Opera Archives - Aisle Seat Review: Independent Reviews and News on Bay Area Arts, Destinations, and Lifestyle.

April 10, 2024April 12, 2024

Pick ASR! “Birds and Balls:” Opera as Spectator Sport

By Jeff Dunn

Sports spectators usually take sides. So can opera composers—say, Puccini in that heavyweight match, Scarpia vs. Tosca. But what do composers do when an opera is a spectator sport taking place on stage?

On April 5th, Opera Parallèle provided two fascinating examples of sports opera and the “sides” promoted by two composers, David T. Little and Laura Karpman. Little took on an obscure Belgian bird-call competition called Vinkensport, and Karpman had a swing at exhibition tennis with the King/Riggs “Battle of the Sexes” match of 1973. Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel brilliantly collaborated with the composers to subsume Little’s opera into the 1973 ABC Wide World of Sports broadcast moderated by immoderate Howard Cosell. Parallèle publicized the combination cleverly as Birds and Balls.

… I was happy to be a spectator …

The upshot was that Karpman’s sympathies (and librettist Gail Collins’) were with Billy Jean King, but the music was rooting for Riggs. In contrast, Little’s music and Royce Vavrek’s libretto were rooting for all the competition participants, especially the birds.

The evening began with Little’s 45-minute Vinkensport, or the Finch Opera, which premiered in 2010 and was revised in 2018. In it, six contestants with sticks sit in a line with their trained chaffinches in boxes and count each series of chirps their birds emit. (You can hear the sound at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COllwlh-jXo.)

Each count is supposed to be marked with chalk on the sticks; the trainer with the most counts at the time limit wins. Although sticks were present, no chalk marks were made, nor were calls heard, so audience members not reading up on the details of this bizarre activity were probably confused about the rules. The six contestants did sing a chorus depicting the calls and marks: “Susk-e-wiet, Susk-e-wiet, Susk-e-wiet, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tally.”

Not that the contest itself mattered. Like the musical A Chorus Line, Vinkensport is really about the hearts and souls of the contestants. Each has a backstory and an attitude. These are absorbing, utterly human, and superbly conveyed by the libretto, projected videos, and especially, the rhythmic and orchestral variety found in Little’s music. A testament to the effectiveness of characterization is that the audience cares for the two cheaters of the six as much as for the four others: a sex-starved yet religious wife, a dutiful son who hates the sport, an alcoholic trophy wife, and a principled yet lonely man who ends the opera with a moving farewell to his bird, “Atticus Finch,” whom he releases to the skies after a decade of service.

In contrast to the depth of Vinkensport was the glitz and bang of the second opera Balls, a premiere which I suspect needs a bit more polish. In it, honoring of women’s political progress by the victory of Billie Jean King is undercut by the extended satire of Seventies styles and fashions, “Laugh-in” funny as they are. The over-the-top self-promotion by the Bobby Riggs character is accompanied by music with a disjointedness that seems undistinguishable from King’s music, which should convey a more steady and subdued determination. Rather than highlighting a Seventies moment in time, the opera contrarily includes the appearance of Susan B. Anthony in 19th-century dress. Perhaps this underlines women’s striving for progress and the continuing failure of the ERA to cap it today.

However these two operas fare in the future, either together or separately, I must vouch for the incredible job the entire Opera Parallèle team did in mounting them under Nicole Paiement’s and Brian Staufenbiel’s supervision and creative input.

All performers were outstanding, most especially Nathan Granner as both Hans Sachs’ cocaine-hypered trainer in Vinkensport and Bobby Riggs in Balls. David Murakami’s projections and Lawrence Dillon’s videos greatly enhanced the proceedings. The impressive Nikola Printz sang Billie Jean King. Jamie Chamberlin, Daniel Cilli, Chelsea Hollow, Shawnette Sulker, and Chung-Wai Soong wonderfully embodied their distinct Vinkensport characters.

Finally, Mark Hernandes did a fine job sporting Howard Cosell’s unique approach to English. And I was happy to be a spectator to the whole operation.

