Richly Endowed 'Figaro'

by Richard Houdek

THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

PITTSFIELD — If Mozart and his favorite librettist Da Ponte were assembling their masterpiece "Le Nozze di Figaro" today, instead of nearly 225 years ago, their scenario might have included teenagers cradling cell phones, vengeful women composing mischievous notes on laptops and carefree peasant girls transporting carry-out on skateboards, to say nothing of gentlemen wielding golf clubs and badminton rackets.

So, welcome to Figaro's nuptial tale according to Gregory Keller, the forward-looking stage director who has mounted a show that, like his modernist "Madama Butterfly" three summers ago, may elicit some clucking and quaking among purists, but also serves as a reminder that opera, after all, is entertainment.

Keller has brought the opera up reasonably close to our contemporary world, while retaining the customs and traditions documented by the 18th-century Beaumarchais play on which it is based.

Dipu Gupta, also of the "Butterfly" team, has created a neo-traditional roll-out set for the Count's chateau, rich with symbolism, which becomes more expansive with each act.

Berkshire Opera's major strength over the years has resided in the vocal and acting skills of the artists on its stages. This "Figaro" ensemble is especially rich in these endowments, a tribute to the casting acumen of Kathleen Kelly, the company's artistic director.

Bass-baritone Ryan McKinny brought a solid and richly burnished bass-baritone, along with the confidence of a prince, to the title role. He is a real find. Soprano Suzanne Ramo has an unusually large vocal instrument for a Susanna that nevertheless spun smooth delicacy in the lyricism of the earlier acts and produced gorgeous darker tones for her big Act IV aria, "Deh, viene non tardar."

Like McKinny, baritone Liam Bonner proved an ideal casting decision. As the philandering Count Almaviva, the tall and slender Bonner has a resonant, superbly supported vocal instrument, and he invested exactly the right measure of imperious arrogance to the role of the nobleman-in-charge. His Act II aria, "Vedrò mentr'io sospiro," explained with supreme assurance precisely who he was.

Maureen O'Flynn, who has traveled the world as Lucia, Gilda, Juilliet, and Susanna, now has a fresh new triumph to add to her amazing career, in her first trouser role as one of the most convincing Cherubinos in memory. The hormones are just bursting out of O'Flynn's young teenage page. The vocal line, including those two arias, "Non so più" and "Voi, que sapete," are entirely comfortable for O'Flynn who has dwelled in the stratosphere so many times elsewhere, but, along the way, has developed strong middle and bottom registers.

As the Countess, soprano Tamara Wilson displayed a voice of Verdi proportions, entirely suitable for the role, delivering moving performances of both the plaintive "Porgi amor" and the hopeful "Dove sono."

But size also matters in other ways. Wilson's considerable figure militates against a major premise of the opera — that the Count turns away from his diminutive Rosina due to a serial wandering eye. The limits of credulity are stretched, both in the Count's returning to his wife following his many escapades in other beds, and the Countess' disguise as Susanna in the garden. There is little chance of mistaking the two. This is a delicate issue, but it must be faced. The world of opera has changed and a young singer, especially of Wilson's obvious vocal gifts, also must resemble the heroines she is impersonating on the stage. Entirely fair? Perhaps not. But that's the way of our Hollywood-sensitized world obsessed with physical perfection.

As Marcellina, mezzo Fenlon Lamb, pert in her tight skirt and coiffed in flaming red, could be a mature Beverly Hills sex-pot, and one imagines Dr. Bartolo, bass Jason Hardy, practicing surgery of the plastic kind in the same community. The two were hilarious in their lost-son discovery scene.

Tenor Jason Ferrante seems to brighten every stage he mounts, giving extra significance to Don Basilio, the music teacher with a clear yen for Cherubino, and later Don Curzio, the stammering lawyer; Ferrante's timing is impeccable.

Claude Corbeil, the great bass-baritone, had reportedly suffered a bronchial attack, but he gamely went on as Antonio, the Count's tipsy gardener, demonstrating, in a really mirthful portrayal, that he knows well his way around a stage.

Substituting for Courtenay Budd, Alison Trainer was a charming Barbarina, Antonio's daughter and a pivotal character in uncovering the Count's perfidious ways.

Presiding from the pit, Kelly welds nicely the sometimes thin-sounding textures of the Berkshire Opera Orchestra with the proceedings on stage, and doubtlessly is responsible for some of the elegant additional ornamentation heard in the arias of both the Countess and Susanna.

Arias, such as those of the Count and Countess in Act III, and the ensembles at the end of the final three acts, work especially well due to Keller's deft, choreographic staging.

"Figaros" come and go with frequency in large and small opera houses over the world every year, but this is, with little doubt, one of the most entertaining. You may regret missing it.

