Opera Review: OTSL and Puccini make beautiful music together in "La bohème"

When Puccini’s “La bohème” premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 (with Arturo Toscanini at the podium, no less) the public and critical reception was lukewarm. That changed quickly as productions became more widespread, and it’s now a favorite of companies around the world.  Opera Theatre’s current production is the seventh in their 49-year history. It might not be their best, but it certainly has its merits.

L-R: Moisés Salazar, Titus Muzi III, Robert Mellon
Thomas Glass, André Courville 
Photo: Eric Woolsey

For those of you who have missed being exposed to Henri Murger’s episodic 1851 novel “Scènes de la vie bohème” (“Scenes from Bohemian Life”) or Puccini’s opera or Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock musical adaptation “RENT,” here’s a quick plot summary. On Christmas Eve, the poet Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline, and the musician Schaunard are young, creative, broke, and burning some of their work to heat their squalid Parisian apartment. Enter the equally poverty-stricken seamstress Mimi, whose candle has gone out, leaving her stuck in the stairwell. Before the first act is over, she and Rodolfo are smitten. The opera chronicles the highs and tragic lows of both their relationship and that of Marcello and the singer Musetta. Mimi dies (of consumption, as tragic heroines were wont to do in the 19th century), Musetta doesn't, and nobody lives happily ever after.

L-R: Moisés Salazar, Katerina Burton
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Opera Theatre can generally be relied upon to cast strong singers and have done so here. Former Gerdine Young Artist Moisés Salazar, whose robust tenor served him so well in 2021’s Center Stage Showcase, displays that same power here as Rodolfo. He’s a good match for fellow GYA alumna Katerina Burton, whose lyric soprano has just the right sense of sweetness to offer a pleasing contrast, without being overwhelmed by Salazar. Their justly famous Act I love scene—Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina,” Mimi’s “Mi chiamano Mimi,” and the duet “O soave fanciulla”—had a kind of childlike innocence, if not a great deal of adult passion.

L-R: Thomas Glass, André Courville,
Brittany Renee, Katerina Burton, Moisés Salazar
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That offered a sharp contrast to the openly fraught affair of Marcello and Musetta, who like Lois in “Kiss Me, Kate” is “always true to you, darling, in my fashion.” As sung and acted by baritone Thomas Glass (an outstanding Harvey Milk in 2022) and soprano Brittany Renee, both characters felt like full-blooded (if excessively self-dramatizing) adults while Rodolfo and Mimi came across as children playing dress-up. I’m not sure that’s the best way to underline the difference between the two couples, but it does have the advantage of explaining Rodolfo’s jealous rages as mere acts of jejune petulance.

Glass and Renee both have full, robust voices that allow them to project clearly over the crowd in the Café Momus scene. Renee, in particular, radiates a sultry assurance that serves her character well, especially in her show-stopping “Quando m’en vo” (a.k.a. “Musetta’s waltz”).

Bass-baritone André Courville makes an impressive OTSL debut as Colline, providing one of the more moving moments in “Vecchia zimarra,” his tearful Act IV farewell to the faithful old coat he plans to pawn for medicine for the dying Mimi. Baritone Titus Muzi III, who was such a wonderfully fussy Sacristan in “Tocsa” last season, scores again as Schaunard, with his outrageous tale of being hired to sing the role of a rich man’s parrot.

L-R: Thomas Glass, Titus Muzi III, 
Moisés Salazar, André Courville
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Even the smallest parts in this production have been filled by performers who can boast of considerable vocal and dramatic strength. Witness baritone Robert Mellon—an outstanding Figaro in Union Avenue’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia" in 2021 and an equally remarkable title role in the same company’s “Falstaff” in 2022. Here, he creates a pair of memorable clowns in the roles of the easily befuddled landlord Benoit and Musetta’s hapless sugar daddy Alcindoro, who is stuck with the bill at the end of the Café Momus scene.

Director Michael Shell’s decision to move the action to 1950 and to change the color scheme from technicolor in the Puccini’s Acts I and II to a grim grayscale in acts III and IV doesn’t seem to add much, but neither does it subtract. Besides, I tend to remember the 1950s as being in black and white (in more ways than one), in any case. His direction generally does a good job of keeping focus where it should be and only comes up short in the final moments of the massive Café Momus scene, which has often been an issue for OTSL’s relatively small stage.

Puccini’s intention in that scene was to portray the rich panoply of Parisian street life at Christmas time. As Michele Girardi writes in Gove Online, he achieved that by stacking up “numerous events, entrusting them to small choral groups and soloists, and ensuring appropriate timing and cuts from one scene to another which are almost film-like in their lightning rapidity.” If the stage becomes too crowded, there’s not enough space for the audience to hear to small groups properly, and it all becomes visual and sonic clutter—as it did on opening night.

Katerina Burton, Moisés Salazar
Photo: Eric Woolsey

“Puccini,” writes conductor José Luis Gómez in his program notes, “offers the conductor and orchestra a chance to support the singers…but to also be a clear protagonist in the entire drama.” His wonderfully sympathetic reading of the score demonstrates that consistently, especially in places (like the wintry beginning of Puccini’s Act III) in which the composer’s tone painting vividly evokes a frigid February dawn at the city gates. It’s a fine performance, exquisitely played by members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. It’s also the perfect complement to Takeshi Kata’s sets, Amanda Seymour’s costumes, and Marcus Doshi’s lighting.

If you’re a fan of “La bohème” you’ll probably find much to admire in Opera Theatre’s latest presentation of it, which runs through June 30.. If, like me, you can take it or leave it, I doubt this will change your mind.

Performances of “La bohème” are sung in English with English supertitles and take place on the main stage at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus in Webster Groves. Run time is around two and one-half hours, including an intermission between acts II and III. For more information on this and the other three operas in the 2024 season, visit the Opera Theatre web site.

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

Capsule Review: Great voices highlight "Manon Lescaut" at Winter Opera

Joseph Park, Zoya Gramagin
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

Wednesday night I attended a dress rehearsal of Winter Opera’s production of Puccini’s 1894 blockbuster hit “Manon Lescaut.” Performances are tonight and Sunday (January 19 and 21) and if what I heard at the rehearsal is any indication, audiences will be mightily impressed by the high quality of the singing. There’s not a weak vocal link in the cast and the chorus is its usual reliable self, with the singers all creating individual characters while maintaining a solid ensemble sound.

