Opera Review: 'Carmen' through the looking-glass at Opera Theatre

On May 21st, Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) opened their 47th season with a polished if occasionally odd production of Bizet’s 1875 tragedy "Carmen." It’s the company’s fourth production of a work that, according to Operabase, was the second most popular opera in the world in the 2021/2022 season, edged out only by Mozart’s "The Magic Flute" (which also happens to be in the current OTSL season).

The cast of Carmen
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That is perhaps not surprising. "Carmen" has drama, it has some of Bizet's most memorable and therefore most popular melodies, and last—but most definitely not least—it has sensuality. When Carmen sings the famous "Habanera" while sinuously gyrating around Don José, 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" has traditionally hinged, therefore, on whether or not 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 José to abandon the military life and become an outlaw. At the same time, she needs to be independent minded and strong willed—a vamp with attitude.

Last seen on the OTSL stage as the tragically spurned Ottavia in “The Coronation of Poppea” in 2019, mezzo Sarah Mesko is a Carmen with attitude to spare. Decked out in biker-chic leather (and with a bike to match), Mesko’s Carmen is one tough cookie. She’s fearless, even in the face of an obviously deranged Don José in the final scene but not, on the whole, very seductive.

Chrisitan Pursell and Sarah Mesko
Photo: Eric Woolsey

That’s not a knock on Mesko, though, who is clearly a skilled actress with a big, silky-smooth voice that’s ideal for the role. It’s just that Stage Director Rodula Gaitanou apparently wants the audience to see Carmen as a strong, free woman rather than as the morally depraved strumpet Bizet’s librettists had in mind. Because this is not an old school “Carmen.”

Transported from the mid-19th century to the mid 20th, this vision of “Carmen” turns the moral world of the original topsy-turvy. In the context of the original libretto the army is at worst morally neutral, and José’s sense of duty is actually admirable. When the army in question is Franco’s Guardia Civil, however, the equation changes drastically. In this context, José’s sense of duty and his mother’s determination to use home-town girlfriend Micaëla to bring him back to it are, at best, naïve if not actually delusional.

And then there are the smugglers. Under the direction of innkeeper Lillias Pastia and with the frequent assistance of Carmen and her cronies Frasquita and Mercédès, the original libretto paints them as grubby, serio-comic rascals getting contraband past the customs agents. Here, Gaitanou’s direction turns them into freedom fighters, smuggling arms from across the border to avenge the deaths of their comrades at the hands of Franco’s thugs.

Adam Smith in the "Flower Song"
Photo by Eric Woolsey

It all works surprisingly well, despite a few odd choices such as making Micaëla pregnant and having her show up with both José’s baby and his mother in tow at the very end to gaze with horror on what her former lover has wrought. Yes, it’s a revisionist “Carmen” and yes I normally have little patience with that sort of thing. But the revisions are internally consistent and appear to come from a creative rethinking of the original rather than a simple desire to do something different with no concern for whether or not that something actually makes any sense.

Just as importantly, it has a very strong cast. As Don José, Adam Smith deploys his lyrical tenor to great effect in the critical “Flower Song.” It’s an emotionally complex aria, running the gamut from rage to pathos, and Smith does it full justice. His wild-eyed madness in the fatal confrontation with Carmen in Act IV felt overdone at first, but it turned out to be the perfect prelude to the sheer brutality of his stabbing of Carmen.

As the toreador Escamillo, Carmen’s saner and more realistic petit ami, bass-baritone Christian Pursell is the textbook picture of swaggering self-confidence, with a big, bold voice to match—as he demonstrated in the famous "Toreador's Song." Mezzo Jazmine Olwalia and soprano Shelén Hughes are a wicked delight as Mercédès and Frasquita. Soprano Yunet Laguna, in the thankless role of Micaëla, has a dark, full-bodied voice with the heft of a mezzo or contralto. Unfortunately, her elocution is far less clear than that of her fellow singers, making one thankful for the projected English text.

Adam Smith and Sarah Mesko
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The “Danse bohème” that opens Act II is enlivened by the sinuous and seductive performance of dancer Rachel Nelson. Indeed, the opera as a whole benefits considerably from the choreography of Rosa Mercedes, which often turns ordinary stage movement into elegant dances.