A First Class Marriage of Figaro

by Larry Murray

BerskhireFineArts.com

The Berkshire Opera and Le nozze di Figaro have a long history together. First performed by the company in 1991, and again in 1997, can it be a decade since we last heard it sung? Berkshire Opera has long had a soft spot for the works of Mozart, and so it comes as no surprise that this updated production came off so flawlessly. What Mozart required, and this company of musicians provided, was the ensemble sensibility that allows opera to transcend the notes and become a mind altering experience. When Mozart writes for sextets, septets, and octets, and they sound like one glorious, seamless voice, you know it is "magic time". There is no more joyous yet impossible task than unraveling all those voices into their individual strands, the sound and complexity simply overwhelm the senses.

From the first note, it was clear that conductor Kathleen Kelly not only was in charge, but that she had also managed to assemble and shape an orchestra of some 30 players into a unified whole. While thirty might be considered modest forces in the major opera houses, it is the right size for this Mozart opera in the intimate Colonial Theatre. Consider this: The Metropolitan Opera in New York seats 3800, and the famous Teatro alla Scala in Milano holds 2800. The Colonial in Pittsfield has 774 usable seats.

To accommodate two and a half dozen players and their instruments, the pit was extended even further under the stage, while the electronic harpsichordist for the recitativo was in an orchestra level box with his equipment. Kelly held these disparate players together as if they were a string quartet gathered around her.

From my vantage point on the floor and under the balcony overhang, the sound was clean and clear, the playing spirited and unaffected, and from the overture to the finale, the opera unfolded without a hitch along the way. I admit to ignoring the two doors on the set that never seemed to stay closed, but from a musical standpoint, all went well. Overall, the scenic and lighting design by Dipu Gupta was nothing short of spectacular.

This is the first time I had the opportunity to hear Ryan McKinny who sang Figaro, and from the opening words of "Cinque, dieci, venti, trenta..." (as he measured his marriage bed) it was clear that this was a bass-baritone with a commanding voice. His second aria, "Se vuol ballare, signor contino..." (If you want to dance, sir count) sealed the deal for me.

Suzanne Ramo who sings Susanna utilizes a bright soprano to superb effect in "Venite inginocchiatevi..." (Come, kneel down before me). This is sung to Cherubino, a young man whose role is sung by the full coloratura Maureen O'Flynn in one of the finest male impersonations I have ever seen in Opera. What is particularly amazing about her performance is the puckishness of her character. Cherubino can't keep his hands off the ladies, and is a teen rebel to boot. And from the moment he arrives on stage, mischief is afoot.

Cherubino is given what is arguably the most beautiful aria of this opera "Voi, che sapete che cosa é amor" (You ladies know what love is, see if I have it in my heart) . It was rendered with passion, delicacy and, yes, heart, by O'Flynn. I think I am in love with yet another soprano.

The opera revolves around the Count's desire to sleep with Figaro's bride and claim his "droit de seigneur", the feudal right to bed a servant on her wedding night. The fact that he previously lifted the requirement for his subjects is only an obstacle to overcome. As sung by baritone Liam Bonner, the Count comes off as a pretty regular guy, even if everyone is constantly trying to trick him.

His wife, the Countess, is sung by Tamara Wilson, and her aria, "Non so più cosa son" [sic] (I don't know anymore what I am) was especially touching. Underneath her controlled soprano voice is a Verdi heroine dying to come out.

Barbarina is a relatively minor role, but one that provoked a near crisis shortly before these performances were to begin. Courtenay Budd who had originally been signed for the part became indisposed and was replaced on short notice by Allison Trainer. Her delivery of a distraught Barbarina "L'ho perduta, me meschina," (I have lost it, poor me) was lovely.

During the course of the opera, the music is sung with superb diction, expert musicianship and impeccable deliveries. But there is mischief afoot. While remaining absolutely faithful to the music, the time has been shifted to the present, the players are all more or less in street dress, and as the Opera proceeds we begin to see cellphones, skateboards and other signs of the real world outside the theatre. In fact, while the words and music are 18th Century Mozart, the actions on stage are often more like what you'd see today on North Street. What was ingenious about this refreshing approach is that is sort of sneaks up on the audience, as bit by bit things seem to evolve from "back then" to "just now."

To deliver a musically perfect performance of Mozart, while making what is happening on stage feel fresh and familiar, is reflective of the new leadership and thinking at Berkshire Opera. It has proved once again that they are our region's first rate presenter of opera. Enjoying grand opera in the intimacy of the splendid Colonial Theatre is a rare treat. With only three more performances left, it is not to be missed.

Bravo! Encore!

Berkshire's 'Figaro' opera a treat

by Joseph Dalton

THE ALBANY TIMES UNION

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Spying through moist vision a neighboring audience member wiping her own eyes is a pretty good indication that something transcendent and timeless has happened onstage. It's all the more wondrous when the prompting is not a mournful overplayed death scene but two young lovers reconciling as they wrestle about on the ground.

The experience came near the end of the Berkshire Opera's staging of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," Friday night at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass. Of course the magic is already there in the opera itself, ready to be invoked by the right musical and theatrical team. What a rare treat that all aspects of this production rise to the work's greatness.