In the title role, soprano Zoya Gramagin displays a rich, powerful voice that is an excellent match for wide emotional and musical range of the part. As the tragic Chavalier des Grieux, Taylor P. Comstock sounds very much like a classic heldentenor with ringing high notes. Bass-baritone Joseph Park, an alumnus of Opera Theatre’s prestigious Young Artists program last year, is Manon’s sugar daddy Geronte. He’s a skilled actor with an imposing voice, but he’s clearly far too young for the role, the somewhat unconvincing grey wig notwithstanding.

Zoya Gramagin, Taylor P. Comstock
Photo: ProPhotoSTL

Tenor Thomas M. Taylor IV gets the evening off to rousing start as the songwriter Edmondo, who leads the chorus in the jolly “Ave sera gentil” (“Hail gentle evening”), neatly setting the tone for the seriocomic first act.

The rehearsal was a bit rocky otherwise, so it’s hard to say what the final product will look like this weekend. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.

Besides, this will be a chance for local audiences to see a Puccini opera which, despite its initial success, has since been largely eclipsed by the more coherent and tuneful works that came after it, mostly notably “Tosca,” “La Bohème,” and “Madama Butterfly.” This was Winter Opera’s first production, for example, and Opera Theatre has never taken it on at all. Performances are tonight at 7:30 and Sunday at 2 pm at the Kirkwood Performing Arts center.

Opera Review: In bad faith

Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s new production of Puccini’s 1900 political tragedy “Tosca” is the third in the company’s history and the first in 20 years. This new version, under the direction of company Artistic Director James Robinson, boasts an excellent cast and a sympathetic, finely shaped reading of the score by members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra led by the outstanding Daniela Candillari. It is marred only by a couple of cases of self-indulgent excess by Robinson.

Robert Stahley
Photo: Eric Woolsey

More on that later, though. Let’s start with the good news, beginning with bass-baritone Hunter Enoch’s superb performance as the repellent Baron Scarpia. A classic sociopath consumed with lust and sadism, Scarpia is a textbook case of how an elaborate display of public piety can be a false front for a rotten soul. Moreover, his position as the chief law enforcement officer of the Roman theocracy makes him an ideal advertisement for the wisdom of the separation of Church and State.

Enoch makes Scarpia the villain you love to hate. With a big, ringing voice and a magnetic stage presence, Enoch gives us a Scarpia who, like Zoltan Karpathy, “oils his way across the floor” when he enters at the end of Act I. He exudes smug piety while plotting to use Tosca’s passionate attachment to her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, to betray both him and the escaped political prisoner Angelotti, with tragic results for all concerned. When Tosca cuts Scarpia’s throat with a razor (as opposed to the knife Puccini and his librettists intended) at the end of Act II it is (as Patroclus says in “Troilus and Cressida”) “a good riddance.”

Speaking of Tosca, soprano Katie Van Kooten, who has often been praised for her impressive combination of vocal power and delicacy, demonstrates in her sensitive, multi-layered performance just how she earned those accolades. Tosca is, frankly, a character whose combination of excessive jealousy and (for a supposedly experienced singer and actress) astonishing naivete can be a hard sell. But Van Kooten manages it.

Titus Muzi III and cast
Photo: Jessica Flanigan

She doesn’t do it alone, of course. There has to be serious emotional chemistry between Tosca and Cavaradossi to make their dual tragedy convincing. Cynthia Lawrence and Stephen Mark Brown did it in in 2003 and the combination of Van Kooten and tenor Robert Stahley—last seen here as the cheerfully clueless William Marshall in OTSL’s killer “Regina” in 2018—work the same magic here. Stahley has one of those clarion-clear Heldentenor voices that, when combined with Van Kooten’s in their big love duets, delivers an electrifying effect.

The supporting cast is solid as well. As Angelotti, the former consul of the Roman Republic on the run from Scarpia’s goons, bass-baritone Joseph Park is the very picture of the fear-haunted fugitive. Baritone Titus Muzi III is perfection as the comically fussy Sacristan, muttering about “filthy artists” as he steals Cavaradossi’s lunch. And mezzo Xiao Xiao is a charming offstage presence as the Shepherd Boy, whose sad folk song is heard in the distance as the Act III curtain rises on the grim prison of the Castel Sant’Angelo, where both Cavaradossi and Tosca will breathe their last.

L-R: Huner Enoch, Robert Stahley,
Kellen Schrimper, Adam Catangui
Photo: Jessica Flanigan

In his program notes, Director Robinson writes that because of the opera’s “rich historical context” he and his designers “have enthusiastically decided to firmly ground the production in Rome of 1800 and, in a sense, take a page from the original play in terms of its scale.” Later on, however, he adds that he has decided to  “illuminate the story with a nod to those who excelled at dark psychosexual storytelling, such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and Luis Buñuel.”

One of these things is not like the other.

If you think that means there will be extensive use of video projections, you’d be right. When they’re used to set the scene (as in Act III) they can be very effective. When they’re used to display pseudo-film noir videos that merely belabor the action on stage, they are less useful, if not downright annoying.

The most irritating example of the latter comes at the end of Act I. As conceived by Puccini, it shows Scarpia plotting the seduction and betrayal of Tosca while the chorus celebrates High Mass. Over the massed sound of the chorus, full orchestra, organ, bells, and drums simulating cannon-fire, Scarpia’s visions of lust rise in sync with the choir’s praise of God. As the Te Deum rises to a climax, Scarpia sings “Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!” (“Tosca, you make me forget God!). As an example of theatrical irony, it’s hard to beat.

That, however, is not what happens in this production. Instead we get Scarpia alone on stage, clutching and eventually arousing himself sexually with Tosca’s glove while the choir is banished to an offstage presence. We also get slow-motion video closeups of this in the background, presumably to ensure that we Get the Point.

This is not just gratuitous, but openly disrespectful of Puccini’s intentions.  As Julian Buden writes in Grove Online, “Puccini was much concerned with authenticity of detail. His friend Father Pietro Panichelli supplied him with information regarding the plainsong melody to which the Te Deum was sung in Roman churches, the correct order of the cardinal’s procession and the costumes of the Swiss Guard.” All this is swept aside, and the result can hardly be called an improvement.

