Word: montezuma
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Kings, queens, demons and two surprisingly resilient corpses played leading roles as three major opera premires took place in as many cities last week. At the Opera Company of Boston, the scene was 16th century Mexico in the long-awaited US. premiere of Roger Sessions' Montezuma. At the Baltimore Opera Company, it was 14th century Portugal in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's Ines de Castro. At the New York City Opera, the setting was the land of Talmudic legend in the U.S. premiere of Ashmedai by Israel's Josef Tal. All three operas were sung...
...MONTEZUMA. Some people transform a stage. Sarah Caldwell revolutionizes it. At the premiere of Montezuma, it was difficult to recognize the tiny (26-ft.-deep) stage of Boston's old Orpheum Theater. The apron had been built out 8 ft. The lower boxes had been converted into overflow basins for extra members of the orchestra, mostly percussion. Through the upper boxes paraded soldiers and Aztec natives on their way to destiny. Behind scrims and translucent screens soldiers fought silhouetted battles that suggested endless depth...
...Montezuma is about as grand as opera can get. The story is that of Cortez's conquest of Mexico and subjugation of Montezuma, the enlightened ruler of the Aztecs. In its clash of cultures and religions, and in its juxtaposition of war and idyllic love scenes, Montezuma is a powerful statement about the human condition that calls for astute judgment and courageous imagination. This Caldwell has provided, with astonishingly flexible sets (by Helen Pond and Herbert Senn) and bold lighting effects (by Gilbert Hemsley) that the Aztec sun gods might have admired. On the musical side, Boston...
...whiff of the stuff can turn contemporary chili aficionados as lyrical as the 19th century chuckwagon cook. To the true believer, a sizzling chile con carne is manna from Montezuma, a concoction of beef, green peppers, herbs and other combustibles with an aroma, as the International Chili Society puts it, that "should generate rapture akin to a lover's kiss." As hot as the dish are the arguments that simmer around its preparation. Should a true chili include beans? Tomatoes? Corn meal? Onions? Is beef the best came? How many hours -or days-should it be cooked...
Next spring she will present Montezuma by the American composer Roger Sessions. It is a spectacle of formidable musical and technical dimensions that Caldwell has wanted to stage for years. In 1971, just to get the feel of the thing, she went to Mexico and retraced the victory trail of the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez. Last week she was back again, studying the pyramids in Teotihuacan...