Review: 'The Elixir of Love'

Virginia Opera, Joseph Walsh conducting
Nov. 28, Landmark Theater, Richmond

A lot of comedy is rooted in cruelty, and Donizetti’s "The Elixir of Love" may be the prime example of the cruelty joke in the opera repertory. Every principal character is a cynical, manipulative dirtball, with the sole exception of the male romantic lead, the love-struck bumpkin Nemorino, who, naturally, is the butt of all the jokes. And when all the highjinks have ensued, everyone lives happily ever after – even Nemorino, who has inherited a pile of money and the bride of his dreams, although we may safely guess that he won’t keep either any longer than she can help.

So goes one of the reputedly frothiest of comic operas. To the credit of Dorothy Danner, director of the current Virginia Opera production, this time the froth does not obscure the vinegary taste of the show. Aside from Joshua Kohl’s Nemorino, the characters’ egos are as fully inflated as the golden balloon that drifts over the stage, their insincerity as overripe as the grapes hanging from the ornate gold frame around which scenic designer Eduardo Sicangco built his set.

Characterization generally overrode vocalization in the first of two Richmond performances of this production. Kohl was a strong presence with a clear but youthfully unpolished voice. Jane Redding, as Adina, the dismissive object of Nemorino’s affection, spent much of the evening emphasizing coloratura over melody or projection; she found her balance in time for the lovers’ climactic love scene.

Stephen Hartley, as the self-absorbed Sergeant Belcore, and Todd Robinson, as the greedy quack Doctor Dulcamara, turned in satisfyingly comic characterizations, although they growled as much as they sang and tended to lag behind the beat in patter numbers.

The Virginia Opera Chorus was in good form theatrically – Danner kept the troupe moving and divertingly occupied in cartoonish fashion – and in better than usual form as a vocal ensemble.

Joseph Walsh, the company’s associate conductor, led a nicely animated performance by members of Hampton Roads’ Virginia Symphony, with an especially soulful solo from bassoonist Laura Leisring.

A repeat performance of "The Elixir of Love" begins at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Landmark Theater, Laurel and Main streets in Richmond. Tickets: $22.50-$87.50. Details: (804) 262-8003 (Ticketmaster); www.vaopera.org

Chattanooga suspends opera

The recessionary hits keep coming: The Chattanooga (TN) Symphony & Opera Board, facing an accumulated deficit of $1.1 million, suspends opera productions for the 2009-10 season.

The Chattanooga Symphony will enlarge its concert schedule to compensate; but "we are . . . not at a place where opera as we are currently offering it is sustainable,” Molly Sasse, the organization's executive director, tells the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/nov/25/chattanooga-symphony-amp-opera-board-votes-suspend/

Ego at play

The Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky bails out of concerts with the Boston Symphony because his name isn't displayed as prominently as he would like in promotional materials. That forces the Boston Symphony's assistant conductor, Julian Kuerti, to step in, consequently canceling an Edmonton Symphony concert in which he was to accompany his father, pianist Anton Kuerti:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=f0f7f517-bd19-4459-8ef4-08c5d2a94491

Thomas Adès, head-on

"I used to look a little bit to the left and the right of the music and I would often come at the music from the side. Now I kind of try to attack it head on,” Thomas Adès, the much-lauded, 37-year-old English composer ("Powder Her Face," "Asyla," "The Tempest"), tells Lawrence A. Johnson in the South Florida Classical Review:

http://southfloridaclassicalreview.com/2008/11/15-illegal-minutes-with-thomas-ades/

Slump hits arts in Baltimore

More recessionary fallout for the arts: The Baltimore Opera barely covers expenses of this month's production of Bellini's "Norma," the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra cancels a January date, and the Baltimore Symphony faces precipitous drops in its endowment fund and ticket sales. Tim Smith reports in the Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-te.to.artsecon23nov23,0,1245556,full.story

Richard Hickox (1948-2008)

Richard Hickox, one of the leading interpreters of British music and choral and operatic repertory, died Nov. 23 in Cardiff, Wales.

The 60-year-old conductor, founder of the City of London Sinfonia, music director of Opera Australia and associate guest conductor of the London Symphony, is most widely known for leading more than 300 recordings.

Hickox fell ill during a session of recording Gustav Holst's "Choral Symphony," and subsequently died of an apparent heart attack, The Guardian reports:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/24/richard-hickox

Fine arts for London's young

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, calls for giving the city's youths more exposure to high culture, including opportunities to learn to play musical instruments.

"Too often, it is presumed that young people will only like art that they can immediately relate to. . . . There's been a kind of inverse snobbery about culture," Munira Mirza, Johnson's chief of arts and culture strategy, tells The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/nov/24/london-johnson-culture-strategy-youth