‘Lucidity’ and ‘Tosca’ Review: Sopranos of Two Generations

Lucy Shelton plays a renowned singer with dementia in Laura Kaminsky’s chamber piece at On Site Opera; Lise Davidsen stars in Puccini’s melodrama at the Met.

By 

Heidi Waleson

Nov. 18, 2024 at 5:07 pm ET

Lucy Shelton in ‘Lucidity.’ PHOTO: DAN WRIGHT

New York

Like “As One” (2014), her much-performed first opera, Laura Kaminsky’s “Lucidity,” given its world premiere on Thursday by On Site Opera at the Abron Arts Center, tackles a fraught contemporary problem. The elderly Lili (Lucy Shelton), once a renowned singer and teacher, is slipping into dementia, cared for by her adopted son, Dante (Eric McKeever); Claire Klugman (Blythe Gaissert), a neuroscientist, is running a study on the effects of music in dementia patients, aided by Sunny (Cristina María Castro), a young clarinetist. The miseries of dementia and the struggles of family caregivers are real, but Ms. Kaminsky’s 90-minute chamber piece is tidy and formulaic, only occasionally capturing the emotional devastation of this situation. The work begins a five-performance run at the Seattle Opera on Thursday.

In David Cote’s over-determined libretto, everyone has a trauma demanding resolution. Claire, once a voice student of Lili’s, worries that choosing science over music has stunted her life. Dante, who is black, gave up his career as a pianist because of racism in the classical music business. Sunny had an abortion, putting her at odds with her religious family. Each dilemma is neatly stated and resolved.

The only believable character is Lili. As played by the 80-year-old Ms. Shelton, a superb actress and a former leading exponent of avant-garde music, Lili’s anguish, confusion and moments of clarity are intensely felt. Ms. Kaminsky’s best writing is for her, deftly incorporating Sprechstimme as a bridge for Lili as she grapples her way from speech into what remains of her singing voice. Also affecting is the integration of Schubert’s “The Shepherd on the Rock” for voice, clarinet and piano into both the story and the score.

Much of the other vocal writing is unremarkable, though Ms. Castro’s high soprano enlivens the ardent Sunny with youthful passion, and the other two singers soldiered capably through their parts. The most effective moments of the busy chamber orchestration (for violin, cello, piano, clarinet and percussion) involved clarinet solos and percussion effects, especially mallet instruments, bar chimes, and a wood block. Geoffrey McDonald was the able conductor.

This being On Site Opera, an ordinary proscenium staging wouldn’t do. Sarah Meyers, who became the company’s artistic director in January, arrayed the audience on the small theater’s stage, looking out toward the house. The characters played their scenes on the apron, among the seats, and in the balcony. The musicians were positioned on the auditorium floor, with the clarinetist and pianist occasionally coming onto the stage to step in for their singer avatars. 

This setup helped put the audience inside Lili’s fragmentary memory of her life in the theater, especially in those moments when she stepped forward into the spotlight. Cameron Anderson was the scenic consultant; Tláloc López-Watermann designed the lighting; Beth Goldenberg the costumes, with Lili’s attire, including a flower-embroidered coat for the final scene, subtly affirming her diva status.

The opera ends on a hopeful note as Lili, who was also a composer, sings her previously unperformed song, “Chosen Son,” demonstrating that music reaches into otherwise impenetrable darkness, and not just for her. Yet as anyone who has had any brush with dementia knows, happy endings are momentary, and the opera’s tidy tying up of loose ends doesn’t ring true.

---

Lise Davidsen in the title role of ‘Tosca.’ PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / MET OPERA

Since her debut as Lisa in “The Queen of Spades” in 2019, Lise Davidsen has become a Metropolitan Opera favorite—her opulent, powerhouse soprano a must-hear in the works of Strauss and Wagner. Last season, she ventured further afield, trying out Verdi in “La Forza del Destino” with mixed results; now it is Puccini’s turn. Last Tuesday’s gala performance of “Tosca,” commemorating the coming centennial of the composer’s death, was not her highest and best use. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin was cautious and deliberate rather than energetic and dramatic, and Ms. Davidsen followed suit, going for subtlety rather than intense, fiery expression. Her ringing high notes were enjoyable, but her middle voice receded, nothing built, and climaxes slipped by unnoticed. “Vissi d’arte” was pretty, but unmoving.

Ms. Davidsen and Quinn Kelsey PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / MET OPERA

As Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi, Freddie De Tommaso, making his house debut, was at the opposite extreme—all blaring tenorial noise without warmth. In “E lucevan le stelle,” Cavaradossi’s farewell to life, he even inserted some sobbing effects, like an old-fashioned Canio in “Pagliacci.” For his first Met Scarpia, baritone Quinn Kelsey fared the best of the principals, but his suave, lyrical sound made for an insinuating villain rather than a weighty, scary, libidinous one. On Site’s Ms. Meyers, who is on the Met’s directing staff, was responsible for this revival of the representational David McVicar production from 2017; her clumsy staging didn’t help. Ms. Davidsen looked alternately stiff and pouty, catching fire only as she murdered Scarpia in Act 2, and Mr. De Tommaso, left to his own devices, gesticulated and posed.

With no evidence of smoldering passion and uninhibited desire, this was a neutered “Tosca” all around.

Ms. Waleson writes on opera for the Journal and is the author of “Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America” (Metropolitan).