Under the direction of Kevin Miller, the OTSL chorus is a model of clarity and musical precision, often making the supertitles superfluous. Down in the pit, OTSL’s new Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a flawless, perfectly paced reading of Bizet’s memorable score. I was particularly taken with the way she carefully built the “Danse bohème” to a rousing conclusion. Her conducting, as I have noted in the past, shows a fine combination of fire and attention to detail. It’s good to have her on board.

Cordelia Chisholm’s stark, dark sets and authentic period costumes are perfectly in tune with Gaitanou’s concept of the opera, as is Christopher Akerlind’s subdued lighting.

In a 2019 episode of WQXRs “Aria Code” podcast, host Rhiannon Giddens acknowledges that “Carmen” is “a complicated opera to perform these days.” Don José’s murder of Carmen is ”ugly and goes against everything we’re trying to be as a society.” If we’re going to continue to present works like this one, she argues, we need to “find new ways of seeing them and directing them so that they shine a light on not only where we have come from but where we are now—and how far we still need to go.” Despite some fumbles along the way, OTSL’s “Carmen” is an imaginative step in that direction.

Opera Theatre’s “Carmen” continues in rotating repertory with three other operas through June 25th at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. The opera is sung in English (using a recent translation by the late Amanda Holden) with projected English text. For more information, visit the OTSL web site.

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

Review: A triumphant "Norma" at Lyric Opera of Chicago

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

Russell Thomas and Sondra Radvanovsky
Photo: Cory Weaver

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We arrived in Chicago the last weekend in February just in time for the final night of Lyric Opera's splendid production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. With a truly memorable performance by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the absurdly demanding title role and a first-rate supporting cast, this was a demonstration of just how compelling a great bel canto opera can be.

The role of Norma, the Druid high priestess who loves neither wisely nor well, is widely regarded as one of the most difficult roles in the repertoire. It's a big part, and not just because of its length; its wide emotional and musical range requires a daunting combination of vocal flexibility, physical stamina, solid acting ability, and a dynamic stage presence. From the moment she first appears on stage, we must believe that this is someone who could command an army as well as the passionate attachment of a Roman general.

Ms. Radvanovsky had everything the role required. Her "Casta Diva" brought down the house with wild applause and spontaneous shouts of "Brava!" She was imperious. She was conflicted. She raged, sighed, and swooned -- and all with a wonderfully seamless and powerful voice.

Sondra Radvanovsky and Company
Photo: Andrew Cioffi

She was backed up by an equally stunning cast headed by tenor Russell Thomas as the feckless Roman general Pollione and mezzo Elizabeth DeShong as the young priestess Adalgisa -- a part almost as demanding as that of Norma.

Riccardo Frizza made an impressive Lyric conducting debut and stage director Kevin Newbury brought the drama to vivid life. Under Michael Black's direction, the chorus was splendid, as always.

This Norma was as pleasing to the eye as it was to the ear, with David Korins's sets and Jessica Jahn's costumes evoking a kind of Game of Thrones version of Roman Empire-era Gaul.

Norma ended its run on Friday, February 24, but the Lyric Opera season continues until late May, with productions of Carmen, Eugene Onegin, and beginning in late April, My Fair Lady. All performances are at the Civic Opera House in the Chicago Loop.

Review: A moving "Eugene Onegin" at Lyric Opera of Chicago

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

Mariusz Kwiecheń and Ana María Martínez
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

My wife Sherry once observed that the phrase “men behaving badly” could summarize the stories of most of opera’s core repertory.  Tchaikovsky's 1879 Eugene Onegin, a powerful production of which runs through March 20^th at Lyric Opera of Chicago, would certainly be a classic example. 

The self-absorbed protagonist, to quote Wikipedia’s pithy plot summary, “lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman's love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend.”  He could easily become tiresome, but the fact that Pushkin was able to make this callow fellow the basis for a beloved verse novel is a tribute to his genius.   The fact that Tchaikovsky and his librettist Konstantin Shilovsky turned that novel into a moving work for the stage is a tribute to theirs.

Lyric Opera's production originated with the Met in New York back in 1997.  It has been revived often since then and even set down for posterity on DVD in 2007.  Paula Suozzi is credited with directing the current production, based on Robert Carsen's original, and the results are impressive, to say the least.  Blocking flows from and enhances the characters, pacing is always right, and the stage pictures created are visually striking. 

