WALNUT CREEK - Tiny, gutsy Festival Opera premiered an amazingly good
production of "Aida" Saturday night, with the most impressive Triumphal
March in memory.  An army of thousands, with elephants lumbering laboriously
behind caged lions and tigers, a huge acrylic tank containing enormous
crocodiles, nipping at electric eels, sparks creating organic fireworks
above the Nile: a grand spectacle limited only by the size of one's
imagination...  where all this took place.

Wisely, Frederic O. Boulay's production delivered the great parade at
zero cost, his chorus waving wildly at the offstage event, allowing the
audience to imagine the above, and lots more.

Wisely also, Festival Opera spent whatever funds it had on hiring
exciting young singers and fine musicians for the orchestra, directed by
the similarly young and impressively talented Scott Parkman.  The simple
and effective sets, by Peter Crompton, and excellent costumes by Barbara
Ann Gherzi contributed to an unexpectedly successful event, a cohesive,
enjoyable evening of opera.

Unexpected?  Yes.  Walnut Creek, for readers outside North California,
is a city of 64,000, about an hour east of San Francisco.  The town's
opera company only recently made a name for itself outside the confines of
"community opera," under the direction of Olivia Stapp.  She left last year,
the surrounding Contra Costa county's emerging tech industry pretty much
tanked, California has a $38 billion deficit and absolutely no desire or
ability to support the arts, so what did Festival Opera's artistic/music
director Michael Morgan and executive director Helen C.  Sheaff decide to
do at this time of external conflict and internal meltdown?  "Aida"!

Last week, in Morocco, a Berber guide told me about his grandfather
fighting on horseback against Turkish tanks, charging them, brandishing a
sword. He was shot, and enemy officer emerged from the tank, walked up to
the warrior's prone body, and saluted him for his foolish and magnificent
bravery.  In truth, I expected tonight to salute a similarly dead Festival
Opera "Aida," respectfully and with affection.  Luckily, however, that was
not to be.  You can forget about all the circumstances and just acknowledge
outstanding work by a talented, dedicated company.

The lion's share of credit goes to Parkman.  With an orchestra about half
the size of what is normally used for "Aida," the conductor moved the music
along steadily, supporting the singers, *listening* to the small, fine hall
in the Dean Lesher Center, adjusting continuously, creating and maintaining
an impeccable balance.  He asked for - and got - a great deal of quiet
singing, which is as rare as it is thrilling.

Kathleen Halm, in the title role, turned in a solid, impressive, reliable
performance.  Singing accurately and with excellent diction, she also floated
some affecting pianissimo notes, and excelled in messa di voce passages.
Her no-nonsense, businesslike delivery is all to the good, although a bit
more emotion in her singing and acting would have been welcome.

San Francisco Opera Center veterans Todd Geer (Radames) and Bojan Knezevic
(Amonasro) fit beautifully into the production.  Geer's high baritone strains
at true-tenor high notes, but he produces a kind of "heroic singing," if not
a real heldentenor.  Still at the beginning of a career, he could go far..
Knezevic ripped into the role, and he sustained the performance, although
not exhibiting much warmth in the voice tonight.

Philip Skinner, of course, is a major bass; his Ramfis could have fit
a house twice the size of this, but he exercised admirable restraints.
Kirk Eichelberger sang a fine Pharaoh, although Italian could have been
more fitting for the production than what sounded like ancient Egyptian.
If he is really as young as he looks, Eichelberger has lots of time to work
on diction - the voice is there already.  Hope Briggs' off-stage Priestess
was a fine contribution.

The only questionable assignment was for Amneris.  Lyutsina Kazachenko
produced some stunning low notes, and exhibited a huge voice, but inaccura
cies abounded, and both phrasing and acting were on the wooden side.

The pickup orchestra outplayed its permanent counterparts in many a
medium-size opera house I have heard.  The brass - led by William Harvey
and Brian Anderson on trumpets - were excellent, Deborah Shidler (oboe),
Diane Maltester (clarinet), Carla Wilson (oboe) and the on-stage harpist,
Natalie Cox, contributed mightily to an evening that did justice to Verdi.

There was a commotion in the pit during Act II, and later I learned that
a cellist fainted, knocking over a violinist.  At the time, I heard that
something was going wrong, but couldn't have imagined *two* cellists carrying
on for the rest of the evening, along with only five uninjured violinists
in the second section.  Strength is not in numbers when it comes to dedicated,
passionate musicians.

David Kurtenbach's small chorus too sounded many times its actual number,
the sopranos especially giving a big-league performance.

The Boulay-Crompton production is so tight and right that attempts to carry
over features from the original German production may be easily overlooked.
The chorus is outfitted in 1870s veddy British traveling garb, supposedly
attending a preview performance of "Aida" in Cairo.  You know that from the
program notes and their appearance - rather fetching, on two sets of "pyramid
blocks" upstage - but it all doesn't make much sense, especially when the
"travelers" turn into Egyptians and Ethiopians, musically, at least.  The
harm, if any, is very small, indeed.  This is not a "director's opera" in
Walnut Creek, just a damn good one.

Parkman and the orchestra were truly doing right by Verdi.  What a thrilling
experience to hear a big opera produced by a small company, where you can
sit back and enjoy the music without egomaniac directors, bored musicians
and globe-trotting, uninvolved, routine singers destroying the process!  I
left my heart in Walnut Creek...  very much hoping for a similar experience
next week in Central City.  Long live Opera in the Country!

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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