Katie Van Kooten, Enoch Hunter
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Tosca’s death at the end of Act III is also drained of dramatic impact by relying on self-consciously surreal video, but that is, I suppose, small beer by comparison.

Those two fumbles aside, the directorial and scenic choices generally work quite well, keeping the action tense and character driven. Allen Moyer’s massive, imposing sets are appropriately dark and threatening, and his use of a greyscale color palette with accents of blood red is a nice match for the “old movie” style of Greg Emetaz’s videos.

Overall I’d give this “Tosca” a B, since the positives far outweigh the negatives.

A final note: whether by accident or design, Opera Theatre of St. Louis is presenting two works this season in which the principal villain hides his moral bankruptcy behind a pseudo-Christian façade. In Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah,”  preacher Olin Blitch dominates a small Appalachian church with rants about the “three Ss” (sin, sex, and Satan) while secretly lusting after the innocent title character. In “Tosca,” Scarpia presents a pious image in public while reveling in sexual sadism in private. Either way, the resemblance to certain public figures is hard to miss.

“Tosca” continues in rotating repertory with the rest of the OTSL season through June 25th. Performances are sung in English with English supertitles at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. For more information, visit the Opera Theatre web site.

Opera Review: Puccini's 'Sparrow' takes flight at Winter Opera

This weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 18 and 20) Winter Opera kicks off their season with “La Rondine” (“The Sparrow”), a Puccini work that hasn’t been seen locally since 2015. Giuseppe Adami's clunker of a libretto was probably enough to ensure that it wouldn’t become one of Puccini’s Greatest Hits, and the composer’s inability to decide on a final version hasn’t helped matters any.

Karen Kanakis and
Nathan Schafer
Photo: Rebecca Haas

Winter Opera has chosen, as far as I can tell, the 1917 original. This is good, since it makes Magda, the reformed courtesan whose past destroys her shot at True Love, a stronger character. She makes a deliberate choice to return to her old life instead of being spurned and committing suicide. It’s a welcome change from Puccini’s predilection for (and somewhat sadistic treatment of) heroines who are either hapless victims or clueless enablers of badly-behaved men.

And it gives soprano Karen Kanakis, who has done such splendid work in the past with Winter Opera, a chance to showcase her gorgeous voice and acting ability once again. That’s not always easy in this libretto, which is often so cryptic that it's nearly telegraphic.

The story is basically “Traviata lite”.  Magda, a “kept woman”, leaves her rich, middle-aged lover Rambaldo and her lush life in Paris to take up with Ruggero, a young hunk from the sticks.  Unfortunately the young hunk is, as written, far too painfully naive to be sympathetic, and the rich lover little more than a cipher. That could make Magda's decision to leave them both seem more petulant than tragic, but Kanakis pulls it off anyway. Her character is solid and as credible as it can be, given the material. Brava.

Soprano Lauren Nash Silberstein and lyric tenor Nicholas Huff are an unmitigated delight as Magda’s free-spirited maid Lisette and the temperamental poet Prunier. Silberstein is particularly sparkling and charismatic, which made her a nice foil for the very effective (ahem) huffiness of Huff’s Prunier. Their romantic sparring would not be out of place in a Noël Coward comedy, and it certainly works well here.

Nicholas Huff and Lauren Nash Silberstein
Photo: Rebecca Haas

Tenor Nathan Schafer has perhaps the most thankless task as Ruggero, a character so thinly drawn that he comes across as little more than a classic Italian mammone transplanted to France. His wig and costumes make him look like a young Nigel Bruce, which doesn’t help. His voice, though, is stunning, with that clarity and warmth characteristic of the lyric tenor. His duets with Kanakis are memorable.

As usual with Winter Opera, the supporting cast and chorus are solid. The latter can always be counted upon to create their own individual characters while still singing together harmoniously. Scott Schoonover, artistic director of Union Avenue Opera, conducts the orchestra with his customary assurance, and his players respond with a full-bodied sound that belies their relatively small numbers.

Stage Director Eric Gibson has moved the action forward from the Second Empire France of the original to the 1920s, which makes it feel new enough to be almost familiar while still distant enough to make the attitudes of the characters understandable. His staging is clear and well-paced. The colorful scenic designs of Scott Loebl and period costumes Amy Hopkins compliment that nicely.

Performances of “La Rondine,” in Italian with English supertitles, are Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, November 18 and 20, at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. Given the quality of the production, it’s a shame there are only two, but there you are. Ticket information is available at the Winter Opera web site.

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

Opera Review: Lovely to look at, delightful to hear: 'Madama Butterfly" at Winter Opera

This Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26, Winter Opera presents a polished, musically impeccable production of the 1907 version of Puccini’s “Japanese tragedy” "Madama Butterfly." Beautifully sung and respectably acted overall, with fine playing by the orchestra under the baton of Ed Benyas, this might not be the best “Butterfly” I’ve ever seen, but it’s good one and should appeal to those who love this popular opera.

I, alas, am not one of those people.

Seon Duk Kim, Jonathan Kaufman
Photo Riq Dilly

My issues are mostly about the libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on a play by David Belasco. On the one hand, I have always regarded Pinkerton, the sailor who seduces and abandons the title character, as arrogant, self-centered, and chauvinistic. On the other hand, the Geisha Cio-Cio-San (a.k.a. Madama Butterfly) displays a degree of naiveté that, despite her youth (she's supposed to be fifteen when she marries Pinkerton), borders on the delusional.

As a result, this tragedy has always struck me as a bit forced. The libretto also spends far too much time (two entire acts) chronicling Cio-Cio-San’s decline and fall. Citing Butterfly as an example, Dr. Ross Hagen has observed that there is “an impulse towards sadism in Puccini’s treatment of these ill-fated heroines that he has supposedly come to empathize with.” I’m inclined to agree.

Winter Opera has, in any event, assembled a strong cast here, headed by Seon Duk Kim in the title role and tenor Jonathan Kaufman as the appalling Pinkerton. Their voices blend beautifully in the long and rapturous Act I love duet “Bimba, Bimba, non piangere” ("Sweetheart, sweetheart, do not weep") And a good thing, too, since the contrast between the diminutive Kim (who really does look like a teenager in the role) and the imposing Kaufman tend to give the entire business a creepy, child molester vibe. Legally, after all, Pinkerton is committing what in our day would be statutory rape.