Alisa Kolosova, Ana María Martínez, and Charles Castronovo
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Michael Levine's minimal set contributes a great deal to the compelling look of this show.  Using only furniture on a bare stage to indicate time and place, it forcefully underscores the emotional aridity of Onegin's world.  Covering the stage with brightly colored autumn leaves for the opening scenes in the countryside, meanwhile, emphasizes the contrast of that world with Onegin's.

Those wonderful visuals wouldn't be worth much without a great cast, of course, and Lyric certainly has that.  Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecheń's Onegin is properly cool and even a bit arrogant at first as he rejects the amorous advances of the young and naïve Tatiana, which makes his emotional breakdown at the end of the opera that much more effective.  His potent voice rings with true authority.

Tenor Charles Castronovo is his friend Lensky, whom Onegin kills in a duel after an absurd argument caused by an innocent bit of flirtation on the part of Onegin and Lensky's love Olga.  His first act confession of love for Olga was heartfelt and beautifully sung, as was the famed second act monolog in which he contemplates his impending death in the duel.  Both were enthusiastically received by the audience at the premiere, with shouts of "bravo" after the latter.

Perhaps the best-known number in the entire opera in the Act I "letter" scene in which Tatiana recklessly declares her infatuation with Onegin.  Tchaikovsky is said to have very much identified with Tatiana’s hopelessly thwarted passion (being gay in a sexually repressive culture will do that to a person) and has given the character some of the most dramatic and compelling music in the opera.

Soprano Ana María Martínez is Lyric's Tatiana and while she clearly looks much older than the character's nineteen years in Act I, she acted the role with complete conviction.  When she dashed about the stage in giddy abandon after pouring out her heart in her letter to Onegin, she was so obviously the hormone-fueled adolescent that suspension of disbelief was automatic.  She also used all the colors of her wide-ranging voice to brilliantly illuminate this crucial scene.

Alisa Kolosova and Charles Castronovo
Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Russian mezzo Alisa Kolosova was equally credible as Tatnia's sister Olga, brimming with youthful optimism.  Her cool, fluid voice was a perfect fit for the part.

Eugene Onegin opens with a bit of wistful comedy as Tatiana’s mother Larina and the family nurse Filipyevna peel apples and reminisce about the former's days as a fashionable young girl, before marriage turned her into a member of the landed gentry in the country where "heaven sends us habit to take the place of happiness".  Mezzos Katharine Goeldner and Jill Grove, respectively, were impeccable in those roles, hitting just the right balance of humor and nostalgia.

There are a couple of plum cameo parts in the opera as well, the most notable being that of Prince Gremin, the middle-aged general whom Tatiana, following in her mother’s dutiful footsteps, eventually marries.  Russian bass Dmitry Belosselskiy captured all the character's emotional warmth and calm, ethical center as he tells Onegin of his love for Tatiana in a touching and lyrical aria.  At passionate length, he muses that she is a welcome change from the shallow, insincere, and morally questionable characters that he’s obliged to deal with on a regular basis – characters, in short, rather like Onegin.  It was a truly memorable performance, sung with great authority and real power even in the lowest notes.

The other great cameo is foppish Triquet, whose little French language serenade to Olga at her name-day party offers a brief respite from the raging hormone- and vodka-fueled battle that leads to the fatal duel between Lensky and Onegin.  Tenor Keith Jameson sang the role with just the right light lyricism and made the character just affected enough to be amusing without falling over into cheap comedy.

The chorus serves an important narrative function in Onegin, especially in the famous Act II waltz, so kudos to Chorus Mater Michael Black for getting such a clear and crisp sound from his thoroughly professional singers.  Down in the pit Alejo Pérez, making his American debut, conducted a warm and very convincing account of Tchaikovsky's score.

When Tchaikovsky wrote what he described as  “lyrical scenes” from the famous novel (he declined to label it an opera), it was with the understanding that his Russian audience would fill in all the narrative gaps and backstory between those scenes.  Now, the place and culture that produced Eugene Onegin may be forever beyond our grasp, but Lyric's excellent production bridges the gap and brings the powerful emotions home.

Performances of Lyric Opera of Chicago's Eugene Onegin continue through March 20^th at the Civic Opera House in the Chicago Loop. For more information: lyricopera.org.

