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Reviews | Testimonials | Awards
Recent DC area reviews
The Last Five Years
Magnum Opus
Closer Than Ever
Life in Death
Signor Deluso & The Women
Dido & Aeneas
Testimonials
Press:
"quite powerful..." The Washington Post
"creditably sung and amusingly staged..." Washington DC City Paper
"Director Jay D. Brock was very successful in effective stage action throughout." Allartsreview4u.com
"theatrically inventive..." Scene4 Magazine
"frothy and fun..." The Washington Post
"What's different about Brock's approach to opera is that he comes from a theater background. That was apparent in how the cast moved and communicated with each other and from what vantage point the players performed." Scene4 Magazine
"...a respectable (Signor) Delsuo" The Washington Post
"Brock employs highly effective staging with minimal means" Santa Barbara Independant
"...very strong applause" AllArtsreview4U.com
Other Artists:
"Jay helps me to fully connect with the character I am trying to portray. After that all of my choices flow organically from the character and my presentation feels genuine and natural."
-
Sarah Philippa, Soprano
"It was great working with Jay. He was a very open director and allowed me to take the time to discover my character and play with it. Even down to the wire we made sure it was right for both of us. thats how it should be."
-Eli Sibley, Actor
"Working with Jay Brock proved to be a wonderful pleasure! As a director, he brings a wealth of knowledge and years of experience to the table. While his expertise is invaluable, the personal qualities that he brings to his work make him truly unique. He contributes a warm personality, energy, and a strong work ethic, but most impressively, working with him is a truly collaborative experience. He is completely available to the actor and his/her ideas and viewpoints, which is a rare find in a director, and I would welcome the opportunity to work with him again"
- Cailtin Budny, Soprano
"Jay has helped me develop a connection with my character and a freedom to explore new possibilities on stage."
-
Danielle Lorio, Soprano
Awards
Creative Awards:
2003, Eleemosynary received “Best of” Award in the Santa Barbara Independent
Academic Grants and Awards:
2006-2008 Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellowship, $25,000
2001-2003 Dr. Theodore W. Hatlen Full Tuition Fellowship, University of California
2001 & 2003 Arts Bridge Scholar, $5,000
1999-2001 Cal-Grant recipient $10,000
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BroadwayWorld.com
(more coming)
The Washington Post (Midgette)
The Washington Post (Pressley)
DC Theatre Scene
Washington City Paper
DCist
Click HERE for Production Photos
 If you have a love for lyrics and verbal jousts and a passionate appreciation for the way they can, in the hands of a master, reveal things you think but never thought anyone knew you did, then run to Rockville before Closer Than Ever is not just farther than ever - but gone forever.
Closer Than Ever is the first theatrical child of a new company that is itself so young, it was but a gleam in producing director Jan Stewart’s eye just a year ago.
The show, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical in 1989, is Maltby and Shire at their very best. Which probably surprised them no end: Closer Than Ever is to an extent the musical theatre equivalent of one of those last-minute meals you make out of whatever’s in the fridge, freezer and pantry when guests arrive unannounced - and it turns out to be one of the best meals you ever made. (It’s a fascinating tale, but too long to include here.)
At the Rockville Jewish Community Center, the set and lighting are minimal but creatively used; less is more. In this series of vignettes about couples, the lack of distracting visual frills allows the audience to focus full attention on its often straight-to-the-heart, right-in-the-gut insights about the human condition. Three gray stone steps stretched across the stage allow the actors, whose characters are Everyman and -woman (the program identifies them as Man 1, Man 2, Man 3, Woman 1, Woman 2, and Woman 3) to approach or recede from each other as if from the front stoops of their homes. The faux red brick walls add a nice, homey touch, while the lighting makes skillful use of a half-dozen white floor-to-ceiling shears, at times casting shadows on figures silhouetted behind them who comment on the goings-on center stage.
All of the accomplished cast members, many of whose faces will be familiar to DC theatre-goers, have their own unique “moment” where they can strut their stuff - and impressive stuff it is. (A small caveat would not be out of place regarding the singing, which ranged from excellent to acceptable, so that in the opening chorus “Doors,” I was unsure whether the dissonance was intentional. Whether it was an off day for a cast member or two is unknown.
“She Loves Me Not” is hummably melodic, a song that could easily stand on its own - something the three characters who form its unlikely triangle cannot. Man 1 (John Dellaporta) regrets that he cannot love Woman 1 (Katie Nigsch) who in any case is otherwise occupied: she’s after Man 3 (Michael Grew) who ignores her pleas: he’s hot for the equally unattainable… Man 1. “My love is yours for the asking,” they sing in imploring unison to the respective objects of their desire who remain deaf to their cries, focused as they are on their own blindly unresponsive loves.