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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	"Birds" (Vinkensport) and Balls
Directed by	Brian Staufenbiel
Producing Company	Opera Parallèle
Production Dates	Thru April 7th
Production Address	SF Jazz Miner Auditorium 201 Franklin St, SF, CA 94102
Website	www.operaparallele.org
Telephone	(415) 392-4400
Tickets	$40- $180

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4.5/5.0
Performance	4.5/5.0
Music (Vinkensport)	4.5/5.0
Music (Balls)	3.5/5.0
Libretto (Vinkensport)	4.5/5.0
Libretto (Balls)	4.5/5.0
Stagecraft	4.5/5.0
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	YES!

February 27, 2024March 1, 2024

ASR Opera ~~ Political Incorrection at San Jose’s California Theater

By Jeff Dunn

In 1832, Victor Hugo had a play produced in Paris about a serial rapist and murderer, a brother-sister pair of cutthroats, a gang of kidnappers, and a hunchbacked provocateur who berates everyone and imprisons his daughter. All of these characters escape the law. Is this politically correct? It wasn’t in 1832 when it was banned in France as an insult to the monarchy, nor was it in 1851 when Verdi and his librettist Piave retold the same story.

Hugo’s rapist was the King of France, who hung the Mona Lisa in his bathroom, and the play was called The King Has Fun. Verdi and Piave squeaked by Austrian censors in Venice by making all the characters Mantuan instead of French, and naming their opera Rigoletto. Far from being banned, the opera has spread throughout the world like Covid, its many jaunty tunes inoculating audiences into enjoying themselves while at the same time being reminded of how abuse of power is the chief ill of civilization.

… Conductor Jorge Parodi did a fine job of pacing the proceedings …

Among the range of interpretations for this constantly reproduced staple of the repertoire, San Jose Opera’s take is somberly traditional. Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s dark and musty costumes evoke the 16th century. Steven C. Kemp’s sets are nondescript black and dingy, except Rigoletto’s brilliant white-and-red home or, instead, keep, that is supposed to protect his innocent daughter from the Duke of Mantua and his court. Director Dan Wallace Miller adds two gruesome deviations from the norm: Rigoletto’s congenital hunchback is instead a hideous red scar branding his bald pate, and the Duke has syphilis.

Count Ceprano (Glenn Healy, back center) and courtiers have no pity for the jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, front center) in Opera San José’s production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. Photo credit: David Allen

Performances fit well into Wallace’s gloomy vision. Eugene Brancoveanu’s obnoxious grizzly bear of a Rigoletto makes the courtiers and the audience wince, but his notes are spot on. At the conclusion, his grief is a Niagran force of nature. Edward Graves, a newcomer to the role of the Duke, also fits the director’s tone with his accurate voice, despondent more than joyfully playing the field. Melissa Sondhi, as Gilda, conveys innocence as puzzlement while negotiating her complex music.

The Duke of Mantua (Edward Graves, left) and his jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, right) at work. Photo credit: David Allen

Standout performances were contributed by Philip Skinner as the wronged Count Monterone and Ashraf Sewailam as the principled murderer-for-hire Sparafucile. Melisa Bonetti Luna’s expressive acting was a great plus, though, in this reviewer’s opinion, her voice was occasionally overshadowed by others. Conductor Jorge Parodi did a fine job of pacing the proceedings. Most impressive was the Opera Chorus of courtiers and kidnappers, meticulously prepared by Johannes Löhner.

The jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, center) entertains the Duke of Mantua’s courtiers in Opera San José’s production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” playing thru March 3, 2024 at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose. Photo credit: David Allen

While Miller’s approach is undoubtedly defensible, I wonder if Verdi’s message would be better conveyed by even greater present-day incorrectness. If a director pretended to endorse the duke’s and courtier’s predations with cheery carryings-on and bright colors, if women happily allowed men to have their way, that murder was a trip to the nearest 7-11 in a Death of Stalin milieu, maybe some in the audience might question power structures more strongly.

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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor, Jeff Dunn, is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle member and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won photography prizes and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	Rigoletto
Based on a play by	Victor Hugo
Libretto by	Francesco Maria Piave
Stage Direction	Dan Wallace Miller
Producing Company	San Jose Opera
Production Dates	Thru Mar 3rd
Production Address	California Theater - 345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
Website	www.operasj.org
Telephone	(408) 437-4450
Tickets	$50- $195

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	3.5/5
Performance	3.5/5
Music	4.75/5.0
Libretto	4/5
Stagecraft	3/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	No

February 17, 2024February 17, 2024

PICK! ASR Opera ~~ Unfinished Business at West Bay Opera

By Jeff Dunn

For a long time, I was wondering if Corpus Evita was the correct title for West Bay’s latest offering in Palo Alto. It’s a sequence of scenes—roughly connected, suffused with contradictory elements—that swirl in the past, present, and future about the troubled 1974-76 presidency of Argentina’s Isabel Perón and the legacy of Juan Perón’s previous wife, Eva.

