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OPERA REVIEW August 4, 2002
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By Michael Zwiebach
Otto Nicolai's comic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor (Die Lustigen Weiber
von Windsor) is one of those operas you hear tell about but very rarely see.
Overshadowed by Verdi's sublime Falstaff, other adaptations of Shakespeare's
comedy have turned into wallflowers. So last Sunday's production of Merry
Wives by the San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program at Stern Grove (to be
repeated at the College of Marin on Sunday, August 11) was a chance to experience both a repertory rarity and the Merola's stable of promising young singers. Using
Donald Pippin's serviceable translation and an energetic updated production,
the company made a good case for the opera.
Nicolai's opera (1849) is an effervescent, bubbly affair that shows the
influence of both Italian opera buffa and French dance music (with a little
bit of Romanticism thrown into the mix during the fairy scene at Herne's
Oak). Sometimes you hear things which sound almost like Offenbach, especially
the dance number in the second finale. It reminds that operetta was just
around the corner at this point in history. As if to drive home this
connection, the cast of the Merola production formed a conga line, to the audience's
evident delight.
Director David Edwards modeled his production on the conventions of English
drawing-room farce but opened up by setting the opera in the
present day. Falstaff's libidinous invasion of respectable England became an
excuse to revisit those farce conventions with a liberal addition of comic
grotsequeness. The Pages and Fords are impeccably dressed, they have servants; they
appear with the requisite accoutrements of upper class sport: tennis rackets,
croquet mallets, golf wear and the like. Meanwhile, Falstaff and his drinking
cronies, which include, in Edward's version, a troop of English schoolboys
and a rugby team (the characters Pistol and Bardolph were cut by the librettist
Hermann von Mosenthal), get drunk, make lewd suggestions, and show up with
increasing frequency in Ford's house. In fact, the contrast of style in the
production hinges on Ford, who while conforming to the upper class dress code, has an ungovernable temper that leads to increasingly violent violations of the
code of manners.
Edwards' idea is excellent, its execution less than perfect. Pippin's translation doesn't have enough witty lines and the actors simply do not have enough of a feel for real Noel Coward-style comedy to do a takeoff of it. The (mostly) fake English accents should have been consigned to the dumpster. Only Evelyn Pollack, as Alice Ford, seemed to be completely at home. This is not to say that no one was funny, only that most of the humor was physical from the outset, as when Meredith Arwady (Meg Page), a large woman, dragged a tiny stuffed dog onstage with her and pretended to walk it. As always, the Merola participants have remarkable vocal potential. David Matthew Bedard (Falstaff) has a good range and while his low notes lack a little resonance and bite, they are solid and his upper register and midrange project well. He sang with clarity and assurance and his swivel-hipped performance marks him as a strong comic bass. Evelyn Pollack, despite a few pinched high notes, has a good lyric soprano, with nicely controlled vibrato and excellent phrasing and diction. Meredith Arwady is a true contralto with a thrilling lower register and natural comic timing. Someday she'll make a treasurable Mistress Quickly in that other Falstaff opera. Shannon Mercer (Ann Page) has a pretty lyric soprano but as an actress, overshot the mark a little in the comedy and came off seeming phony.
As Ford, Aaron St. Clair Nicholson played a bravura comic scene with Falstaff, trying to contain his desire to hit him over the head with a chair when Falstaff is relating how Ford has been misled. In addition to being a persuasive actor, Nicholson has a fine baritone that he used with distinction and suavity. By comparison, Todd Robinson, a bass with good, round tone, made less of an impression as Mr. Page. Both his singing and acting were far too youthful for this role. He could have done much more vocally, but sang straight, without much comic gusto or inflection. Philippe Castagner, as Fenton, had some breath difficulties which caused him to drop the beginnings of some phrases, especially in his duet with Page. Otherwise, he sang with style and sensitive phrasing. The Slender of Peter Nathan Foltz and the Dr. Cajus of Daniel Okulitch were both spot on. Okulitch's silly French accent actually worked and his antics nearly stole the show. Mark Morash conducted the overture with style and panache and never looked back, keeping the show moving without forcing tempos.
(Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of
California in Berkeley and teaches music history at the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music.)
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