Review: A bloody good Macbeth at Opera Theatre of St. Louis

L-R: Robert Pomakov, Roland Wood, Julie Makerov
Photo: Ken Howard

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Verdi, like many nineteenth-century composers, was a huge fan of Shakespeare. Two of his most highly regarded operas-Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893)-were based on The Bard's plays. He even planned a musical treatment of King Lear, but it never came to fruition.

This season, Opera Theatre is presenting Verdi's first Shakespeare opera, Macbeth, in the revised version the composer prepared for Paris in 1865. It's not generally regarded as being in the same league with the other two (although according to Operabase it's just as popular worldwide), but in the skilled hands of director Lee Blakeley and conductor (and OTSL Music Director) Stephen Lord it makes for a rattling good melodrama and an irresistible evening of musical theatre.

The libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei follows the bare bones of Shakespeare's original, although the story has been considerably streamlined and many secondary characters have been eliminated. The big moments are still there, though: the scenes with the witches, Lady Macbeth's "letter" and sleepwalking scenes, Macbeth's "dagger" monologue and, of course, the banquet with Banquo's ghost. And in Verdi's hands, they form the basis for very powerful theatrical moments.

Roland Wood and witches
Photo: Ken Howard

OTSL has a great cast on hand, headed by British baritone Roland Wood in the very large and demanding title role. His powerful, clear voice and imposing stage presence were a perfect fit for the part. Canadian bass Robert Pomakov was just as impressive as Banquo, forcefully and easily projecting even the lowest notes.

Speaking of low notes, the role of Lady Macbeth, although officially a soprano part, often drops quite low as well-so much so that it has sometimes been played by a mezzo. Julie Makerov sings the role here and while she's a soprano, she sounded entirely at ease with the part's range, top to bottom, and handled the coloratura-style elements in the banquet scene easily. Like her co-stars, she's a compelling actress, as credible in the fierce "letter" scene as in the Act IV "sleepwalking" aria "La luce langue" ("The light fades")-one of the numbers Verdi added for Paris audiences.

The tenor role of Macduff is less important in the opera than in the play-he only gets one aria, and that one quickly turns into a duet with the opera's other tenor, Malcolm. Matthew Plenk did a brilliant job with it, though, provoking enthusiastic applause when we saw the show. Tenor Evan Leroy Johnson cuts a striking figure as Malcolm.

L-R: Matthew Plenk and Roland Wood
Photo: Ken Howard

Director Lee Blakeley's stark set, inspired by the bare-bones quality of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, makes scene changes quick and fluid, and his staging highlights the loneliness of the Macbeths, as their relentless and bloody struggle for power alienates everyone they haven't killed or exiled. He and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind have made it a mostly very dark set as well-sometimes too much so. Still, it's a nice visual analogue for an opera in which dark, low voices predominate, and it works nearly all of the time. 

The orchestra of St. Louis Symphony musicians performs flawlessly under Stephen Lord's baton, and Robert Ainsley's chorus sings with sometimes overwhelming power and exactitude. The women's chorus is especially impressive in the two scenes with Macbeth and the witches, where Verdi replaced Shakespeare's trio of crones with an entire cackling choir divided into three covens.

You have one more chance to catch OTSL's Macbeth on Sunday, June 26 2016, at 7 p.m. and-trust me on this-you don't want to miss it. I can't recall the last time it was performed here in St. Louis, so this could be your only chance to catch this violent and compelling work. As with all OTSL operas, it's sung in English with projected English text. For more information, visit the Opera Theatre web site.

Review: Bohemian Rhapsody

Andrew Haji, Hae Ji Chang, and the company
Photo: Ken Howard

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By the time Puccini and his librettists got around to translating Henri Murger’s episodic 1849 novel Scènes De La Vie Bohème into the 1896 opera La Bohème, it had already enjoyed a considerable European vogue, so it’s not surprising that La Bohème has gone on to become a favorite of opera companies around the world. That includes Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which has presented it five times since 1978.

For its sixth run at this classic tearjerker (which runs through June 25, 2016), OTSL has assembled a fine cast, with particularly strong performers in the supporting roles. Combine that with generally very smart direction and superb orchestral playing and the result is a very gratifying production which, despite a few missteps, serves both Puccini and his librettists very well.

L-R: Sean Michael Plumb, Anthony Clark Evans, 
and Bradley Smoak
Photo: Ken Howard

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. Mimi dies, Musetta doesn't, and nobody lives happily ever after.

