Kassandra
Navona, 2022
8/10
The composer Anthony Brandt and librettist Neena Beber team up for a chamber opera in five scenes that explore climate change and sexual harassment with Penelope Shumate (soprano), Christopher Besch (baritone), Megan Berti (mezzo-soprano), Albert Stanley (tenor) and Aidan Smerud (bass) providing incredible vocals to the affair.
“Ted-Style Talk” opens the listen with William Yeh’s flute and Roy Park’s clarinet complementing the powerful, soaring vocals in the very expressive climate, and “A Conference Room At Apollo Industries” follows with Julia Kirk’s viola and Max Geissler’s cello adding much grace to the often light and mysterious delivery that’s quite cinematic.
The middle track belongs to “The HR Department Of Apollo Industries”, which displays Alexander Garde’s percussion and Jacob Schafer’s violin making for a very mature and alluring demeanor alongside the precise, dual gender vocals, while “Various Offices And Conference Rooms”, the best selection, emits stunning vocal work amid Thomas Frey’s bass clarinet and Ting-Ting Yang’s piano.
The final track, “By The Sea”, balances calm versus tense moments, where the characters are quite eloquent in their singing, and the instrumentation is lush and dynamic.
The record is based on the Greek myth of Apollo, who attempts to seduce the Trojan princess Cassandra. Brandt and Beber tell the tragic yet familiar story of Kassandra, a scientist whose forecasts of climate change are discredited as a result of rejecting sexual advances from a venture capitalist, and it’s a very inviting meshing of opera and chamber sounds that are meticulous in both the vocals and instrumentation.
Travels well with: Benjamin Shorstein- Fantasy For Violin And Piano; The Great Necks- Impressions Of Spain