Greg Stepanich

Review: 'Anna Karenina,' opera

It is unfortunate that the Florida Grand Opera is scaling back next year’s season to five productions instead of six, particularly because the sixth production of this year was nothing less than a triumph, and a milestone for this company.

Sunday afternoon marked the last performance of Anna Karenina, an opera composed for Florida Grand by David Carlson, and given its world premiere at the new Ziff Opera House in Miami on April 28. Carlson, working from a libretto by the late Colin Graham (who originally proposed the same subject for Benjamin Britten) that cannily adapts Tolstoy’s magnificent 1877 novel, has composed a richly tonal, well-crafted score whose mood of unrest and passion perfectly underlines and amplifies the turmoil on stage.

It is an eminently theatrical score, too, in that it doesn’t unnecessarily stretch out the action in trying to make musical points: the music drives the opera, but it also serves it, and that makes it compelling. Carlson gives his singers plenty to do, and makes sure that the points of greater display are well-integrated into the action and not random. He writes well for the voice and for the orchestra, for whom he scores with a good ear for color and instrumental variety.

The only thing the score of this opera lacks is strong melodies, though several passages came close. Not every opera needs to have memorable tunes, it’s true, and the bulk of the operas written during the last century are focused on almost everything but melody. But this particular treatment of Anna Karenina cried out for some great melody writing that it didn’t get — which only goes to show that the writing of a beautiful tune is one of the hardest things in all of composition.

Nonetheless, this is a good opera with a fine libretto, and troupes looking for a contemporary piece that will bring in the audiences and freshen the repertoire at the same time would be well-advised to investigate Anna.

Each of the principal singers sang well and persuasively. Soprano Kelly Kaduce’s Anna was sympathetic and touching, particularly during the scene after her miscarriage of Vronsky’s baby. Soprano Sarah Coburn was equally good as Kitty, as was mezzo Christine Abraham as Dolly. The veteran mezzo Rosalind Elias also was compelling in the minor role of the servant Agafia.

The male roles were just as strong, with baritone Robert Gierlach a believable Vronsky, tenor William Joyner solid as Stiva, and tenor Brandon Jovanovich lending a powerful voice to his portrayal of Levin. Perhaps the best of the men was bass-baritone Christian van Horn as Karenin. He had the closest thing to a clearly defined aria in the opera with his monologue (“She is so strange tonight”) after Anna’s flirtation with Vronsky at the New Year’s ball, and Van Horn received some well-deserved applause after it.

Neil Patel’s sets were simple and very effective, with handwriting on banners framing each scene, and simple elements — trees in spring, garden statuary — giving the right suggestion without weighing down the focal melodrama. Stage director Mark Streshinsky kept things moving and had his performers acting naturally and believably.

Robert Perdziola’s costumes were attractive and accurate, and lighting designer Mark McCullough kept the spots on the principals in crowd scenes and had the audience gasping as the lights of the fatal train neared closer to Anna — and seemingly everyone in the house — in the penultimate scene.

The Florida Classical Orchestra played beautifully under conductor Stewart Roberston, a masterful director who knows how to accompany singers and at the same time make certain that the orchestra has an independent life of its own. It’s hard to see how Carlson’s music could have been much better realized than it was here.

Anna Karenina is headed to other houses, beginning with St. Louis, now that it has finished its initial run in Miami. It should be a matter of real civic pride that a Miami opera company was able to bring off a brand-new work this well and send it on its way. In every important respect, this was a great achievement for this company and it says good things about the area that Sunday afternoon’s final performance played to such a large, enthusiastic house.

Anna Karenina is not likely to occupy the highest tiers of opera because of its paucity of memorable melodies, but it can certainly stand in a place of honor not far below. It should have a good future in regional companies that can get their hands on some good young voices and want to add some contemporary music to their repertoire.