Opera Review: An Avalanche of Sight Gags Buries "Don Pasquale" at Opera Theatre

The actual opera recedes into the background.

Susanne Burgess and the company.
Photo by Eric Woolsey

As part of its 50th Festival Season, Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has elected to return to a classic opera buffa that was part of its very first season in 1976: Donizetti’s 1843 hit Don Pasquale. Returning as well is the director of the first production, Christopher Alden. That first Don Pasquale is hard to remember after all these years. The new one will be difficult to forget—which is not necessarily a good thing.

In his program notes, Alden says that the current production “replaces the period-specific picture postcard realism” of his original “with a more open-ended fluidity, in an attempt to conjure up a psychic space in which the eternal conflict between young and old can be seen from different shifting perspectives.”

OK, then.

In practice, that means using sight gags and other visual gimmicks to underline, reflect, and comment on the thoughts and emotional states of the characters. That’s not a bad concept as those things go . But when the music, lyrics, and singers are constantly upstaged by swarms of people in nearly constant motion, it all starts to feel less like Opera Theatre and more like Circus Flora.

The story and characters are pure commedia dell’arte with the serial numbers filed off. Don Pasquale, a rich old bachelor, decides to get married and to disinherit his rebellious nephew, Ernesto. But Ernesto’s crafty friend Dr. Malatesta cooks up a scheme to make Pasquale rethink marriage. Ernesto’s feisty fiancée Norina will disguise herself as Malatesta’s demure sister Sofronia and “marry” Pasquale in a bogus ceremony solemnized by a fake Notary. “Sofronia” then transforms into a domineering spendthrift, making Pasquale’s life unbearable. As chaos unfolds, Pasquale realizes he has been played, concedes defeat, and blesses the union of Ernesto and Norina.

Set in a “psychic space” that looks a lot like early 1960s Rome, this Don Pasquale boasts exuberantly colorful sets and costumes by Marsha Ginsberg, complimented by inventive wigs and makeup by Krystal Balleza and Will Vicarl. And my earlier comments aside, some of the sight gags did strike me as ingenious and funny.

A case in point is the absurdly large gold-colored chair, footstool, and lamp in Pasquale’s apartment that mock the character’s self-importance. As my wife noted at the time, the image of a little man with a big ego looking like a child on a golden throne is not only a good comment on Pasquale, but it also seems politically relevant. So does the Act I finale, in which Malatesta, Norina, and the omnipresent Notary rejoice at the prospect of Pasquale’s downfall while holding a “Viva la Resistenza” banner.

 

Mostly, though, it just felt like so much noise. Still, nothing succeeds like excess, as the old joke goes, and most of the opening night audience found it all quite hilarious. To steal a line from S.J. Perelman, “de gustibus ain’t what dey used to be.”

The saving grace of this production is its cast. Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, who was such an outstanding Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville last season, once again demonstrates his impeccable comic timing and big, accurate voice in the role of Don Pasquale. He punches out those low notes with ease and handles the rapid-fire patter songs with ease, despite all the on-stage distractions,

Baritone Kyle Miller is not just wily as Dr. Malatesta—a pun on mal di testa (headache), which is what he proves to be for Pasquale—but also moves with the kind of grace I’d associate with a dancer. It’s an unusual look for the character but works quite well.

Soprano Susanne Burgess has the coloratura chops for the role of Norina, along with the sass and spark needed to make this character fun. She lights up the stage whenever she appears—a good thing since Norina dominates the second and third acts.

The role of Ernesto can be a bit one-dimensional, but tenor Charles Sy brings out the tragic heartbreak of his Act II “renunciation” aria. He also makes the most of some comic business Alden has given him in the Act III garden scene. Decked out in a cheesy blue brocade tux and shades for his serenade to Norina (“Com ‘ è gentil la notte a mezzo / How soft and light is the spell of the night”), he’s the very model of a 1960s lounge singer. When Norina joins him for their duet (“Tornami a dir che m’ami / Tell me again you love me”) it becomes a “Steve and Eydie” moment that’s both romantic and risible.

Last but certainly not least for the Opera Theatre audience, the celebrated soprano and educator Sheri Greenawald, who sang Norina back in OTSL’s 1976 production, played the Notary. As written, the Notary is a comic cameo but in recognition of Greenawald’s many starring roles at OTSL over the years (to say nothing of a long and distinguished operatic career in general), Alden has elevated the role to a kind of Greek Chorus. Silently observing the action and putting in a bit of pantomime now and then, Greenawald clearly had a lot of fans on hand opening night and got a massive ovation at the end.

In his OTSL debut, guest conductor Kensho Watanabe led members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an outstanding reading of Donizetti’s tuneful score. There were some fine solo moments from (among others) Principal Cello Daniel Lee and Associate Principal Horn Thomas Jöstlein. A special shout-out is due to SLSO Principal Trumpet Steven Franklin for his lyrical solo in the Act II Prelude.

I really wanted to like this Don Pasquale. Having greatly enjoyed the 2023 Union Avenue Opera production as well as the Norina/Malatesta scene that was part of that same year’s Center Stage concert at OTSL, I know this is a very funny piece taken on its own terms and was looking forward to what OTSL would do with it for its 50th anniversary.

Ah, well. As the old song goes, “you can’t always get what you want.”

Don Pasquale runs through June 27th on the Browning Mainstage Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. More information on times and tickets for the Opera Theatre season can be found at their web site.

This article originally appeared at St. Louis Arts Scene, where Chuck Lavazzi is the founder and principal critic.

Opera Review: "This House" Has Great Bones at Opera Theatre

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon, along with librettists Ruby Aiyo Gerber and Lynn Nottage, deliver a gripping multi-generation family drama.

L-R: Briana Hunter, Brad Bickhardt.
Photo by Eric Woolsey.

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) production of This House is composer Ricky Ian Gordon’s third world premiere at company, and as far as I’m concerned, his third hit. With a libretto by renowned playwright Lynn Nottage and Nottage’s poet daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber, This House is the engrossing and often surprising story of three generations of the Walker family and their brownstone house in Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood, and the secrets it holds.

Those secrets unfold with a near-perfect mix of words, music, and stagecraft. This House is the kind of theatrical experiences that grows in one’s estimation with the passage of time. This may have been the world premiere, but I would expect to see many more performances of this remarkable work in the future.