It was Isabel’s mistakes and ouster that began the murderous military dictatorship of 1976-83, El Proceso. In the opera’s strongest scene, Isabel begs for forgiveness, an act the now 93-year-old has never performed publicly. The opera’s librettist claims that were she to do so, it “would be cathartic for a society that’s still divided about what happened back then.” Yet the opera is not named Isabel, not Eva, but Corpus Evita, the embalmed corpse of Eva. Why?

Scene 5. (L-R): Isabel, Ministro, Ghosts of Eva and Perón. Background, members of WBO chorus. Photo credit Otak Jump.

The answer gradually dawned on me: There are two Eva Peróns. There is the myth of Evita as “patron saint of public spending, labor pampering, and largesse to the underprivileged” (The Atlantic, October 1952). Then there is her literal, trundled-about corpse representing a past that can never be recreated. The opera depicts both with two singers, respectively, lovely soprano Jessica Sandridge and the imposing Laure de Marcellus. But the title betrays the creators’ preference. In the words of the librettist, “People keep returning to the myth and they keep voting for it. And politicians keep handing out benefits that the country’s economy can ill afford, in a never-ending downward spiral.”

… When hope is suffused with nostalgia, as in the Evita myth, the result can be dangerous, unfinished business …

And who are the creators? Lorenz Russo–concept, Carlos Franzetti–music, and Jose Luis Moscovich, West Bay Opera General Director, Music Director, Stage Director–Librettist. All were present at the performance, and there was no question it was a labor of love, resplendently executed by a terrific set of soloists and chorus.

Scene 6. (L-R): Isabel and Ministro’s ghost. Photo credit Otak Jump.

White-suited tenor Patrick Bessenbacher was particularly impressive as sinister “Ministro” Lopez Rega, the Svengali with mystic influence over Isabel. Sara LeMesh was outstanding as Isabel, along with Casey Germain as Perón and Anders Froehlich as the Doctor.

Of all the wonderful aspects of the evening, the most stunning was the set and projection design by Peter Crompton, with gorgeous overlapping projections on three screens. Example: the final scene culminates in an apotheosis of Evita glowing with light with Statue of Liberty rays that suddenly morph to blood red as armed guerillas march out by Sandridge’s side.

Projections showing their magic in “Corpus Evita”. Photo credit Otak Jump.

When hope is suffused with nostalgia, as in the Evita myth, the result can be dangerous, unfinished business. When I heard Fanzetti’s gorgeous orchestrations in a 100-year-old Ravel-like milieu, I was at first confused until I realized they could apply to the Evita and not the Corpus. A bit more modernism in the Corpus music might have been helpful in emphasizing the temporal distinction.

Scene 4. (L-R) Isabel, Ministro, WBO Orchestra, Maestro José Luis Moscovich. Photo credit Otak Jump.

I could not justify in my mind a different, unfinished structural aspect: the abrupt breaks between scene changes, and the intermission break after, not before, a so-called Entr’Acte, a pantomimed scene in a torture chamber.

And finally, I feel a deeper impression would be made on audiences if additional transition music were composed and this compelling opera were performed without a break.

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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	Corpus Evita. Based on a concept by Lorenz Russo.
Music by	Carlos Franzetti
Libretto & Stage Direction by	Jose Luis Moscovich
Producing Company	West Bay Opera
Production Dates	Thru Feb 25th
Production Address	Lucie Stern Auditorium
Website	www.wbopera.org
Telephone	(650) 424-9999
Tickets	$43- $115

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4/5
Performance	4/5
Music	3/5/5
Libretto	4/5
Stagecraft	4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	YES!

October 10, 2023October 11, 2023

Pick! ASR Theater ~~ Hefty Main Course at Livermore Opera’s “Of Mice and Men”

by Jeff Dunn

Suffocated puppies, broken necked strumpets, agitated posse flashlights blinding the audience—people could easily fault Of Mice and Men for being too melodramatic.

