WALNUT CREEK - Five years ago, Josemaria Condemi was an apprentice coach
in the San Francisco Opera Merola Program. Today, the young Argentine
(from the Cincinnati Conservatory) is one of the most promising and
impressive stage directors in all opera.
Condemi's production of "Romeo et Juliette," which opened Saturday night,
would be a fine accomplishment anywhere, but here, in Hofmann Theater,
it's a virtual miracle.
Of the country's many struggling small opera companies, Festival Opera
is among the more adventurous and, alas, the most impecunious. Down to
a total of four performances of only two operas, the gutsy, community-based
organization added the seldom-performed Gounod opera to the obvious
warhorse of "Rigoletto," and had set designer Cameron Anderson use DUCT
TAPE as decoration on the clever but home-made mobile stairs that form
most of what you see in this "R&J."
The point: Condemi's job was to produce an opera on a near-zero budget.
Out of that challenge came staging that was contemporary, compelling and
consistently supportive of the work itself. In other words, a regieoper
on behalf of the composer, the music, the audience, not for the director's
own greater glory.
The performance opens with the two lovers walking hand-in-hand slowly
upstage, away from the audience, towards a starry sky. Members of the
chorus appear - wearing what look like their own "best clothes," but in
fact designed cunningly by Barbara Ann Gherzi - crowding behind the two
until the lovers can no longer be seen - they are gone, dead. On the
right musical cue, chorus members bow their heads, as if in mourning,
then turn to face the audience and sing the grieving opening lines,
then don masks, and become members of the ball scene. It's all fluent,
credible, thoughtful, proving (as if there was a need for that) the
validity of a meaningful contemporary presentation without obscenities,
attention-diverting circus acts, attempts to shock and outrage.
Throughout the evening, Condemi presented a consistently gripping and
satisfying production, using the meager sets and the hard-working chorus
to support the work. Just one more example: in the banishment scene,
after Tybalt's death, the director had the two staircases put together,
arranged the chorus in a kind of "Greek-tragedy formation," looking down
on Romeo's prostrated body under them, allowing the audience a view of
both the condemning society and the agony of the condemned individual.
It was - as most of the rest of the production - simple, clear, effective
and moving.
Under Michael Morgan's masterful direction, the small "pickup" orchestra
(38 instruments, instead of about 60 that the score requires) performed
gloriously. Not only did they play accurately and with good balance,
but Gounod's romantic score didn't once turn sugary or maudlin.
There were a couple of outstanding vocal performances. Rebecca Garcia's
Juliette was consistently solid and commanding, a big voice under secure
control, good diction and dramatically convincing (if not quite as
overwhelming as seemed to Romeo). Brian Leerhuber's Mercutio was larger
than life, a passionate singing actor in full flight, fairly overwhelming
the stage.
Among the others, truth to tell, there were a few barely (or not)
acceptable voices - including, unfortunately, once-promising Merola
graduates - and good performances by Darla Wigginton (Nurse) and John
Minagro (Friar).
Then there was Isaac Hurtado's Romeo, not a simple matter to report.
He was called in late to substitute for David Miller (who, apparently,
has embarked on his own "Ciao Giorgio" crossover phase, just when he was
getting choice roles and even the possibility of a Met debut). Hurtado
presented a young, handsome, appealing Romeo, singing with an excellent
French diction, and convincing fervor (even if mostly to the audience
instead of the fetching Juliette), but he significantly and repeatedly
deviated from the score... almost unnoticeably to the audience, so hard
did he work.
The problem is that Hurtado has a small, baritonish tenor, with a very
limited range. When the score calls for a high note (and for this role,
that happens a lot), Hurtado sings the lower note (or something in-between),
but does so louder, so the impression is that it's a higher note - I
know, it sounds improbably, but that seems to be the case. Alternatively,
Hurtado uses falsetto for high notes, a certainly more frequently heard
copout, but his specialty is "volume (substituted) for pitch." And the
strangest part of all: this was a winning performance!
Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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