As Man 1, Dellaporta evinces an achingly innocent sincerity as a clueless but half-crazed rejected lover on a rooftop in “What Am I Doin’,” one of the many highlights of the show that gives his smooth, ringing tenor a chance to shine. On the other side of the rejection tango, Elizabeth A. Hester’s (Woman 2) sassy, snippy, snarly southern drawl in “You Wanna Be My Friend?” slaps down the unsuspecting (and similarly clueless) Man 2 (David Kozisek), who has told her he wants to break up with her but - grit your teeth here, girlfriends - still wants to be her friend. By the time Hester’s pitilessly perfect character is through with him, poor Man 2 feels like number 2. And even the men in the audience couldn’t help but appreciate the skill with which she dispatched him.
But fear not! Man 2 will be redeemed (although it gets tricky here; while the actors are assigned character identities, there’s no clear connection between Man 2 in one scene and Man 2 in another) in “One of the Good Guys,”a quietly heart-wrenching account of a happily married man who acknowledges the happiness his marriage has brought him, yet cannot dispel a naggingly insistent feeling lurking somewhere beneath the surface. Kosizek is deeply moving; his Man 2 displays a mature and wistful acceptance tinged with an irrevocable sadness as he recalls the life, the women, the excitement he could have had - that insistent urge “to shoot for something higher” that defined his youth. In the end he concludes that “whatever choice you make,” the longing for what might have been will forever haunt you.
In “Patterns,” Nigsch’s lovely, clear soprano and crystalline diction cut through the crazy-house kaleidoscope of commitments and responsibilities she sings about. From the tangible, visual patterns of household objects and office supplies to the spiritual and psychological patterns of belief and behavior, all will be ruefully familiar to women everywhere who juggle multiple roles and identities.
Nigsch also excels in “There,” a sharply observant take on the man-woman paradigm from the woman’s perspective, with Man 3 (Grew) trying his best to defend himself in a battle he fears he’s already lost, but hasn’t quite figured out why. And yet all is not as it seems; for while Woman 1 appears to hold all the cards, in the end they form a house of cards that collapses around husband and wife, with neither one the victor. You were always present, she tells him, “but you were never there.” Yet her insistence, he protests, made him “want to be elsewhere”; by the time he realized what he was losing and wanted to be there for her, she was gone.
In a final twist that could be seen as a variation on Gertrude Stein’s famous taunt turned into a warning and a lesson, there is now no more “there” there for them. Grew and Nigsch’s eye and body language is so real and so true to character that you almost physically feel them being pulled apart, while part of them - memory of what they shared, and the tiniest of hopes that there IS still something there that can be saved - does not want it to end. But they know that it must. And it will.
This show does not, however, let you sit in the gloom for long. The next number is one of the funniest: The hilariously raunchy “Miss Byrd” has Woman 3, a sweetly sizzly, kitteny Elizabeth Parsons, as a lower-level secretary in bun and glasses whom nobody notices. The “invisible Miss Byrd” sneaks off each day for X-rated coffee breaks with her boyfriend, described and danced upon the desk by the suddenly sensual sexretary in full stripper va-va-voom mode, then returns to her desk - “and doesn’t say a word.” But inside? “Miss Byrd is singing,” she crows, embellishing her song with an impressive scat that will have you checking the theatre for Ella. “This bird is singing!” Parsons has all the moves as she caresses the desk lasciviously, her eyes ready to take on all comers, her voice slipping into something a little less comfortable - think Louis Armstrong on hormones. (That she looks more like Miles than Louis makes her transformation all the more remarkable.)
Another droll bit is Woman 1’s take as the schoolteacher who explains to her class the ways we humans are different from animals (”The Bear, the Tiger, the Hamster, and the Mole”). Unfortunately, it is not to homo sapiens’ advantage: Those clever beasties, she tells the girls with the sort of self-satisfied assurance that brooks no disagreement, have got it all figured out. The females use the males for reproduction, then lose them when the job is done. Thrusting her pointer with unseemly pleasure at the motley collection of fifties-era color slides illustrating various members of the animal kingdom, Nigsch becomes at once both the teacher we admired or feared and the co-worker who gets all the bonuses.”The animals are doing what humans only dream,” she advises her students with a knowing glint in her eye. You could see the responding nods amid the ripples of laughter in the audience.
