THE Magazine - Dallas / Forthworth

The Italian Girl in Algiers
Dallas Opera, Music Hall at Fair Park, 909 First Street, Dallas
The Dallas Opera's final production at Music Hall at Fair Park celebrated the company's history and previewed possibilities that lie ahead. Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers was the Dallas Opera's inaugural production in Music Hall in 1957. So it was appropriate that this Girl return to concluded the company's 52-year run at Fair Park. In October the Dallas Opera will move into the new Winspear Opera House downtown.
A jazzy update by designers Robert Innes Hopkins (sets) and David C. Woolard (costumes) from Santa Fe Opera placed the action in the 1920s. Instead of being shipwrecked, Isabella (the Italian girl of the title) crash-lands a biplane on the North African shore. Mustafa's palace opened out of the sand like a pop-up book. Vests, harem pants, turbans, fezzes, and flowing robes were the brilliant colors of bird feathers.
The conceit magnified the opera's comic premise of a woman outsmarting a petty tyrant -- and showed how inspired stagecraft can smartly update traditional operas for contemporary audiences. The energetic cast wasn't entirely effective in pulling off everything, but the evening overall was delightful.
Stage director Chris Alexander kept the comedy and the cast's many comings-and-goings brisk and well timed. Manuela Custer had a mezzo-soprano voice of suppleness and flair, perfect for the fiery and fiercely principled Isabella. But her petite stature was a detriment. She didn't command the stage as would a woman who captivates all those around her. Custer was visually swallowed several times by choirs of pirates and eunuchs crowded around her.
Paolo Pecchioli's diminutive size, though, helped his portrayal of the dictator Mustafa, especially combined with his robust, large-bore baritone and hilariously mincing movements. William Burden was dashing as Lindoro, Isabella's true love, but his bright tenor tightened into coarseness a couple of times.
Patrick Carfizzi was delightful as Taddeo, the foppish suitor; DFW's Ava Pine sang Elvira with polish and a spring in her step. Clara O'Brien was fine as her sidekick Zulma, and John Sauvey (also from Fort Worth) was fun and decisive as Haly.
This cast worked and sang well together; their ensemble to conclude Act 1 was punctuated by wildly percussive onomatopoeia ("din din," "tac tac," "cra cra," "bum bum"), which captured the delicious mayhem Isabella unleashed. Conductor Graeme Jenkins and the Dallas Opera Orchestra played Rossini's score with pizzazz.
The opera's final scene served as metaphor for the Dallas Opera itself. Isabella and Lindoro lifted away from Algiers in a hot air balloon, serenaded by well-wishers -- a storybook ascent into a hopeful future, one full of operatic adventures as yet unknown.

In one of the most popular and romantic operas ever written, bleak winter weather can't cool young love's passion. Giacomo Puccini's four-act masterpiece has inspired audiences for more than one hundred years with its glorious melodies illuminating the eternal story of starving bohemians and star-crossed lovers in the Latin quarter of Paris. La bohème currently appears as number two on Opera America's list of the twenty most-performed operas in North America, second only to Madama Butterfly, also composed by Puccini. The stories behind La bohème first appeared in 1845 in the Parisian periodical Le Corsaire. An unpublished twenty-three-year-old poet, Henri Murger, received just fifteen francs per episode but was later awarded the Legion of Honor by his grateful countrymen. The original plan for the opera was for five acts, including one in which Musetta throws a party for the bohemians as her furniture is carried away for failure to pay the rent.

The operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat) showcased what is so welcome about the Dallas Opera -- and what is so welcome about the company's upcoming move into the specifically-designed Winspear Opera House next fall. Gracious singing was a hallmark of the production, seen at a December matinee at Music Hall at Fair Park. The engaging cast was at home in the opera's screwball comedy, performed in English translation. Johann Strauss's frothy, effervescent tunes poured forth in an easy lilt paced by Graeme Jenkins, the Dallas Opera's music director. But the happy music was shackled on the Music Hall's small stage, and movement and dancing often seemed cramped and contrived.
Ava Pine[CQ] stole the show as the soubrette Adele with a sparkling soprano and coquettish stage presence. Over the past few seasons, the Galveston native has lived in DFW and sung small roles with the Dallas Opera. She made a vivid impression as the Angel in Fort Worth Opera's Angels in America in 2008, and in March she'll be back with Dallas Opera to sing Elvira in The Italian Girl in Algiers. Her performance as Adele indicated she's ready for a breakthrough nationally.
Ana[CQ] Maria Martinez[CQ] brought elegance to Rosalinde[CQ]; Wolfgang Holzmair[CQ] was an easy-going Eisenstein[CQ]. Chad Shelton's[CQ] bright tenor and exaggerated Italian accent made him hilarious as Alfred -- the operatic jokes made by him (at his expense) caused the most satisfying laughs of the afternoon. Christopher Feigum[CQ] (Falke), Marianna Kulikova[CQ] (Prince Orlovsky, a pants role) and Scott Sikon[CQ] (Frank) were commendable in the larger supporting roles. Grant Neale[CQ] was funny as the pratfall-prone jailer Frosch.
The biggest drawback of the Music Hall as a performance venue is that there's not enough space on-stage and backstage to let the action percolate with pizzazz. Director Tomer Zvulun[CQ] did his best to work within the confines, and the cast responded with quicksilver interplay throughout Act 1.
But in the second act party and the third act finale, the chorus was crowded together in clumps or lined shoulder to shoulder, pressing downstage. Cancan dancers were squeezed center stage; the lively Viennese waltzes, which are the operetta's lifeblood, were danced by just one couple. A larger, deeper stage could have provided room for more dancing; roomier side wings offstage would have facilitated quick changes among singers and scenery to give the operetta a more fluid feel. This extra space is reportedly waiting at the Winspear.
Though not perfect, a superb cast delivered the Dallas Opera's Die Fledermaus with panache. It was a welcome diversion during a fretful holiday season.

You thought your relationship was complicated? This love story, presented by the Dallas Opera, revolves around a group of smitten nobility: Elizabeth, Queen of England; Robert Devereux, Duke of Essex; the Duke of Nottingham; and Sara, the Duchess of Nottingham. Memorable personalities and wondrous voices make this a feisty, not-to-be-missed performance. Hasmik Papian, one of the most important lyrical-dramatic sopranos worldwide, plays Elizabeth. Stephen Costello returns to the Dallas Opera to deliver another stunning performance, this time playing the title role of Roberto Devereux. Elizabeth Batton, a grand winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2003, plays the role of Sara, and David Kepmster, making his American debut with The Dallas Opera in Madama Butterfly, plays the Duke of Nottingham.

A raucously romantic comedy, Figaro is considered one of the most moving operas in the repertoire by the man many regard as the greatest composer in Western Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This New York City Opera production was designed by Carl Toms and will be staged by one of the world's most renowned opera directors, British-born John Copley, who last staged The Dallas Opera's critically acclaimed 2006 production of Handel's Rodelinda. Considered revolutionary--musically and politically--this lively romantic comedy begins with Figaro and Susanna preparing for their wedding, not realizing how many people they'll have to maneuver around in order to fall into each other's arms! Filled with one breathtaking aria after another, this is Mozart at the height of his considerable powers. Figaro originally premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna in May 1786, with Mozart himself directing the first two performances, conducting seated at the keyboard, the custom of the day. But we don't expect Dallas Opera Music Director Graeme Jenkins following this old tradition, instead, standing as maestro before leads Daniel Okulitch as Figaro and Russian soprano Lyubov Petrova as his beloved Susanna. Most recently, Mr. Okulitch sparked major "buzz" on the international opera scene for his moving portrayal of the tormented scientist who lives with the consequences of his invention gone awry in The Fly.