L-R: Michael Nansel, Jonathan Kaufman
Photo: Riq Dilly

Both singers have strong individual moments as well. Kim's small but crystalline singing makes her "Un bel dì vedremo" (the opera's Big Hit) a lovely thing and Kaufman's big, clear voice drives home the nationalistic braggadocio of “Dovunque al mondo” ("Throughout the world"), his Act I duet with the American Consul Sharpless (baritone Michael Nansel, in another solid performance).

The best combination of acting and singing skills, though, can be found among the supporting roles. In addition to Nansel’s compassionate Sharpless, we have mezzo Sara Louise Petrocelli’s tragically loyal Suzuki, bass-baritone Joseph Park as the romantically disappointed Prince Yamadori, and tenor Marc Schapman as the scheming marriage broker Goro. Director Mark Freiman also has an impressive moment in the cameo bass role of The Bonze, who self-righteously excoriates Butterfly for converting to “the American God.”

The Winter Opera chorus continues their unblemished record of producing a small but mighty sound while still creating individual characters in the process.

Seon Duk Kim and chorus
Photo: Riq Dilly

Freiman and his team have put a lot of care into making this "Madama Butterfly" look and feel authentic—which is considerably more than Puccini and his librettists did.  Lauren Smith Bearden’s costumes and Scott Loebl’s simple but effective set firmly establish the Japan of the librettists’ imagination, assisted by Jessica Dana’s wigs and makeup.

In the 2020/2021 season, “Madama Butterfly” was the 6th Most Performed Opera in the world according to Operabase, so my disdain for it puts me in the minority. If you're in the majority, I don't think you can go wrong with this production. Winter Opera continues to maintain a high standard of quality on a relatively low budget, and that is most admirable.

Winter Opera presents “Madama Butterfly” Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2 pm, March 25 and 26, at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. For more information, visit the Winter Opera web site.

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

Opera Review :Downsized and outdoors, Opera Theatre opens its season with a lively "Gianni Schicchi"

Few economic sectors have been as damaged by COVID-19 as the performing arts. Entire seasons were wiped out, including that of Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL). OTSL is back in business this year, though, with four operas performed in rotating repertory, the traditional Gerdine Young Artists showcase, and even a special Juneteenth event at the Missouri History Museum. Picnic dinners on the lawn are back, along with full bar service.

House size is smaller—300 seats vs. close to 1000—seating is physically distanced, and everything including bar service involves minimal physical contact.

Buoso's family in bogus mourning

Performances are also outdoors, on a newly constructed stage taking up what is usually the Loretto-Hilton Center’s main parking lot. Think of it as a less massive version of an evening at the Muny.

The operas are shorter as well. Following the lead of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, OTSL’s productions all run around an hour with no intermission. That limits them to one-act operas but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The season opener, Puccini’s 1918 comedy “Gianni Schicchi,” is getting such a spirited and entertaining production that it seems astonishing that OTSL hasn’t presented it in over forty years.

As the opera opens, the wealthy Florentine Buoso Donati has shuffled off his mortal coil and his relations are making a great show of mourning, accompanied by descending minor seconds in the orchestra. Their grief becomes real, though, when a search for Donati’s will turns up a document giving everything to the local monastery. It’s a financial disaster for everyone and a personal one for Donati’s nephew Rinuccio, who had hoped that a bequest would smooth the way for him to wed his beloved Lauretta, daughter of the wily Gianni Schicchi.

Rinuccio’s snooty family disapproves of the match and looks down on Schicchi because he’s a peasant and, worse yet, an immigrant. But Rinuccio reminds them, in a mock-heroic aria, that fellows like Schicchi are what made Florence great. Besides, it will take a schemer of his ability to find a way around that will.

Needless to say, he succeeds, employing comic devices that are direct descendants of commedia dell'arte gags. The relatives get what they deserve (if not exactly what they wanted) and the opera ends with Rinuccio and Lauretta looking forward to their wedding and Schicchi looking forward to a life on Easy Street (or, as they might say in Firenze, una vita alla grande).

Evan Lazowski reads the new will

Opera Theatre has assembled a fine cast, headed by baritone Levi Hernandez as Schicchi, who was so impressive in OTSL’s “Don Giovanni” in 2011. His wide vocal range and sharp comic sense serve the character well. As Rinuccio, British tenor Joshua Blue puts his big, ringing voice to good use in his hymn to the wit of Schicchi and the glory of Florence. Soprano Elena Villalón is a charming Lauretta who earned loud shouts of “brava” for her superb rendition of the opera’s hit tune, “O mio babbino caro.” Both Mr. Blue and Ms. Villalón are former Gerdine Young Artists, which says a lot for that program.

Contralto La’Shelle Q. Allen makes a strong OTSL debut as Rinuccio’s elitist aunt Zita, while Nathan Stark, as the late Buoso’s pompous cousin Simone, uses his big voice and imposing presence as effectively here as he did in "The Marriage of Figaro" in 2019. Tenor Steven Cole, also a newcomer to OTSL, has a delicious cameo as the befuddled doctor Spinelloccio (another classic commedia dell'arte character).

There are many other fine performances in this consistently talented ensemble, including tenor Jermaine Smith as Buoso’s greedy nephew Gherardo, soprano Meghan Kasanders as his equally avaricious wife Nella, baritone Schyler Vargas as Buoso’s son Marco, and soprano Helen Zhibing Huang as his wife, La Ciesca, who declares she will mourn “povero Buoso” for the rest of her life. Soprano Bianca Orsi proves to be convincingly boyish as Gherardino , the seven-year-old son of Gherardo and Nella.

Rounding out the cast are baritone Rob McGinness as Buoso’s poor brother-in-law Betto, whose information on the will gets the plot rolling, baritone Kyle Miller as the dyer Guccio, and bass-baritone Evan Lazowski as both the cobbler Pinellino and as the Notary Ser Amantio di Nicolao, to whom Schicchi dictates the false will.

Tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole has no lines as the deceased Buoso, but he does have to appear credibly lifeless as the other actors toss him around looking for a place to stash the body. That calls for both physical acting skills and trust in your fellow cast members.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin leads members of the SLSO in a brisk and precise reading of the score. Stage Director Seán Curran’s dance background in apparent in the fluid staging—no mean feat, given the relatively small size of the playing area. His decision to move the action from the 13th century to the 1930s doesn’t seem to serve any real point, but it also doesn’t detract in any way.

Allen Moyer’s sumptuous red and gold set is enhanced by the digital picture window designed by Greg Emetaz, which gives the audience a lovely picture-postcard view of the Duomo and, in the end, a romantic sunset.

My only real complaint about Opera Theatre’s “Gianni Schicchi” comes down to something that is largely beyond the company’s control: the outdoor venue effectively mandates the use of wireless body mics and amplified sound. That makes individual vocal lines a bit clearer (and the projected English text mostly unnecessary), but it tends to turn the big ensemble numbers into sonic mush and doesn’t do the orchestra’s fine playing any favors.

Joshua Blue and Elena Villalón

Still, everything else about this “Gianni Schicchi” is of the finest quality. And given that it’s a comedy that is ultimately about death, it seems an appropriate way to open a season that’s taking place against the background of a pandemic that has killed millions worldwide. Also contributing to the comedy’s dark subtext is the fact that both Schicchi and Donati were based on real residents of 13th-century Florence. The former did actually impersonate the latter, and both are sent to hell by Dante in cantos XXV and XXX of his “Divine Comedy.”

“But I digress”—Tom Lehrer

The important point is that Opera Theatre’s “Gianni Schicchi” is a well-crafted and diverting evening’s entertainment, especially when supplemented (as ours was) with a picnic and prosecco.  It runs through June 10th, in rotation with the season’s three other operas. Performances are sung in English with projected English text. Note that you’ll need to arrive early if you want to get a table in the picnic area. 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: Transporting miners

There are number of remarkable things about Puccini's 1910 drama "La fanciulla del west" ("The Girl of the West"), not the least of which is the fact that the excellent production Winter Opera is presenting this Friday and Sunday (March 6 and 8) is the St. Louis premiere.

Karen Kanakis
Photo by Riq Dilly

Commissioned by and first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, "La Fanciulla del West" is, as far as I know, the only Italian opera set in a mining town in the American west in 1850. It's based on the 1905 melodrama "The Girl of the Golden West" by the American producer, director, and playwright David Belasco, whose "Madama Butterfly" was the basis for one of Puccini's greatest hits.

Performances of it have become pretty rare over the last few decades, possibly because the score, richly orchestrated and dramatic as it is, doesn't have the big, show-stopping numbers you find in Puccini's other operas. There's no equivalent of "Nessun dorma" ("Turnadot"), "Quando m'en vo" ("La Bohème), or "Visi d'arte" ("Tosca"), for example, although there is a rapturous love duet in the second act that I'd put up against some of the best stuff in the composer's other operas.

Or maybe it's the fact that this is, to the best of my knowledge, the only non-comic opera by Puccini that doesn't end with the death of the heroine. Indeed, nobody dies at all in "La fanciulla del west" and the villainous Sherriff Jack Rance just quietly slinks off stage in disgrace while the lovers walk off into the sunrise to start a new life together.

Jorge Pita Carreras, Karen Kanakis
Photo by Riq Dilly

Minnie, the girl of the title, is also not your usual long-suffering Puccini heroine, ready to die for love. In fact, she's a saloon owner with a shotgun who isn't afraid to use it in defense of her lover, the reluctant bandit Ramerraz (he inherited the business from his father and is looking for a way out). Mimi she ain't.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this opera, though, is that it works so well as drama. Once you get over seeing rough-hewn, gun-toting, cigar-smoking "forty-niners" singing in Italian and getting homesick for their mothers, this story of Minnie's heroic efforts to save Ramerraz from the noose is pretty entertaining stuff, complete with a last-minute rescue from the gallows by a rifle-toting Minnie.

There's also an especially tense scene in the second act, when Rance discovers that Minnie is hiding the wounded Ramerraz in her cabin. She challenges Rance, whose lust for Minnie is as strong as his desire to put an end to Ramerraz, to a game of poker. If he wins, he gets her and Ramerraz. If he loses, he leaves them both and says nothing about Ramerraz's whereabouts. Minnie cheats and wins, but it's a nail-biter of a scene anyway, with the action accompanied only by a short, ominous motif in the lower strings.

Mark Freiman, John Robert Green
Photo by Riq Dilly

Winter Opera has had its ups and downs over the years. This exceptional cast is definitely one of their "ups." Soprano Karen Kanakis whose Giannetta lit up the stage [n Winter Opera's "L'elisir d'amore" in 2018, is just perfect as Minnie, with a drop-dead gorgeous voice and acting that is never less than credible, even in Minnie's "too good to be true" moments (which, to be fair, are probably true to the libretto's origins).

As Ramerraz (a.k.a "Dick Johnson," a pseudonym that the Sheriff sees through almost immediately) Jorge Pita Carreras once again displays the powerful bel canto tenor voice that distinguished his roles in Winter Opera's "Il trovatore" and "Carmen". This time around I found his acting far more convincing, which is one of the things that made his big duet with Ms. Kanakis so ravishing.

NYC-based baritone John Robert Green makes an impressive Winter Opera debut as the morally flexible Sheriff Jack Rance, whose dedication to law and order doesn't prevent him from promising to abandon his wife if Minnie will just submit to his unwelcome advances. From the moment he swaggers on stage in the prologue, appropriately dressed in black and puffing on a stogie, there's little doubt that he's a marginally more honorable version of Scarpia from "Tosca" (unlike Scarpia, Rance's word is actually worth something). His powerful voice can seduce or snarl as required.

Other outstanding performances include Bass Mark Freiman's Ashby, the Wells Fargo agent tracking down Ramerraz; baritone Jason Mallory in the cameo role of the minstrel Jake Wallace; and bass Aleksandar Dragojevic as Jim Larkens, whose weepy plea for money to pay his passage back home brings out an unexpected burst of generosity among his fellow miners.

