Love, Laughter, and Dialogues

After the extravagant production of the doom and gloom-infused morality and reckless wreckage-and-punishment tale of Don Giovanni at the Granada in mid-July, things turn a bit frothier and lighthearted with the Music Academy of the West Lehrer Vocal Institute’s performance of one-acts. Stripped down to the bare essentials and staged much more intimately at Hahn Hall, the evening pairs Ned Rorem’s Four Dialogues – which relates a relationship from meeting to separation in just four vignettes (and songs) – with William Bolcom’s Lucrezia; a more comedic take on human nature. (Hint: nobody dies.)

While both pieces are relatively rarely performed (and almost never on the same bill), Director Kristine McIntyre has reimagined the two operettas with a manufactured connection to make the pairing seem less random and provide some manner of context for both the singers and the audience. 

How she does that specifically will remain something of a surprise, but suffice it to say the two pieces now take place over two generations in 1950s and 1970s New York. Lucrezia, a 50-minute romp described as a zarzuela riff on Machiavelli’s story La Mandragola and originally set in 17th century Spain, has an intelligent seductress at its center. 

“It’s a very funny comic send up of the Catholic Church, but also more about personal power politics,” McIntyre said. “The women in the piece are very smart at negotiating with their husbands and society. These Trixie women are going to get what they want and manipulate the situation to the best of their abilities. In this category we can certainly imagine a well-kept fifties housewife as easily as we can some woman in a fancy dress four hundred years ago.” 

There’s a suitor for Lucrezia – as well as a go-between the director compared to Figaro, who comes up with a complicated plan for how to get the two of them together.

“Many hijinks ensue,” McIntyre said. “But in the end, everybody gets what they want, which is delightful.”

Lucrezia was originally commissioned in 2008 for the New York Festival of Song. The production brings Bolcom’s art song style and Mark Campbell’s pun-laced, rhyming libretto to bear on delivering the game of seduction and love. 

“There’s all kinds of fun things, a little bit of cabaret – the main character talks to the audience a lot, which adds a clubby feeling – plus lot of Spanish-themed music, tango and more,” McIntyre said. “It’s more song than opera with a capital O, a lot of Sondheim-like use of text. So it’s great fun.”

Then we fast forward 25 years and meet Four Dialogues’ young twentysomething couple, named simply Man and Woman. The director describes the two as “terribly earnest young people who are trying to get together. Everything is to the nth degree: they fall in love instantly, and then suddenly they’re in a parked car making out and talking about the stars and burning in each other’s fire, and then they move in and have a fight and then they break up.”

The time-worn tale gets something of a fresh approach through the format. 

“It’s about poignancy in a love story, a little bittersweet because they haven’t managed to hold the relationship together,” McIntyre said. “But it’s a lovely little romcom look at love with all of its prickliness; beautifully crafted and great fun to watch unfold through the four songs.”

Another bonus? Rorem’s work clocks in at only 19 minutes. 

“We have this idea that opera takes forever, but Four Dialogues only takes 19 minutes to go through the entirety of the relationship.”

Both chamber operas employ minimal furniture with clothing design that features costumes largely selected from Hollywood wardrobe houses, plus well-researched screen projections to set the scenes. Both pieces were also written specifically for two pianos, so the staging also has the two pianos on stage nestled together to perform the score under conductor William Long.

The August 5 performance also offers a chance to see seven Lehrer Vocal Institute (LVI) singers who – other than David Khang, who portrayed Commendatore in Giovanni – did not have principal roles in the big opera. 

Thursday, July 31: Soprano Christine Goerke, one of this year’s Mosher Guest Artists, has appeared in most of the world’s prestigious opera houses including the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, and Teatro alla Scala and has also appeared with top orchestras including the New York Phil, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Phil, and BBC Symphony. She’ll lead today’s LVI master class before serving as soloist for Berlioz’s La Mort de Cléopâtre at Saturday’s AFO concert. (3:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $10)… Tonight’s final x2 series concert of the summer is titled “Cynthia Phelps: Femme Focus,” in tribute to the longtime violist, a MAW alumna (‘79, ‘83) who was principal violist of the New York Philharmonic for over two decades, and an in-demand soloist chamber musician and soloist. The longtime faculty member will collaborate with faculty and fellows on Mel Bonis’ “Fantaisie ou Concerto, Op. 72, ‘Septuor,’” and Amy Beach’s “Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 67,” which serve as bookends for Jeff Scott’s wind wonder Sacred Women. (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $50-$60)

Friday, August 1: The final entry in the new Composers in Context Series throbs with new musical creation from inti figgis-vizueta, examining the creative conversation between past and present, tradition and innovation, all centered on the world premiere of the groundbreaking composer’s “muir (ocean).” Also pairing fellows and faculty, the concert opens with Caroline Shaw’s “Draft of a High-Rise”and figgis-vizueta’s solo flute piece “fréimhe” before the composer joins the solo piano fellows to perform “muir.” Legiti’s “Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano, ‘Hommage à Brahms,’” closes the evening. (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $50-$60)

Saturday, August 2: Popular Conductor Stéphane Denève returns to MAW for the fellows-powered Academy Festival Orchestra’s penultimate 2025 concert, a sweeping evening of French masterworks, including Ravel’s “Une barque sur l’ocean,” Berlioz’ “La Mort de Cléopâtre”(featuring Goerke), Roussel’s “Bacchus et Ariane, Op. 43, Suite No. 2,” and a pulse-pounding finale of Ravel’s “Boléro.” Come an hour early for a pre-concert talk with Denève and MAW Chief Artistic Officer Nate Bachhuber. (7:30 pm; Granada; $10-125)