SAN JOSE - Here, in the still-bleeding heart of the Dotcom
ecstasy/destruction, the home to hundreds of miniature Enrons, things
are not going well for the arts.

Even in the days of paper millionaires, financial support was meager from
the self-deluded nouveau riche, but now, all those lovely inflated figures
are gone, and so are the donors' circles.

The San Jose Symphony went bankrupt a couple of months ago because
management blunders could no longer be shrouded by additional contributions
- there were none.  Among the survivors: Irene Dalis' brave little Opera
San Jose, a company operating through most of the year on a budget of about
$2.3 million.  Current funding is fine, having been obtained before, but
nobody knows what will happen next year.

Symphony players have been in the Opera's Montgomery Theater pit regularly
in the past, but now this venue became more important than ever to them.
Perhaps that made a difference.  Unquestionably, Robert Wood's committed
and passionate direction did.

Whatever the reason, the small, part-time orchestra provided the
very best of tonight's premiere of Massenet's "Manon." With only seven
violins (including Cynthia Baehr, concertmaster), three violas, Lucinda
Breed-Lenicheck's and Ellen Sanders' outstanding cello "section," pairs
of trumpets, French horns, flutes, oboes, clarinets (the excellent Mark
Brandenburg as principal), and Robert Szabo's solo trombone, Wood's band
did itself proud.

Giulio Cesare Perrone, who has been dealing with tiny stages around the Bay
Area, did well with the sets, including an imaginative two-level structure
for the first act.  Julie Engelbrecht's costumes looked far more opulent
than what her budget must have covered.  More in the plus column: good
French by most of the cast, the work of diction coach Lea Frey.

For director, Dalis imported a distinguished former singing colleague:
Olivia Stapp, who has done wonderful work in Walnut Creek as the head of
the opera there until she quit recently.  Here, she was trying to "make
something happen" repeatedly, and the attempts to liven up the action
seldom succeeded.

The truly egregious example of overactive direction came in the
Saint-Sulpice scene: as Manon finally forced that fateful "Je t'aime"
from des Grieux, she ripped the stole off his neck, exulting with a "HA!"
which might just as well been a "YES!" with a pumped fist.  The audience
burst out laughing, and you cannot blame them.  You can blame Stapp for
turning one of the great moments in all opera into a circus.

(Why is the abbe, a secular ecclesiastic (Littre), wearing a priest's
vestment anyway, and even an epitrachelion stole, which belongs to bishops
and priests occupying important church offices?)

It's no longer possible to postpone this, so, reluctantly, we come to the
matter of singers.  The news is not good, even against the obviously lower
standards of a small regional company, albeit one which has produced fine
singers in the past.

In the title role, Tamara Tsoutsouris presented an unusual situation.
Looking the part, acting well, she belted out high notes impressively -
but did not sing the rest of the music even acceptably.  Almost everything
(except those high notes!) turned flat - and stayed that way.  At times,
she was not only off key, she actually substituted imaginative notes of her
own for the score.  At no time was there any rounded quality, "finish" to
her vocal performance.  Given Tsoutsouris' resume of singing in Houston,
Palm Beach, Knoxville and elsewhere, one wonders what happened this
evening.  (Sandra Rubalcava sings the role in the alternate cast.)

Staying on pitch was a challenge for the des Grieux as well.  Jonathan
Hodel had done better.  This time, the high notes were uncertain, the
rest neither accurate nor appealing.  (Adam Flowers is the alternate.)

Scott Bearden's Lescaut started out impressively, but later in the evening,
he too went flat, as if catching a bug.  (In the other cast, the role is
sung by Joseph Wright.)

In the secondary roles, individual performances were on the weak side,
but when the singers appeared as chorus, the results were more pleasing.

Given the tough situation in which the company - and San Jose - finds
itself, one would want to be as supportive as possible, but how can you
overlook a uniformly weak cast? I suggest that you go to hear the
orchestra.

Janos Gereben/SF
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