Washington Post Preview of “Someone Younger”
Octavian played by Brenda Patterson and Sophie played by Janinah Burnett. (Deborah Jaffe/For The Washington Post)
In some musical circles, a “young” audience, and sometimes a “young” composer, is anyone under 50. Yet in opera, there are plenty of signs that 35 marks the onset of middle age.
The most famous onstage example is Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” in which the Marschallin, a glamorous aristocrat, muses over her own mortality as she, a woman in her mid-30s, has an affair with a teenager.
“Rather than playing the role of Sophie as a teenage ingenue, for instance, Janinah Burnett will show her as a slightly more mature woman who happens to be African American.”
But offstage, singers who have hit the age of 35 without achieving world renown often find themselves in a bind: too old for young-artist programs, too experienced for small roles.
This “Rosenkavalier” will be performed in a chamber version called “Someone Younger,” cut by about one-third and arranged for a small instrumental ensemble. The staging will be worked out with the assistance of a director, Lee Biolos, but the process is meant to be collaborative and, Patterson says, “deal with our actual realities rather than deciding who the character is and then imposing that on the performer.” Rather than playing the role of Sophie as a teenage ingenue, for instance, Janinah Burnett will show her as a slightly more mature woman who happens to be African American. And the affair between the Marschallin and Octavian, played by Gordon-Stewart and Patterson, will gain credibility since the two women are married in real life.