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OPERA REVIEW
Taking On The Tales, Bravely
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By Ching Chang
Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann is a far reaching work that challenges even the most efficient and capable of professional presenters. Swooning tunes and crowd pleasing show-stoppers aside, Offenbach's treatment of E.T.A. Hoffmann's darkly magical, mysterious and psychological triptych of composite tales is not what one expects to see on the stage of a modestly resourceful community opera company. Fortunately, the enterprising Berkeley Opera has never been your average provincial community troupe.
Presenting a newly forged English language adaptation of the work by
company dramaturge David Scott Marley, last Saturday evening's opening
performance at Berkeley's Julia Morgan Theater found company corps bravely
engaged in a life and death commitment to the work. Presided over
authoritatively by the Berkeley Opera's reliable music director,
Jonathan Khuner. While there were bruises before the evening was over, this was a legitimate and worthwhile effort.
Perilous moments abounded. Little musical accidents happened with regularity in the orchestra, but one expects the musicians to polish up their act as they develop greater familiarity with the score. Otherwise, the performance's effectiveness rested largely on some of the experienced and committed singers.
In the title role, tenor John Swenson offered a nuanced portrayal of
Hoffmann. An alert and engaging performer, Swenson did have, as his only fault, a tendency to show strain towards his upper range. The marvelous mezzo-soprano Margaret Lisi sang a thoroughly fluid, refined and elegant portrayal of Nicklaus. She tastefully blended her lustrous tone with those of her colleagues, and this paid off handsomely in the famous barcarole.
The effectiveness of these Tales, however, rested with the heroic efforts of soprano Jillian Khuner (the conductor's wife). With a generously-sized lyrical voice, the soprano took on the prodigious triple heroine roles--Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta--in addition to the part of Stella, the epilogue's prima donna. While Khuner delivered Olympia's stratospheric canary-like notes with accurate and firm precision, her skills were most distinctive when she sang emotively as Antonia. Other noteworthy singers in supporting roles were tenor Andrew Morgan as Spalanzani and baritone Wayne Wong as Krespel. Mezzo-soprano Rosalee Szabo gave a memorable if brief portrayal of Antonia's mother.
The production offered handsome sets by Kip Marsh and costumes by
Kip Marsh and Keri Fitch. Though constrained by the confines of
the physical space at the Julia Morgan Theater, stage director Russell
Blackwood managed to steer the complex action competently, bringing some
well thought-out, original ideas into the production.
(Ching Chang is a regular contributor to the SF Bay Times and The SF Gate.)
©1999 Ching Chang, all rights reserved
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