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| Nathan Stark as Mustafa, Lisa Chavez as Isabella. Photos by Pat Kirk. |
November 15, 2014
With its reputation for tragedy and pathos, opera, at times,
is sorely underrated as a comic form. Which is too bad, because there’s nothing
like laughing one’s butt off while being bathed in elegant music. This was most
definitely the experience of Opera San Jose’s brilliantly Marxist (as in Marx
Brothers) presentation of Rossini’s early-career smash.
The setup of Angelo Anelli’s libretto is tremendously
clever. The Turkish Bey, Mustafà, is tired of his submissive harem and wants
one of those irresistible Italian girls (a nice play to Rossini’s home
audience). Giving his right-hand man, Haly (Silas Elash), the assignment to
find him one of these girls, he adds, “If you have not found one in six days, I
shall have you impaled on a stake.” Conveniently enough, an Italian ship wrecks
nearby, supplying the local pirates with all kinds of treasure (including the
Mona Lisa!) and an actual Italian girl, Isabella, who just happens to be searching
for her lost lover, Lindoro, who just happens to be a slave belonging to
Mustafà. Got all that?
It’s almost as if stage director Michael Shell sized up all
this silliness and said, “I will milk this thing until someone dies laughing.” He
began by outfitting his men’s chorus in roly-poly fat suits that jiggle with
every move. The suits provided a background of snickers and chuckles all night.
Much of the remaining laughter was generated by bass Nathan Stark, who plays
the Mustafà with a stout voice and an impressive package of comic skills:
pratfalls, dance moves, striptease, hisses, gasps, barks, and a series of
rubberized facial expressions that make one susect that he is, in fact, a
cartoon character. Matthew Hanscom gives a similar performance as Isabella’s
feckless chaperone Taddeo, employing a blinding grin that seems to take over
half his face.
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| Michael Dailey as Lindoro. |
The vocal highlight comes from tenor Michael Dailey, a
former OSJ resident artist whose lyric voice has become even more lyric, particularly in Lindoro’s introductory
cavatina, “Languir per una bella” and the patter duet with Stark, “Se
inclinassi a prender moglie.” With his striking looks and calm demeanor, Dailey
also gives the opera, in Lindoro, an eye in the storm of wackiness. (A second
“eye” is Mustafà’s main girl, Elvira, played with elan by soprano Isabella Ivy.)
The strong spine of the story is Isabella, a particularly
strong female character (and a precursor to Rosina from Barber). OSJ has just the right performer in mezzo Lisa Chavez, who
possesses a powerful, agile instrument (exhibiting beautiful clarity in her bel
canto ornamentations), and that ineffable ability to command the stage. She
also projects that irresistible quality of the girl-next-door who nonetheless
knows how to engineer a seduction.
The great reward of this cast is how they work together, and
the hilarious tableaux constructed by director Shell. Taking one of Rossini’s
standard sanity-questioning choruses, he turns Mustafà into the centerpiece of
one of those complicated German clocks, the other characters taking turns
striking him like a bell. In another, he sets them all adrift on a rolling
couch, pushed across violent seas by a trio of roly-polys. And the ceremony for
awarding Mustafà the title of Papataci – flying pasta everywhere! – is so crazy
I’m going to make you see it yourself.
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| Matthew Hanscom as Taddeo. |
Steven Kemp’s set design is based mostly on painted flats
with interwoven Turkish patterns, but equipped with enough secret openings for
an episode of Laugh-In. Ming Luke led the orchestra in a particularly breezy
performance (breezy being a particularly Rossinian quality), accentuated by the
fetching flute motif of the overture. It was also fun to follow the recitatives.
Veronika Agranov-Dafoe is so in tune with her singers that the harpsichord seems
like an extra character, commenting on the action. The costumes, designed by
John Lehmeyer, run along the lines of a Perils of Pauline episode, which is
vastly fitting to the story.
Through November 30, California Theater, 345 S. First
Street, San Jose. $51-$111, 408/437-4450 www.operasj.org
Michael J. Vaughn is a 30-year critic and author of the
novel Operaville, available at Amazon.com.
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