San Francisco Classical Voice

OPERA REVIEW Von Stade, Gilfry Make Widow Merry

January 11, 2002

Frederica Von Stade (the Widow Glawari)

By Robert Commanday

What a difference two new principals made in the San Francisco Opera's The Merry Widow, a 120-degree turn around. (The 60 degree shortfall is due to the ham that still burdens this production and because only 10 minutes was trimmed from Wendy Wasserstein's dialog.)

“New” isn't exactly right either, since it was the San Francisco favorite, Frederica Von Stade, who stepped neatly into the Widow Glawari role, and Rodney Gilfry, remembered from his role in The Streetcar Named Desire opera, who took over as Count Danilo. What they did was simply put two human faces into a show that had offered only caricatures.

The relationship between the pair then became interesting, credible and even affecting. Danilo now was not the insufferable, brash, braggart he had been for the seven previous performances, reluctantly and patronizingly giving in to the lady at the end. Gilfry's Count kept revealing his real feelings for her, tantalizingly so. The show-long “duel” between them took on the right magnetism. Having acquired an added warmth and depth since its last hearing here, Gilfry's baritone enhanced this characterization with the richness of tone, a quality that, to be sure, tended to cover the words somewhat. It was lyrical singing, even in the lively numbers, and in the famous waltz duet, reached out romantically.

Von Stade's natural, captivating charm

The major factor was Fredrica Von Stade. Wholly at ease in the role and comfortable with an audience, predisposed to love her, she simply took command. No flirting, no coquettishness or any self-conscious tricks. Hers is a natural, confident charm. She could understate, indicating with a smile or a nod of a head, an innuendo in the dialog, a whole personality and a grasp of the situation. There was a real person there and, as a result, her Widow Glawari, and because of her, the operetta, were captivating.

This most famous and most performed operetta must do more than entertain, it must seduce. Von Stade, with a big assist from Gilfry, brought that off. Her singing was even, smooth, often lovely, the mezzo soprano helped by transpositions downward for four of the numbers, no pressing. (This is famously a soprano role, sung here before by Joan Sutherland, in the company's only previous production, in 1981). In her restrained, graceful way with it, the well-worn, dangerously sentimental Vilia was even touching, and the waltz duet was definitely so.

Despite reports that Von Stade had been vocally indisposed earlier in the week, a cold or something, this was not reflected in her singing. However, she was unable to sing the Sunday matinee, tonight's performance, and possibly the last two performances as well, Thursday and Saturday. The role has been taken by Nicole Folland who has canceled a scheduled recital performance Friday at Stanford.

One other new entry in the Friday cast, Isabel Bayrakdarian, made a happy company debut as Valencienne, the flirtatious wife of the pompous, comical, Baron Zeta. (Zeta is the Pontevedrian Ambassador whose efforts to get Danilo to marry the widow in order to keep her money in the country generate the story.) The Valencienne easily becomes a not very interesting simple tease, even a cliché. She leads on her infatuated Parisian suitor, Camille de Rosillon, while, presumably, protecting her status as “a respectable wife.” Bayrakdarian, with a nice light touch, made an amusing game out of it, creating an impression that the lady either was or was not smart enough to know better, a sort of Goldi Hawn character. She has light, carrying soprano, right for a soubrette, and that played off nicely against the wiry tenor of Gregory Turay.

The Opera's best dancing ever

The rest of the production was as before, though the dancing might well have been still better. Lawrence Pech's choreography and the dancing, with Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner as the excellent soloists, was simply the best the San Francisco Opera has ever had. The expansion of the ballet, using added Lehar music, was one of the better directorial decisions made by this Widow-maker, Lotfi Mansouri. Also, Thierry Bosquet's lavish costumes and Michael Yeargan's sets are striking.

From there, the production quality tails off sharply. Lotfi's direction strains insufferably at humor. Most everyone becomes a caricature of a caricature. The fake Balkan, French and Spanish accents are hopelessly tiresome — better that the lines of the dialog be read in clear English, except that that might reveal the poverty of Wasserstein's comedic invention. Even Serbo-Croatian, French and Spanish, or the original German, would be better. It just has been made into a burlesque, but on Friday was happily saved just enough by Von Stade and Gilfry.

Unfortunately for the PBS “Great Performances” series, it was the first cast of The Merry Widow, taped in December, that will be shown next season.

(Robert P. Commanday, the senior editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, 1965-93, and before that a conductor and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.)