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Atlanta Opera’s “La Cenerentola”
OPERA REVIEW Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” Atlanta Opera. 7:30 Nov 18, 8 p.m. Nov 21 and 3 p.m. Nov. 23. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, 2800 Cobb Galleria Pkwy., Atlanta. 404-881-8885, www.atlantaopera.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s a style of regional-opera management, more tactical than strategic, where you blow the budget on one famous diva to help sell a production and, by necessity, skimp elsewhere.
The Atlanta Opera’s production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” which opened Saturday night, was billed as the homecoming of mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, a Marietta girl who has been a star in New York, London and Paris but has never sung with her hometown opera.
Until its move to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center last season and the arrival of mature leadership a few seasons before that, the company found it impossible to lure talent of Larmore’s stature.
Yet the Atlanta Opera is thinking strategically, and this Cinderella tale is much more than just the Larmore show.
With an agreeable cast and a simple but effective production, “La Cenerentola” must be counted among Atlanta Opera’s great triumphs. (Is this starting to sound familiar? Almost every show, in fact, seems to consolidate gains from recent seasons and, wonderfully, raise the audience’s standards and thus our expectations for the future.)
David Gately is one of the smarter stage directors the Atlanta Opera has hired. His musically alert direction elevated what’s fundamentally a traditional production — with sets rented from Kentucky Opera — in savvy ways.
To get around the crusty censors for the 1817 premiere in Rome, Rossini and librettist Jacopo Ferretti stripped the fairy tale of the supernatural. There’s no fairy godmother, no pumpkins into carriages, no rats as coachmen. And to avoid audience riot at the sight of a sexy, unshod foot, Cinderella — whose real name, befitting her goodness, is Angelina - leaves behind a bracelet, not a glass slipper.
Gately restored some of those familiar folk-magic elements. Alidoro, the prince’s tutor, appears as a beggar and works like a sorcerer-free agent to bring the love couple together. Richard Bernstein, a rich, lyric bass-baritone with a light touch, has sung in Atlanta several times before and is here among the most compelling on stage.
Throughout the show, Gately lets the music inform the movement. The daffy and dreadful step-sisters, getting dressed, push up their brassieres on a bouncy cadence, for example. Ani Maldjian and Magdalena Wor (a recent Georgia State University graduate) played and sang the sisters as a matched set, youthful and vocally pure.
As the Prince, Nicholas Phan sings with a high, bright, Italianate tenor, a glint of silver in his tone, straining a bit only to reach the very top notes. Peter Strummer sings Don Magnifico, the nasty, buffoonish step-father, with the bluster and smooth confidence of a fine character singer. Hugh Russell acts a funny Dandini, the valet who exchanges clothes with his prince, but the baritone trips up on poor diction and unfocused delivery.
Elsewhere, the men’s chorus spin their heads or step out in precise gestures, a delight. The chorus in “Cenerentola” — prepared to perfection by Walter Huff — is only for the men, actually, and in most productions of this opera the women who populate the party scenes are silent extras. Gately here used the composer’s personnel decision to eliminate the band of desperate debutantes all together, focusing exclusively on the sisters and Angelina as the only possible objects of the prince’s affection.
Larmore, of course, commands the title role. In a yearning voice she offers the prescient lullaby “Una volta c’era un re,” but then crisply, fiercely, illuminates her coloratura arias with charm and ease.
When Angelina gets a Sarah Palin moment — boxes of fancy designer clothes! for free! — Larmore’s disarming, girlish demeanor pulls you into her narrative. Although Saturday her voice lacked the radiance of timbre we’ve come to expect, her insights into Rossini’s comically sentimental style were superlative.
That was less the case with conductor Gregory Vajda, a young maestro who supports the singers with care. Yet under his baton, Rossini’s spirit — fleet, frothy, classically elegant — felt missing. The evening dragged a wee bit, which isn’t the way to enliven Rossini. It’s true that veteran conductor’s fees can break a production’s budget, so perhaps hiring the still-developing Vajda was one tactical decision of an otherwise brilliantly planned show.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
Comments
By RL Thomas
November 16, 2008 5:57 PM | Link to this
Sound like a winner. I look forward to seeing/hearing it.