Allen Moyer’s turntable set allows the focus to shift seamlessly between the outside and inside of the house—a fact that turns out to have an importance that goes beyond the initial visual impact. Outside it’s the present day. Inside the past and the present collide as The House, speaking through its ghosts, reveals the family secrets to Zoe, the daughter of family matriarch Ida.

A prosperous investment banker, Zoe and her husband Glenn are expecting their first child. Glenn is encouraging Zoe to reclaim and rehab the house for their planned family, but Zoe has her doubts. Those doubts come to the surface quickly as Zoe enters the house for the first time in years and immediately finds herself at odds with her mother and her artist brother Lindon over her plans.

As the opera progresses, the ghosts tell their stories. We learn how Minus Walker bought the house for cash in 1919 just as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was heating up, and how it was nearly lost during the 1930s when Minus’s ne’er do well son Percy ran up against debts he couldn’t pay and underworld connections he couldn’t ignore. Percy’s formidable sister Beulah saves both the house and Percy’s life, but at a terrible cost.

In the 1960s we meet Young Ida and her sister Lucy. Ida thinks she has found happiness with Milton, a musician with a promising career, but Milton’s affair with the rebellious Lucy has tragic repercussions. Later we encounter Lindon’s lover Thomas who urges Lindon to abandon his unfinished painting and start a new life in Spain—a dream denied by Lindon’s progressive illness.

It all comes to a head with what the program describes as “one last stunning revelation” before Zoe makes peace with her family’s past and she and Glenn look to their future together. That revelation is as stunning to the audience as it is to Zoe, so you’ll get no spoilers from me.

All of this makes for a compelling multi-generational drama given added depth by Gordon’s score, a libretto that artfully combines prose and poetry, and James Robinson’s fluid staging. Yes, things can get a bit crowded up there at times with the house full of ghosts, but that’s not all bad. It is, for one thing, a constant reminder of the inescapable past they represent.

OTSL has assembled a terrific cast of singers, every one of whom is thoroughly invested in their characters, bringing them to vivid life.

Mezzo Briana Hunter’s commanding stage presence and powerful voice are ideally suited to the character of Zoe, conflicted but with the same steely core as her mother and grandmother. You can see and hear that in Soprano Adrienne Danrich’s Ida, and with particular force, in mezzo Krysty Swann’s Beulah. All three performers let us see the more vulnerable sides of their characters, but little doubt is left that these are women with whom you do not want to mess.

The libretto describes the role of the free-spirited Lucy as “soprano (Melismatic)” which presumably refers to the elaborate vocal filigree that perfectly captures the character’s romantic and somewhat flighty nature. Soprano Aundi Marie Moore’s voice clearly has the flexibility to handle that line, as well as the power to express her anguish when her life spins out of control.

Young Ida’s optimism veers close to naïveté at first but soprano Brandie Inez Sutton never lets her go there, and her grief at the outcome of Lucy’s affair with Milton is palpable.

The role of Milton gets a nuanced and musically solid performance from baritone Sankara Harouna. Tenor Victor Ryan Robinson brings a sinuous vibe to the role of Percy that reminded me Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, living the “high life” without counting the cost. And bass-baritone Christian Pursell is a warm and sympathetic Thomas—a marked contrast with his swaggering Escamillo in OTSL’s Carmen in 2022.

The role of Glenn is small but critical to the story line, and tenor Brad Bickhardt gives the character real depth.

Last but definitely not least, baritone Justin Austin is heartbreakingly tragic as Lindon. The part is large and the emotional range is wide, but Austin more than does it justice.

Lightly infused with Essence of Copland, Gordon’s score is richly imaginative and creatively eclectic in its evocation of the music and sounds of over a century of American history. It’s filled with brilliant touches, many of which I expect I missed after only one hearing. Conductor Daniela Candillari, who collaborated with Gordon on the opera, leads members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in what must be considered the authoritative performance of this music. Her program notes on the score are well worth reading for their insights into the piece.

Greg Emetaz’s video projections and Marcus Doshi’s lighting combine with Moyer’s set to make The House the living presence it’s meant to be. Costumes by Montana Levi Blanco expertly delineate time, place, and character.

Watching This House, I was reminded somewhat of Wagner’s concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk—the “total work of art”—in which all the elements of the stage combine to create a coherent, artistic whole. This House puts a contemporary (and less didactic) spin on that model that deserves all the praise it is sure to get. Don’t miss it.

This House runs through June 29th on the Browning Mainstage Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. More information on times and tickets for the Opera Theatre season can be found at their web site.

This article originally appeared at St. Louis Arts Scene, where Chuck Lavazzi is the founder and principal critic.

Opera Review: A Frenetic "Fledermaus" Opens Opera Theatre's Season

Season 50 opens fast and furious

Deanna Breiwick in “Adele’s Laughing Song.”
 Photo: Eric Woolsey

Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has opened its 50th anniversary season with Johann Strauss the Second’s 1874 comic operetta Die Fledermaus. Previously presented by the company in 1983 as an off-season show at the late, lamented American Theatre and then as a touring production in 1989, Die Fledermaus is now getting its first regular season production. With its mix of both visual and verbal comedy and unabashed affirmation of champagne-fueled frivolity, the quintessential Viennese operetta should have been an ideal choice to kick off this celebratory season.

Unfortunately, director Shawna Lucey has elected to move the action from late 19th-century Vienna to New York City circa 1959 and to spike the champagne with a massive dose of Red Bull. The result is a frenetic barrage of sight gags, shouting, and general excess that renders most of the lyrics and spoken dialog incomprehensible and makes the projected English text indispensable. It also seems designed to draw as much attention away from the score as possible.

L-R: Jonathan McCullough,
Sara Gartland, Edward Nelson.
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That starts with the overture, which winds up being background music for an elaborate and noisy sequence in which Eisenstein and his friend Dr. Falke, returning in a state of advanced inebriation from a costume party in superhero outfits, cause a bit of a scene on the subway. It ends with Falke, in his Batman costume, barfing into a woman’s purse before passing out and Eisenstein making a hasty exit. Falke gains the unwelcome nickname of “the Bat” and plots revenge.

Now, I have nothing against a good sight gag. I still think the early Three Stooges shorts with the original Curley are a hoot and I’m a sucker for a pre-1960s Warner Brothers cartoon. It’s just that when you turn up the schtick control to 11, it tends to drown out everything else. The opening night audience seemed to love it. I didn’t.

