Too Funny
There's plenty to enjoy in the Opera Company's new mounting of Rossini's delightful 1817 Cinderella (La Cenerentola). The musical performance, under music director Corrado Rovaris, is highly impressive — this is the kind of piece he seems really to delight in — and the winning cast upholds high international standards (not always the case at the Academy of Music these days). Santi Centineo's pop-art-based sets are brightly colorful and inventive.
Less happy is Davide Livermore's campily manic production: OCP seems unable to treat comedies as anything but Laff Riots. Many patrons found the onstage antics screamingly funny — in fact, laughing over the fine singing at the incessant upstaging shtick of Elizabeth Braden's sonorous male chorus, the grotesque, cringe-inducingly misogynist portrayal of the stepsisters (well vocalized by very hard-working good sports Kiera Duffy and Leslie Mutchler), the attention-stealing props — a self-propelling yellow vacuum cleaner became a major character, even earning a curtain call — and Marco Fantozzi's skillfully prepared but frenetically deployed video screens. Less would have achieved infinitely more.
Ruxandra Donose proved absolutely enchanting as Cinderella: graceful, musical, both amusing and touching. In her performance alone one sensed the complex emotional dynamics inherent in Rossini's version of this fairy tale. She phrased with great distinction; the only mild shortcoming being a basically soft-grained sound sometimes covered in ensembles. Rossini tenor-on-the-rise Lawrence Brownlee aced the Prince's stratospheric part with panache, confidence and immaculate style. As always, Kevin Glavin supplied high-quality low comedy while impeccably articulating Rossini's music in a richly deployed bass. Make no mistake: Donose and Brownlee would be on any impresario's list of the world's three top performers of these roles today, as would Glavin if he (a good Pittsburgh family man) elected to go more international careerwise.
Daniel Belcher being ill, on one day's notice dapper young baritone Andrew Garland flew in, rehearsed and went on opening night (Nov. 8) as Dandini, the Prince's valet, who initially impersonates him. Garland, having recently sung Dandini in Dayton, performed compellingly in a fresh, agile voice, fitting seamlessly into the staging's elaborate high jinks; the audience vociferously cheered his courage and genuine accomplishment. Richard Bernstein was his usual genial self, wanting in vocal elegance for Alidoro's florid music. Rovaris (and Laurie Rogers on fortepiano) kept the ensemble stylish and apt. A show very much worth hearing; as noted, many adored the madcap carryings-on.
Cinderella
Through Nov. 19, Opera Company of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999, www.operaphilly.com
Also In This Week's Arts Section
Courting Chaos
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article.