(3 of 3)
Surprisingly, the most successful production was the Hindemith. News of the Day is a Brechtian satire from the '20s about an ordinary couple (Soprano Mary Shearer and Baritone William Workman) whose divorce makes worldwide headlines. It's not half the opera that Hindemith's great Mathis der Maler—a work that really deserves revival—is, but Lou Galterio's madcap staging made it lively and Bruce Ferden's energetic conducting kept the evening humming. No amount of stage magic by Director Bliss Hebert, however, could save The Rake's Progress, the most depressing waste of a good libretto (by W.H. Auden and Chester Kailman) in 20th century opera. Neither Soprano Elizabeth Hynes' touching Anne Trulove nor Raymond Leppard's sympathetic work with the orchestra could raise the music above Stravinsky's cynically pedestrian level. Strauss's Daphne, written when the composer was 72, is a tired piece, with only one touch of genius: the wizardry of the instrumental passage depicting the mythic heroine as she turns into a laurel tree. As Daphne, Soprano Roberta Alexander sang with an unusually pure lyric voice. But it's a long wait for the laurels—which will never be awarded to Daphne anyway. —By Michael Walsh