High Notes

Queen isabella: Up-and-coming singer Maria Zifchak (second from left) makes her local debut as Isabella in Rossiniâs

Princeton’s summer opera festival enters its 20th season, with a bold lineup and some rising stars.

by David Shengold

Over the years, Opera Company of New Jersey has presented an increasingly important and dynamic summer opera festival, just a short trip from Philly. Their three-week season in July offers three terrifically varied and worthwhile pieces, all company premieres boasting promising casts and artistic teams.

The troupe has come a long way from its origins doing mainly chamber operas in English at Lawrenceville School. This summer marks the first season planned by internationally known conductor David Agler (artistic director) and Wharton grad Douglas Rubin (executive director). With recession-hit companies all over the country reverting to an endless round of bread-and-butter operas like Carmen and Madama Butterfly, Agler and Rubin deserve congratulations for scheduling three first-rate but not "name-brand" operas: Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Alban Berg's Wozzeck.

Italiana is a classic "culture clash" comedy (if modernized into a sitcom it would probably star Reese Witherspoon in take-charge mode). The conventional translation -- The Italian Girl in Algiers -- doesn't do justice to the strength, courage and persuasiveness of the heroine, Isabella. In venturing to Algeria to save her enslaved boyfriend, she manages to wrap every man in sight around her little finger and change the way the lusty local sovereign Mustafà feels about women, wives and (key plot point) heaping plates of pasta. OFNJ's production showcases the first-ever Isabella by the dynamic young star-in-the-making, Maria Zifchak, making her Philly-area debut. Brought up outside of Pittsburgh, Zifchak has quickly moved at the Metropolitan Opera from a tiny debut part (Kate Pinkerton, Butterfly's "other woman") three years ago to featured roles in new productions and midsize leads like Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She's shown a true comic gift in Handel operas.

"We're just having a blast," Zifchak says, reached between rehearsals. "It's a great cast, so much fun. I'm really enjoying who [Isabella] is, her quick wit and the way everyone caters to her every whim. Eduardo Chama [Mustafà] is just naturally funny onstage. There's a lot of spaghetti onstage." Zifchak praises her director, Leon Major, and says she appreciates the Festival's intimate atmosphere and has enjoyed peeking in on Eugene Onegin rehearsals. One of Zifchak's idols as a singer, fellow Pennsylvanian Marilyn Horne, cleaned up in Italiana, and Zifchak has a similar knack for the coloratura roulades that decorate the part. "I really enjoy the challenge, but you can't think too much about it or nothing will come out. You have to make it sound effortless," she laughs, "but then if you do, people don't always notice how tough it is!" With its lively melodies, easy-to-follow plot and broad physical comedy, Italiana is a perfect first opera for anyone, but especially for kids (for most performances, OFNJ offers a $10 discount on seats for the under-18 crowd).

For lovers of all ages, Eugene Onegin may be the ticket to grab. Its achingly romantic characters Tatiana (a country girl immersed in books) and the doomed poet Lensky, each in love with someone unworthy of them, greatly moved Tchaikovsky and always move audiences, even those who don't know a couplet of Pushkin's brilliant novel in verse. The composer of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake didn't fail to provide two dazzling dance sequences. Stephen Powell, one of America's finest younger baritones, stars as the Byronic Onegin, who breaks Tatiana's heart and kills his best friend, Lensky, in a duel, all to unforgettable music. Director Kay Walker Castaldo has done some memorable Opera Company of Philadelphia productions. OFNJ often uses personnel from AVA and Curtis; this year, the former's Amy Wallace-Styles and Matthew Arnold take supporting parts in Onegin.

For 11 seasons now, OFNJ has, admirably, always included a contemporary (or at least "modern") opera on its schedule. Between July 11 and 19, artistic director Agler will conduct three performances of Wozzeck, one of the summits of 20th-century music and a shattering experience 78 years new. As Agler puts it, "The sense of experiencing something afresh is what Opera Festival of New Jersey strives for."

It's not a far trip for Philadelphians to share that experience -- the McCarter Theatre, OFNJ's home since 1998, looms cathedral-like over Princeton's train station, from which it's four minutes on the "dinky train" to Princeton Junction and transfers to Philadelphia via Amtrak and NJ Transit/SEPTA. It's less than an hour by car; if you're driving, add on dinner before (or after a matinee) in New Hope, and you've got yourself a fine summer getaway.

L’Italiana in Algeri, June 29-July 15; Eugene Onegin, July 1-18; Wozzeck, July 8-19, $25-$90, Opera Festival of New Jersey, McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, N.J., 609-919-0199, www.operafest.org.

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