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Atlanta Opera’s ‘Barber’ and a note on deadlines
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OPERA REVIEW Gioachino Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.” Atlanta Opera. Thursday at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. Repeat performances Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. www.atlantaopera.org or 404-881-8885.
Head to toe, the Atlanta Opera’s “The Barber of Seville” is a charmer.
From the appealing and energetic singers to the delightful sets to the sympathetic conducting and stage direction, almost everything comes out right.
What’s clear is that after decades of artistic turmoil, the opera company has finally found solid, dependable footing. Each show is a notch better than the last… or, from a more demanding perspective, Atlanta Opera has just about hit its own ceiling, in terms of artistic quality.
The production’s shortcoming — a serious lack of intimacy between performers and audience — is a fixed deficit at the enormous Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, where “Barber” opened Thursday night and where the opera must spend the rest of the season. (Beginning next fall, we’ll see if the opera can go still higher when it moves to a new, mid-sized theater in Cobb County.)
The elegant story remains daffy and unsinkable, of course, a variation on the stock “commedia dell’arte” format — of sincere young lovers, a greedy old guardian/suitor and the trickster servant who steers the action and also gives the audience all-knowing winks. Rossini’s fusion of sharp comic timing, vocal pyrotechnics and nimble ensemble numbers keeps the performers from settling into routine.
Leon Major’s “Barber” production, set in an almost-Dickensian 19th century, premiered this past summer at Glimmerglass Opera, a festival in upstate New York. His direction downplays the physical comedy and lets the singing do the hard work, without relying on slapstick gags.
John Conklin’s sets also struck a minimalist pose, just a few rowhouse facades or disembodied room interiors — or characters on bicycles — rolling on and off stage, often with great hilarity.
The curtain went up on a vast empty space soaked in pre-dawn blue. Where it seems easy to visually fill the civic center stage, the perpetual challenge comes with making music that speaks directly. From the famous overture, Steuart Bedford, an esteemed British conductor making his Atlanta Opera debut, had the orchestra playing cohesively, if sounding passive.
Bradley Williams, as Count Almaviva, the love-struck romantic, had a likable tenor voice that, in a smaller space, might have revealed more color and heft. With charisma, powerful lungs and a keen sense of vocal style, Hugh Russell sang a winning Figaro, the jack-of-all-trades barber of the opera’s title. He had the right explosive energy and grinning wit for his Figaro!-Figaro!-Figaro! introduction, “Largo al factotum.”
Dr. Bartolo, the old coot who plans to marry the girl who is in his charge, is the most cartoonish of characters and usually gets the most laughs. Peter Strummer held the role with such assurance and vocal aplomb he made the others on stage seem pale in comparison.
Stephen Morscheck made a properly smarmy Don Basilio, the music teacher, licking his palm before smoothing his hair and singing his “slander” aria as creepily as possible. Smaller roles were well cast, with bass Jason Hardy as a powerfully grave Fiorello and mezzo Susan Nicely as the seen-it-all-before maid Berta.
The Atlanta Opera adopted a few original practices in the pit, including Bedford accompanying the recitatives from an antiquated fortepiano (instead of a modern Steinway) and the recreation of a “sistro,” a twinkling percussion instrument with an obscure history. But in the most significant departure from the composer’s intentions, the company cast the heroine Rosina as a soprano, transposed up from the original contralto.
Although by the early 20th century a soprano Rosina had become standard, scholars and historically-minded conductors today abhor the transposition. They argue, convincingly, that the nature and subtleties of the part are best flattered by the golden purr of a low female voice. (Low-voiced coloraturas are rare birds these days, and thus expensive.)
Still, Rossini blurs the ideal right from the start with Rosina’s first cavatina, “Una voce poco fa” — part innocent virgin, part cunning vixen with a lethal point.
With that in mind, soprano Leah Partridge, a Georgia native who’s flown the coop as she builds her career, is headed for the top. She might not have much presence in her lower range yet (even for the transposed part) but her upper range is glorious: sparkly and sweet, girlish and fierce. She’s a darling to look at and listen to. Credit the Atlanta Opera for bringing local talent home.
*WEB-ONLY SPECIAL [added Nov. 10 at 11:30 pm] * From the comments posted below, as well as from questions frequently asked, it seems many people don’t know how newspaper deadlines operate. Here’s a short primer.
Q. Why are some reviews published in the AJC’s Living section but on Fridays published in Movies & More?
A. In general, the daily Living section of the AJC closes mid-afternoon and goes to the printing press, meaning there’s no way to get an evening review (or any late breaking news) into that section for the next morning’s paper. The Movies & More section, at least for now, has a later closing time of 11 pm, and that’s generally where my Friday reviews run. (The Living section’s early closing time is the reason PeachBuzz recently moved from Living to Metro, which stays open much later — to enable fresher gossip and scandal to get into Rich Eldridge’s column.)
Q. What’s your deadline, and how long do you have to write a review?
A. Since Movies & More closes at 11 pm, and since most Atlanta Symphony concerts end at about 10 pm, that gives me about an hour to write a review.
Q. Why wasn’t “Barber of Seville” reviewed in Friday’s paper?
A. “Barber” is a two-and-a-half-hour opera, plus an intermission, so we knew the performance would end after 11 pm … i.e. too late for Movies&More. Thus we scheduled the “Barber” review to run online Friday morning and appear in print in Saturday’s paper. We’re trying to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation, and with ajc.com as another tool, we can hopefully get arts news and reviews out there as efficiently as possible and to as broad an audience as possible.
