2005 Season Opera Theatre of the Rockies

Three Penney Opera

Threepenny’ with an edge
Musical celebrates ‘Mack the Knife’and other audience faves
By MARK ARNEST THE GAZETTE

The bit has to be perfectly timed. Macheath, leaning jauntily outside his jail cell, tosses his hat high into the air; the jailer catches it at the exact moment the song ends. The scene has to be run over and over at a recent rehearsal of “Threepenny Opera,” but finally it works.
“I love a good button,” says artistic director Martile Rowland. It’s a clever trick of expert timing, but there’s a lot more than a button holding together “Threepenny.” To do justice to playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill’s masterpiece, two of the area’s major performing arts groups — Theatreworks and Rowland’s Opera Theatre of the Rockies — have joined forces. They’ve put together a stellar cast that includes soprano Judeth Shay Burns, who has sung with Central City Opera and Opera Colorado, and Susan Dawn Carson, who performed on Broadway as Fantine in “Les Miserables.” “The ingredients are in the pot,” Rowland says. “Now we just have to let it cook.”

The story of the anti-hero Macheath remains compelling, even when it’s repulsive. The weirdly beautiful score features the classic “Mack the Knife” along with some of Weill’s other greatest inspirations.
With its melding of theater, musical theater and opera, “Threepenny Opera” always has found a wide audience. But it remains a challenging work ...

The high point of the ravaging comes in the “Jealousy Duet.” Dueling sopranos are an operatic cliche — but in this case both singers are wives of the bigamous Macheath, and the text includes such couplets as “I can’t let it pass, dear / When cows like you go mooing.” “It’s so politically incorrect,” Ross says. “There’s not a single prurient moment; compared to ‘Cabaret’ or ‘Chicago,’ it’s positively wholesome. But one of the middle-class pretensions is that man is a noble animal, and Brecht is saying we’re not so much noble animals as animals.” Only the extraordinary level of wit and inspiration prevent “Threepenny Opera” from sinking into cynical despair. “It’s so dark and so light at the same time,” Ross says. “It combines all these contradictions. Along with the despair and defeat, there’s a sense of giddy joy. The seediness and shadows seem quite appealing and sort of fun.”

“Threepenny Opera” was one of musical theater’s biggest hits of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Within five years of its premiere, it had been performed more than 10,000 times in 18 languages. But the piece was too unusual to become mainstream. Its cynical, bittersweet style has often been imitated — it’s the spiritual forebear of such works as “Cabaret” and “Chicago” — but it’s never been equaled. “You can’t bottle inspiration, but Brecht and Weill bottled some kind of creative excitement in the work,” Ross says.

No one’s enjoying “Threepenny Opera” more than its large cast. “The way it’s written, it’s easy to make it part of you,” says Jeff Marshall, who plays one of Macheath’s thugs. “Weill puts the dissonance in exactly the right spot to get the most out of it.” Burns, who plays one of Macheath’s wives, is glad the show is scheduled for 18 performances. “Sometimes there’s trouble keeping a piece fresh,” she says. “In this case, I thank God we have time to delve into it.” And it should allow time to sew on a few more buttons.

Cinderella

‘Cinderella’ is a perfect fit for opera

By MARK ARNEST THE GAZETTE

Colorado Springs has never hosted a feast of opera singing like Opera Theatre of the Rockies’ delightful production of “Cinderella.” This is not to say that earlier opera performances didn’t have casts as strong as this one. Some did. But no other local opera has demanded such an outpouring of virtuosity as Rossini’s comic retelling of the Cinderella fable. It’s a vocal olympics, as the singers in the seven-member cast take turns topping one another.

Of course, the final say goes to Cinderella herself, performed by the dazzling Jennifer DeDominici. At the end of the three-hour evening, DeDominici — who has not exactly been quiet previously — merely has to deliver one of the most mind-bogglingly difficult arias ever written for a mezzo-soprano. She did so on opening night with style, a velvety, even tone, and an extraordinary clarity that made the aria the evening’s musical climax.
But DeDominici was hardly the evening’s only star.

As Prince Ramiro, Curt Peterson has a tenor part that tops high C on several occasions. Although there’s an audible break going up to his highest register, his voice is pleasant and light, and delivered with a seeming effortlessness that made his characterization of the love-struck prince especially appealing.
Previous local appearances by baritone Peter Tuff showed off his voice’s strength and golden tone, but as Dandini, the Prince’s valet, he also gets to show his vocal agility and his outstandingly over the-top stage presence.
Margaret Simpson and Sarah Barber make an ideal pair of comically evil step-sisters, with Simpson providing some of the most thrilling vocal fireworks.

Christopher Roselli, as the prince’s adviser, Alidoro, has the least virtuosic part, but his assured, authoritative baritone makes him ideal for the character who, more than anyone else, holds this light story together.
And last, but by no means least, Ashraf Sewailam displays marvelous comic acting and a powerful bass voice as Don Magnifico, Cinderella’s evil step-father.

Evil step-father? No fairy god-mother? Rossini and his librettist Jacopo Ferretti made many changes to the fairy tale. (It was Rossini who insisted on deleting almost all the magic.) But the basic story and characters remain clear. Many aspects of “Cinderella,” or “La Cenerentola,” will surprise you, but nothing will confuse you. The story’s familiarity makes “Cinderella” an excellent place to start if you’ve never seen classic Italian comic opera. Although the supertitles — translated by director Steven LaCosse — were witty and succinct, I often forgot to look at them.
Everything else about the production maintained the high level established by the singers. La-Cosse’s direction filled every moment with comic business, which suited this lightweight opera well.

There was virtuosity offstage as well as on. Conductor James Allbritten and an excellent orchestra successfully walked a musical tightrope all night long. Like other Rossini operas, “Cinderella” is more difficult than it sounds: It’s the sudden pauses and frequent tempo changes that make the music sparkle and perfectly reflect the mood onstage.

The opening night audience responded enthusiastically to this enormously challenging opera, drowning out the final orchestral postlude with applause.