Golden Oldie
Curtis Opera Theatre is to be commended for exposing its talented students — and local audiences — to the pre-Mozart works of the operatic canon: last season Handel's 1735 masterpiece Alcina and this year, for the third time in 17 years, Francesco Cavalli's L'Ormindo, first heard in Venice in 1644. Such scores are excellent for developing technique, style and flexibility in young voices not necessarily ready for the rigors of full-blast Romantic or Veristic opera. Plus it's a very sound investment in the students' future, as baroque and pre-baroque works are currently extremely popular, and working singers with some stylistic preparation for them will have a clear career advantage.
L'Ormindo, even — or maybe especially — heard somewhat cut, as here, is also an amusing and beautiful piece: a comedy of amorous intrigue set in Morocco. Cavalli stands second only to Claudio Monteverdi as a master of 17th century Italian opera, and a lot more of his works survive. It would be salutary for one of our local companies to put on 1651's Calisto, at once very racy and quite moving.) Cavalli's operas have much in common with Shakespeare's "romance plays" in terms of genre mixing and dependence on set pieces involving mistaken identity, transformations, presumed deaths and subsequent "magical" rebirths. Long dormant, they surfaced anew in the 1960s in so-called "realizations" by the British conductor/musicologist Raymond Leppard.
At the Prince we heard the Leppard version adapted by Donald St. Pierre, who led the evening's forces with apt pace. (I imagine the pit ensemble improved as the weekend played on; opening night witnessed some faulty intonation.) These days, when leaner, more faithful Cavalli performance practice can be heard on CD, Leppard — with his swoony harp arpeggios and an organ — sounds as dated as "Disco Duck." But it proved a very pleasant evening, simply staged by Chas Rader-Shieber, with the (seemingly) tragic scenes of Act II especially strong. Most of the young voices showed considerable beauty, though some hadn't quite mastered the particular stylistic demands. Three standouts fully "fluent in Cavalli" were tenor Brian Zachary Porter, who gave attractive and fluid voice to the titlular Prince; firm- and clear-toned mezzo Elif Ezgi Kutlu, deftly amusing as the romantically practical Mirinda; and tenor Joshua Stewart, who brought remarkable vocal and interpretive conviction to the travesty part of the old nurse Erice.
L'Ormindo
Nov. 16, Curtis Opera Theatre at the Prince Music Theater
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