Sara Gartland in the “Czardas”
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Anyway, flash forward a few years and Eisenstein, now a respectably boring advertising executive living in the ‘burbs with his wife Rosalinde, gets an invitation from Falke to join him at a costume party thrown by the notoriously Bohemian Prince Orlofsky at his Greenwich Village nightclub. Eisenstein jumps at the chance for a last fling before reporting to the city jail for an eight-day disorderly conduct sentence.

Unknown to Eisenstein, Falke plans to use the party as cover for a bit of revenge for the preshow incident on the subway. Unknown to both of them Rosalinde and her maid Adele, bored with suburban life, plan to be there as well. Everyone is disguised and mistaken identities abound, but it all ends happily with a rousing paean to champagne.

Kelsey Lauritano. Photo: Eric Woolsey

>My complaints about the high level of audiovisual noise aside, this Fledermaus is exceptionally well sung, given the non-stop movement the director has given the singers. Soprano Deanna Breiwick scintillates as Adele, the chambermaid who dreams of an acting career and disguises herself as one in the Act II costume ball. Her flawless delivery of “My Lord Marquis” (a.k.a. “Adele’s Laughing Song”) and her Act III “Ever since I was a baby,” in which she touts her abilities as an actress, are reminders of why the New York Times once dubbed her a “vocal trapeze artist.”

Soprano Sara Gartland makes a striking OTSL debut as Rosalinde, still carrying a torch for her former lover and singing teacher Alfred (tenor Joshua Blue, in a fine comic cameo). Disguised as a Hungarian in Act II she delivers a striking and sinuous “Voice of my homeland” (a.k.a the "Czardas"). It’s staged as a striptease number here which, while appropriately lubricious, can be a bit distracting.

L-R: Sara Gartland, Joshua Blue,
Robert Mellon. Photo: Eric Woolsey

Mezzo Kelsey Lauritano is a wonderfully excessive Count Orlofsky, knocking back vodka shots and exquisitely bored by everything. One of the great operatic “pants” roles, Orlofsky is a comic license to kill, and Lauritano makes the most of it.

Baritone Edward Nelson, another Opera Theatre first-timer, brings a strong, flexible voice and fine comic sense to the role of Eisenstein. Baritone Jonathan McCullough romps through the role of Falke, vocally commanding and gleefully weaving his web of comic revenge. Baritone Robert Mellon, a familiar figure on local opera stages, proves once again that he is a dab hand at comedy as the befuddled Frank, who comes to arrest Eisenstein and winds up with a disguised Alfred instead.

Rounding out this fine cast are mezzo Sophia Baete as Adele’s sister Sally, tenor Gregory V. Sliskovich as Eisenstein’s inept lawyer Dr. Blind, and actor Oscar Olivo in the non-singing roles of Orlofsky’s valet Ivan and the inebriated jailer Frosch. Olivo is a gifted physical comic but has apparently been directed to deliver all his lines at maximum volume and speed. That makes his long Act III monolog about using disapproving grandmothers as a crime-fighting tool (a substitution for a much shorter bit in the original libretto) a fairly tedious business.

Photo: Eric Woolsey

Conductor George Manahan conducts a lively rendition of the score. Seán Curran’s choreography was nicely tailored to the abilities of the performers. Sets and costumes by Robert Innes Hopkins were appropriately cartoonish, including an Act I kitchen that looks like The Jetsons viewed through a migraine aura and a Las Vegas–cheesy Act II nightclub.

Ultimately, my real issue with this Fledermaus is not so much the concept itself as the execution (I use the word advisedly) of that concept. The parallels between fin de siècle Vienna and 1950s New York are shaky but properly done this could have been fun—which it apparently was for most of the opening night audience. For me, though, it came across as a loud, incoherent assault. If you like your comedy “fast and furious” you might appreciate this Fledermaus. Personally, I plan to go back and watch the rest of the Vienna State Opera version on YouTube.

Die Fledermaus runs through June 28^th in rotating repertory with the other three operas on the Browning Mainstage at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Visit the OTSL web site for details.

This article originally appeared at St. Louis Arts Scene, where Chuck Lavazzi is the founder and principal critic.

Opera Review: "That infernal nonsense 'Pinafore'" gets a colorful staging at Winter Opera

I don’t know about you, but I could sure use some good laughs right about now. Fortunately, Winter Opera is serving up a heaping helping of them this weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 8 and 10) with a jolly good production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore or The Lass That Loved a Sailor.” It’s impeccably sung, credibly acted, and smartly turned out in an ensemble of colorful costumes (Jen Blum-Tatara) and cheerfully cartoonish set (the ubiquitous Scott Loebl).

Gary Moss and ensemble
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

Yes, Stage Director John Stephens has the Sight Gag Meter turned up to 11, which I occasionally found annoying when I saw the final dress rehearsal Wednesday night. But perhaps that was partly due to the psychic hangover from Tuesday night. It is, in any case, no reason for you not to go and enjoy this tasty little pre-Thanksgiving treat—especially if, like me, you find yourself perpetually starving for more Savoyard silliness here in Mound City.

Winter Opera has been at the forefront of bringing back operetta classics for several years now, and while a couple of the works in question have definitely passed their “sell by” dates, most of them have been delights. And the combination of Sullivan’s irresistible music and Gilbert’s pointed (and sometime still startlingly relevant) satire never fails to amuse.

As is often the case, Winter Opera has assembled a stellar cast of (mostly) WOSTL regulars.

As Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty who firmly believes that his privileged birth makes him a stable genius who women find irresistible (the “startlingly relevant” part), baritone Gary Moss demonstrates once again the vocal and comedic strengths that have made him a familiar face at WOSTL. Baritone Jacob Lassetter, whose stentorian tones distinguished Union Avenue Opera’s “Pinafore” in 2018, is a proper mix of authority and befuddlement as Captain Corcoran.

Brian Skoog and Brittany Hebel
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

Brian Skoog makes an impressive WOSTL debut as Ralph Rackstraw, the sturdy sailor in love with Corcoran's daughter Josephine. His clear tenor and relentlessly cheerful approach to the role could not be better. Soprano Brittany Hebel, who was utterly winning in WOSTL’s “Naughty Marietta” back in March, scores another hit as Josephine. The lead soprano in fin de siècle operetta, as I wrote back then, was typically a role that called for solid top notes and vocal flexibility. Hebel has all that along with a fine comic sense. Much as I hate to suggest yet another production of G&S’s “Pirates of Penzance,” I sure would like to see what she’d do with the role of Mabel.

