Search - Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater :: Daniel Catan: Rappacini's Daughter

"La Hija De Rappaccini" is good as it gets!

Leo J. Wolansky | 12/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We've had Domingo, Vargas, Cura, M. Alvarez, Villazon, and Florez, men from Spanish-speaking countries dominate the tenor world. It is now time for a man from a Spanish-speaking country, to ascend the throne as the best living operatic composer. Daniel Catan, a contemporary Mexican composer, has, for several years now, been creating operas that have been considered "too beautiful to be composed in this day and age". The rich flavor of his brand of neo-romanticism and, especially, Impressionism has a singular, haunting beauty. His use of strings, recall to mind masterpieces of Samuel Barber. His original use of Japanese shakuhachi flutes creates an evocative and mysterious Andean sound.



Catan became familiar with the story through the work of the Nobel laureate and fellow compatriot, Octavio Paz, who'd adapted it from a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The libretto itself is by Juan Tovar. The story is about a scientist, Dr. Rappaccini, who grows poisonous plants as a scientific experiment. Because his daughter, Beatrice (Beatriz), grows up in his toxic garden, she is immune to the poisons but, in turn, is toxic herself. Unaware of the situation, Giovanni falls in love with her, which creates an obvious problem for the young man. Very appropriately, the action takes place in Padua, home of one of the oldest universities in Europe, where legend has it, early anatomists built the "Theater of Galileo" over a river with a dissection table positioned so that in the event of a raid by the police, they could drop the corpse undergoing illegal dissection into the river without a trace.



Brandon Jovanovich, the Giovanni, has a lovely tenor instrument and is a most sensitive interpreter of the many flowing melodic lines. Olivia Gorra, who plays Beatriz (Rappaccini's daughter) has a very pretty color throughout her range and displays a perfect pianissimo. In addition, the two leads blend nicely. David Alan Marshall (Dr. Rappaccini) has a very warm sound and in his aria hits a lovely and delicate high pianissimo. Natalie Levin (Isabella) is solid in her smaller role. Julian Rebolledo's voice (the relatively small role of Dr. Baglioni, Dr. Rappaccini's rival) possesses an unacceptably slow vibrato to my taste, but is otherwise fine. Overall, the Spanish diction sounds very good, with only an occasional English sounding "o".



The orchestra plays well under the baton of Eduardo Diazmunoz, enabling the beautiful score to be heard. The sound quality on this live 1997 performance is superb. An informative essay and libretto are included. The translation of Rappaccini's most important phrase "Life and death" is dropped in the translation but there are no other obvious shortcomings.



Get to know the music of Daniel Catan. He has apparently now been commissioned to write an opera for the Los Angeles Opera. If you are familiar with his "Florencia en el Amazonas", "Rappaccini" is somewhat more chromatic and multifaceted. The Naxos recording of an all-Mexican cast performing highlights from "Rappaccini" and "Obsidian Butterfly" is also superb and considerably less expensive. Despite the subject matter of the story, Daniel Catan is one composer who uses dissonance not to produce poison but rather, an elixir of stunningly beautiful sound."