Tenor Marc Schapman is a sympathetic presence as Minnie's loyal bartender Nick, and mezzo Erin Haupt and bass-baritone Jeremy Gussin have a tender comic moment as Minnie's housekeeper Wowkle and her beau Billy Jackrabbit, who are getting hitched just in time to make their baby legitimate.

The chorus
Photo by Riq Dilly

The members of the Winter Opera chorus (all male, in this case) do their usual fine job of turning each of their characters into clear individuals, whether they have solos or not, and Dario Salvi conducts a powerful rendition of Puccini's unusually colorful score, with some first-rate playing from the musicians--some of whom will be familiar to regulars at St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts.
Stage Director Jon Truitt manages the large cast well and keeps the story moving. Scott Loebl's scenery (including an impressive mountainous backdrop) and Felia Davenport's period costumes help to enhance the powerful feel of time and place.

The bottom line is that Winter Opera's "La fanciulla del west" is one of the weekend's "must see" shows, and not just because this may be your only opportunity to see a live production of it locally. It's an opera that, at least for me, is actually more musically and theatrically coherent than some of Puccini's more popular works (I'm looking at you, "Turandot") and Winter Opera is doing it up in fine style. Performances, which are sung in Italian with English supertitles, are Friday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, March 6 and 8, at the Skip Viragh Center on the Chaminade campus. Visit their web site for ticket information.

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

Opera Review: The poor people of Paris

Although copies of Henri Murger's 1851 short story collection Scenes de la vie bohème are no longer the common sight on bookshelves that they once were, the principal characters have never fallen out of favor. The stories (originally published in a Paris literary magazine) inspired, among other things, an 1849 play, two operas, and the wildly successful rock musical Rent.

Jesse Donner and Lulia Lysenko
Photo by Dan Donovan

It's Puccini's 1896 opera La Bohème, however, that should probably get most of the credit for embedding the image of the starving artist in a Paris atelier into Western consciousness. A staple of companies around the world, it finally came to the Union Avenue Opera stage in an admirable production that concluded last Saturday (August 3, 2019).

For those of you who have somehow missed being exposed to this tale of starving artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris, here's a quick summary. On Christmas Eve, the poet Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the philosopher Colline, and the musician Schaunard are young, creative, broke, and preparing to burn some of their work to heat their squalid Parisian apartment when the equally poverty-stricken seamstress Mimi comes knocking. Before the first act is over, she and Rodolfo are smitten. The opera chronicles the highs and tragic lows of both their relationship and that of Marcello and the singer Musetta. Mimì dies, Musetta doesn't, and nobody lives happily ever after.

Back row: Nicholas Ward, Andrew Wannigman
Front row: Isaiah Musik-Ayla, E. SCott Levin,
Jesse Donner
Photo by Dan Donovan

So, yeah, it's a tragedy, but it's a tragedy with more than its fair share of comedy. Until Mimi's entrance near the end of the first act, for example, La Bohème is largely about the good natured clowning of the four friends as they enjoy a bit of short-lived prosperity and prevent their bumbling landlord from collecting the rent. Musetta's famous Act II aria, "Quando m'en vo'," also generates plenty of laughs as she taunts the jealous Marcello.

Under the direction of Mark Freiman (a fine singer in his own right) Union Avenue delivered a La Bohème that honored the comedy in the opera while still delivering all the romance and tragedy that you could ask for. I thought Mr. Freiman did a particularly good job of managing the potential traffic jam Puccini and his librettists created in the Café Momus scene, which fills the stage with café staff, customers, assorted Parisians, a toy vendor, and a group of rambunctious children.

Union Avenue's cast was a splendid one, with impressive singing and acting from all concerned. Jesse Donner's Rodolfo and Yulia Lysenko's Mimì tugged at the heartstrings in their famous Act I duet, "O soave fanciulla." Cree Carrico's Musetta was a fiery comic masterpiece in her early scenes and credibly moving in the final act. Andrew Wannigman's Marcello was an ideal mix of conflict and compassion.

Cree Carrico and the company
Photo by Dan Donovan

There were outstanding performance as well by Isaiah Musik-Ayla as the philosopher Colline, Nicholas Ward as the musician Schaunard, and E. Scott Levin as the befuddled landlord Benoit and Musetta's sugar daddy Alcindoro, who gets stuck with the bill at Café Momus.

Conductor Elizabeth Hastings drew first rate performances from the chorus and orchestra, both of which had a pleasingly robust and full sound. Patrick Huber's sets and Teresa Doggett's costumes were spot on as usual.

Union Avenue's 25th anniversary season concludes with the local premiere of Tom Cipullo's 2007 tragedy Glory Denied August 16th through 24th. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church at Union and Enright in the Central West End.

Review: Lyric Opea of Chicago's spectacular "Turandot"

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

Stefano La Colla
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

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Turandot is one of the most popular and, in many ways, most controversial of Puccini's operas. Left unfinished at the time of the composer's death in 1924, it has never been given a fully satisfactory finale. At the opera's premiere, in fact, legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini stopped the performance after the last note actually composed by Puccini, turned to the audience, and said, "At this point the Master laid down his pen."

These days, the common practice is to move on to a triumphal final scene, assembled from Puccini's sketches by Franco Alfano, in which Turandot declares her love for Prince Calàf and everyone more or less lives happily ever after.

In the program for the Lyric Opera of Chicago's exemplary production of Turandot, which runs through January 27th, 2018, director Rob Kearley talks about the many challenges a stage director faces in dealing with this theatrically compelling but often bizarre work, including the question of that final scene. He finally decided to go with Alfano's finale, despite acknowledging that it "cannot be said to represent the master's vision" and that it "leaves one feeling compromised." Sometimes, I imagine, the weight of history is just too great.

Stefano La Colla and Amber Wagner
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Which makes a certain amount of sense, as the oppressive presence of the dead hand of history is part of the subtext (intentional or not) of the opera. Based on an old Persian fairy tale as retold by Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi, Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni's libretto tells the story of the misandryst Chinese princess Turandot. In revenge for the torture and murder of her ancestress, Turandot forces her many suitors to answer three riddles to win her hand. Failure means death, and as the opera opens the body count is already fairly high, but Turandot seems unwilling (if not unable) to escape her past.