In another fine WOSTL debut, mezzo Emily Harmon has given the role of Little Buttercup (whose Deep Secret is one of the most shamelessly ludicrous examples of Gilbert’s “topsy-turvy” plot devices) a lively sense of playfulness, particularly in her “Things are seldom what they seem” duet with Lassetter in Act II.

Jacob Lassetter (C), Joel Rogier (R) and chorus
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

Bass-baritone Tyler Putnam punches out the ineptly villainous Dick Deadeye’s low notes with ease. Joel Rogier, a familiar face and voice on local stages, gets a welcome chance to show off his powerful lower register as the stalwart Bill Bobstay. And the multi-talented Janelle Pierce (composer, conductor, educator, and more) proves that she’s also a solid singing actress as Cousin Hebe.

Scott Schoonover—best known as the Artistic Director and Conductor of Union Avenue Opera—leads the 20-piece orchestra in a crisp if (at least to my ears) strangely re-orchestrated version of the score. As is often the case, he’s also the chorus master, and the quality of his work shows in the musical power of the small but mighty chorus. Sullivan loved to write interlocking counter melodies for the chorus (my favorite is still “When the foeman bears his steel” in “Pirates”) and these singers delivered them with wonderful clarity.

Emily Harmon and chorus
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

In fact, “wonderful clarity” describes all of the singing in this “Pinafore.” The English supertitles are there if you need them, but based on what I heard Wednesday night it’s not likely that you will. How nice to hear all of Gilbert’s wonderfully elaborate jokes so well.

Performances of “H.M.S. Pinafore” are Friday, November 8, at 7:30 pm and Sunday, November 10, at 2 pm at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. It’s a shame that Winter Opera’s runs are so brief, but that’s all the more reason to catch them when you can. Check out their website for more information.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Review: Union Avenue's "Carmen" gets Season Thirty off to a strong start

Union Avenue Opera is opening its 30th season with Bizet's "Carmen," a venerable work which, according to a New York Times article from some years back, is the fourth most-performed opera in North America.  And why not?   It has drama, it has some of Bizet’s most memorable and therefore most popular melodies and last – but most definitely not least – it has sex.

Joel Balzun
Photo: Dan Donovan

No, it’s not R or even PG sex, but when Carmen sings the famous "Habanera" while sinuously gyrating around army corporal Don Jose, there’s not much room for doubt what everybody is thinking of when they’re singing about l’amour.  The theatrical vitality of a production of “Carmen” hinges on the ability of the mezzo in the title role can convince the audience that she’s so utterly irresistible that she can entice a straight arrow like Don Jose to abandon the military life and join Dancaïre and his merry bandit band.

Mezzo Elise Quagliata, whose resume includes roles as diverse as Fricka and Sister Helen Prejean, is a slinky, seductive, dangerous Carmen. She’s completely believable as the most desirable woman in Seville and has a big voice to go with it. "Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!" ("If you love me, beware") indeed.

Meroë Khalia Adeeb
Photo: Dan Donovan

Her chemistry with baritone Joel Balzun’s swaggering, supremely self-confident toreador Escamillo is palpable.  Balzun has a booming voice that they could probably hear out on Delmar on opening night. He completely dominates the stage during the familiar Toreador song in Act II.

There are stellar performance in the supporting cast as well. Micaëla, for example, far too often comes off as a simpering victim. Not so in soprano Meroë Khalia Adeeb’s performance, which adds  some backbone to the character.

Mezzo Holly Janz and soprano Gina Galati (General Director of Winter Opera) are in very much the same league as Carmen’s friends Mercédès and Frasquita. Their voices blend perfectly in the Act III fortune-telling number (“Mêlons! – Coupons!”) as they shuffle (“Mêlons”) and cut (“Coupons”) the cards to reveal increasingly fanciful versions of their futures. Baritone Jacob Lasetter is properly cynical at the ethically flexible Lieutenant Zuniga.

As Don Jose, Brendan Tuohy is vocally solid, as he demonstrated in his Act II “Flower Song” ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"), but overall his character lacks passion. I didn’t see the journey from loyal soldier in Act I to delusional killer in Act IV, and without that Jose can come across as more pathetic than tragic.

Holly Janz, Marc Schapman, Elise Quagliata,
Xavier Joseph, and Gina Galati
Photo: Dan Donovan

The orchestra has never sounded better under Scott Schoonover's baton and the chorus is, as always, first rate. Marc Freiman’s stage direction is straightforward and keeps the action moving without drawing attention to itself.

Viewed from a contemporary standpoint, the libretto of “Carmen,” based as it is on an 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée, clearly looks sexist and, in its treatment of “gypsy” subculture, a tad racist. Attempts to update the opera and somehow modernize the characters tend, in my experience, to create more problems than they solve. Treating “Carmen” as the period piece that it is dodges those bullets and, ultimately, make it easier to enjoy the experience of seeing it. Especially when it’s done this well.

The bottom line is that this is, hands down, the best “Carmen” we have had locally in over a decade. Performances are in French with English supertitles and conclude this Friday and Saturday, July 12th and 13th, at 8 pm at the Union Avenue Christian Church in the Central West End. Don’t miss it.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Review: Opera Theatre's 2024 Center Stage concert is a fitting tribute to the company's founder

Tuesday night (June 25th) Opera Theatre of St. Louis presented the ninth edition of its justly celebrated “Center Stage” concert.  I was looking forward to this year’s annual showcase of opera and musical theatre selections for two reasons.

[Watch my interviews with Patricia Racette. and Daniela Candillari on Chuck's Culture Channel]

First, the performances by the young singers from the Richard Gaddes Festival Artists and Gerdine Young Artists programs have been consistently excellent since I started attending these concerts in 2019.

David Wolfe
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Second (and every bit as important) is the fact that they are backed up by the full St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO). In the past, the orchestra has worked under a series of guest conductors. That changed in 2022 when OTSL appointed their first-ever Principal Conductor, Daniela Candillari—thereby providing a continuity of musical leadership that is cause for applause.

I was not disappointed. Once again, the evening was immensely entertaining, with a wide variety of music and excellent performances all the way around.

