In yet another shocking convergence of German romantic bestiality
and beastly American academic musical noodling, brave -- but sometimes
misguided -- Berkeley Opera is presenting the world premiere of John Thow's
"Serpentina." A small consolation:  no live snakes were abused in the
preparation for this production.

Virtually unique in my experience, this so-called opera doesn't even *try*
to present vocal music:  all you hear from the stage, for 75 minutes, is
monotonous sing-song (called "recitative" in polite company).

Thow did considerably better with the orchestral score, and today's matinee
was one of those fortunate occasions when company music director Jonathan
Khuner actually had some good musicians respond to his baton.  Between a
disastrous Beethoven ("Leonore") and excellent Rossini ("The Riot Grrrl on
Mars," David Scott Marley's version of "L'Italiana") and Berlioz ("Beatrice
and Benedict"), today's orchestral performance was just right.

Khuner is a gutsy, imaginative director who has been stretching (at times
painfully) the musical envelope for this tiny, community-based company.
The uncoiling of "Serpentina," regardless of quality, is part of Berkeley
Opera's series of experiments.

Thow's work is performed in revolving repertory with Marley's new
adaptation of Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann," and it is based on
an E.T.A.  Hoffmann story, "The Golden Flower Plot."

No "Nutcracker" this, the Hoffmann story is about a fine young man falling
in love with a bad old snake.  We are talking *love* here, not just a vague
attraction.  And while amphibians have been tempting operatic heroes, from
Platee to Rhine Maidens to Rusalka, the idea of physical intimacy with a
snake is still a kind of novelty.

Of course, the Berkeley interpretation disregards the logistical problems
and focuses on the class struggle:  "This fantastical tale involves a
collision of the world of the supernatural with the world of mundane
bourgeois life." (In my favorite classes on dialectical materialism, I
never learned about conventional human biology being part of bourgeois
ideology; mundane, I understand.)

The title role is sung by Svetlana Nikitenko, a talented member of last
year's SFO Merola Program; she handled the vocalise-as-sprechtstimme
portions very well.  Narelle Yeo's Veronica (she is the earth woman vying
for the attention of the hero) was clear and pleasant.  There was also
somebody without any voice whatsoever, who conducted himself while singing.
Melissa Weaver directed, heroically.

But there was an important "discovery" as well:  Stephen Rumph, in the
role of Anselmus, the herpetophile.  I hope this young voice teacher is
making a special effort to pass on his extraordinary skill with diction.
It's a pleasure to hear -- whatever the text, never mind the music --
every single word communicated fully.  Bravo!

Janos Gereben/SF
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