Crater Land: Nicholas Coppolo and Hanan Alattar in Il Mondo Della Luna. Photo: Richard Termine

Il Mondo Della Luna

An opera by Joseph Haydn

Artistic Director /
Conductor Neal Goren

Director Diane Paulus

Gotham Chamber Opera

Hayden Planetarium, American Museum
of Natural History

gothamchamberopera.org

 

Review by Lucy Butcher

 

An opera set on the moon, staged under the stars — makes sense, right? Two years ago, Gotham Chamber Opera’s conductor and artistic director, Neal Goren, conceived the idea to present Il Mondo Della Luna, Joseph Haydn’s 1777 comic opera about the world on the moon, at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium — and this month, audiences experienced the result.

 

A tidy 90 minutes without an intermission, Diane Paulus’s production of Il Mondo Della Luna features the best parts of Haydn’s score. It’s a rarely performed opera that contains some invigorating music that deserves to be heard. In this sound and light show, we can keep an eye on the performers — the action takes place on a small stage, and the orchestra is elevated — while gazing up at starry displays on the spherical top of the intimate 350-seat Space Theater.

 

The opera tells the story of nobleman Buonafede who’s not keen on the idea of his daughters, Clarice and Flaminia, marrying their lovers — fake astronomer Ecclitico and cavalier Ernesto — or his maid Lisetta marrying the servant Cecco. But all is resolved in a pseudo lunar world. With the help of a sleeping potion, Buonafede is tricked into thinking he’s been transported to the moon; there, he allows the three young couples to marry.

 

Philip Bussmann’s video and production design is stellar; we’re immersed in planets and galaxies and satellites, black and pink and green skies, and even swirling, snaking psychedelic patterns. Anka Lupes’s costumes are also a joy. In the opera’s first half, the performers are smartly clothed — Ecclitico looks quite the mad scientist in a white coat and black stockings, Ernesto is gorgeous in a ruffle-front white shirt and shimmery blue coat, and the ladies wear frilly, puffy dresses. When the action moves to the moon, the performers appear in outlandish white costumes, embedded with tubes of lighting, and sparkly headpieces. Three dancers wielding brightly lit hula-hoops add to the spectacle.

 

Some of Gotham’s singers are clearly stronger than others. The star of this production is soprano Hanan Alattar, as Clarice, who sings a beautiful love duet with Nicholas Coppolo, as Ecclitico, in the final act. The two seem to have an electric connection. Gotham’s fairly average orchestra is compensated by an excellent harpsichordist.

 

The lunar spell of Il Mondo Della Luna is sometimes broken: the production sags in one or two places, the ladies’ contemporary dance routines become a little tiring, and some harsh stage lighting streams over the audience early in the show. Also, the subtitles are positioned too high on the sphere (and, even more awkwardly for those sitting in the center, only on the sides). But the idea to stage this opera in a planetarium is clever, and, overall, the production makes for a dreamy and memorable experience.

 

 

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