But do they know they are also disparaging the meat and potatoes of opera? Carlisle Floyd’s gripping adaptation of Steinbeck’s famous novella offers a heavy dish of steak-and-spuds emotion, and a crew of uneasy ranch hands as a bonus. Moreover, the opera is couched in a near-perfect set of production values from the creative teams at Livermore Valley Opera.

To begin my multi-course menu of praise, try the superlative performance of tenor Matthew Pearce as the mentally challenged Lennie. He has mastered the character’s physical behaviors and childlike mental condition, but best of all, unlike some of the others who have faced the part’s musical difficulties, he hits his several high notes like hot butter melting into the toast of Floyd’s phrases. Baritone Robert Mellon, as George, Lennie’s companion and minder, clears the air with vocal authority–all suffused with a nervous anxiety appropriate to knowing the potential damage Lennie can cause with his inhuman strength.

Overseer Curley’s nasty disposition and cock-of-the-walk power parades are strikingly portrayed by tenor Chad Somers’ spot-on reedy voice and balletic body movements. Curley’s unhappy and lustful wife is not treated kindly by Floyd’s music, yet coloratura Véronique Filloux deftly negotiated her often see-saw extremes of lyricism.

Baritone Matthew Worth offered his sympathetic voice to the role of Slim; bass Kirk Eichelberger excelled as a maimed farm worker trapped in a box-canyon life; and the rest of the ranch hands under chorus master Bruce Olstad added societal weight to the proceedings. Superb acting in all quarters was directed by Marc Jacobs. Conductor Alexander Katzman deftly handled Floyd’s constant metric changes in the score, a reduced but mostly effective orchestration by Jim Meduitz.

…a near-perfect set of production values…

Rather than refer specifically to the Depression-era’s mass migrations, Jean-François Revon’s set, video, and tech team were absolutely top-notch in creating a rural California ambiance of summer oaky hills, rivers, barns, and woods. Not only were there large collections of background projections, but also animation effects of moving stars, suns and moons. The moon in the last scene was scaringly reminiscent of the last scene of Berg’s Wozzeck.

Steinbeck’s drama and pathos might be hard to take for some, but the story about the human need for companionship and something to call one’s own is a verity worth everyone’s revisiting. The issue of what right we have over others’ lives is also paramount in this work. Floyd’s music is up to the task in mirroring the explosive emotions and events in his unflaggingly concise libretto.

In a 2011 interview, he opined that a libretto is 60% or more of what makes an opera successful. I certainly agree in the case of Of Mice and Men: its music does not have the melodic or harmonic immediacy that will bring audiences back for many repeat visits. Artists who must live with an opera to bring it to life find ways to make sense of lyric lines, and end up praising the effectiveness of melodies that even sophisticated audience members will never hear on first, second, or even third hearings.

Floyd’s music is more like a film score that enhances emotive moments. These moments are so compelling in this opera–especially in this superbly crafted and executed production–that attendees should treasure their exposure to Floyd’s aesthetic, even if the meat and potatoes are mostly in the libretto, and the score is an impossible burger.

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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	Of Mice and Men
Story by	John Steinbeck
Director	Marc Jacobs
Producing Company	Livermore Opera
Production Dates	Thru Oct 15th
Production Address	The Bankhead Theater 2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
Website	https://livermorearts.org/
Telephone	(925) 373-6800
Tickets	$20 - $105

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4.5/5
Performance	4.5/5
Music	3/5
Libretto	4.5/5
Stagecraft	4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	YES!

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023

PICK! ASR Music/Opera! ~~ San Francisco Opera’s New Wave

By Jeff Dunn

Steve Jobs rode the crests of waves of computer technology that have transformed society.

In The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs we experience his growth, wipeout, and spiritual arrival on a farther shore. The opera is a triumphal result of Mason Bates’ continually engaging, effervescent score; Mark Campbell’s tersely masterful 18-scene libretto; the design teams’ fabulous blending of set, lighting, sound, and projections; and flawless orchestral and vocal performances under the direction of Michael Christie. It is not to be missed.