And then there are the”Three Friends” dressed in stylishly coordinated dresses who take great pride and satisfaction in the way they have supported each other over the years. Of course, as they begin to give examples of their unwavering commitment to sisterhood and to each other, one recalls a wee small something that happened to throw a major wrench into her sister’s bliss. And so, reflecting as it comes to its snarling close, not the best but the worst of us, this erstwhile tribute to supportive sisters becomes a sniping diatribe against backstabbing bitches. But don’t take it to heart, ladies. After all, things can, and will, get worse, as we learn in “The March of Time,” where all six sing of the things in their lives they weren’t ready for - “the cellulite, the jokes, being compared to my folks.” Ouch.
Of course, there are also times when being compared to your folks puts not a crimp in your style, but a lump in your throat. So it is for “If I Sing,” Man 3’s (Grew) deeply moving tribute to his father marred only by what appeared to be vocal strain. The lyrics are gentle poetry, the melody a soaring cadence, as Man 3 contemplates the piano his father gave him when he was a child, and taught him how to play it - something he did not fully appreciate at the time. (Kudos, by the way, to Amy M. Gleason, whose playing throughout the show made a mini-orchestra out of a spinet.) “If I sing,” he tells his unseen Dad, “you are the music. If I love, you taught me how.” A lovely tribute to fathers on what was, as it happened, Mother’s Day.
In a way, though, that was entirely appropriate. As men and women we have our differences, which sometimes split us irrevocably apart. But there are things that draw us together, things that are common to us as human beings, or that make us appreciate who we are, and who they are. That bring us, as Maltby and Shire would have it, despite all the craziness, closer than ever.
Closer Than Ever
lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., music by David Shire
directed by Jay D. Brock
musical direction by Ben Bernstein
reviewed by Leslie Weisman
Allarts Review4u.com.
May 9th, 2009 by Bob Anthony
A new musical theater in the area, Limelight Theatre, is presenting its premiere production with "Closer Than Ever" at the Rockville Jewish Community Center (To 5/16). It was a fine starting effort by the group with a sextet of very enthusiastic singers. Allie O'Brien presented a wonderful but simple stage set of see-though panels which suggested the "transparency" in the interrelationships of the characters. The musical skits all contained the bittersweet poetry of Maltby and Shire within lovely and pleasing music. All twenty numbers show some romantic, social or personal conflicts concluding with the positive fact that people manage to live through them all. The only fine talent seen on stage was David Kozisek who showed a vocal, acting and psychological maturation in his presentations. John Dellapora was in good voice and charming on stage but sometimes a little wooden. Michael Grew hit so many "false notes" that jarred especially in the group singing. The solo pianist was excellent but she wasn't a good accompanist as she preceded the singers rather than followed them so that she could have covered the vocal errors especially of Mr. Grew. The women (Katie Nigsch, Elizabeth A. Hester and Elizabeth Parsons) all showed too much jarring nasality although they were vocally very compatible with the opening number of the Second Act with "Three Friends" which was the best performed in the show. Director Jay D. Brock was very successful in effective stage action throughout. This opening show for this new musical theater bodes well for success in the future as the whole affair was quite classy.
September 1st, 2008 by Joel Markowitz
Life in Death-Opera Electronica. by Greg Martin, directed by Jay D. Brock
Greg Martin composed Life In Death-Opera Electronica as his thesis for fulfillment of the requirements for this degree in Master of Music in Composition at Catholic University in January 2008.
Life In Death is the original title for Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Oval Portrait, published in 1842. It’s about a painter who is obsessed with his art who convinces his new bride to be his model. Because the painter is so obsessed with his work and himself, he neglects to realize that his bride is dying- and she does,
The one act opera was beautifully sung by Bridgid Eversole as Emily-the bride, Tad Czyzewski as the Painter, and James Rogers as the Narrator and Father, who had the difficult task of singing to an already recorded track. Alison Candela on the violin, James Iacketta on the drums and other percussion instruments add oomph to the creepy and haunting score. Katherine Frattini added some swirling choreography. A special kudos to Jason Cowperthwaites’s gorgeous lighting and Rick Lenegan’s easeled set.