Working in the limited space in front of the nearly 80-piece orchestra on the Loretto-Hilton stage, directors Ian Silverman, Olivia Gacka, and James Robinson, and Artistic Director of Young Artist Programs Patricia Racette, provided enough staging for dramatic context while still maintaining a brisk pace.

L-R: Madeleine Lyon, Brad Bickhardt
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Rather than go into details on every number (which would tax both your patience and my memory) I’m going to concentrate on what were, for me, the more notable moments (your mileage may vary). For inquiring minds who want to know, you’ll find the complete program below.

The evening got off to an energetic start with, appropriately enough, a Prologue—specifically the one from “Pagliacci” as baritone David Wolfe, in the role of the clown Tonio, took the stage to welcome the audience. It was a funny, captivating performance.

Wolfe’s Tonio stood in stark contrast with his dark and vengeful Rigoletto in the Act III quartet from the Verdi opera of the same name.  Soprano Laura Santamaria was a tragic Gilda, the naive daughter of Rigoletto who remains smitten by the Duke (played with cynical assurance by tenor Brad Bickhardt) even as she and her father, concealed in the shadows, watch him seduce Maddalena, sister of the assassin Sparafucile. Mezzo Madeleine Lyon was a cheerfully flirtatious Maddalena.

L-R: Elijah English, Luke Elmer
Photo: Eric Woolsey

This has been a good season for countertenors, as Luke Elmer and Elijah English demonstrated in “Hark! How the Songsters of the Grove” from the masque “Timon of Athens” by Henry Purcell. The song demands (and got) virtuoso close harmony as the singers mimicked birdsong, accompanied by flutes and harpsichord. The harpsichord was virtual (Peter Henderson on the synthesizer), the flutes were real (Matthew Roitstein, Andrea Kaplan, and Jennifer Nitchman), and the results were delightful.

Soprano Jouelle Roberson was Cio-Cio-San (a.k.a. Butterfly) and mezzo Michelle Mariposa her long-suffering friend Suzuki in “Il cannone del porto,” from Act II of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”. It’s the scene in which the two adorn the house with flowers in anticipation of the feckless Pinkerton’s long-awaited return. It’s one of the more heartbreaking moments in opera, delivered with all the tragedy one would wish. Cio-Cio-San is one of the most tragic and sometimes most annoying characters in 19th century Italian opera. Roberson let us see the pure tragedy.

L-R: Michelle Mariposa, Jouelle Roberson
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The course of true love runs more smoothly in Act II of Richard Strauss’s “Arabella” as the wealthy Mandryka (baritone Titus Muzi III), smitten with the title character (soprano Kathleen O’Mara), tells her of a custom in his country in which a woman offers her fiancé a glass of water as a love token—to which the equally smitten Arabella happily agrees. Muzi and O’Mara—this year’s Gaddes Festival Artists—sang this lush, rapturous music beautifully.

Wrapping up the first half of the evening was the Act III finale of Offenbach’s “Les contes d’Hoffmann.” Tenor David Eatmon was the foolishly passionate Hoffman, so entranced by the courtesan Giulietta (soprano Chase Sanders) that he lets her steal his reflection, much to the delight of the evil Dr. Dapertutto (a menacing performance by bass-baritone Justin Ramm-Damron). Hoffman’s friend Nicklausse (Lyon), the appropriately named Schlemil (bass-baritone Jared Werlein), and the dwarf Pitichinaccio (tenor Hakeem Henderson) look on helplessly as the music rises to a powerful climax, with the soloists and chorus singing their hearts out.

L-R: Jared Werelein, Justin Ramm-Damron, 
Chase Sanders, Devin Eatmon, Madeleine Lyon,
Hakeem Henderson
Photo: Eric Woolsey

It was a thrilling moment, just as Offenbach intended.

Candillari and the orchestra kicked off the second half of the concert with a sizzling reading of the overture from the operetta “Gräfin Mariza” (“Countess Mariza”) by Hungarian-born Emmerich Kálmán (1882–1953), one of the many composers who kept the flame of classic Viennese operetta burning well into the early 20th century. They’re all mostly forgotten these days, at least in the English-speaking world, but this lively batch of tunes, in which the csárdás plays a prominent role, is a reminder of why they were so popular in their day.

Violetta’s death scene from “La traviata” is one of Verdi’s great tear jerkers. It begins with Alfredo (tenor Brad Bickhardt) pleading with Violetta (soprano Jennifer Kreider) to leave Paris (“Parigi, o cara”), unaware of just how close she is to death. Verdi’s music is aware, though, as Violetta’s rising and falling vocal line contrasts with Alfredo’s impassioned legato. Bickhardt and Kreider squeezed every bit of pathos out of this, under the masterful direction of Racette.

L-R: Patrick Wilhelm, Georgia Belmont
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Comic relief followed in the “Duo de la mouche” (“The Fly Duet”) from Offenbach’s satirical “Orphée aux enfes” (“Orpheus in the Underworld”). Eurydice, in this version, is seduced by Jupiter, who is disguised as a fly so that he can slip through the keyhole into her boudoir. It’s quite an accomplishment since, when he isn’t addressing the audience in asides, his disguise limits his dialogue to buzzing (“Zi-zi-zi”). Soprano Georgia Belmont was the easily-persuaded Eurydice and baritone Patrick Wilhelm was Jupiter, attired in a fancifully silly fly costume. Hilarity ensued, along with some great singing (and buzzing).

Racette also directed the showpiece “Carceleras” ("The Prisoners' Song") from the zarzuela “Las hijas del Zebedeo” (“The Daughters of Zebedeo) by Ruperto Chapí (1851–1909), Spanish master of the form (he wrote 15, plus a few operas). The title notwithstanding, this spicy and quintessentially Spanish number is all about Luisa (mezzo Gabriela Linares) enumerating the outstanding qualities of her lover Arturo. Linares delivered a scintillating performance, complete with some nice dance moves.

Gabriela Linares
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Not all operatic finales are tragic, as demonstrated by the trio “Marie Thérese! Hab’ mir’s gelobt” (“Marie Thérese! I have promised myself”) which begins the last scene of Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier”. In it, the Marschallin (O’Mara) realizes that the time has finally come to release her teenage lover Octavian (Mariposa), the titular Cavalier of the Rose, from his promises so he can marry his true love Sophie (Belmont). This trio, along with the duet for Sophie and Octavian that follows, constitutes one of the most sublime examples of writing for women’s voices in all of opera. All three performers did it full justice; brave!

