Word: valmont
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...composer-librettist team of Conrad Susa and Philip Littell, who have seized upon Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 18th century epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses as a fitting subject for an opera. It is an inspired choice: in the machinating Marquise de Merteuil and the voluptuary Vicomte de Valmont the composer has two soulless soul mates whose knowledge of the ways of love make The Art of War look like a kindergarten training manual. What Susa and Littell have created in The Dangerous Liaisons, now getting its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera, is nothing short of wonderful...
...match of check and mate -- and mate and mate. The Marquise (mezzo Frederica von Stade, in top form) is an archmanipulator who wields her sensual allure like a double-edged sword, encouraging her lover's worst instincts as she wreaks her revenge on society. Her foil, the unapologetic knave Valmont (the splendid baritone Thomas Hampson), is a cynical womanizer who makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with one of his victims, unwisely and too well. Who is worse? The amoral rake who seduces and abandons without remorse? Or the wily temptress who sends her dark knight on errant...
...biggest deficiency, and it is a serious one, is that Susa never quite delivers the musical climax that the material demands. It is quite canny to stage simultaneously the death of Valmont and his inamorata, Madame de Tourvel, aptly illustrating their bond beyond the grave. But here, and in the final scene, when Merteuil is snubbed, shunned and ruined by the pox, the music needs to be bolder, richer; the composer must make clear exactly how he feels about what has happened to his characters as, say, Berg does at the end of Wozzeck...
...production, which will be telecast nationally over PBS on Oct. 17, is simple but handsome, relying on mirrors and projections to make its effects. Notable performances by the mostly American cast include Renee Fleming's poignant Tourvel, Mary Mills' tender Cecile (the 15-year-old girl "ruined" by Valmont's depredations) and Johanna Meier's stately Madame de Rosemonde, Valmont's doting aunt. In the pit, Scottish-born Donald Runnicles leads with authority...
Love letters may be back in fashion--in a different form. The Abelards and Heloises, the Vicomtes de Valmont and the Marquises de Merteuil of today communicate via e-mail, the technology of the '90s, not via the post, known affectionately as snail mail...