Bass-baritone Bradley Smoak and baritone Sean Michael Plumb turn in two of the strongest performances as Colline and Schaunard, respectively. A regular on the OTSL stage, Mr. Smoak once again displays the ideal combination of vocal power and theatrical prowess that made him a welcome addition to (among others) the company's Pirates of Penzance in 2013 and Don Giovanni in 2011. Mr. Plumb, in his OTSL debut, proves to be a skilled actor with a fine sense of comedy and an accurate, robust voice.

Andrew Haji and Hae Ji Chang
Photo: Ken Howard

Also making his company debut is baritone Anthony Clark Evans as Marcello, who can't decide whether he's less happy with Musetta or without her. His battle and reconciliation with her in the big Café Momus scene of Act II was a highlight of the evening.

Speaking of Our Lady of the Relaxed Virtue, soprano Lauren Michelle (yet another newcomer to the OTSL stage) gives Musetta a bit more of a comic edge than I have seen in other productions. It makes her great fun to watch, even if it makes Marcello's obsession with her a bit less credible, but she sings up a storm in the famed "Musetta's Waltz" sequence and makes the character's compassion for Mimi in the last act very moving.

As Rodolfo, Andrew Haji (a late replacement for the originally scheduled Anthony Kalil), displays a smooth and appealing tenor voice which is not, unfortunately, quite as powerful as that of his fellow cast members, so he tends to get a bit swamped in ensemble numbers. He also is a bit overpowered by his Mimi, Hae Ji Chang, who has the kind of big, rich soprano required for this "full lyric" role. They're fine singers, but neither seemed to be fully invested in their characters, resulting in performances that felt a bit one-dimensional to me.

Lauren Michelle and the company
Photo: Ken Howard

Even so, Mimi's death scene, which OTSL General Director Tim O'Leary calls "one of the most heartbreaking scenes in all of opera," manages to generate the right amount of pathos, so on the whole I can't really complain.

Bass-baritone Thomas Hammons, whose cameo in Tabarro was so moving back in 2013, shows solid comic chops as the befuddled landlord Benoit and Musetta's equally confused sugar daddy Alcindoro.

Director Ron Daniels, Set Designer Riccardo Hernandez, and Costume Designer Emily Rebholz have moved the action from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, using silent film clips and non-singing actors (including a pair of Charlie Chaplin imitators on roller skates and stage veteran Joneal Joplin as Santa Claus) to set the tone between acts. This makes a certain dramatic sense, in that Paris in the 1920s probably has the same kind of nostalgic feel for the modern audience that the mid-1900s Paris would have had for Puccini's audience at the end of that century.

L-R: Anthony Clark Evans, Thomas Hammons,
Andrew Haji, Sean Michael Plumb, and Bradley Smoak
Photo: Ken Howard

Mr. Daniels's direction is, in any case, fluid and creates interesting visuals, even if he does have the crowd at the beginning of Act II mill around the stage in circles for a bit too long. He has also found more humor in the opera than I have sometimes seen in the past, especially in the opening scene with Rodolfo and his flat mates.

Conductor Emanuele Andrizzi is making his OTSL debut, and it's an auspicious one. His tempi are well chosen, his vocal/orchestral balances are good, and he keeps everything running smoothly. That includes the complex Café Momus scene, with both adult and children's choruses and even an offstage marching band parading through the house. The orchestra plays beautifully, with a big, rich sound that does Puccini proud.

Finally, I'd like to offer praise for the excellent rhyming English libretto by Richard Pearlman and Francis Rizzo. Too often, translators make little or no attempt to duplicate the scansion and rhyme schemes of the original material. It's nice to see it done so well here.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis's La Bohème may not be perfect, but it's awfully good and gets the company's fourty-first season off to a gratifying start. It runs through June 25, 2016, at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Tickets available online or by phone at 314-961-0644.

Opera Review: Singing steals the show in Winter Opera's "Il Trovatore"

L-R: Maria Kanyova, Neil Nelson

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Verdi's 1853 tragedy "Il Trovatore" ("The Troubadour") has proved to be one of the most enduring hits produced during his "Middle Period" (basically the 1850s), which also gave us the massively popular "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto."  Winter Opera's current production is not, perhaps, ideal.  But its musical values are solid, and that's saying a lot.