Q. OK, if you attended “Barber” Thursday, why didn’t someone else review the ASO the same night?
A. In the past, we have sent two classical-music critics to separate events on the same night. This week, however, I felt I wanted to attend both “Barber” at the opera (Thursday) and the ASO debut of Danish violin hotshot Nikolaj Znaider (Friday). What we missed to review was Andrew Manze/the English Concert at Emory (also Thursday), but at least I previewed their concert last Sunday.
Q. Hey, this is starting to sound familiar.
A. You might have missed it, but in Friday’s Movies&More, in the space where you might expect to find a classical review, the editor inserted a short paragraph with the headline: ‘Where to find reviews of Atlanta Opera, ASO.’ We know it’s confusing.
Q. What about that reader’s “one horse town” quip?
A. I like when readers feel they can yell at the newspaper and at a critic. I wish more people would chime in with their comments and questions. Short of profanities, the “comments” field allows an open exchange about everything. And given that the AJC devotes far more space to the fine arts (with a comparably smaller staff) than most newspapers in America, we might be a one-horse town, but we’re running as fast as we can. — Pierre Ruhe
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Classical Music
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By CARTER JOSEPH
November 10, 2006 11:15 AM | Link to this
I COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER. JUST ONE DISAGREEMENT. IF THE ORCHESTRA SOUNDED PASSIVE TO MR. RUHE, IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE OF THE INCREDIBLY BAD ACOUSTICS AT THE CIVIC CENTER. TO MY EARS, MR. BEDFORD’S CONDUCTING WAS SHARP AND ENERGETIC.
By Holley Calmes
November 10, 2006 1:46 PM | Link to this
I found this production to be delightful! I was thrilled with the singing and loved Ms.Patridge’s Rosina. The chorus sounded wonderul, too. In my very humble opinion, the best I’ve heard the opera in years.
By Peter Stelling
November 10, 2006 4:59 PM | Link to this
I am pleased to see such a positive review of the current Atlanta Opera production and am looking forward to Saturday night’s performance with relish. I remember the glory days of the Met tours…Roberta Peters was a wonderful soprano Rosina and, for that reason, I have always preferred the role sung by a soprano.
Shame on the reviewer for not making the deadline for this very positive review to appear in this morning’s printed edition.
And why is it impossible for the AJC to assign the ASO opening night concert (which was magnificent) to a second reviewer? I find it disgraceful that our city’s only newspaper treats major cultural events in such a cavalier fashion. As long as we are a “one reviewer” town, with even his reviews missing the deadline for the printed morning edition, Atlanta remains a “one horse” town.
By J Ficarrotta
November 13, 2006 11:51 AM | Link to this
More about deadlines! My wife and I used to live in Atlanta, but reside out west now. Whenever we can we try returning to attend the Atlanta opera. We missed this one, but were at Pagliacci/Carmina. I posted a comment then and later wanted to make a retraction concerning something I said that turned out to be false. The paper wouldn’t let me post it (deadline had passed?!), so I’ll post it now hoping some of the same readership will get the word.
In my previous posting, I claimed, among other things, that I thought insensitive direction caused Emily Pulley to struggle with a high note toward the end of Carmina. I was all wet. I have it on good authority, kindly and graciously imparted (her initials are E.P.), that any difficulty she had was due to illness, not the direction. A retraction of that bit of my comments is in order and three cheers to Ms. Pulley for singing so beautifully all evening in spite of a singer’s worse nightmare: illness during a performance.
By Peter Stelling
November 13, 2006 1:52 PM | Link to this
This is in response to the “Web Only Special” on deadlines, posted Nov. 10:
I don’t understand why you would even suggest the possibility of “profanities”, which have no place in the public forum. Harry S Truman (who did respond with profanity) had very different issues with Paul Hume of the Washington POST than I do with our Atlanta reviewer. I view this as a friendly debate, and my objective is purely one of constructive criticism.
That being said, from your explanation of how deadlines work at the AJC, we are to understand that three important musical events in our city “legitimately” received the following news treatment: Atlanta Opera’s BARBER was reviewed the next day online but not in print until two days after the first night. The first performance of the ASO “triple” was not covered at all, but the concert was reviewed on the second night because you couldn’t be in two places at once; and that review appeared online on Saturday but NEVER in newsprint. And the third event at Emory received a “preview” but no critique at all.
By your own admission, there are others on staff who could have covered at least one of these other events in a more timely and effective way but were not asked to do so. “Peach Buzz” (local gossip) receives special placement because of “breaking news” status but NOT “first night” arts events…events which, not insignificantly, generate considerable advertising revenues for your newspaper. What’s wrong with this picture?
The explanations “I wanted to cover two events myself”, and (not your exact words, but the implication is clear) “because that’s the way things are done here” are unresponsive to the issue.
As long as you go along with the attitude that sporting events, political scandals, murder, and even local gossip are newsworthy but first nights in our concert venues are not, you are a part of the problem and not the solution.
By BPJ
November 14, 2006 4:23 PM | Link to this
I agree with the preceding post. Top AJC management seems to be unaware this is a major university town, with lots of educated, intellectually curious people. So arts coverage gets treated as an afterthought (despite several fine critics on staff).
The review situation is even worse with theatre and visual arts, where the reviews frequently appear more than a month after the opening, near the END of the run! Imagine reporting on a sporting event a month after it occurred.