Signor Deluso & The Women Reviews
(click HERE for production photos)
Modest at Best, but No Less Operatic
By Anne Midgette
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Page C08
The mother (Sarah Philippa, left) and the wife (Rachel Despina Toprac) of a man (Michael Weinberg) spar over who is most deserving of his love in "The Women." (Opera Alterna)
What is the difference between opera and musical theater? Some composers will tell you that it's an opera house. That's not the view of Opera Alterna, a small new company with a mission to bring opera to different kinds of spaces around the Washington area. Example: the Capital Fringe Festival, where the company is offering a double bill, at the Warehouse mainstage, that is anything but grand. "The Women" and "Signor Deluso," both by Thomas Pasatieri, run well under an hour.
They are unmistakably opera, though, despite the small forces and the piano standing in for the original orchestration. One distinction lies in the way Pasatieri writes for the voice, and the way the performers sing. Opera is not amplified: no mikes here. Opera is also about conveying drama through music, and, even given the limitations of some of the young voices, the fact that Pasatieri knows how to make points in music comes through loud and clear.
Pasatieri is himself an illustration of how context can affect opera. These two pieces date from 1965 ("The Women"), when Pasatieri was at the start of what looked like a brilliant composing career, and 1974 ("Signor Deluso"), when he was being hailed as the next great thing in American opera. (The Washington Opera presented his "The Seagull" in 1978, with Evelyn Lear in the cast.) But the career returned to Earth; his works were seen as too tonal, facile and old-fashioned. By 1983 he had written 17 operas -- and left the field. He was making more money as one of Hollywood's most successful orchestrators, something he has been doing ever since: His credits include "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Little Mermaid" and, most recently, "WALL E."
In 2002, the Manhattan School of Music revived "The Seagull" -- which looked a lot better in an opera world now full of neo-romantic composers who are not so good at writing effectively for the voice. And Pasatieri found that he still had lingering traces of the opera bug. A result, last summer, were two new Pasatieri operas: "Frau Margot" in Fort Worth, and "The Hotel Casablanca" for the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco Opera's prestigious Merola training program for young singers.
Opera Alterna's double bill certainly showed that Pasatieri knows how to write opera. "The Women" is a miniature depicting a kind of purgatory in which a man's wife and mother fight over him and destroy him in the process. The blending and clashing of the three voices could have been quite powerful, had the voices in question been stronger.
"Signor Deluso" is an exuberant sendup of over-the-top comic opera plots, filled with effusive lovers leaping with alacrity to wrong conclusions in floods of extreme vocalism. The young lovers Celie and Leon have been separated for a year; Celie's father wants her to marry another; Celie worries that Leon may have forgotten her and faints; Signor Deluso, happening by, tries to revive her; Mrs. Deluso, spying them, decides they are lovers; and so on.
It is frothy and fun, and perfect for a young cast, though many of the exuberant arias were written for better voices than those available here. However, Daniele Lorio made a big sweet sound as Celie; Tad Czyzewski, a baritone, was a respectable Deluso; and Sarah Philippa, one of the company's two founders, was vocally apt, if a little clunky as an actress, as Deluso's wife and, in "The Women," the mother. Yufen Chou did yeoman service at the piano, holding it all together.
Incidentally, these works have some significant local connections: "Signor Deluso" had its premiere at Wolf Trap, and the first performance of "The Women," at Aspen, Colo., was conducted by a young contemporary of Pasatieri's named Leonard Slatkin.
These works will be performed again on July 26 at 9 p.m. and July 27 at 6:30 p.m.
Posted by Trey Graham on Jul. 12, 2008, at 8:39 pm
Signor Deluso and The Women
The Warehouse - Mainstage
Remaining Performances:
Sunday, July 13 @ 5:30 PM
Saturday, July 19 @ midnight (canceled)
Saturday, July 26 @ 9 PM
Sunday, July 27 @ 6:30 PM
They say: “Presenting Opera Alterna, a new DC opera company dedicated to creating dynamic, provocative opera performances, brings two contemporary mini-operas exploring classic themes of love, relationships and miscommunication. Signor Deluso is a comedy based on Moliere’s Sganarelle & The Women, a surrealist look at the problems between mother, son, and his wife.”
Trey’s take: Good for Opera Alterna, a gaggle of young D.C.-area singers who take their stuff — but not themselves — too seriously. And bravo for whoever picked the repertoire: two brisk little shorts from a New York composer who was all the rage until the ’70s, then suddenly fell out of favor — and moved to Hollywood, where he helped score American Beauty and The Road to Perdition, among other films.
The first mini-opera is the more challenging — not atonal, but dissonant, it’s set in the afterlife and concerned with a mother and a wife warring eternally over the man who’s all they have in common. But it clocks in at a skinny 10 minutes or so, and its heavily Freudian overtones are familiar enough that it needn’t frighten any but the most hardened operaphobes.