"Il Trovatore" is classic romantic Italian opera, with doomed lovers, a witch's curse, babies switched at birth, jealousy, violence, and death.  You can find a complete plot synopsis on Wikipedia, but for the purposes of this review I'll just note that nobody lives happily ever after.  If "Il Trovatore" has a message, it might be "don't mess with the gypsies."

Claudia Chapa and chorus

According to opera and theatre critic Charles Osborne, the great Enrico Caruso is said to have once observed that all it takes to perform "Il Trovatore" is the four greatest singers in the world.  He was exaggerating for effect, of course, but the fact is that the opera's four principal roles are very demanding both vocally and theatrically.  Verdi's music has elements of the heavily ornamental bel canto style (especially in the music for Leonora, the romantic lead) but also requires real power and lyrical beauty.  Add in the fact that he and librettist Salvadore Cammarano put all the leads through emotional hell and you have material that demands singing actors at the top of their games.

Winter Opera has a quartet of fine singers in the roles, with pride of place going to bass-baritone Neil Nelson as the arrogant and lustful Count di Luna, whose obsessive and one-sided pursuit of noblewoman Leonora leads to disaster.  When I reviewed his performance as Hagen in Union Avenue Opera's "Götterdämmerung" last summer, I noted that his big, powerful voice easily delivered even the lowest notes with authority. It still does, and his acting is once again impeccable. His "Il balen del suo sorriso" was a brilliantly creepy portrayal of a man whose lust has totally overridden any principles he once had.

L-R: Claudia Chapa, Jorge Pita Carreras

Soprano Maria Kanyova, who has given us so many top-notch performances in Opera Theatre of St. Louis productions over the years, is in fine form again as the object of di Luna's unwelcome affections, trying to find happiness with the doomed Manrico.  Her dynamic range and vocal flexibility were impressive when saw her at Wednesday night's final dress rehearsal and her acting was completely committed.  Her "D'amor sull'ali rosee" in Act IV had real tragic weight.

Mezzo Claudia Chapa is perhaps a bit young for the role of Manrico's revenge-obsessed mother, but she sings with real power and acts with great conviction.  "Stride la vampa," the aria in which she describes how her mother was burned as a witch and her need for vengeance, was very compelling,

Tenor Jorge Pita Carreras brings a solid bel canto voice with a rich low end to the role of Manrico, but nothing else.  At least when we saw him, he rarely made any connections with his fellow actors and seemed largely disengaged from the drama, often staring out into the middle distance. His tragic downfall, as a result, lacked the dramatic punch is should have had.

Antoine Hodge, chorus

Bass-baritone Antoine Hodge makes an excellent Ferrando, delivering the expository aria "Di due figli vivea padre beato" at the top of Act I with the relish of a true storyteller.  Soprano Sharon Sullivan is a sympathetic Ines, Leonora's confidant.  Tenors Clark Sturdivant and Ryan Keller have effective cameos as Manrico's second-in-command Ruiz and a messenger, respectively.

Director Mark Freiman has had considerable success on local opera stages as a singer and his direction of Winter Opera's "Tosca" in 2013 was also impressive, but work here struck me as rather uninspired.  Far too often, actors were simply planted on stage and singing towards the audience, even when they should have been interacting with each other.  I also felt his decision to pantomime the events being narrated by Azucena and Ferrando produced a lot of unnecessary and distracting stage business.  Less would have been more in this case.

Down in the pit, conductor Darwin Aquino leads the orchestra in a very polished interpretation of Verdi's score.  It's not a large ensemble (23 musicians) but they produced a satisfyingly robust sound.  Nicole Aldrich's chorus also sounded larger than its size would suggest.

Scott Loebl's sets were minimal but very effective, and the nocturnal backdrop for Leonora's garden in Act I, scene 2 was quite striking—deep indigo with a bright full moon.  Sean Savoie's lights helped maintain the illusion.  JC Krajicek's medieval costumes were very effective as well.

Winter Opera continues to produce very respectable (and sometimes quite fine) productions of opera classics, and their home in the Skip Viragh center is one of the better spaces for musical theatre in town.  Their "Il Trovatore" will be presented Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., March 4 and 6.  It's definitely worth seeing, especially if you love your Verdi (as so many of us do).  Visit the company web site for ticket information.

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Join me at the Fourth Annual Award Ceremony of the St. Louis Theatre Circle at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 21, at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade. If you can't make it to the ceremony, you can watch HEC-TV's live stream of the event at www.hectv.org.

