At retirement parties, the retiree usually doesn’t keep working.
But not conductor James Conlon. There he was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, conducting in the pit as usual during a gala celebration staged in his honor by the Los Angeles Opera before a black-tie audience of admirers and supporters.
For half of its existence, Conlon has been the musical guiding force behind LA Opera’s impressive rise from small beginnings to its current stature as the fourth largest opera company in the U.S. The April 24 event celebrated Conlon, who is stepping down as the company’s music director after 20 remarkable years and passing the baton to Domingo Hindoyan.
The evening also celebrated another milestone: the company’s 40th anniversary.
Conlon didn’t take the night off to mark the occasion. Instead, he led a demanding and spirited program of excerpts from three operas: Verdi’s doom-laden La Forza del Destino, Mozart’s frothy The Marriage of Figaro, and Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
In a program essay, Conlon wrote that he chose music from these operas because their composers stand as “the pillars of an ideal opera company.” During Conlon’s tenure, LA Opera staged six operas by Mozart, eleven by Verdi, and eight by Wagner — including what is regarded as the company’s greatest achievement to date: its widely acclaimed first Ring cycle directed by Achim Freyer in the 2009–2010 season. After that triumph, LA Opera entered the operatic big leagues.
On this occasion, Conlon chose to present The Marriage of Figaro’s madcap finale to Act II, which builds to a bantering and complex septet in which the characters try to sort out their real identities and motivations. Comic timing and precise ensemble control are necessary to pull it off.
The pieces were performed in a concert format by the LA Opera Orchestra, the LA Opera Chorus, and singers Conlon has nurtured over the years. The singers represented a who’s-who of LA Opera’s recent casts, headlined by stalwart Craig Colclough as burly Figaro, Hyungin Son as the perplexed Count, Nicole Heaston as the demure Countess, and Gabrielle Turgeon as a delightfully flirtatious Susanna. Together, they blended into a smooth and sonorous ensemble
La Forza del Destino contains what Conlon describes as “some of Verdi’s greatest music,” requiring strong dramatic voices to succeed. Here, the excerpts came from Acts III and IV and focused on the relationship between the two male characters. Oddly, the heroine Leonora did not appear, leaving a strange hole in the action and vocal texture.
Tenor Rodrick Dixon, who performed the title role of Alexander von Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf in LAO’s 2024 production, stumbled on his high notes while singing the romantic hero Don Alvaro. As his star-crossed enemy, Don Carlo, baritone Ernesto Petti fared better. But the standout was LA Opera favorite and rising star mezzo Sarah Saturnino in the character role of the fortune-teller Preziosilla.
Excerpts from the finale of Wagner’s massive Meistersinger concluded the proceedings. Noted Wagnerian baritone Martin Gantner fulfilled the role of Hans Sachs with nobility and deep resonance, though the orchestra and chorus did most of the work. That an opera about the power of singing would have the last word in a tribute to a great artist of the medium was entirely fitting.
Between the excerpts, short videos offered Conlon congratulatory messages from friends and colleagues around the world. Among them were the company’s former general director Plácido Domingo (who received a round of applause), and singers Patti LuPone (“See you around the corner”), Susan Graham, and Patricia Racette.
Oh, and by the way — Conlon is not really retiring. “Definitely not,” he said in a video message. No doubt the peripatetic and indefatigable Conlon will be conducting operas somewhere until he can no longer lift his arms.
Now, he will assume the newly created role of Conductor Laureate at LA Opera, “a lifetime appointment that ensures his ongoing artistic presence as a frequent guest conductor in the years to come.”