Signor Deluso, a slightly more substantial one-act based on an early Moliere comedy, is decidedly more accessible: a jealous wife, an outraged but cowardly husband, a dopey ingénue who (like the husband) leaps to dubious conclusions, and a saucy maid to set everyone straight at last — you know the genre.
It’s all creditably sung and amusingly staged, and everyone’s doing their best — down to the projected surtitles, even though it’s all sung in English — to make it as unthreatening as a Friday night at the multiplex. And at $15, it’s a fair sight cheaper than a night out with the WNO.
⊆ July 15th, 2008 by Joel Markowitz | ˜
This Fringe is all about the Music for me, so I’m throwing the spotlight on performers and musicians who were real standouts. Add your own favorites - musicals of not - in the Comments section. Let’s give them a hand!
Daniele Lorio featured as Celie in Signor Deluso
When Daniele sang the first notes of her opening aria in Signor Deluso, I closed my eyes and imagined I was in the Metropolitan Opera House. Here was a spine-tingling gorgeous voice on the Warehouse Mainstage, in a Capital Fringe Festival production! All I kept thinking was, “Leon - you a crazy man not to want to love this woman!”
Joel: Please describe Celie’s first aria, which you sang so beautifully.
Daniele: It is the audience’s look at her sincerity and devotion to Leon. Though he has been gone to Paris for some months, she dutifully waits for him, imagining the tender words he said to her almost a year earlier, before he left for Paris. I believe this is a ritual she began as soon as he left and continues, much to the chagrin of Rosine, her maid and confidante. The interesting (and hopefully amusing) part about this is that Celie sings this beautiful music on the heals of a tantrum where she has yelled at her father, who is arranging her marriage to Valere, a man who lives close by and happens to be rich. Rosine attempts to convince Celie that she could end up old and alone like her if she doesn’t go for the rich available Valere. Celie responds sharply and stomps off as she declares that she doesn’t care how much money Valere has. She loves Leon and Leon loves her. The aria begins and she is instantly transported to the moment when Leon first spoke his parting words to her:
Celie, my sweet, please wait for me. I’m coming back to take you with me.” “We’ll marry soon Celie, and live on love alone. That’s all we really need. Let the rest of the world fight for money or power. What need have we for the world when we have each other? Wait for me, Celie, my darling. And when I can I’ll make you mine. I want you, and more that that, I need you, but more than that, I love you Celie, Celie my own!”
Celie’s aria is a lovely example of Thomas Pasatieri’s lyrical writing. Each character has an aria which helps to define them. The young lovers have longer, lyrical lines that are very romantic, both in style as well as meaning whereas Rosine, for example, sings choppy broken up phrases. She is unfulfilled. Celie, on the other hand, is full of hope and possibility. The aria begins with an interval of a ninth, a pretty large one, and lilts as Leon asks her to wait for him. The phrase where she sings his assurances, “We’ll marry soon, Celie, and live on love alone,” is written just as it is spoken. It is matter of fact. In their minds this will all happen perfectly. The following two phrases are longer and more expansive as Celie repeats Leon’s beliefs that they can do anything together.
As the aria reaches the climax at the end, the phrases shorten and move faster, desperately, until finally Celie erupts into high B natural as she sings “Celie my own”.
I love singing this aria. There’s a lot of singing to do in this short piece. The soprano has to float some phrases and climb through the middle voice, wail a little, then climb some more, and wail again. It’s really fun.
Joel: What is Opera Alterna?
Daniele: Opera Alterna is a new DC based opera company founded in 2007 by Jay Brock and Sarah Philippa designed to bring a fresh approach to the art form. It is our goal to produce new and classic operas designed to engage audiences with artistic professionalism and innovative productions. Our singers are all young artists. We are committed to broadening our approach to sung drama by making the performances relevant to the audience and ourselves as acting singers. On a more casual note, we all make a great team. The rehearsal process has been hard work, but the most fulfilling, fun work anyone could imagine. The whole cast, crew, and director in this production are incredibly talented, professional, and devoted to their art form. You couldn’t ask for better people.
Joel: Where did you receive your vocal training?
Daniele: I received my BA in vocal performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and MM, Opera Performance from UT Austin where I sang as a mezzo-soprano. After moving to soprano repertoire, my roles also include Saffi from Zigeuner Baron, Psyche from Princess Ida, Gianetta and Adina from L’Elisir d’Amore, and Nora from Riders to the Sea. In December, I won the Edvard Grieg Competition hosted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy. In May, I traveled to Bergen, Norway to perform in Bergen’s annual international music festival where I was pleased to sing in the famous Grieg Hall as well as the Rekstensamlingene. I am the student of Bill Schuman (New York) and Fleta Hylton.