I think 1917 is a typo though.
By Peter Stelling
November 16, 2008 9:30 PM | Link to this
This is by far the best balanced production from Atlanta Opera that I have witnessed. Congratulations to you all…Atlanta Opera has arrived! I loved the campy, cartoonish direction, which so perfectly captured Rossinian slapstick at its finest. How refreshing to see a cast of singers who are balanced vocally and all look the right age for their parts, and to enjoy a stage setting that is traditional and doesn’t get in the way of the acting and music. (Sorry, the huge jumbo-trons in last month’s “Butterfly” overwhelmed the action and led to Mr. Ruhe’s comment that the singers “underacted”). But now we seem headed in the right direction. I was puzzled by the choice of “art nouveau” decor for the Prince’s palace…an anachronism of some 70 years from the time and place of “Cenerentola’s” first appearance…but perhaps it emphasized the contrast of the Prince’s wealth (he could afford the latest basement theatre with giant digital flatscreen teevee…the palace garden is portrayed by enormous “Louis Comfort Tiffany-style” panels of weeping willows and other foliage) as opposed to the decaying, fraying and desperately, dishonestly, love-starved gentility of the neoclassic “Don Magnifico” household. All in all, this was a fabulous evening of musical theatre of which all Atlantans can be proud!
By Scholar
November 17, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
Triumph! A great show with a great cast. Larmore’s captivating performance, supported by an energized and first-rate cast and fine orchestral playing make this a memorable production. I think that if there’s a problem with the pacing, it lies with Rossini having to stretch his formula to work for the plot.
Congratulations, Atlanta Opera! Keep up the good work.
By Chris
November 17, 2008 10:56 PM | Link to this
Welcome home, Jennifer Larmore! Brava!
This was a much better production than Madama Butterfly, which put even the most avid patrons to sleep.
I have to credit the new venue, the Cobb Energy Centre, for 80% of the success of the current Atlanta Opera administration. Walter Huff delivers the balance of success for the group. Huff doesn’t get credit from Hanthorn for his amazing contributions.
By Steve Carmichael
November 18, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this
Dear Pierre,
As an Atlanta Opera season ticket holder for many years, I’ve had a keen interest in this company from its humble beginnings in the Civic Center to the spectacular new home in Cobb County where they finally have a decent home. What we celebrate today was created, as you know, from scratch by two talented, visionary Atlantans, Alfred Kennedy and William Fred Scott. Without their energy and foresight we would not be as far along in this cultural endeavor as we are. We owe them a great debt.
So it is irritating to me to read your reference to “the arrival of mature leadership a few seasons before that” as if the previous leadership had been less than mature or visionary. Reading this gave me pause and reminded me of a number of swipes you’ve taken in the past at the opera management which existed before David Hanthorn and company came on the scene. Whether Alfred Kennedy and Fred Scott had the wherewithal to make the jump into this new era, is a matter for speculation.
Certainly the new management has made spectacular improvements and created some less than satisfactory productions, but for heavens sake give the past a rest. Likely there are not that many readers or opera goers who know or care what went on before.
If Fred and Alfred were less than “mature leadership”, so be it. They planted the flag first. If they must be brought up in reference to the current season or state of the company, it should be in a reverential sense. Once the Met stopped coming to Atlanta we had nothing until the Atlanta Opera was begun with few resources. That foundation is the only reason we have opera today and the pioneers should be honored.
It is a credit to the AJC that they are willing to give coverage to the opera knowing that this audience represents a small number of subscribers. Your insights into the productions are appreciated. Having an opera and even a reviewer is a privelege for us.
