Can a small town present a young, vital, passionate, funny, entertaining
and musically solid "Marriage of Figaro"? Festival Opera does, in Walnut
Creek, a small town between San Francisco and Concord (and Concord is...
never mind!).

Following excellent reviews (and an enthusiastic advance report from
Flicka, the ur-Cherubino, about Walnut Creek's "amazing 18-year-old
Cherubino"), I saw the performance tonight, and I lucked out even beyond
other audiences.

The conductor, just for tonight, was Scott Parkman, musical director
Michael Morgan's young assistant, and the man was on fire.  It's not
cruel or condescending to be afraid of small orchestras in small towns
tackle Mozart (Mozart!), so it was wonderful to be virtually shocked by
the overture -- and then the rest of the evening -- churning with energy,
flowing confidently, supporting the great things happening on the stage.

Youth, unspoiled hunger to perform, talent and ability formed a partnership
between the pit and the stage in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the
Arts, and here was Mozart several notches better than some big-name
productions I heard in big opera houses.

Morgan's musical direction (so ably executed by Parkman tonight), Michael
Touchi's harpsichord work (on stage, in period costume...:), and Daniel
Helfgot's imaginative, clever, funny but unobtrusive staging all worked
together.  Helfgot took off in scene 1, with Figaro shifting his count of
the bed's size onto Susanna, and he had a ball all the way through.  The
audience took turns smiling and laughing out loud and yet the music reigned
supreme.

Peggy Kriha Dye's Susanna is confident and perky in voice and in acting;
there is a beautiful silvery quality to her singing.  The "Flicka protege"
turned out to be Jessica Tivens, finally a Cherubino of the right age
(and boyish figure), with a fine voice and great stage presence.  Brian
Leerhuber's Figaro and Bojan Knezevic's Count were both solid, well
performed.  Singing, and especially acting, from the rest of the cast
was delightful.

There were only two obvious problems: Giulio Cesare Perrone's set design
is a provincial-poor poke in the eye; and the very talented and promising
soprano Christina Lamberti, singing the Countess, had a poor opening aria,
more second-rate Verdi than anything resembling Mozart.  She did get much
better in the subsequent ensembles, but perhaps Mozart is not in the cards
for her -- recently, in the title role of "Iphigenie en Tauride" Lamberti
was quite impressive.

With Olivia Stapp running the company in Walnut Creek, and Irene Dallis in
San Jose, Bay Area opera is in good hands.  (Especially when Flicka takes
over in the War Memorial...:)

Janos Gereben/SF
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