L-R: Kathleen O'Mara, Michelle Mariposa,
Georgia Belmong
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The concert closed, as it always does, with some numbers from Broadway musicals. This time, though, there was an additional (and delightful) surprise—two Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs. Jared Werlein and baritone Joseph O’Shea dashed the tongue-twister lyrics of “When I Go Out of Door” from “Patience” with impressive precision while throwing in a Vaudeville-style dance duet. Titus Muzi III returned, this time with the full ensemble, for a hilarious “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.” Director James Robinson included a bit added for Joseph Papp’s 1980 Public Theatre production in which the conductor dares the Major General to repeat the final chorus “really fast.” Which, needless to say, Muzi did, with panache.

From Broadway, we had a first-rate “Fugue for Tinhorns” from “Guys and Dolls” and an equally fine “Together Wherever We Go” from “Gypsy” with mezzo Sophia Baete and a commanding Mama Rose. The pick of the litter, though, was “Make Our Garden Grow,” the harmonically rich finale from Bernstein’s often-revised 1956 musical-cum-operetta “Candide”—and also the finale of the concert.

L-R: Joseph O'Shea, Jared Werelein
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Musically, this is Bernstein at his most ecstatic, growing from a simple duet for Candide (tenor Levi Adkins) and Cunegonde (Belmont) into an overwhelming wall of vocal harmony (including a killer a cappella interlude) with just enough contrapuntal and harmonic complexity to give it a bit of spice. I could not have asked for a better way to close this stunning showcase of young operatic talent. Congratulations to everyone involved, including any singers I have missed. You were all terrific, trust me. I just wish this annual event could run for more than one night.

While we’re on the topic, a footnote regarding OTSL’s Young Artist Programs is perhaps in order.

The full company in the Candide finale
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Gerdine Young Artists is an intensive nine-week professional development program for rising young singers that includes master classes, extensive vocal coaching, and performances in both the OTSL chorus and supporting roles in the festival season.

Admission is highly selective. This season only 28 of over 1100 applicants who submitted video auditions made it into the program. Add in the two performers who were admitted to the Gaddes Festival Artists program—an honor reserved for “exceptionally remarkable young singers”—and you have quite the all-star lineup.

This year’s Gaddes Festival singers were baritone Titus Muzi III and soprano Kathleen O’Mara. If you saw Muzi in this year’s “La Bohème” or last year’s “Tosca” or O’Mara’s Lucia (from “Lucia di Lammermoor”) or Marguerite (from “Faust”) at least year’s concert, I think you’ll agree that they fully deserve to be called “exceptionally remarkable”.

Christine Brewer
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The Gaddes Festival Artists program was named after OTSL’s founder Richard Gaddes, who died last December at the age of 81. This year’s concert, as a result, included fond remembrances of Gaddes from OTSL General Manager Andrew Jorgensen, Artistic Director James Robinson, and celebrated OTSL alumna Christine Brewer. As part of her tribute Brewer and pianist Kirt Pavitt gave us a moving performance of the 1934 song “When I Have Sung My Songs” by Ernest Charles (1895–1984), which Gaddes had requested she sing, as a memorial.

Added to the 22 other musical numbers, the tributes to Gaddes made this one of the longer programs, but only a die-hard curmudgeon (which I am not) could object to such heartfelt sentiments about the man who made OTSL possible. Besides there was, as usual, so much musical variety and so many strong performances that it hardly mattered.

The Opera Theatre season is over now, but the 2025 season has already been announced. Check the OTSL web site for details.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Review: Days of future passed

When Philip Glass and his librettists Mary Zimmerman and poet Arnold Weinstein premiered their opera “Galileo Galilei” at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2002, the story of a scientist threatened with prison and death by a theocratic police state might have seemed comfortably distant. Now, with one of our two major parties under the control of religious fanatics openly advocating dictatorship, the past is starting to look like prologue. When James Robinson, director of the new production of “Galileo Galilei” at Opera Theatre through June 29th, writes in his program note that “it’s remarkable to consider just how resonant Galileo’s personal and professional struggles are today,” he is merely pointing out the obvious.

[Listen to the opera on Spotify.]

Paul Groves
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That said, neither Glass and his team nor Robinson made this a work of Brechtian didacticism (just as well, since Brecht did that himself in 1938, 1947, and 1955). Even though the opera tells the story of the persecution and character assassination of Galileo Galilei in reverse order and employs a plethora of Brechtian, sod-the-fourth-wall devices, it is nevertheless an intensely personal work, with strongly drawn characters.

Both the opera and OTSL’s staging are designed to pull the audience in and create an emotional bond with the title character. In this, it largely succeeds, with the possible exception of a few scenes in the middle that concentrate on Galileo’s then-controversial ideas.

The opening scenes—in which a blind Galileo nearing the end of his life, recalls the kangaroo court that convicted him, his coerced recantation, and a letter from his daughter Sister Maria Celeste (who continued to support him despite being a cloistered nun)—are consistently moving. The trial and recantation scenes are also chilling in their depiction of the monstrous evil that results from the union of Church and State.

L-R: Jared Werlein, Elijah English
Robert Mellon, Paul Groves
Photo: Eric Woolsey

What really brought the opening night audience to its feet, I think, is the brilliantly written final scene. Here the elderly Galileo joins Galileo the adult and Galileo the child to watch a fictional opera by his father Vincenzo (who was mostly a lutenist and musical theorist rather than a composer) about the mythical hunter Orion. In this G-rated version of the story (there are a LOT of others), Orion is blinded by the treacherous king Oenopion for wooing his daughter Merope but has his sight restored by Eos, Goddess of the Dawn. Orion’s story becomes Galileo’s. Thus the final chorus refers to both of them:

Immortal now he lies among the stars
Immortal now in his home in the skies
Untouched by earthly fear

Robinson and his production team have done a stunning job of bringing all this to the OTSL stage. Lighting Designer Eric Southern and Video Projections Designer Greg Emetaz combine to turn Allen Moyer’s relatively simple set (essentially a false proscenium on a turntable) into everything from a Venetian canal to vision of Galileo’s heliocentric universe to, finally, a stage-filling view of the Milky Way. Marco Piemontese’s costumes add subtle touches, like putting the Pope and his cardinals in dark glasses—suggesting that they, not Galileo, are the ones who are blind.

The whole thing is just a feast for the eyes (see all the images at the OTSL web site preview gallery), to say nothing of the ears.