Witnessing the execution of the latest loser, Prince Calàf falls instantly in lust with Turandot despite warnings from his blind father Timur, the slave Liù (in unrequited love with Calàf), and palace functionaries Ping, Pang, and Pong. He answers her riddles, poses one of his own, and finally wins her, generating his own share of death and misery along the way.

That's the Cliff's Notes version, anyway. Wikipedia has a far more detailed synopsis. The bottom line, though, is that Turandot and Calàf are two of the more appalling characters in operatic literature. The former is clearly unhinged; the latter a callow youth determined to possess his lust object regardless of who gets hurt (quite literally, in Liù's case) in the process. Puccini's music redeems them somewhat, but ultimately Turandot's story is a fairly unpleasant business, which is why Alfano's happy ending feels so false.

Zachary Nelson, Rodell Rosel, and Keith Jameson
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Despite all that, the Lyric Opera production delivers plenty of musical and theatrical excitement. That finale is still creepy, but it's also undeniably thrilling. Such are the contradictions of Art.

The role of Turandot is difficult for many reasons. She doesn't sing a note until the second scene of Act II, at which point she needs to quickly dominate the stage. In the next act, she has to completely change from cold autocrat to swooning lover after a single forced kiss from Calàf. It's a hell of a challenge, but soprano Amber Wagner, whose big, rich voice enhanced Lyric's Tannhäuser two years ago, is more than up to it. When she describes the horror that made her the avenging angel she has become (the aria "In questa reggia" in II, 1), she's riveting, while her sudden defrosting in the next act feels equally real. That's no small accomplishment.

Tenor Stefano La Colla makes Calàf's obsession with Turandot as credible as possible, and does so with a solid-gold voice. He gives the character the irresistible energy that he needs. I do wish he hadn't decided to break character to bow to the audience after "Nessun dorma," though.

Maria Agresta
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

The commedia dell'arte trio of Ping, Pang, and Pong might have been nothing more than comic relief in the hands of lesser composers and librettists, but Puccini and company added a layer of complexity to them in their second-act trio, in which they lament their service to the homicidal Turandot and long for bucolic homes. Baritone Zachary Nelson (Ping) and tenors Rodell Rosel (Pang) and Keith Jameson (Pong) have voices that blend beautifully and bring out the pain that coexists with the trio's sarcastic humor.

Every Puccini opera has a suffering heroine. In the case of Liù that means both romantic yearning and physical torture. Italian soprano Maria Agresta (who will be replaced in January by Janai Brugger) makes an auspicious Lyric debut in this role, turning in a performance of lyrical beauty and passion. Also making his first appearance at Lyric, tenor Josh Lovell cuts an imposing figure as Emperor Altoum and bass Patrick Guetti is nicely menacing as the Mandarin who reads Turandot's decree at the beginning of the opera.

Andrea Silvestrelli shines in the small but important role of the deposed king Timur. I had just seen him the night before as the stern Nourabad in Lyric's Pearl Fishers, and the contrast between them demonstrated his range as an actor.

The chorus and children's chorus carry much of the narrative weight in Turandot, especially in the vast blocks of exposition that constitute the first act. Chorus Master Michael Black can be justifiably proud of their remarkable work here, as they sing with overwhelming power and precision. Bravi, all.

Sir Andrew Davis leads his massive forces, including the offstage brass, in a reading of the score which, while tending to favor slower tempi in many places, nevertheless delivers all the drama one could wish.

Josh Lovell and Amber Wagner
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

I can't complete this review without heaping praise on Allen Charles Klein's opulent and evocative sets and costumes. Originally designed for the Dallas Opera, they create a compellingly surreal atmosphere. Vividly suggesting a semi-mythical China, the set is dominated by a rather deranged-looking dragon and a massive scrying globe. I had a Lord of the Rings flashback when Turandot's massive eye suddenly appears in it in Act I. The elaborate costumes, with their massive, flowing sleeves and striking colors, complete the effect. Masks and makeup inspired by classical Peking opera add to the overall impact.

Mr. Kearley's direction pulls this all together to create a theatrical experience of stunning power. Yes, all of Puccini's unsolvable problems are still there--as, I expect, they inevitably must be--but this all works so well that it ultimately doesn't matter. If you want to understand why this flawed masterpiece continues to appeal to audiences, make your way to Lyric Opera of Chicago before their Turandot orders her last execution on January 27, 2018. You won't regret it.

Review: Flash: Butterfly conquers curmudgeon

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

Rena Harms as Cio-Cio-San
Photo: Ken Howard

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How good is Opera Theatre's new production of Puccini's 1904 "Japanese Tragedy" Madame Butterfly? It's so good that it allowed me to forget, for nearly all of its two-and-one-half hour length, why I dislike this opera in the first place. Artistically and technically, this is such a superb piece of work that even an old Butterfly curmudgeon like yours truly got swept up in the tragedy.

My issues with the opera itself are mostly about the libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on a play by David Belasco. On the one hand, I have always regarded Pinkerton, the sailor who seduces and abandons the title character, as the prototypical Ugly American. Arrogant, self-centered, and chauvinistic, he's Donald Trump in dress whites. On the other hand, the Geisha Cio-Cio-San (a.k.a. Madame Butterfly) displays, as written, a degree of naiveté which, despite her youth (she's supposed to be fifteen when she marries Pinkerton), borders on the delusional. As a result, this tragedy about two people who, as OTSL General Director Timothy O'Leary notes in a video blog, "are deeply in love but deeply misunderstand each other" has always struck me as a bit forced.

The wedding scene
Photo: Ken Howard

Still, even I get a bit choked up in the opera's final pages, especially when the production is this good. From the scene in which the abandoned Butterfly prepares to take her own life after a tearful farewell to the son she has conceived by Pinkerton (and which poverty now obliges her to give up to Pinkerton and his American wife) to the final moment when Pinkerton, unable to deny what he has done, collapses in a heap of grief and guilt over Cio-Cio-San's body, it's pathos all the way, folks. This is Puccini, after all. And for me, at least, the emotional pull of his music is what raises Butterfly above the level of sordid melodrama.

And, of course, the moral issues it raises about power and principle are as valid now as they were over a century ago, both on the personal and national levels. It also helps that the English translation by long-time OTSL stalwarts Margaret Stearns and Colin Graham seems to give Pinkerton a bit more depth than others I have seen.

