David Butt Philip (Apollo) and Heidi Stober (Daphne) in “Daphne in Live performance” at Seattle Opera. Picture: Sunny Martini.
Richard Strauss’s Daphne, which premiered in 1938, doesn’t get carried out a lot in america. It needed to wait till 1960 for its US premiere, in live performance performances in New York Metropolis. Its first staged performances had been in Santa Fe, in 1964.
Why is that this? The rating is attractive –– hey, it’s Strauss, what do you count on? –– however the libretto by Joseph Gregor is considerably clunky. Daphne’s transformation right into a laurel tree is troublesome to stage. And since it’s Strauss, it options not just one unattainable tenor position however two. The title position can also be nothing to sneeze at, calling for sustained upper-register brilliance.
Seattle Opera, which is struggling financially, has in the reduction of its season considerably in the previous couple of years and, sadly, has utterly given up on Wagner performances, as soon as a specialty of the corporate. To fill among the hole, the corporate has now introduced live performance variations of two rarities: 2025’s Carthage-acts-only Les Troyens, which was properly sung and performed however marred by some odd cuts, and this 12 months’s Daphne, which was nothing wanting sensational.
Daphne is subtitled “A Bucolic Tragedy,” and that it’s. The opera takes place in the course of the feast of Dionysus, and there are quite a few references in it to rutting animals (and males). The rating is bucolic; even with no surroundings, it evokes the pure world so strongly you can see bushes and fields earlier than you.
Daphne (soprano Heidi Stober) possible in her late teenagers, is extra comfy with nature than with individuals. She is clearly discomfited by males and by something to do with intercourse. Her childhood buddy and playmate, Leukippos (tenor Miles Mykkanen), is in love together with her in each sense, erotically and emotionally. She feels that he’s like a sister to her; a beloved buddy, however not a lover. (Leukippos performs the flute, and Strauss supplies quite a few pastoral solos for that instrument, all performed with sinuous, gleaming magnificence by principal flutist Demarre McGill.)
Daphne’s dad and mom, the fisherman Peneios (bass Matthew Rose), and his spouse Gaea (mezzo-soprano Melody Wilson), are leaders of the feast. Gaea needs that Daphne had been open to like and Leukippos, however, alas, it’s to not be.
Alongside comes Apollo (tenor David Butt Philip), the solar god, disguised as a cattle herder (everybody else herds sheep). Nonetheless, he can’t utterly disguise his godhood, and there’s marvel when he seems. He woos Daphne, who’s attracted but in addition frightened.
Leukippos challenges Apollo to disclose his true identification –– difficult a god isn’t a good suggestion –– and shortly finds himself lifeless, struck down by the god. Daphne is stricken with grief. Apollo arranges to have his father Zeus flip Daphne right into a laurel tree.
Apart from Butt Philip, singing his third Apollo, the entire singers in these performances had been making their position debuts. The opera’s success really hinges on the three principal roles, Daphne and her tenor suitors, Leukippos and the god Apollo.The singers in these roles had been all very good.
Miles Mykkanen (Leukippos) and Heidi Stober (Daphne) in “Daphne in Live performance” at Seattle Opera. Picture: Sunny Martini.
As Daphne, girl-turned-laurel tree, Stober sang magnificently and with majestic poise, her shimmering voice and luminous excessive register perfect for the half and different Strauss roles too. You possibly can see her Daphne recoil from the earthiness of bodily love and her love for the pure world, even with no units and minimal course. Daphne is a protracted and troublesome position, but Stober was as recent on the shut as within the opening.
The much less unattainable tenor position is that of Leukippos, taken by Mykkanen, a younger American who has had current starring roles in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at SFO and Mason Bates’s The Superb Adventures of Kavalier & Clay on the Met. His vivid voice and craving interpretation suited the half properly.
Butt Philip sang Apollo with magisterial energy and darkish magnificence, his dramatic tenor ringing all through his vary. His bearing, too, was regal. You possibly can consider that he may strike you lifeless in a second of fury.
Rose introduced an attractive and resounding bass to the position of Peneios. As Gaea, Wilson sang with heat smoothness however with much less quantity and vocal presence than the remainder of the forged; props to her thematically acceptable inexperienced robe embroidered with gold laurel leaves!
Ilya Silchukou, Martin Bakari, Micah Parker, and Michael J. Hawk had been 4 shepherds. Meryl Dominguez and Sarah Coit had been two maids. These six roles present shade and interjections with out enjoying massive components within the bigger drama, however all these singers carried out properly.
David Afkham has expertise in Strauss. Conducting Daphne for the primary time, he led a gorgeously clear and sweeping efficiency. With the orchestra on stage, behind the principals and refrain, he saved each second in excellent stability, supporting the singers and by no means swamping them, even within the largest orchestral outbursts.
Members of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera Refrain, led by conductor David Afkham, in “Daphne in Live performance” at Seattle Opera. Picture: Sunny Martini.
Members of the Seattle Symphony present the orchestra of the Seattle Opera, they usually performed marvelously. Mark Robbins, Affiliate Principal Horn of the Symphony, took on the alphorn half, outstanding within the opera’s opening, then not heard once more. Concertmaster Emerson Millar offered numerous stunning violin solos. Ben Hausmann on oboe and Benjamin Lulich on clarinet performed splendidly, their traces intertwining with these of McGill’s flute all through.
There was not a lot in the best way of staging, although David Gately’s course introduced out every character’s persona even with out quite a lot of motion and interplay. Altering Stober’s outfit from a mauve robe to a billowing inexperienced pantsuit for Daphne’s transformation was a pleasant, thematically acceptable contact. Ranleigh Starling’s stunning lighting enhanced and supported the drama. The projected laurel silhouettes had been beautiful.
Lisa Hirsch
Lisa Hirsch studied music at Brandeis College and Stony Brook. She studied flute significantly for numerous years and has sung all kinds of music in lots of choruses. She has written about opera and classical music for San Francisco Classical Voice, Opera Information (RIP), Opera, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She blogs about these topics at Iron Tongue of Midnight, which additionally consists of a lot of her images.
Although she has attended San Francisco Opera and different firms for the reason that early Eighties, her opera obsession actually began within the early 90s, when she began listening to historic singers.
