Pittsburgh Opera is presenting the regional premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “Curlew River.”<\/p>\n
When it comes to being inspired to pursue a career as a singer, Matthew Soibelman owes more of a debt to Sammy Davis Jr. than Placido Domingo.<\/p>\n
Growing up in California and possessing a cavernously deep voice, Soibelman had toyed with becoming a disc jockey and joined the campus radio station at the community college he was attending. But then he started spinning his parents\u2019 Davis and Frank Sinatra discs and thought \u201ccrooning might be a way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Soibelman found his way to the Juilliard School in New York, and now the 29-year-old is in the second year of a residency with the Pittsburgh Opera. After tackling roles in recent Pittsburgh Opera productions of \u201cTosca,\u201d \u201cArmida\u201d and \u201cFellow Travelers,\u201d he will be portraying the Abbott in the Benjamin Britten opera \u201cCurlew River,\u201d which is being performed for the first time in the Pittsburgh region starting this Saturday.<\/p>\n
Some of the most well-known operas, such as \u201cLa Traviata\u201d and \u201cOtello,\u201d are based on plays, and for \u201cCurlew River,\u201d Britten drew from the Japanese play \u201cSumidagawa\u201d for its story of a woman driven to madness over the fate of her missing son. The composer, who is best known for the operas \u201cDeath in Venice,\u201d \u201cBilly Budd\u201d and \u201cWar Requiem,\u201d saw \u201cSumidagawa\u201d in Japan in the 1950s and reworked it as a Christian parable. It debuted in 1964 in a church on England\u2019s southeastern coast, and it is being staged by the Pittsburgh Opera at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside.<\/p>\n
Given the nature of the production, which is sung in monastic plainsong, \u201cIt seemed like the church is the perfect place to do it,\u201d Soibelman explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurlew River\u201d is not what one would typically imagine an opera being \u2013 there are no elaborate sets and, given the setting, arias won\u2019t be belted into the furthest reaches of the balcony. Britten himself indicated in a 1969 interview with The New York Times that he was not necessarily interested in being bound by any expectations or sense of convention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have absolutely no feeling that music should go in a certain direction,\u201d Britten said. \u201cThe development of art does not interest me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soibelman counts Giuseppe Verdi as one of this favorite composers, and before he completes his residency with the Pittsburgh Opera this year, he will take on the role of Pistola in \u201cFalstaff,\u201d Verdi\u2019s comic opera that\u2019s based on William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cMerry Wives of Windsor.\u201d <\/p>\n
And since \u201cCurlew River\u201d is being staged in the dead of winter, when colds and flu and other nasty viruses are circulating, it\u2019s worth asking how Soibelman protects voice from the ravages of the season. He doubles up on zinc, and avoids some of the diversions that enchant some of his contemporaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went clubbing one time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly the opposite of what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Showtimes are Saturday and Tuesday at 7 p.m.; Jan. 30 at 7 p.m.; and Feb. 1 at 4 p.m. For information, go online to pittsburghopera.org or call 412-456-6666.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Opera is presenting the regional premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “Curlew River.” When it comes to being inspired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46793,46794,73,75,74,29016],"class_list":{"0":"post-95160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-benjamin-britten","9":"tag-curlew-river","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-pittsburgh-opera"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}