San Francisco Classical Voice

OPERA REVIEW:
Rrrip-Rrroaring Rrrossini

July 26, 2002

By Michael Zwiebach

If Berkeley Opera produced operas according to Hoyle, then a production of The Italian Girl in Algiers without many Rossinian voices would look like a miscalculation. But on Friday night at the Julia Morgan Theater the company revived its production of The Riot Grrrl on Mars, Rossini's music with a new libretto set on the Red Planet that looked suspiciously like a 50s sci-fi television serial. The result was funny and entertaining theater, and though the music has often been better served, the cast got through it without significant mishaps while bringing an infectious enthusiasm and energy to the show.

David Scott Marley's adaptation, prepared for Berkeley Opera, is loaded with popular culture references beginning with the comic-book supertitles and theremin sounds that open the show. Some of these ideas are leaden sitcom clichés, but most are delightfully fresh and clever inventions. The Italian Girl plot, as retold in Marley's version, involves a bassist in a punk rock band, Quarantina, who has inveigled an engineering professor to build her a rocket ship out of parts of his Honda and to fly her to Mars to find her boyfriend, Mosquito, a guitarist who has recently been abducted by Martians.

The King of Mars is an overgrown child who has recently discovered Earthling sitcom reruns and has become besotted with all things Earthling. He wants to discard his wife and marry a woman from Earth. He sends his henchman, Gnip, to find him one, and the Martian quickly comes back with Quarantina and the Professor, who have crash-landed their ship. Meanwhile the King hatches a plan to fob his wife off on his new slave, Mosquito. Needless to say, between Earthling savvy and Martian foolishness, the King's plan is foiled, the Earthlings escape, and the Martians go happily back to Martian customs.

You would never guess, from this summary, how exactly the rewritten plot fits the original. But Marley has also matched his lyrics to all of the situations in the original as well, so that each number has basically the same emotional content as its model. And since the Italian Girl is set in a pretend Algiers anyway, nothing is lost and much is gained in the updating. For example, in the 1813 libretto, the Bey of Algiers is tricked into shutting his eyes to the escape of his prisoners by being persuaded that his Italian slaves are honoring him with the rank of "Pappataci" ("Silent Daddy").

In the Marley version, the rank is "Couch Potato," which not only fits the accents of the Italian exactly, but also links up with the King's previously established TV-watching habit and creates the opportunity for the funniest scene in the show, the King's induction into the "F.O.C.P." (Fraternal Order of Couch Potatoes). As he is presented with his own recliner and remote control, the chorus serenades, "Clothes should be casual,/ Lightweight and airy./ Trade robes of ermine/ For robes of terry!/ Then hold your scepter/ On top of your knee!/ That's how we dress/ In the F.O.C.P."

Other improvements in the show include a previously useless aria for the Bey's Captain, which serves an important plot function as sung by Gnip, and completely rewritten recitatives (which were not by Rossini in the original version anyway), done exactly in the conventional style of the Rossinian period by music director Jonathan Kuhner.

There are some problems with doing Italian opera in English which can't be avoided. Chief among these is that the ends of lines in Italian verse tend to be accented on the penultimate syllable except in the final line of a stanza, a situation that is rare in English. There are only a few solutions to this puzzle, all of which are overused in English opera translations. One is to put in filler words at the end of a line, such as occurs in the first number of Riot Grrrl: "See his Queen is pushed aside now/ For he wants an Earthling bride now!" Another is to use gerunds or nouns with enclitics like "-tion," as in, "See his regal irritation/ At this insubordination/ What a bogus situation/ We are witnessing today." But this is a minor irritation, especially when compared with the joys of a final stretto sung entirely in Martian, surely the brightest idea among many in this merry translation.

As for the performances, one can say that, with the unfortunate exception of Richard Goodman as the King of Mars, all the singers gave credible accounts of the music. Stephen Rumph (Mosquito) was the most confident in the Rossinian style, although his sense of rhythm is a little inelastic. As an actor he is far too self-conscious and artificial, even for a ridiculous comedy such as this.

Eileen Morris (the Queen of Mars) is an excellent and experienced singer and a first-rate comedian. She was a standout, even though her lyric soprano is a little less youthful-sounding than it once was. As the Riot Grrrl, Marie Bafus had all the notes though her lower register was taxed heavily. Her solos were energetic, but neither stylish nor vocally impressive, even the brilliant second-act rondo that is usually a show-stopper. As an actress she was more Valley Girl than Riot Grrrl; she had only a few ideas and gestures, which she repeated often, and she doesn't know how to hold stage yet.

Wayne D. Wong (the Professor) was an excellent comic actor, a fact that more than made up for an undistinguished voice. Aside from a few small slips, he handled the constant patter-singing of his role and made every word audible. That's no small achievement in a Rossini score. Nicolas Aliaga (Gnip) made a fine contribution, as did Ariela Morgenstern as Zulma, the Queen's maid. The chorus, numbering all of six, was good both at harmony and group movement.

Conductor Jonathan Kuhner led a surprisingly responsive orchestra. The rhythms were sharp, the vocal ensembles held together, and the instrumental solos were sensitively phrased. The orchestra gave a lovely sheen of sound together. The scenic design, by Cat Stevans (CQ),Maggie Whitaker's costumes were amusing and as clever as the libretto. Andrew Morgan's directing was functional with occasional appropriately wacky touches.