A dark, driven "Rigoletto" at Union Avenue Opera

Jordan Shanahan and Lucy Sauter
Photo: John Lamb

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Union Avenue Opera is following up on its highly praised "Don Giovanni" with an impressive production of Verdi's 1851 tragedy, "Rigoletto." From the ominous brass fanfares that open the prelude to Rigoletto's final despairing howl of "La maledizione" ("the curse"), Tim Ocel's knowing direction drives this "Rigoletto" to its tragic conclusion with the relentless energy of a runaway train.

Implacably dark and menacing, this tale of men behaving incredibly badly is dominated by low voices—basses, baritones, contraltos, and mezzos. The prevalence of those darker and richer sounds is a characteristically smart theatrical decision by Verdi; it lends a sense of inescapable weight to the story of a revenge plot gone horribly wrong.

Jordan Shanahan and James Callon
Photo: John Lamb

That only works, of course, if you have strong singers for those roles. Happily Union Avenue has them in abundance here, with pride of place going to baritone Jordan Shanahan in the title role. If you've seen UAO's "Rheingold," "Siegfried," or "Dead Man Walking," you already now that Mr. Shanahan boasts both a big, wide-ranging voice (with solid bottom notes that sound more like the work of a bass-baritone) and an approach to acting that allows him to completely inhabit his characters. His horror movie makeup is so obviously artificial that it's a bit distracting, but the fierce commitment of his performance makes that a minor issue.

As the feckless (if not downright sociopathic) Duke who callously seduces, assaults, and then abandons Rigoletto's daughter Gilda, tenor James Callon is just as smugly repellent as he should be. He had a couple of rough notes in the second and third acts on opening night, but otherwise sang with admirable clarity garnering the expected applause with popular arias like "La donna è mobile".

James Callon and Mark Freiman
(rear)
Photo: John Lamb

Soprano Lacy Sauter, who was such a heartbreaking Blanche in "Streetcar Named Desire" last season, returns to UAO as Gilda, whose absurdly self-sacrificing nature leads to the opera's tragic conclusion. The very implausibility of the character is, in my view, a real obstacle for any actress, but Ms. Sauter manages to pull it off with a convincing characterization and a voice that easily navigates the coloratura passages in the famous "Caro nome" aria in Act I.

Bass-baritone Patrick Blackwell is the doomed Count Monterone, whose dying curse falls heavily on Rigoletto and bass Mark Freiman is the ironically principled assassin Sparafucile. They're both compelling actors, with big, powerful voices that fill the UAO space. There's fine singing as well by Mezzo Kristee Haney, darkly seductive as Sparafucile's sister and partner in crime Maddalena.

This is, in short, a very strong cast, right down to the smallest walk-ons. That includes Debby Lennon as Gilda's nurse Giovanna, Andy Papas as the put-upon Count Ceprano, Anthony Heinemann the sneering courtier Borsa, and Robert Garner as Marullo, whose momentary attack of conscience, while not explicitly called out in the libretto, nevertheless makes good dramatic sense.

Patrick Blackwell
Photo: John Lamb

Union Avenue's chorus sings with impressive power and clarity. Under Scott Schoonover's usual expert direction the orchestra sounds impressive despite its small size and the vocal/instrumental balance is quite good.

Tim Ocel has demonstrated on more than one occasion that he knows how to handle the unique demands of the operatic stage—most recently in UAO's stunning "La Traviata" last season. He has done it again with this "Rigoletto," maintaining a sense of tragic inevitability while still allowing the big musical moments to breathe.

Kristee Haney and Mark Freiman
Photo: John Lamb

Kyra Bishop's deliberately shabby set with its peeling plaster and exposed lathe and Teresa Doggett's intentionally drab costumes (only Rigoletto has any real color) are presumably intended to underline the moral decay that pervades Francesco Maria Piave's libretto. If so, they do the job admirably. Paige Seber's lighting, however, is so dim that faces are sometimes lost. I'm not sure that the darkness of "Rigoletto" needs to be that visible.

Union Avenue Opera's admirable "Rigoletto" runs through August 9th at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union at Enright in the Central West End. The opera is sing in Italian with projected English text. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8, although given that parking on the lot is at a premium, you'll want to get there by 7:30 if possible. For more information, visit the company's web site.