Bille Bruley as Steve Wozniak and John Moore as Steve Jobs. Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Most significant to me was Bates’ mastery of orchestration, and deepening range of emotive expression. Rather than use melodic leitmotivs as Wagner did to distinguish characters, he uses groups of instruments: guitar and percussion for Jobs (superb baritone Joseph Lattanzi), strings for his wife (luscious mezzo Sasha Cooke), flutes for his earlier girlfriend (plaintive soprano Olivia Smith), saxophones for his Apple 1 partner (powerful tenor Bille Bruley), and Asian gongs and other flavorings for his Zen mentor (rich bass Wei Wu).

…Most significant to me was Bates’ mastery of orchestration…

In Bates’ earlier orchestral music, I heard an heir to John Adams’ post-minimalist aesthetic leavened by experimentation with added electronica. But in Jobs, Bates has matured beyond Adams with the use of tonal and triadic effects to inject warm-heartedness into the mix via the string section, much as the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara did in his ground-breaking Cantus Arcticus and later symphonies.

Members of the SF Opera Chorus in “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.” Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Campbell’s dramatic and often ironic instincts are ever present. Jobs is worth its price in gold for Scene 12 alone. In it, Jobs browbeats his Apple 1 co-creator into quitting, denies siring his live-in girlfriend’s child, rejects seven proposals from seven different designers, refuses to support the girlfriend financially, even after DNA proof, and gets kicked to tech “Siberia” by his company’s board. Jobs tries to explain it all in the next scene to his post-mortem spiritual advisor, “I was only seeking perfection.” All of this is peppered with Bates’ most frenetic accompaniments.

The staging by Victoria Tzykun is simplistic, with giant monoliths silently wheeled around by (mostly) unseen “mover” stage staff. On these are projected a dazzling array of computer-board circuits, lighting effects, and contemplative outdoor scenes. This eye candy has many calories, appropriate to the vast fortunes swirling about Silicon Valley.

Sasha Cooke as Laurene Powell Jobs and John Moore as Steve Jobs in Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.” Photo: Cory Weaver/SF Opera

Finally, near the close of the opera, Campbell has Job’s wife deliver a moral to a communication-obsessed society: “Glance at the smile of the person sitting right there next to you. Look up, look out, look around. Be here now.” I did so and wondered, will technology take us safely to a New World beach, or will we too wipe out, even more permanently? I think Surfer Steve tells us in this opera that we will make it.

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His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
Musical Direction	Michael Christie
Stage Direction	Kevin Newbury
Producing Company	San Francisco Opera
Production Dates	Thru Oct 7th
Production Address	301 Van Ness Ave, SF, CA
Website	www.sfopera.com
Telephone	(415) 392-4400
Tickets	$33-$426

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4.5/5
Performance	4.5/5
Libretto	5.0/5
Stagecraft	4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?	YES!

September 10, 2023September 12, 2023

ASR Music & Opera ~~ Rare Treat Gone Too Soon: Delightful Family Opera Buoys the Spirit

By Jeff Dunn

This summer, we’ve had hot and muggy days. But overnight, a front can move through quickly and by sunrise we’re treated to clear, cool air with gentle breezes. Such was the refreshing joy of Solo Opera’s production of The Three Feathers. With delightful music by Lori Laitman and a well-crafted libretto by Dana Gioia, this 85-minute fairy tale opera was loaded with eye candy and star-powered performances.

The story is from the Brothers Grimm collection of 1812 about an aging king (the resonant baritone Eugene Brancovenanu) who wants to pass on his kingdom to one of his three offspring who best fulfills a series of challenges. In the Laitman/Gioia adaptation, these descendants are princesses rather than princes. The youngest, shiest, most naïve yet loving daughter Dora (the sweet soprano Shawnette Sulker) ends up the victor thanks to an underground frog king (the stentorian bass Kirk Eichelberger) that she finds via her magic feather, along with families of rats, bats and snakes.

…The pleasures are many…

Laitman’s music was charming and superbly orchestrated. I particularly admired her use of percussion and brass. While the music was rich in melodic evanescence, I must admit to wishing for at least one substantial aria. Gioia’s text added considerable depth to every one of the cardboard characters from the Grimm tale, and it did so such that it reads like music itself.