Vanessa Beccera
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Philip Glass doesn’t have a reputation as a melody maker, but he can turn out his share of “ear worms” if he has a mind to do so. He clearly did here, for while the singers have (mostly) lines that approach recitative in their fidelity to speech patterns, the orchestra is spinning memorable themes out of Glass’s trademark repetition of melodic cells and relentless rhythmic energy. It's a score that demands to be heard more than once, which is why I have provided a link to the Baltimore Opera recording on Spotify.

Remarkably, he achieves all this with a small ensemble: three woodwinds (flute/piccolo, clarinet, bassoon), three brasses (horn, trumpet, trombone), three strings (violin, viola, cello), two percussionists, and two keyboard players—one of whom is on the synthesizer. In a kind of aural prestidigitation, the resulting sound is bigger than you’d expect. It sounds like a difficult score to play (conductor Dennis Russel Davies, with tounge firmly in cheek, once described it as "too easy for the amateur and too difficult for the professional") and a much harder one to sing.

“It’s fiendishly difficult for singers,” observed Cincinnati Conservatory professor Greg Eldridge, “and the big rule for them is to count.” That’s because the vocal line is often untethered to the orchestra. “Because it’s so hypnotic and trance-like,” said soprano Vanessa Beccera (who sings the role of Maria Celeste) in an interview for St. Louis Public Radio, “it’s easy to lose your spot and not know if you’re on the third beat or the first beat. You have to just ride the wave.”

Paul Groves and the ensemble
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That she clearly did, both in Scene 3 (“Pears”)—a long aria based on the real Maria Celeste’s letters to her father—and Scene 10, in which she plays the sight-restoring Eos. Her voice floats like moonlight over the band.

As Older Galileo, blind and under house arrest, tenor Paul Groves gives us a moving portrayal of a man struggling with the conflict between his faith and what he knows to be true and wondering if his blindness isn’t some sort of divine punishment. The scenes of his confrontations with the Inquisition are harrowing.

As the two-faced Cardinal Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII), who supports Galileo until the latter becomes too hot to handle, bass-baritone Hunter Enoch shows the same vocal power and credible acting that highlighted his repellent Scarpia in “Tosca” last season. The scene in which Barberini casually describes having all the birds in his garden killed because they disturbed his sleep is the perfect distillation of the character’s casual cruelty.

L-R: Vanessa Beccera, Sean Michael Plumb
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Baritone Sean Michael Plumb carries a substantial amount of the opera’s weight as Younger Galileo and does so with a youthful confidence that counterpoints Older Galileo’s despair. He’s also Salvati, Galileo’s mouthpiece in his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, forcefully making the case for the heliocentric universe against the dogged incomprehension of Simplicio (Enoch, appropriately enough) while the moderator Sagredo (soprano Jennifer Kreider, cutting a strikingly elegant figure both vocally and visually) tries to keep peace.

Countertenor Elijah English, baritone Robert Mellon, and bass-baritone Jared Werlein are properly creepy as the three Cardinals presiding over Galileo’s recantation. The mix of two low voices and one high voice gives the trio a chilling sound.

There are many other fine performances in this cast—so many that I don’t have space to acknowledge them all. Every one of them deserves as much adulation as we can heap on them.

Cast and company in the final scene
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The same is true for conductor Kwamé Ryan and his small but mighty band of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians. The small size of the ensemble (Ryan calls it “a model of creative constraint”) puts every musician in the spotlight, especially during the quieter moments.

In an interview for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,James Robinson noted that “while we may not have the all-powerful Catholic Church of the 16th and 17th centuries that he had to confront, we certainly have legislative bodies that are often tied to very strict religious dogma.” To me it seems that, like Glass’s Galileo, we are moving backwards in time. It would be good if audiences good see “Galileo Galilei” not just as historical fiction but also as a warning.

Performances of “Galileo Galilei” are sung in English with English supertitles and take place through June 29th at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Run time is around one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. For more information, visit the Opera Theatre web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Opera Review: In the pink with Opera Theatre's "Barber of Seville"

The last time I saw Rossini’s comic masterpiece “The Barber of Seville” at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2015 under the capable direction of Michael Shell, I described it as “always funny and sometimes inspired”.

L-R: Justin Austin, Hongni Wu
Photo: Eric Woolsey

This year’s “Barber,” with Eric Sean Fogel at the helm, doesn’t quite rise to that level, mostly because Fogel can’t seem to resist the temptation to gild the comedy lily now and then. But it’s certainly fast, funny, and whimsically silly in a sort of cartoon way. So, as the Bard wrote, “’tis enough, ‘twill serve.”

From a purely musical point of view, this “Barber” had me on its side from the first notes of the famous overture. Conductor Jonathan Brandini found levels of nuance in it that I’d never heard before and which made it seem fresh and new—no small trick with music that is so familiar that Warner Brothers could use it for a Bugs Bunny soundtrack (“The Rabbit of Seville,”1950; it you haven’t seen it, you must) knowing that the audience would get the jokes. Brandini’s perfectly paced conducting of the finale was a delightful demonstration of why Rossini was sometimes called “Signor Crescendo.”

L-R: Nathan Stark, Patrick Carfizzi
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Better yet Fogel, unlike most directors at OTSL, resisted the temptation to fill the stage with distracting pantomime and elected instead just let us sit and enjoy the music.  For that alone I could have given him a laurel wreath.

His cast is splendid. Baritone Justin Austin, a powerfully dramatic Scott Joplin/Remus in last season’s “Treemonisha,” displays a radically different musical and theatrical side to his talent as the wily, cheerfully self-assured Figaro. His Rosina is mezzo Hongni Wu, expertly mixing comedy and coloratura in her OTSL debut.

Tenor Andrew Morstein is a perfect foil for them as the moonstruck Count Almaviva, desperate to woo Rosina before she can be forced into a marriage of inconvenience by her pompous guardian Dr. Bartolo.

L-R: Andrew Morstein, Hongni Wu
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Speaking of whom, bass-baritone Nathan Stark does a wonderful “slow burn” as Bartolo—you can almost see him turning purple and shooting steam out of his ears, like a Chuck Jones animation. He sang Mozart’s Bartolo in OTSL’s  “The Marriage of Figaro” in 2019 with equal authority. He rattles off the those sixteenth- and thirty-second notes in Bartolo's Act I (Rossini's Act II) scene with Rosina with aplomb.

Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, last seen on the OTSL stage as the con artist Dr. Dulcimara in “The Elixir of Love” (2014), is equally at home as the shifty Don Basilio, happy to change sides for the right price. He, too, sounds impressively comfortable with the machine-gun patter, notably in the famous “gossip” song ("l vecchiotto cerca moglie") in which he unfurls a plot to use fake news to undermine Almaviva.

Rounding out this fine ensemble are baritone David Wolfe as Almaviva’s servant Fiorello, soprano Chase Sanders as Bartolo’s ancient governess Berta, and bass Jared Werlein as the Officer whose sunflower-wielding cops try to deal with the chaos at Chez Bartolo at the end of Act I.

L-R: Nathan Stark, Patrick Carfizzi, Hongni Wu
Justin Austin, Andrew Morstein, Chase Sanders
Photo: Eric Woolsey 

The continuing popularity of “The Barber of Seville” is remarkable when you consider that the composer dashed it off in three weeks. He didn’t even have time to write an original overture, choosing instead to recycle one he had used for two previous operas, "Aureliano in Palmira" and "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra." Which is why none of the engaging tunes in that impeccably played overture appear in the actual opera.

But then, everyone needs a good laugh now and then. Especially now.

Performances of this unapologetically silly “Barber of Seville” are sung in English with English supertitles and run through June 29th at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Run time is around two hours and thirty minutes including intermission. More information is available at the Opera Theatre web site.

Opera Review: Opera Theatre's "Julius Caesar" boasts musical excellence

When George Frederic Handel’s “Julius Caesar” (“Giulio Cesare”) had its 1724 premiere at the King’s Theatre in London, it was a huge success. That’s because it gave audiences what they wanted: dramatic thrills, lavish sets, and first and foremost spectacular singing. They expected (and got) a classic opera seria—a drama intended to be “serious in tone and clear in structure”—with a heroic Caesar and a seductive (and ultimately commanding) Cleopatra.

[Watch my interview with Conductor Daniela Candillari.]

L-R: Sarah Mesko, Emoily Pogorelc
Photo: Eric Woolsey

I don’t know whether or not the current Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) production is giving the audience what it wants but judging from the opening night applause it’s certainly giving them a solid evening’s entertainment. Musically, this “Julius Caesar” is impeccable and, yes, the singing is spectacular. The staging, however, is at odds with the text, the music, and that spectacular singing.

I’ll circle back to that right after I talk about the best thing about this “Julius Caesar”: the exceptional performances by members of the St. Louis Symphony under the baton of OTSL Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari and by the amazing cast.

In Handel’s day, the leading male roles were usually sung by castrati—or, as they were euphemistically called at the time, “musici”.  These were male singers who had been castrated before puberty to keep their high voices. These days those roles are sung by women or, when you can find one, a male countertenor who understands Baroque singing style. That can sound odd to a modern audience, but Opera Theatre’s cast is so uniformly strong that this wasn’t an issue.

L-R: Key'mon Murrah, Meridian Prall
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Mezzo Sarah Mesko as Caesar and soprano Emily Pogorelc as Cleopatra looked and sounded equally at home in their dramatic solos. Mesko’s “Va tacito e nascosto,” in which Caesar compares his pursuit of Ptolemy to a hunter pursing his prey, was a highlight, as was Pogorelc’s seductive “V’adoro, pupille.” Mesko cuts a heroic figure as the self-proclaimed “master of the world,” and Pogorelc’s portrayal of Cleopatra’s progression from superficial tease to triumphant empress is masterfully done.

Countertenor Key’mon Murrah, who made such a strong impression on me in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s “Messiah” in 2022, displayed a stunning vocal and dramatic range as the scheming Ptolemy. His high notes could have shattered glass, and like the rest of the cast, he has a good feel for Baroque vocal ornamentation.

Mezzo Meridian Prall plumbs tragic depths as Cornelia, the window of the murdered Pompey. At the same time, she’s obliged to repel the unwelcome attempts at sexual assault by the Egyptian general Achillas, sung with menacing authority by bass-baritone Cory McGee. Mezzo Megan Moore sounds utterly at ease in the soprano role of Pompey’s son Sextus and vividly evokes the character’s seething rage in the revenge aria “Svegliatevi nel core.”

Megan Moore
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Mezzo Madeline Lyon and bass John Godhard Mburu make strong impressions as, respectively, Cleopatra’s aide Nirena (originally Nireno, another castrato part) and Caesar’s tribune Curio, despite the drastic cuts in their roles.

Conducting from the harpsichord just as Handel did Back in the Day, OTSL Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a wonderfully idiomatic reading of the score. Her knowledge of and affection for the music are obvious. There are also memorable solo moments by, among others, Principal Horn Roger Kaza accompanying Mesko “Va tacito” (virtually a duet for voice and natural horn), and the elaborate imitations of birdsong by Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden Andrews as an entranced Caesar enters Cleopatra’s garden.

Musically, in short, OTSL’s “Julius Caesar” in a winner. The staging, however, is another matter.

In her program note, Stage Director Elkhannah Pulitzer talks about her intention to “to preserve the beauty and arc of the characters and remain faithful to their journeys of discovery…. The transformative force of love, the brutality of power wielded with malice, the courage to overthrow tyranny, as well as the deep valleys of loss and healing we all experience as humans, make it universal.” It’s not clear to me how those admirable goals are served by putting everyone in modern dress and moving the action from first century B.C. Egypt to a sterile grayscale business center, complete with a focus-stealing cleaning staff.

The cast of "Julius Caesar"
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Her declared intentions notwithstanding, Pulitzer seems to have directed the work with a wink and a nod, filling it with lots of fussy stage business, show biz choreography, and even visual gags that seem to be suggesting that we really shouldn’t take all this stuff about heroism, love, and tragedy all that seriously. Not surprisingly, the opening night house responded by laughing at scenes that were never intended to be seen as amusing.

The conventions of Baroque opera create a distance from modern audiences as it is. Mocking them only increases that distance. In attempting to make “Julius Caesar” contemporary, Pulitzer has merely made it silly.

That said, the sheer musical excellence of this production probably makes it worth seeing despite its theatrical sins. Performances of “Julius Caesar” are sung in English with English supertitles and take place through June 28th at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Run time is around two hours and fifty minutes including intermission. More information is available at the Opera Theatre web site.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.