Is there a dramaturg in the house?

The San Francisco Opera, supposedly employing several of the species,
went without one this time.

The premiere of Verdi's "Il Trovatore," in a production new to San
Francisco, impressed and befuddled in the War Memorial today.

Seattle, Houston, and probably other cities, have already witnessed John
Conklin's design in Brad Dalton's direction, and there has been advance
talk about the black metal-on-metal background covering everything, the
incongruous red-plush chairs, etc., but you have to see the rest to yell
"Dramaturg!" in an almost-crowded theater.

Those huge metal heads - of men and an equine beast - and puzzling shapes
hanging (and moving) in-mid-air don't really serve Cammarano's story
(which needs help, desperately) or Verdi's opera (which is just perfect
as is, thank you).

The thing is that Conklin is a great designer. Some of the pictures he
creates - beginning with the very first curtain going up - are quite
wonderful. Windows opening up, suffused with Robert Wierzel's brilliant
lighting, serve the drama excellently well. But a German dramaturg, or
just a good one, or somebody from the street, should have tapped Conklin
on the shoulder to say: "You have a good framework here, and some
eye-popping visuals; don't mess it up with Monty Python images... or,
if you do, where are the boots?"

While trying to figure out, without success, if that really big thing
hanging over the stage is a heart or a beehive, I missed a couple of
arias. And what's up with characters not looking at each other? When you
confess your love to someone or torture someone else (or the same person),
the traditional thing is to make contact. But not here.

A splash of blood on the prison wall is a good thing. A chair suspended
high on the wall, upside-down, is not. Blood has to do with the story.
A chair on the wall doesn't. A chair on the wall distracts from the
opera, see? It's not a good thing. That's what he or she would say, a
dramaturg worth his or her Kommisbrot.

In the event, those big heads laying on the stage made me think of
Ozymandias or the Easter Islands, and how does that relate what Verdi
hath wrought?

Still, there is more to opera than dramaturgs and balmy designers, such
as singing and the music.

And there, today's performance presented a strange story. Looking at
Marco Armiliato on the podium, and a strong cast, you could easily expect
that this matinee would be a Contender. But it wasn't, not for three
acts, the thing not jelling, not delivering until the end.

It's not fair to come from the San Francisco Symphony's "Flying Dutchman,"
which is all presence, urgency, and impact, but then who said producing
opera is a matter of fairness? Unlike many previous (and happy) experiences
with Armiliato, those qualities exhibited wonderfully by Michael Tilson
Thomas just across the street, were not to be found here...  for a long,
long time.

Maybe you can get away with a ponderous, lyrical Wagner, but it just
doesn't work for Verdi, certainly not in case of this exciting, in-your-face
music.

And so it was, a languid, tentative "Trovatore," throwing the chorus
off, and possibly the soloists as well. Dolora Zajick, who brought the
house down here with her debut in the role many years ago, sang Azucena's
first aria without getting any applause. She wasn't "bad," of course,
just not... Zajick. By the fourth act, however, she figured out how to
get around those enervated tempi, and she was great once again.

Ditto for the others, especially Marina Mescheriakova, who was noodling
at first, pretty but boring, then singing a simply sensational finale.

Richard Margison was the preoccupied Manrico, not singing particularly
well until (and including) "Di quella pira," but sounding glorious at
the end.

Same story with Carlos Alvarez, singing the Count. Although dramatically,
he certainly tried harder all the way through, vocally he too came into
his own only in the finale.

The casting of the secondary roles is disappointing. Traditionally, young
local singers have a chance to shine as Ferrando or Inez, but there was
nothing to write home about in that department today.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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