The Frog King’s Court with the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

And three of these characters really stood out, doubly boosted by the talents of coloratura Chelsea Hollow as the frivolous shopaholic princess Gilda, mezzo-soprano Hope Nelson as the she-woman princess Tilda, and Sam Faustine as the Frog Prince. Hollow’s voice was thrilling in its scamper. Nelson’s no-nonsense athleticism and vocal clarity would easily land her an executive position in a Silicon Valley startup. Finally, though a late arrival on the scene, Faustine’s frog brought down the house. His transformation from an idiotic frog to a loving and still idiotic prince still brings me tears of laughter.

All of the above excellence was couched in the transformative projections and most of the stage design by Peter Crompton. (I, for one, do wish the trap door to an underworld from the Grimm tale and the 2014 Virginia Tech production could have been retained somehow. Instead Gilda goes through a vertical panel behind her father’s throne. C’est la vie!) Callie Floor’s costume designs were resplendent, and the respective stage and music direction by Sylvia Amorino and Alexander Katsman left nothing to be desired.

The Three Feathers is not just a zoo of princesses, frogs, rats and bats, As Amorino pointed out in her program notes. “The opera invites us to be more inclusive, open our hearts and minds, and work to connect with those who are different than us.”

Sadly, the last performance of this rare treat occurred on September 10th, and with this show’s departure, mugginess returned to the Bay Area. That said, if you ever hear of a company producing this show, “hop to it” and see The Three Feathers.

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Production	The Three Feathers
Stage Direction	Sylvia Amorino
Musical Direction	Alexander Katsman
Producing Company	Solo Opera
Production Dates	Sep 8th, Sep 10th
Production Address	Hofmann Theatre, Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek 94596
Website	www.soloopera.org
Telephone	(925) 943-7469
Tickets	$25-$55

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4.3/5.0
Performance	4.4/5.0
Libretto	4.5/5.0
Music	4.0/5.0
Stagecraft	4.5/5.0
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	N/A

July 31, 2023July 31, 2023

ASR Music ~~ Iolanthe: Fairies and Lords Walk the Boards

By Jeff Dunn

Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Iolanthe is about two groups hidebound by rules who battle it out on stage. One group has power over the other because they’re magic, but both groups have definitely lost their marbles–just read what they sing!

CHORUS OF FAIRIES

Tripping hither, tripping thither,

Nobody knows why or whither;

We must dance and we must sing

Round about our fairy ring!

CHORUS OF PEERS (LORDS)

Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!

Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!

Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses!

Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!

Imagine the silliness of it all–female fairies having power over men, forcing their favored half-fairy male candidate to run parliament houses. Fortunately, all the men and women marry each other at the end, and 19th-century normality is restored. There are other reasons than plot to enjoy Iolanthe, mainly Gilbert’s barb-aplenty text coated by the pill of Sullivan’s inoffensive music.

Lyric Opera has put many of their marbles into their chorus, and the result is a major strength in Music Director Michael Taylor’s department. Kathleen O’Brien’s colorful fairy costumes along with Shirley Benson’s stunted light-saber wands are another plus. Larry Tom’s set designs are spare, but not inappropriate. The single forest projection in Act 1 was so gorgeous, however, it made this reviewer wish there were more of them to follow—a hope unrealized.

…”Iolanthe”, or “The Peer and the Peri”, opened at the Savoy Theatre on November 25, 1882…

I was also hopeful that the soloists’ best efforts would match the consistent delights of the chorus, but no luck. However, voices improved as the operetta progressed opening night.

Bobby Singer was a standout as Private Willis, as was Katie Francis as Queen of the Fairies. Minju Jeong’s light but lovely voice was always on pitch as Phyllis. Tenor Eric Mellum grew well into his role of Lord Tollroller. Jeffrey Lampert’s Lord Chancellor was fun to watch in his famous “headache” patter song (where his jet pace even outpaced the orchestra for a moment!)

For a title character, G&S surprisingly gave Iolanthe only one aria, but Kaelyn Howard carried it off well, with the enthusiasm characteristic of the rest of the cast.

Iolanthe is ranked highly in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon by many commentators. To me, it was a good reminder of why our American Experiment did away with titled nobility. As to the current value of what replaced it, that’s a matter for later discussion.

