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OPERA REVIEW
September 10, 2005
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By Michael Zwiebach
Saturday night was opening night at the San Francisco Opera, with the
searchlights streaking the sky, the cameras whirring, the first tier of
the War Memorial Opera House auditorium garlanded with fresh flowers,
and the mainstay supporters and sponsors of the Opera parading designer
clothes and jewelry in the foyer — all the usual glamour and the
pleasure of a grand event. Management fell right into line with the
feeling of the evening and invited Gioacchino Rossini to provide the
entertainment, in the form of his youthful, ebullient L'Italiana in
Algeri. The production, borrowed from Santa Fe Opera's 2002 staging, was
brilliantly designed, well-sung, and — a hallmark of Pamela Rosenberg's
tenure as managing director — rehearsed to a fault. No opening night
slip-ups here, and everyone sped off to the after-parties in a fizzy
mood, so quickly in fact, that the curtain calls elicited less vigorous
applause than perhaps was warranted.
The stars of the show, on the production side, were the designers,
Robert Innes Hopkins (sets) and David C. Woolard (costumes), their work
neatly set off by Duane Schuler's lighting. Hopkins placed the action
within and on top of a giant story book, with a popup interior that
makes it feel like an intricate children's fantasy. With the period
updated to the 1920s, the ship that strands the heroine Isabella in
Algiers became an airplane, which, in a scenic coup, crash landed in
view of the audience at the beginning of the show. Out of the wreckage
emerges the pilot — Isabella, as Amelia Earhart, with flaming red hair.
Woolard opposed the explorer garb and white suits of the Europeans with
an orientalist fantasy world inspired by European paintings and
illustrations of the same period. In this way, the stereotypes of the
libretto are acknowledged, but, of course, not dealt with.
Those stereotypes might need defanging in a more serious work, but The
Italian Girl is such a silly farce to begin with that it has no place
for issues. Director Chris Alexander did his job fairly well, and there
are some good sight gags, such as Mustafà's calisthenics during his aria
in Act I, or when Isabella tears off one of the delicate curtains of her
room to have made into a dress. But by Act II, when group movement and
the joke about Taddeo's possible impaling begin to wear thin, what are
you going to do? It's opera — the singers have to carry the ball most of
the time.
There aren't that many Rossini specialists in the operatic firmament these days who can command a large auditorium and still deal with Rossini's copious ornamentation at top speed and with perfect leggiero. But the San Francisco cast was uniformly capable. At its head, Olga Borodina, as Isabella, sang with her customary beautiful tone throughout her wide range. In "Pensa alla patria" ("Think of your homeland") she showed the kind of regal sound that can electrify an audience, and her handling of the fioratura was graceful as well. Certainly she smudged a run or two during the show, but her technique is still flawless. She was comfortable with the comedy in her role, and was especially lively in the big ensembles. William Burden played an appealing Lindoro, Isabella's lover. He has a bright, clear, tenor with well-controlled high notes and a relaxed delivery. Although Rossini's tight turn figures were too much for him, he was quite at home stylistically and was a pleasant personality on stage.
Ildar Abdrazakov was a lively Mustafà, sporting a smooth basso cantante without any wooly or rumbling tone to it, a perfect fit for Rossini. His diction was absolutely clear and he handled the patter-singing and comedy with aplomb. The rest of the cast was equally fine with estimable contributions from current Adler Fellow Jane Archibald, as Elvira, Ricardo Herrera as Taddeo and Bojan Knezevic as Haly. The chorus sang alertly and well, and dispatched their stage business in good order. The orchestra was in exceptional form on opening night, with snappy rhythmic precision throughout. Donald Runnicles maintained excellent coordination and balance with the singers the whole way through. Tempos seemed to flag a little in the second act, but the finales of both acts were properly delirious.
(Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in music history from U.C. Berkeley and lectures on music history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)
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Ildar Abdrazakov
Olga Borodina
