United States Vivaldi, The Seasons: Soloists, Commonwealth Youth Choir, Opera Philadelphia Chorus and Orchestra / Corrado Rovaris (conductor). Perelman Theater, Philadelphia, 21.12.2025. (RP)
Vivaldi’s best-known composition, The Four Seasons, was at the heart of Opera Philadelphia’s exploration of the connection between weather and emotion. Entitled The Seasons, the work was conceived by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and poet and playwright Sarah Ruhl. It is in the form of a pasticcio, a popular genre in the Baroque era, in which musical numbers from one or more composers are woven together to fit a new storyline. The form broadened the appeal of composers’ music by turning it into lighter entertainment with a progression of favorite arias and a fanciful storyline. Plot-wise, there was little light and entertaining in The Seasons. It was nonetheless a feast of Vivaldi’s music, especially the choice selections from his operas, which are seldom staged in America.
The Opera Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Corrado Rovaris played with rhythmic incisiveness and tonal brilliance. Costanzo headed a cast that spun magic out of the florid vocal lines in the arias and ensembles which provided the story’s artfully crafted and compelling dramatic arc. This performance, however, was memorable for incomparable musical moments of astonishing beauty and profound emotion.
Ruhl is known for shaping a libretto from her play Eurydice for Matthew Aucoin’s opera of the same name, which premiered at the Los Angeles Opera in 2020 and was presented at the Metropolitan Opera the following year. For The Seasons, she combined the arias’ original Italian texts with newly written English ones into a call to action on climate change intertwined with love stories. Ruhl’s libretto is earnest when addressing the environmental issues but not without wit. However, the love scenes, especially between the Poet and Painter, are emotionally scorching.
The story centers on a poet, a former actress-turned-farmer, a performance artist, a choreographer and a painter who retreat to a remote farm in hope of finding inspiration in nature to get their creative juices flowing. Two couples kindle love affairs as turbulent as the weather. All are buffeted emotionally and physically by trying to survive and thrive in a world where the seasons are out of whack. The artists come to be saved by nature but grow to realize it is the planet that must be rescued.
Zack Winokur’s production is simple and stark, but the imagery is powerful. Mimi Lien’s stage is often bare but never feels empty. When fires rage, the entire stage is awash in red, but most of the time, it is black and foreboding. Simple metal rods suspended from the ceiling provide texture. When Costanzo’s Poet bares his soul in despair, countless metal tears envelop him, creating a visual bleakness as intense as the pain in his voice.
Precipitation is where this production excels. Snow, mounds of ice and bubbles are conjured from dish soap. Lien conceived and developed this environmentally conscious solution in collaboration with MIT and Materials Technologist Jack Forman. The machines are visible on the stage but are unobtrusive. This visual sleight-of-hand is due to John Torres’s evocative lighting which transforms the ersatz natural phenomena into luminous, captivating imagery.
Intentional or not, there is comic relief in The Seasons. In a yellow raincoat, John Mburu’s wind-lashed Cosmic Weatherman evokes countless television scenes of meteorologists risking their lives to give a first-hand account of an impending hurricane. His singing is equally bravura.
Whitney Morrison was magnificent in one of Vivaldi’s great rage arias, proclaiming nature’s fury. With environmental catastrophes consuming the land, she was quite a sight perched on an electric scissor lift that doubled as a modern-day Noah’s Ark. Her concern that it wasn’t large enough to hold everyone prompted smiles
Costanzo, attired in a dark sweater and slacks, was a nerdy poet who fell for Kangmin Justin Kim’s flamboyant painter. The verbal combat in their lovers’ quarrel was electrifying. Costanzo – lost in a blizzard, lying alone, fetal-like, expressing his pain as softly as imaginable – was unforgettable.
Abigail Raiford’s Farmer was smitten with Megan Moore’s Choreographer, but her love was unrequited and ill-fated: the Choreographer perishes in the fire that devastates the farm. Their duet was a study in controlled emotion and refined vocalism, but there was no depth to their relationship, which was one of The Season’s shortcomings. Moore, having so little to sing, was another.
Pam Tanowitz’s choreography equaled the stunning visual elements and further amplified the emotional impact of the performance. Ruhl’s libretto is not seamless in its dramatic leaps and bounds, but music from The Four Seasons stitched them together. The dancers were at their most evocative and expressive in this music. Equally transfixing, visually and musically, was flutist Emi Ferguson’s graceful playing and movement. Giant bubbles were her only companions on the stage.
The Seasons ends with the Performance Artist arriving on the boat, accompanied by Cosmic Weatherman and a chorus of children. The final music heard was the Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (a Latin phrase meaning ‘and on earth peace to people of good will’ from Vivaldi’s Gloria). It emerged as a mournful prayer, not the joyous singing of the angels at the birth of Jesus.
Rick Perdian
Featured Image: Anthony Roth Costanzo (The Poet) in The Seasons © Steven Pisano
Production:
Conception – Anthony Roth Costanzo & Sarah Ruhl
Libretto – Sarah Ruhl
Director – Zack Winokur
Choreographer – Pam Tanowitz
Sets – Mimi Lien
Costumes – Carlos Soto Costume Design
Lighting – John Torres
Makeup – Carissa Thorlakson
Cast:
Poet – Anthony Roth Costanzo
Farmer – Abigail Raiford
Painter – Kangmin Justin Kim
Performance Artist – Whitney Morrison
Cosmic Weatherman – John Mburu
Choreographer – Megan Moore
Flute soloist – Emi Ferguson
Dancers – Maggie Cloud, Marc Crousillat, Taylor LaBruzzo, Brian Lawson, Stephanie Terasaki