’s father, who makes explicit to her in a dream, abetted by a chorus, what kind of man Jack really is. In the news conference, Ms. Proulx said that Mr. Wuorinen had suggested this nod to the opera tradition and she went along. Good thing. The scene is one of the score’s most distinctive.

As of now, the only definite plans to present “Brokeback Mountain” elsewhere are for a new production at Theater Aachen, in Germany, next season. Mr. Mortier is on the case. The final scene hints at what this work might have been.

Jack is dead. Ennis, now alone, clutches two old shirts, his and Jack’s, bloodied from a fight they had during their last night that first summer, shirts Jack kept, in secret, for 20 years. Ennis sings an emotional soliloquy. You cannot imagine the Ennis of the short story, or the film, voicing the thoughts he sings here, like “It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you.” But this is opera, and while not diluting his harmonic language, Mr. Wuorinen gives Ennis an extended passage of disarming lyrical elegance. If only there had been more such passages.

“Brokeback Mountain” continues through Feb. 11 at the Teatro Real, Madrid;  teatro-real.com.
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


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and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline delalluvia

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2014, 09:31:27 am »
Sounds really intriguing.  Wonder if it will ever come to the US?

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2014, 09:45:20 am »
Sounds like the main issue is the music, but the cast is great.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2014, 10:26:40 am »
I'd kinda like to read the libretto, to see what Annie made of her own story. That brief quotation in the review intrigues me. I see an echo, if not a direct quotation, from the story there.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2014, 11:12:14 am »
Sounds really intriguing.  Wonder if it will ever come to the US?

A few years ago, there was some talk about the opera being produced at Seattle, but I haven't heard anything so I doubt that materialized.
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Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2014, 12:14:33 pm »
Sounds like the main issue is the music, but the cast is great.

Yeah. Tommasini is saying that the music doesn't match the story much of the time. I'd have to see the opera myself and make my own assessment of whether or not the music is too "busy."
  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

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Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2014, 12:43:35 pm »
I'd kinda like to read the libretto, to see what Annie made of her own story. That brief quotation in the review intrigues me. I see an echo, if not a direct quotation, from the story there.


I read through the score when it became available online. I have been waiting with great anticipation all these years to see what else Annie had to say about Jack & Ennis. Yes, I'm interested in the music and the production itself, but that is secondary. Without revealing any spoilers, I will say that Annie certainly did add significant insights into both Jack and Ennis when she wrote this libretto.

You can find the score here: http://edition-peters.com/newsdetails.php?articleID=IN00308
  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2014, 12:44:09 pm »
I wonder whether by "busy" he means the music has too many notes?  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2014, 12:48:22 pm »
I read through the score when it became available online. I have been waiting with great anticipation all these years to see what else Annie had to say about Jack & Ennis. Yes, I'm interested in the music and the production itself, but that is secondary. Without revealing any spoilers, I will say that Annie certainly did add significant insights into both Jack and Ennis when she wrote this libretto.

You can find the score here: http://edition-peters.com/newsdetails.php?articleID=IN00308

Thanks, Milo. Unfortunately I got a message on the site, "There was an error embedding the document," when I clicked on the link.

The score itself would mean nothing to me since I don't read music, but does this site ordinarily include the libretto with the music?
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2014, 01:41:01 pm »
I could access the site, but found only the music. I don't read music either.

Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2014, 02:18:17 pm »
Thanks, Milo. Unfortunately I got a message on the site, "There was an error embedding the document," when I clicked on the link.

The score itself would mean nothing to me since I don't read music, but does this site ordinarily include the libretto with the music?

Crap. If my laptop hadn't dies on Monday, I'd download when I got home tonight, and then post the PDF via Google docs...or something.

Most editions of operas do not include the libretto as plain text. Unfortunately, you just have to read it along with the music.
  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2014, 02:35:48 pm »
Most editions of operas do not include the libretto as plain text. Unfortunately, you just have to read it along with the music.

That wouldn't be a problem. I read the words along with the music in the hymnal every Sunday, so I'm used to that.  ;D

Sorry about your laptop. I'm sure that sucks.  :(
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2014, 03:12:39 pm »
That wouldn't be a problem. I read the words along with the music in the hymnal every Sunday, so I'm used to that.  ;D

Oh, right!! Then you shouldn't have a probelm reading the text in the opera score.
  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Offline opinionista

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2014, 04:50:11 pm »
So my picture of the cowboy made it to Bettermost!
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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2014, 07:34:31 pm »
So my picture of the cowboy made it to Bettermost!