By Pierre Ruhe
November 18, 2008 4:38 PM | Link to this
Thanks for your very thoughtful comments, Steve. I agree completely with your opening thoughts, disagree thereafter. This will be dull and old news to some readers, but here goes: In the AJC I’ve given Kennedy and Scott credit for founding the Atlanta Opera and for sustaining a local company when no one else had been able. The Met’s tours, to be sure, are central to the full story of opera in Atlanta, and I’ve written about the whole, fascinating saga on several occasions over the past eight years. I recall I once proposed in print that the company put up statues to its founders when it opens its own opera house, for without them there would be no Atlanta Opera.
That said, not every AJC reader knows the history. So when I’m trying to make a point about an opera celebrity making her (much belated) Atlanta Opera debut — Jennifer Larmore in “La Cenerentola” — a little bit of context is required. Why had she never sung here before? What has changed such that she’s now willing to perform with her hometown company? In interviews, Larmore has not been shy about suggesting that the company had not formerly been up to her standards.
So in the review, a couple of words to explain that the venue is finally opera-friendly and that the company now has its act together didn’t seem like a slap at past leadership as much as the reality of growth and development and a new level of professionalism within the management.
“Mature leadership” held a double meaning, intentionally. All arts groups or businesses go through phases, from start-up to enduring maturity. Kennedy and Scott get all the credit in the world for the first phase, but the company they built was mired in what economists call “founder’s syndrome,” focused on their initial vision for the company and thus unable to react to changes in the marketplace.
In sum, my attitude is that as long as the Atlanta Opera is still breaking old habits and making “news” with important debuts and productions, the context of history will matter. To me, what’s happening at the Atlanta Opera, show after show, still carries the excitement of the new and the unexpected. Maybe it’s the same with a new president in the White House: for a little while, making comparisons with the old administration is essential to understanding the current news. Soon the administration is entrenched enough, however, that its strengths — and weaknesses — are all its own. In opera, that day is coming very soon. Maybe we’ve just reached it…
By Shelby
November 19, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
Bold: This sounds like it will be good!
By John Kise
November 19, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this
Dear Pierre,
Thank you for your in depth review. For the most part, I would agree; however, the key words that should describe the conducting of Gregory Vajda are “—-supports the singers with care.” and “—-Gately lets the music inform the movement.” To co-ordinate with the individualized singing and stage movements of the cast is certainly a difficult undertaking that requires very close co-operation between the conductor and stage manager. I feel that this job was superbly accomplished. Also, I feel that relating price and age to performance in any line of endeavor can be a very misleading practice.
Not being from the area, this was my first entertainment experience at the Cobbs Energy Performing Arts Center. My enjoyable accoustical experience was complemented by the actions of the wonderful staff. Atlanta can certainly be proud. Thanks to all for supporting the arts.
By Daniel Vasquez
November 23, 2008 7:38 PM | Link to this
As a patron of the Atlanta opera since 1993, I have also add my voice against this constant badgering of the old administration. Atlanta’s lack of proper venue for the operatic voice remains its albatros and has remained so for years (The Cobb venue is an improvement, but even during Sunday’s Cenerentola I saw a lot of mouths moving with no voice cutting through, even by the starry lead). I always found Fred Scott’s leadership to be solid and not particularly different than most succesful regional companies. The issue was the venue. Even the Fox theater was too big and scheduling woes forced the company to make (the rather ill advised) move to the Civic Center. This is more of a comment on the city than the company itself: Waving batons create musical magic but do not hold power towards building development and building codes.
To those who remember, some of the single greatest moments the company ever had were under his leadership (the Cosi with Brenda Harris and Dolora Ziegler remains vivid as if performed last week). I can understand the reviewer’s unhappiness with an administration that is now in the past, but to bring this up every single time a AO performance is discussed is frankly tired. We’ve seen this dress before, please purchase another one.
By Kate
November 27, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this
Aw, this blog is going away? I still read it even if I don’t post.
Phil—give the book blog another go. We’ll behave; I promise!