Music director Kathleen Kelly led a warm and fleet account of the score and stage director Gregory Keller accentuated the comedy on stage. Though he places the action in contemporary times -- Cherubino carries a cellphone, Susanna takes down the Countess' letter onto a laptop -- such bits were rare and surprisingly unobtrusive. This is Keller's third successful effort for the company in four years. Let's hope he keeps returning along with the imaginative stage designer Dipu Gupta.

When the seductive and sure voiced baritone Ryan McKinny as Figaro starts measuring the bodice of his fiance and not his wedding bed, you know it's to be a fun night. Quick and confident, McKinny often rattled off his Italian recitatives like an auctioneer. Soprano Suzanne Ramo was his youthful match as Susanna, singing with a crystalline tone and an always well placed upper range.

Soprano Maureen O'Flynn, who was a sympathetic Mimi in last year's "La Boheme," stole nearly every scene in the pants role of Cherubino. This was no cowering boy but a randy post-pubescent ready to take on authority figures or the needs of a woman.

The count and countess Almaviva were played by unusually youthful performers whose voices expanded with emotion and color as the evening progressed. Baritone Liam Bonner was more of a spoiled dandy than an arrogant overlord, while soprano Tamara Wilson emphasized a depressive interior until now and then opening up with startling high notes.

Mezzo Fenlon Lamb and bass Jason Hardy as Marcellina and Bartolo were more memorable for their fashion victim costumes and physical antics than their singing, while soprano Alison Trainer was a lovely Barbarina in flip-flops.

Along with a few couples in formal wear, the distinguished opening night audience included Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife.

A CurtainUp Berkshire Review

by Elyse Sommer

CURTAIN UP

As if two French farces weren't enough to keep doors slamming, and plots sprouting multiple misunderstandings, you now have a chance to take in another with an Italian setting that is best summed up with a shoutout of brava, bravo and stupendo. Of course what makes this farce adapted by Lorenzo da Ponte from a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais so irresistible is not the plot but the music by the one and only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

That's not to say that the rollercoaster ride through marital infidelity, mistaken identities, cross dressing and other machinations isn't funny —especially in the Berkshire Opera Company's lively, inventively staged modern take on this first of several collaborations between Mozart and da Ponte. Musical theater lovers would not be amiss to think of Mozart and da Ponte as the eighteenth century's Kander and Ebb or Rodgers and Hammerstein and their era of creating popular operas the precursor of the golden age of musical theater. Le nozze di Figaro or The Marriage of Figaro is one of their most entertaining and melodic hits, chock-a-block with gorgeous arias, duets and ensemble pieces, not to mention a spectacularly beautiful overture.

Since the three couples in different phases of their relationships around whom the plot revolves are basically ordinary people, easier to identify with than many opera characters, Figaro lends itself particularly well to updating. Director Gregory Keller has taken his cue for doing so from da Ponte's repeated use of the word "modern" (for example, the Countessa Almaviva refererence to the husband who, despite betraying her, is outraged at the idea of a tit-for-tat on her part: "modern husbands are completely jealous, naturally capricious and systematically unfaithful"). But while Charles R. Caine has outfitted the cast so they could fit right in with the Colonial's audience during intermission and their props include a cell phone and a Dell laptop, the opera is sung in that most musical of languages, the Italian in which it was written.

Sung as it is by the BOC's attractive cast, this Marriage of Figaro is a Wow! Given their zestful commitment to wresting every last laugh out of their comic dilemmas, it's a double Wow! Make that a triple Wow! for impresario Kathleen Kelly and her orchestra!

The cast is notable for outstanding voices and lively acting. Soprano Tamara Wilson and baritone Liam Bonner, though not particularly well matched physically, strike the right emotional tone as Count and Contessa Almaviva. Some of her high notes are amazing. While it's their marital problems that jump start the major plot complications, it's the two servants, the title character and his Susanna, who want to get on with their wedding, who are the main couple. Suzanne Ramo and Ryan McKinney bring youthful energy, charm and the requisite vocal power to these roles. The Berkshires' own diva, Maureen O'Flynn (last year's Mimi in LaBoheme), obviously enjoys playing the comic trouser role of Cherubino, and the audience just as obviously adores her. O'Flynn epitomizes what's so special about this opera company. What other company can offer a locally raised diva a magnificently restored theater for an annual return appearance in a beautifully staged opera, and with the Mayor and Governor and other local dignitaries on hand for the opening?

A not to be overlooked star of Gregory Keller's smoothly directed production is Dipu Gupta's wizardly scenic and lighting design. When the audience first takes its seat, the set looks rather spare and bare bones. But that simple looking set is actually quite complex, evolving into a variety of settings, including a magical Midsummer Night's Dream forest and, even more magically, leaving the stage totally bare except for the terrific cast. It leads me to end as I began: brava, bravo. stupendo!