Thank you so much, Natalie!
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2014, 08:34:31 pm »
I wonder whether by "busy" he means the music has too many notes?  ;D

I'm sure if they leave off a few, it will be fine.  :laugh:

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2014, 09:19:08 pm »
I wonder whether by "busy" he means the music has too many notes?  ;D

I'm sure if they leave off a few, it will be fine.  :laugh:

 :laugh:
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #18 on: January 30, 2014, 10:34:10 pm »
Thanks, Fritz!
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Offline x-man

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2014, 10:17:38 am »
It's early days, I know, but has anyone heard of plans for a DVD of the opera?  There will certainly be a market for a DVD of the production--everyone in BetterMost will buy it for sure.
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Offline Sason

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #20 on: February 04, 2014, 09:35:27 am »
I've heard there are plans for a DVD. Don't know when or how, but I'm sure we'll find out somehow.

I've also heard the opera will be set up next year in the States. Don't remember exactly where - Santa Sumptin - someone else will have to clarify. 

2015 is also the 10 year anniversary, so those two events together could make for some great Brokie action. Just saying....

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Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #21 on: February 04, 2014, 10:17:28 am »
I have heard it would be in La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, also known as Santa Fe.
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Sason

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #22 on: February 04, 2014, 10:20:51 am »
I'm sure you're right, Truman.    My memory doesn't reach beyond 'Santa'  ;D

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #23 on: February 04, 2014, 10:54:50 am »
One of Annie's children lives in Santa Fe, so this makes sense. It's within driving distance of me!!  :)
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #24 on: February 04, 2014, 09:23:51 pm »
One of Annie's children lives in Santa Fe, so this makes sense. It's within driving distance of me!!  :)

The Santa Fe Opera is a Big Deal in the opera world, as I'm sure Meryl can confirm, so perhaps it makes even more sense.  :)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #25 on: February 04, 2014, 09:38:32 pm »
I have heard it would be in La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, also known as Santa Fe.

Which is in New Mexico, which at the time of the 1996 Atlanta olympics, it became apparent a large number of American thought New Mexico was a separate country.
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #26 on: February 05, 2014, 10:10:17 am »
Which is in New Mexico, which at the time of the 1996 Atlanta olympics, it became apparent a large number of American thought New Mexico was a separate country.

They probably still do. ...
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #27 on: February 06, 2014, 09:28:06 am »
I would consider going to see the opera in Santa Fe, just to say I've seen it.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #28 on: February 06, 2014, 09:44:17 am »
The Santa Fe Opera is a Big Deal in the opera world, as I'm sure Meryl can confirm, so perhaps it makes even more sense.  :)

Absolutely. Santa Fe has a reputation for new opera, and cutting edge productions of traditional operas. I've never been there, but I hear the outdoor opera house is just amazing. Plus they have an amazingly innovative marketing team which has been the envy of opera companies for years. They were the first opera company in the US to offer supertitles in Spanish (along with other premiums) to penetrate the large Latino market in their area...and it worked.
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Offline SaraB

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #29 on: February 06, 2014, 09:50:22 am »
Oh, definitely, Chuck. Whatever my criticisms of the opera, the whole experience had quite an effect on me - I would hate to have missed it. And I might even consider seeing it in Santa Fe too. :)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #30 on: February 06, 2014, 10:50:12 am »
Absolutely. Santa Fe has a reputation for new opera, and cutting edge productions of traditional operas. I've never been there, but I hear the outdoor opera house is just amazing. Plus they have an amazingly innovative marketing team which has been the envy of opera companies for years. They were the first opera company in the US to offer supertitles in Spanish (along with other premiums) to penetrate the large Latino market in their area...and it worked.

Ooops. My apologies, Milo. I forgot you would be able to confirm the prominence of the Santa Fe Opera, too. Meryl came first to mind, and I didn't stop to think further. Mea culpa.  :(
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Luvlylittlewing

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #31 on: February 06, 2014, 01:44:59 pm »
I hope they present it in San Francisco.  SF also has one of the best opera companies in the world.  And the beautiful city by the bay even held a "Brokeback Mountain Day" shortly after the movie aired.

Offline milomorris

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #32 on: February 06, 2014, 05:04:48 pm »
Ooops. My apologies, Milo. I forgot you would be able to confirm the prominence of the Santa Fe Opera, too. Meryl came first to mind, and I didn't stop to think further. Mea culpa.  :(

No worries.
  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Offline fritzkep

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Re: 'Brokeback Mountain' Review: Operatic Cowboys in Love, Onstage
« Reply #33 on: February 06, 2014, 06:20:08 pm »
They probably still do. ...

New Mexico magazine, produced by the state highway department, routinely runs an article "One of the 50 is Missing" which quotes from other sources instances in which the author doesn't realize that New Mexico is a state. It goes back so far that the recurring feature was once called "One of the 48 is Missing"!  :D

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