Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts first opera ever
Gotham Chamber Opera’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
Despite the heat, humidity and threatening skies, the muse and a cool breeze prevailed, so an audience of more than 1,000 people witnessed a magical performance of “La Hija de Rappaccini” by the Gotham Chamber Opera Company. This was the first opera presented at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in its 103-year history.
The Mexican composer Daniel Catan (1949-2011) and his librettist Juan Tovar based this fascinating opera on a play by Octavio Paz and a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The opera had its premiere in Mexico in 1991. This production was made possible through a generous gift from Grant and Jacqui Smith The result was an evening of haunting enchantment in an outdoor venue that evoked its setting in 15th-century Padua.
The Gotham Chamber Opera Company, founded by artistic director Neal Goren, is now in its 11th season. It has presented rarely-performed chamber operas, from the Baroque to contemporary, in various venues throughout the city. According to the program notes, the story tells of a doctor who seeks to protect and control his daughter by keeping her locked in a garden where he experiments with poisonous plants. She is immune to the plants but is a carrier of their danger. When the young student Giovanni falls in love with her, he is faced with the knowledge that pursuing that love will surely lead to his death.
Elaine Alvarez was Beatriz, and her sumptuous soprano soared in her passionate verismo duets with Giovanni, sung by Daniel Montenegro. His vibrant tenor took flight with the birds to the heavens with this lyrical and passionate score that is modernistic yet expansive. His singing of “Beatriz… Beatriz” illustrated this. Montenegro’s “Beatriz Puerta del Mundo” was rhapsodic. Montenegro’s ringing high notes, solo and in ensemble were thrilling and his performance indicates a tenor with strong potential.