September 08, 2003|By Tim Smith | Tim Smith,SUN MUSIC CRITIC
A couple of tangos. A few bars of You Light Up My Life. The pas de deux from a 1930s Russian ballet. References to Martha Stewart, same-sex civil unions and The Wizard of Oz. And a cameo appearance by three Supremes - Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Arthur Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.
Let's just say it wasn't just another performance of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. For its 48th season-opener, the Washington Opera pulled out as many stops as it could Saturday night in its temporary venue, DAR Constitution Hall.
FOR THE RECORD - A review of the new Washington Opera production of Die Fledermaus in yesterday's Sun misidentified two U.S. Supreme Court justices who made cameo appearances in the opera. They are Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy.
With an eternal supply of musical carbonation and a comic plot that can still generate chuckles nearly 130 years after first amusing the Viennese, Fledermaus really doesn't need a lot of extras. But there's a long tradition of turning the work into a gala occasion by stretching out the Act 2 party scene with "surprise guests." There's also a long tradition of spicing up the operetta with contemporary references and interpolated dollops of comic shtick, primarily in Act 3, thanks to the speaking role of the drunken jailer. This event celebrated both traditions whole-heartedly.
Remaining performances won't offer all of these add-ons, but there will still be an extended party scene, and the same jailer will still be going at it. More importantly, the appealing elements in the handsome-looking production should get even brighter as the run proceeds. And the overall flow should be smoother than it was Saturday - the opening night crowd needed a lot of patience. The music started whirling about 20 minutes late; the final notes weren't sounded until four hours later. (One of the jailer's biggest laughs came when he offered an audience member a drink, saying, "You're going to need it for Act 5.")
A successful Fledermaus depends largely on refined ensemble work, astute comic timing and, of course, all the Viennese musical style you can muster. Under Lotfi Mansouri's direction, most of the international cast meshed tightly and handled physical antics with flair. Where things tended to bog down was in the spoken dialogue (the operetta is presented in English), thanks to the Battle of the Accents.
Only a few of the singers are native English-speakers, which meant a wide variety of inflections and some stiffness in the delivery. The problem was most pronounced with Russian mezzo Elena Obraztsova, assuming the trouser role of Prince Orlofsky for the first time. A prompter fed her every line so loudly it sounded like there was an echo in the house.
But as the evening went on, such things proved less and less distracting. Same for conductor Heinz Fricke's often routine conducting. Spirits were so high and the singing so warm-hearted that the old Fledermaus magic came through quite endearingly, even when coordination between cast and orchestra wasn't dead-on.
June Anderson proved an elegant Rosalinde, with a ripe, imaginatively shaded soprano wrapping itself around each sensual curve in the melodic lines. She also accounted for one of the evening's surprises - singing the showy Act 2 czardas in Hungarian. Wolfgang Brendel excelled as the easily tempted Eisenstein. Even when taxed in the music's upper reaches, his baritone rang out colorfully. And he literally threw himself into the acting side of the role. Hoo-Ryoung Hwang's pretty soprano sounded very small in the cavernous hall and wasn't always surely centered, but her performance as Adele gave off plenty of spark.
Jesus Garcia had an amusing, brightly sung romp as the lusty opera singer Alfred. In the role of the prison governor, John Del Carlo used his bear-sized voice and physique to equally compelling effect. Jason Graae, as wacky jailer Frosch, didn't miss a trick; even when he tried a little too hard, he was fun to have around. Obraztsova's Orlofsky made a grand entrance with three Russian wolf hounds and got charming mileage out of a voice that has sung better days; her passionate, a cappella rendition of Dark Eyes made the perfect lead-in to the evening's other surprise additions.
Walk-ons by the Supreme Court justices and assorted ambassadors set the stage for the one-time party scene. Placido Domingo, Washington Opera's general director, flew in from the Coast, where he runs the Los Angeles Opera and is preparing to debut as Rasputin in this weekend's premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra by Deborah Drattell. He offered a beguiling tango and brought down the house with a full-throttle version of Lehar's Dein ist men ganzes Herz. He and soprano Virginia Tola produced heat in a zarzuela duet, and American Ballet Theatre principals Gillian Murphy and Ethan Steiffel soared through the pas de deux from The Flames of Paris.
In the end, this was not quite a Fledermaus for all time, but it scored high on the entertainment meter and certainly had its heart in the right place.
Opera
What: Die Fledermaus
Where: DAR Constitution Hall, 18th and C streets, N.W., Washington
When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday and Sept. 17; 2 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sept. 15
Admission: $41 to $285
Call: 800-876-7372
