There’s an age-old debate in the theater about which is harder to do — comedy or tragedy. Two of the masterpieces that Opera New Jersey presented last weekend at McCarter Theatre may shed a little light.
Neither composer was a slouch in any respect, but it’s simply astonishing that Donizetti wrote Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s blood-and-thunder novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), in 36 days. The score is a flood of inspired melody and dramatic coups. Lucia went on to influence the course of Italian opera for most of the 19th century.
For his part, Mozart’s speed of composition was often uncanny, but it took the young composer a year before he was satisfied with one of the frothiest of his operas, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (1782), or The Abduction from the Seraglio, a silly romantic romp about the plight of two European girls taken captive by the Turks. “Silly” is not meant as a dig, far from it; this opera is meant to be silly, as silly as possible. Abduction took Vienna by storm, was produced all over the German-speaking world during Mozart’s lifetime, and achieved exactly what he wrote it for — box-office success and professional renown.
In remarks to the audience the evening after Lucia opened, Scott Altman, Opera New Jersey’s general director, described the performance as “sensational,” and right he was, sounding very much like a proud papa. The company has succeeded in fielding a very strong cast, indeed — young singers all — with Lisette Oropesa sending this production right over the top with an incandescent account of the title role.
When a young soprano says she’s ready to sing Lucia, she’s placing an enormous wager on the table. Only the greatest have made this role their own – in the postwar period, Sutherland and Callas for sure, and Gencer and Scotto, after whom one cannot float a name without getting into a fight. Ms. Oropesa is not in those leagues yet, but this listener believes that she’s on her way.
Friday night’s performance could not have been a fluke. No singer gets that lucky in this role, which mercilessly exposes the least flaw in the instrument or the smallest defect in the technique. Ms. Oropesa started strong, paced herself brilliantly and arrived at the infamous Mad Scene loaded for bear. Fireworks exploded up and down her range, gorgeous floats wafted into the theater, and those fiendishly difficult unison passages with solo flute were spot-on accurate. I sat there thinking, This cannot be happening.
Likewise remarkable is Ms. Oropesa’s deft characterization and strong acting. She appears to relish such risky physical business as singing on her back, on her knees, on all fours, while balancing herself atop scenery.
Donizetti’s doomed heroine was impressively supported by a number of stand-out performances, notably that of Eric Dubin as a suavely authoritative Ashton and Rubin Casas as a darkly compelling Raimondo. Tenors are getting to be an endangered species, so one must be gentle with the male lead, Jonathan Boyd. As Edgardo, Mr. Boyd could not be faulted for his ardor. But a warmer sound and more refined delivery — more bel canto than can belt-o — would have been much appreciated. I must say I was left wondering what Taylor Stayton, a knockout as Arturo, might have made of the lead role.
This Lucia, a solidly traditional costume-drama staging by John Hoomes, is lively and compelling throughout. Mr. Hoomes took two big risks; only one works. The famous sextet emerges out of a stage-wide tableau vivant, a stale piece of business usually, but very effective here. And it does not help the impact of Lucia’s bloodstained entrance in the Mad Scene by preceding it with the traipsing of the bloodstained corpse of her victim solemnly off into the wings. Some members of the audience tittered. I don’t blame them.
Opera New Jersey has teamed up this season with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, applause, applause, whose members did a fine job accompanying both operas. Lucia was conducted fluently in McCarter’s big house by Michael Ching. Abduction, which opened Saturday on McCarter’s intimate Berlind Stage, sparkles under Mark Flint’s direction.
In his director’s notes, Bérnard Uzan, that internationally distinguished man-for-all-operatic seasons, sets out exactly the right vision for this opera (a Singspiel, actually, the Broadway musical of its day, with a spoken script punctuated by musical numbers), which is to have a romp of a time, serving up just “the right amount of fantasy and invention to balance the music, without having the whole production become overdone.” And if this means you introduce a harem of belly dancers into the action, well, that’s exactly what you do. And if you offer the audience a lot of light comedy, even some slapstick, all pulled off with verve, there’s no way you can fail. And this production, also basically traditional, certainly doesn’t.
One of the eternal mysteries about Abduction is why Mozart decided to stud it with some of the most spectacular and challenging arias he ever wrote. He knew the singers, it’s true, but still, this show was written to tour, and there could be no guarantee of finding suitable replacements out in the Austro-Hungarian hinterlands. One supposes he just couldn’t help himself.
Again, Opera New Jersey is fielding some very strong singers, with Scott Ramsay (Belmonte) and Jennifer Rowley (Konstanze) leading the way, but to this taste the stage lights up brightest only when Matthew Lau (Osmin, boo, hiss) and Aaron Pegram (Pedrillo) are working their magic. These two singers really inhabit their roles, and, frankly, they sound Mozartian, while their colleagues, including the perky Rachele Gilmore (Blonde), sound rather generic. This may have been a matter of opening-night jitters, as Saturday’s performance improved markedly as the evening progressed.
Opera New Jersey’s production is typically schizoid in that the action proceeds in English while the music is sung in German, supertitled. There’s no way around this problem except to have the singers learn one of any number of English translations of the sung parts. This is seriously impractical. They learn these parts in German, so they sing them in German.
As cultural sensitivities shift, one wonders how long works such as Abduction, L’Italiana in Algeri and I Lombardi will hold the stage. Abduction comes off best of this lot because the moral paragon of the story turns out to be the Pasha — smoothly played, by the way, by Ray Menard, in a speaking role. Mr. Uzan refers obliquely to this problem when his notes allude to “clichés” and “stereotypes.”
And speaking of far-away cultures: Opera New Jersey is also staging Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, so all you Savoyards out there, take note. “The flowers that bloom in the spring,” tra-la, and all that...
Lucia di Lammermoor continues at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, July 18, 8 p.m., July 26, 2 p.m.;
Abduction from the Seraglio continues July 16, 7:30 p.m., July 19, 2 p.m., July 24, 8 p.m.;
The Mikado continues July 17, 8 p.m., July 25, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $15-$110; 609-799-7700;
www.opera-nj.org