- Tickets: Signor Deluso and The Women
- Remaining Shows: Sat, July 19 at midnight . Sat, July 26 at 9 . Sun, July 27 at 6:30
- Where: Warehouse, 1021 7th Street, NW
AllArtsReview4U
by Bob Anthony
Opera Alterna which was so successful in its first short opera comes through with a serious one act opera and a comic one act opera...both by Thomas Pasatieri...as part of the Fringe. Both were sung in English and to the casts' credit their articulation was excellent when the surtitles failed. "The Women" was a conflict in the afterlife between a mother and wife who both claim a greater portion of the love of a son. Some work was still needed in the beginning nonsense death wailing of the three...Michael Weinberg, Sarah Philippa and Rachel Despina Toprac...but fine singing came through after that opening sequence. Certainly Michael Weinberg's baritone gave the fullest quality but the vocal interaction was excellent. "Signor Deluso" was a typical misadventure between couples...one single and one married...with a maid solving the dilemma in true Italian fashion. Think "Marriage of Figaro"! Rob Legge as the lover Leon sparkled with a fully voiced tenor that easily scaled into his upper range in creamy fashion. The others...Dominique Donnarumma, Michael Oberhauser, Tad Czyzewski, Sarah Philippa and, especially, Daniele Lorio tended to force notes so too much stridency came through. It could be that they tried to be too comic in their interpretations and failed to control their singing...not unusual for beginning professionals. Yufen Chou was the accompanist and in truly fine fashion never pushed the singers. I would love to hear Ms. Lorio do a more romantic role as she has a fantastic range. But the audience loved these two presentations with a very strong applause at the end. This is definitely a group to watch in the future. (Reviewed by Bob Anthony)
Dido and Aeneas
(click HERE for production photos)
The Intimacy of Dido and Aeneas
by: Karen Alenier
Opera Alterna, a spanking new opera company, opened Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on March 28, 2008, as it's first production. Using the intimate Callan Theatre of Catholic University of America's Hartke Theatre building, this professional opera theater company is presenting young talent predominately associated with CUA, but also Maryland Opera Studio of the University of Maryland. The goal of Artistic Director Jay D. Brock is to "bring provocative and intimate opera to new audiences." Bravo, shouts the Dresser.
LINING UP FOR OPERA
Imagine her delight, laced with a little frisson of fear, when she arrived at the Callan to see a line of people, some of whom were being told to wait because they were not sure there were enough seats for everyone. Yes, indeed this theater is intimate--only 60 seats. The Dresser is sure that among her readership who attend operas by small companies that all will agree that a respectable showing is twenty-five to thirty people.
To sum up quickly, the story of Dido and Aeneas follows these events. Aeneas arrives in Carthage and courts Dido. She falls for him, but he abandons her to fulfill his destiny in Italy. Heartbroken, she commits suicide. Purcell modeled his opera on John Blow's masque (also called a semi-opera) Venus and Adonis.
What's different about Brock's approach to opera is that he comes from a theater background. That was apparent in how the cast moved and communicated with each other and from what vantage point the players performed. While Purcell's opera has dance numbers, opera aficionados expect Dido and Aeneas to be a static work in which the singers stand and sing but do not do much moving.
UPPING THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
Perhaps some of the standard audience expectation regarding this first English opera that premiered in 1689 has to do with Nahum Tate's libretto for Dido and Aeneas. Tate based his libretto on Book Four of Virgil's The Aeneid. Critics complain that Tate and Purcell concentrated too much on making the libretto short and thereby lost important emotional content by the main characters. The key scene from Brock's production that will forever be etched in the Dresser's memory is Dido (as sung by Sarah Phillipa) chasing Aeneas (Michael Weinberg) with her suicide knife.
Talk about up close and personal. The Dresser scooted to the edge of her seat as Phillipa-cum-Dido breezed by as she backed Weinberg-cum-Aeneas into the black curtains at one end of the staging area. For a split second, the Dresser believed an intervention was needed against a diva out of control. What played oddly against the Dresser's adrenalin rush was seeing Dido "slash" her wrist and from her wrist fell a ribbon of red paper representing blood. So in that succession of actions, the audience experienced real-time danger (Dido threatening to knife Aeneas in the gut) and theatrical bloodletting that smacked of another era, maybe as old as the opera itself.
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