-30-

Production	Iolanthe
Stage Direction by	Doreen Finkelstein
Musical Direction by	Michael Taylor
Producing Company	Lyric Theatre
Production Dates	Thru Aug 6th
Production Address	Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose, C 95113
Website	www.lyrictheatre.org
Telephone	(408) 986-1455
Tickets	$25-$40

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	3/5
Performance	3/5
Libretto	4/5
Music	2.5/5
Stagecraft	3/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?	----

July 25, 2023July 31, 2023

ASR Music~~ “Tosca” Quartets: A Critic Learns From Four Very Different “Toscas” In Four Months

By Jeff Dunn

As an opera lover, I’m lucky to live in the Bay Area. Already, I’ve seen Tosca produced by four different opera companies this year: Livermore Opera’s in March, San Jose Opera’s in April, Cinnabar Theater’s in June, and Pocket Opera’s in July. What did I learn from the experience?

Lesson One: To my surprise, “lotsa Tosca” never wore me out. This was due to each company’s success in generating a Quartet of Joys from Bernard Shaw’s definition of opera: “… the story of a soprano and tenor who want to sleep together, and a baritone who tries to stop them.”

The joys were namely: 1-3, feeling the infusion of life into one or more of the three principal singing roles (Tosca, Cavaradossi, and Scarpia) and 4, relishing inspired stage-direction. Sure, there are other things that could have gone right or wrong in these performances, but:

- Musical direction was excellent across the board.
- Costume design was uniformly fine.
- And the sets, though ranging from magnificent to bare-boned, seemed to matter so much less compared to the force of the Joy Quartet.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these masters of their art could all be together someday in a future production?

Lesson Two: You can’t beat powerful intimacy when it comes to Tosca. Yes, Act 1’s Te Deum is designed for Grand Opera, and San Jose’s full-sized orchestra was magnificent, but Tosca is about outsized personalities, not crowds or elephants.

The joint productions of Cinnabar and Pocket Opera were a revelation in terms of intimacy, with first-class actors and vocalists almost within spitting distance. Seeing the same casts at Cinnabar’s opening in Petaluma and at Pocket’s first venue in Mountain View after five more performances at Cinnabar was a chance to witness how the principals had perfected their artistry. Michelle Drever had evolved her exceptionally passionate Tosca into a uniquely buttery sound reminding me of Placido Domingo. Spencer Dodd’s well-voiced Scarpia had become more self-assured and less cartoonish. And Alex Boyer, who was also Cavaradossi in the Livermore production, had somehow grown from superb to stupendous.

Oh, and you must read about critic Eddy Reynolds’ goosebumps at https://theatreeddys.com/2023/07/tosca-2.html.

Lesson Three: Creative stage direction is a hit or miss proposition. Cinnabar/Pocket director Elly Lichenstein had three hits with having Tosca accidently find her knife to kill Scarpia inside a cross, having two young sisters sing the shepherd’s role on stage to open Act 3, and having kids on stage to open Act 1.

Bruce Donnell for Livermore did a great job of fight direction between Tosca and Scarpia in Act 2.

Tara Branham for San Jose had an interesting idea to put a bed in Scarpia’s Act 2 apartment where the fight with Tosca took place, but in this critic’s opinion it was too far upstage. In perhaps another miscue, she had the churchgoers in Act 1 walk in front of Scarpia during his Te Deum aria. And her worst idea, in my opinion, was having Cavaradossi have a tryst with a woman (Attavanti?) to open Act 1. While intellectually justifiable, I feel the cost of diminishing Cavaradossi’s stature in the hearts of the audience is not worth the innovation.

Lesson Four: Hearing three world-class singers is unforgettable. Maria Natale’s debut as Tosca in San Jose, with her physical and aural beauty, acting chops and clarity, put all other Toscas aside for me.

The same went for Livermore’s Scarpia, Aleksey Bogdanov.

And Alex Boyer, among all his other excellences, brought forth the rarely conveyed fact in the story that he is a noble, not just a handsome hunk.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these masters of their art could all be together someday in a future production?

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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.

Production	Tosca
Stage Direction	Tara Branham
Producing Company	Opera San Jose
Production Dates	Thru Apr 30th
Production Address	California Theater - 345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
Website	www.operasj.org
Telephone	(408) 437-4450
Tickets	$50- $175

Reviewer Score	Max in each category is 5/5
Overall	4.5/5
Performance	4.5/5
Stagecraft	4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?	YES!