L-R: Michael Brandenburg, Christopher Magiera

OTSL has assembled a fantastic cast. Soprano Rena Harms, who recently played Cio-Cio-San with the English National Opera, turns in a stunner of a performance here, forcefully sung throughout her range and acted with real conviction. She makes the character's tricky mix of vulnerability and backbone completely credible and fully commands the stage at all times.

Tenor Michael Brandenburg is an equally impressive Pinkerton, all smug bravado in the first act, crushing remorse at the end of the second. Like Ms. Harms, he has a truly spectacular voice, especially when combined with hers. Their long love duet at the conclusion of the first act was pure musical ecstasy. Even I was enthralled.

Baritone Christopher Magiera, who has done such fine work with OTSL in the past, once again delivers the goods as the American consul Sharpless, who tries, without success, to get Pinkerton to see the tragedy he will set in motion and to befriend the poverty-stricken Cio-Cio-San. It's a sympathetic portrayal, sung with genuine warmth and power. Ditto mezzo Renée Rapier in the small but important role of Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San's wise and long-suffering maid.

L-R: Rena Harms, Renée Rapier

Even the small roles get big, polished performances. That includes tenor John McVeigh in the mostly comic part of Goro, the marriage broker; baritone Benjamin Taylor as Prince Yamadori, who tries to woo the abandoned Cio-Cio-San; bass-baritone Matthew Stump as The Bonze, who excoriates Cio-Cio-San for converting to Christianity; and soprano Anush Avetisyan as Pinkerton's American wife Kate.

Both Ms. Avetisyan and Mr. Taylor are members of the company's Gerdine Young Artists program, by the way. The quality of their work here speaks very well for that undertaking.

In a long and very insightful program note, director Robin Guarino goes into considerable depth discussing the issues presented by Madame Butterfly for contemporary audiences. "The obstacle of stereotype is certainly ever-present," she notes, and goes on to discuss the work's "long history of controversy-from issues of sexism, racism, and imperialism in the story to the issue of casting in theater and opera, which both have historically employed problematic practices like yellowface minstrelsy and the playing of Asian characters by white performers in makeup and prosthetics." Her solution, which strikes me as very smart, is to largely ignore ethnicity altogether and concentrate instead on the long-standing OTSL practice of "casting artists based solely on musical, dramatic, and artistic expertise, rather than appearance." That could have been a trap of a different kind, but the high quality of the results speaks for itself.

L-R: Rena Harms,
Michael Brandenburg

Ms. Guarino and her designers have also shown wisdom in not trying to impose some artificial or post-modernist visualization on the opera. Laura Jellinek's sets, which seem to have been created from origami paper, are wonderfully evocative of the kind of artificially Westernized vision of Japan that was no doubt in the minds of Puccini and his librettists, who were unhindered by any knowledge of the real thing. They contrast nicely with Candice Donnelly's scrupulously accurate costumes, which were based on historical research. "Many of the kimonos in our production were ordered directly from Kyoto," notes Ms. Guardino. They look lovely.

Under Cary John Franklin's direction, the OTSL chorus sounded as powerful and precise as always. And conductor Michael Christie led the St. Louis Symphony musicians in a flawlessly played account of Puccini's ravishing score.

What all this means is that if you, like the vast majority of opera lovers, are a fan of Madame Butterfly, you really owe it to yourself to see the Opera Theatre production. It's certainly the best one I have ever seen and a great way to start the new season. It runs through June 24th in rotating repertory with three other operas at the Loretto-Hilton center in Webster Groves.

Review: Union Avenue Opera's "Tosca" gets the passion right

L-R: March Schapman, Matthew Edwardsen,
Neil Nelson

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This weekend, Union Avenue Opera concludes its very strong production of Puccini's 1900 political melodrama Tosca. Moved from its original 1800 setting to 1940-where the underlying conflict between autocracy and democracy works perfectly well, thanks very much-this is a dramatically arresting show and well worth your time.

Anyone seeking an example of how an operatic classic can have contemporary resonance need look no further than the character of Baron Scarpia, the villain in. A textbook case of how an elaborate display of public piety can be a false front for lust and violence, Scarpia also provides us one of the great moments of Italian opera in the final scene of Act I as he plots the seduction and betrayal of Tosca while the crowd celebrates High Mass. It's a spectacular scene-one of the best examples of dramatic irony you'll ever see-and also a great argument for the separation of Church and State.

Matthew Edwardsen and
Elena O'Connor

The story of Tosca is a mix of passion, deceit, and violence typical of the verismo school of opera, with its emphasis on human emotions, both noble and destructive. Here, they're mostly destructive: the title character's overwhelming desire for her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, results in a jealousy that undoes them both; Scarpia's obsessive lust for Tosca motivates him to break every moral code he claims to support, and eventually results in his death at her hands; and Cavaradossi's passion for human freedom leads him to shelter the rebel Angelotti, which results in a firing squad for the former and suicide for the latter. It's not a cheerful story, Rome wasn't a cheerful place in either 1800 or 1940.

Any successful production of Tosca demands a strong and compelling Scarpia, and it certainly has one in bass-baritone Neil Nelson, who was so outstanding in the somewhat similar role of Di Luna in Winter Opera's Il Trovatore back in March. He's got big, powerful voice that can purr as well as rant and that easily delivered even the lowest notes with authority.

And then there's Elena O'Connor, making a brilliant Union Avenue debut as Tosca. Praised by the Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle has for her "lustrous powerhouse soprano and wonderfully over-the-top theatrics", she's a striking and magnetic stage presence-which is exactly what Tosca should be. She made me believe Scarpia could be completely captivated by her. And the scene in which she stabs and then curses Scarpia as he dies was entirely satisfying.

Her scenes with tenor Matthew Edwardsen, who was such credible Pinkerton in the company's Madama Butterfly three years ago, had real chemistry and passion. Edwardsen, for his part, has a bold, dramatic voice that ran into trouble only in the very loudest passages. And his acting is spot on.

Union Avenue's Tosca has one more performance tonight at 8 p.m. You should definitely catch it if you can; this is one of the better productions of this opera I have seen, and that covers a lot of ground. Check out Union Avenue's web site for details.