“It is hard to imagine a more risk-prone art form than opera.” - John Adams

Of all of New York's musical treasures, none shines brighter than the Metropolitan Opera. This spring, two new productions have garnered significant attention for their gripping contemporary music, lurid subject matter, and seductive female leads. I saw both operas on consecutive days last week, and while each is musically brilliant, one production is clear and faithful to its story while the other is plagued by opaque heavy-handedness. If you've read the reviews of Richard Strauss' Salome and John Adams' Antony and Cleopatra, you can probably guess which is which. 

Not so fast.

First, Antony and Cleopatra. Adams, 78, has long established himself as one of this country's preeminent composers, with a particularly outsized impact in the world of opera. His modern-day masterpieces Nixon in China, Death of Klinghoffer, Doctor Atomic, and Girls of the Golden West each exhibit a vibrant sound palette that blends the romantic grandeur of Wagner with the minimalism of Glass and Reich. One key to Adams' stage success has been the influence of director Peter Sellars, who either conceived of or wrote the text to each of those expressionistic operas, basing them on real-life events. (The poet Alice Goodman wrote the librettos to Nixon and Klinghoffer, based on Sellars' concepts.) Whether it was Nixon's 1972 visit to China, the 1985 murder of Leon Klinghoffer, or J. Robert Oppenheimer's 1940's Manhattan Project, these were familiar stories told in plain English.  

In a departure, Adams chose to craft his own libretto for Antony and Cleopatra using the text from Shakespeare's tragedy, along with source material by Plutarch and Virgil. (For those unfamiliar with the story, you can read the synopsis here.) In his essay "Love Bites", reprinted in the Met's program book, Adams discusses the difficulties of setting Shakespeare's songlike verse to his own idiosyncratic music. 

“Every operatic adaption of a famous text is fraught with difficult, often painful decisions," Adams writes. "Composers set out with the intention of absolute fidelity to the original, but both musical and dramatic concerns immediately get in the way. It’s messy business.” 

"The boy’s voice is so compelling to us because it’s like the caterpillar, the butterfly or it’s like the rainbow. Why are we fascinated by those things? Because we know they’re about to change into something else." - Jeremy Filsell (from Gramophone Magazine)

Music is a continuum. It spans time and place. And nowhere is that more evident than St. Thomas Church, where I've been attending concerts, recitals and choral evensong services for more than two decades. For those who aren't familiar, St. Thomas - situated just up Fifth Avenue from the far-more-famous (yet musically inferior) St. Patrick's Cathedral, is one of New York's musical crown jewels, thanks largely to the Choir of Men and Boys, widely regarded as the leading Anglican choral ensemble in the U.S., and one of the finest in the world. (St. Thomas also possesses New York's best pipe organ, the Miller-Scott Organ, whose design was overseen by the late St. Thomas (and former St. Paul's Cathedral) Organist and Director of Music John Scott.)

Integral to the sustained excellence of the boys choir has been its residential choir school, which offers a fully immersive education combining rigorous academic, liturgical and musical training. Founded in 1919 by St. Thomas' (and former York Minster) choirmaster T. Tertius Noble, it is one of only three such institutions remaining in the world, along with the Westminster Abbey Choir School in London and Escolania de Montserrat in Barcelona. Alongside a live-in faculty, the 28 choristers are provided with full room and board - not to mention all of the cultural amenities NYC has to offer - at a fraction of the actual cost.

But apparently, the school has long been a financial drain for the church, consuming nearly a third of its $14 million operating budget; long gone are the days when an Astor or Vanderbilt could open up their prodigious wallets and just write a check to cover the cost. After considering a number of undesirable options - up to and including closing the choir school - the vestry, St. Thomas' governing body, decided to outsource the academic component to the Professional Children’s School (PCS)  while continuing to offer musical and religious instruction in a residential setting.

Which begs the question: how much will outsourcing the choristers' education to a private day school actually save? Some have gone so far as to claim that the change isn't about finances at all, but rather an attempt to deprioritize the boys choir - St. Thomas' flagship ensemble - in order to make the music program more diverse and inclusive, in line with the rest of contemporary society.

"As we transition to a new collaborative Choir School model," Rector Carl F. Turner wrote in January, "the Vestry of Saint Thomas Church will be making changes to its musical program, including the provision for a separate girls’ choir, a choir of professional men and women, and an expanded form of the Noble Singers through an outreach project to local children."