La Cenerentola
Gioachino Rossini (Composer): Jacopi Ferretti (Original Italian Libretto);
Donald Pippin (English Libretto)
Pocket Opera
Music that excites the imagination and pleases the senses; voices that soar with their clarity and amaze with their electricity; an adapted, English libretto that teases and titillates with its rhymes and rhythms; acting that elicits continuous laughter through ingenuous, deliberate choices and seemed spontaneity; and direction that draws from an incredibly wide variety of comic genres and inspirations – all these elements and more add up to a roaring good time in Pocket Opera’s latest, intimate-setting offering: Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
As conceived originally in 1817 by Rossini along with librettist Jacopi Ferretti, La Cenerentola is not exactly the Cinderella story later made universal by the likes of Disney. The mean stepmother is instead a money-hungry (and of course still mean) stepfather, Don Magnifico. The Fairy Godmother is Alidoro, a clever tutor that makes things happen for the good. A glass slipper is now a bracelet offered to the Prince by an escaping Cinderella as an enticement for him later to find her and match the other one she still wears. And gone are the mice, birds, and pumpkin; but remaining are ample opportunities for the miracles and magic of first-and-unlikely love still to happen.
To a person in this cast of ten, each conquers Rossini’s musical demands and challenges with interpretations, insight, and sheer talent that is often jaw-dropping – especially when their big-stage abilities are delivered only a few feet from the audience on three sides of the small stage area (as was true in the opening weekend in the Second Stage of Mountain View’s Center for the Performing Arts).
As Angelina (who is maliciously nicknamed Cinderella by her so-called family), Kindra Scharich intones beautifully rounded, mezzo soprano notes much in the style of a ballad in her opening number. Later, she luxuriates in rich notes that hang in beautiful suspension as well as in those that fly with vigor to great heights before cascading in waterfall fashion, intertwining with accompanying woodwinds in the orchestra.
Her Prince Ramiro (Sidney Ragland) – whom she first meets and falls in love as he disguises himself as his servant – brings a deliberate style of delivery to his sparkling clear tenor voice and also has the ability to ride with brilliance through the hills and valleys that Rossini musically throws at him, landing on sustained, clarion notes that win Cinderella’s heart and our admiration.
As the servant, Dandini – turned Prince for a day in order to assess for the real Prince what maiden is worthy of becoming his Princess – William Lee Bryan can boom his baritone chords enough for all to take notice while also tripping lightly over notes that sometimes must spill out at the speed of bullets. (That latter requirement is one that others must also meet; each person must time and again sing with incredible rapidity and accuracy the score’s prestissimo sections while also having no problem with the libretto’s tongue-twisters.)
As the blowhard Magnifico, William O’Neill sings with pompous but magnificent power while also allowing his bass-baritone voice to wander playfully into areas that enhance the comedic character of his stepfather persona. Likewise, both of his sassy, silly daughters – Clorinda (soprano Marlaina Owens) and Tisbe (mezzo soprano Sonia Gariaeff) – employ their fabulously thrilling voices to tease, taunt, and torture their despised stepsister Cinderella, all the time impressing to the hilt the musicality they each bring to their zany roles.
To a role that has a bit of mystery and magic attached, Chung-Wai Soong – as the tutor to the Prince and matchmaker-in-the-making for Cinderella – sings in a bass-baritone that is somewhat reserved in a manner that causes one to lean in and to ascertain who is really behind the voice that has a deep, echoing quality. Finally, oft-appearing as three military guards, Maxwell Ary, Justin Baptista, and Marcus Timpane combine their individually powerful voices into a dynamic trio that sings with arousing and stimulating zing.
As wonderful as each voice is individually, Music Director Paul Dab has ensured that when trios, quartets, quintets, and the entire cast sing together, the result is time and again some of the best moments of the production. That is particularly true when combined with the comedic genius of Stage Director Bethanie Baeyen, whose background with such institutions as the Dell ‘Arte School of Physical Comedy and the San Francisco Mime Troupe is on full display as scene after scene plays out in ways that feel like we are watching an animated cartoon in live action.
The two stepsisters are never still; it is as if an animator has programmed their faces into a thousand possible countenances of gasps, frowns, pooches, crunches, and peering. Magnifico is a pretentious buffoon with a capital “B” who uses every part of his body to bend, dip, shutter, collapse, or whatever else is needed to draw a laugh as a character who actually believes he deserves to become part of the extended, royal family. The silly dances and chaotic prances of these three that are encouraged and enhanced by Rossini’s score often seem like scenes lifted from the Saturday morning cartoons that some of us once watched in our youth as we were first introduced to the classical music that were often their underlying scores.
Many other directorial choices splendidly serve up scenes delicious. Cinderella and the Prince’s first meeting (he in the guise as a servant) provide first glances across the room that magnetically yet coyly draw them closer together as musically their sung notes increasingly intertwine in closer harmonies. Wonderfully funny is the scene when Cinderella tries to get the attention of the visiting Dandini posing as Prince while the stepfather, Magnifico, finds as many ways to block and divert her as she does to out-trick him. Often the entrances, exits, and antics of the three soldiers cannot help but remind one of yesteryear’s Keystone Kops. The back-and-forth hilarities between Magnifico and Dandini as the father tries to pry which of his two adored daughters is the bride, the moment Magnifico finally realizes whom the Prince will marry, or the toss of a wedding bouquet caught by a flying soldier – these and many more such scenes combine the talents of actors and the tongue-in-cheek astuteness of the stage director.
Many kudos also go to Paul Dab’s direction of the eleven-piece orchestra. Particularly noteworthy are the many times individual instruments duet with a singer in ways that complement and augment the sung half of the duet and in ways that do great justice to Rossini’s compositions.
The costumes of Lance Müller and the wigs of Susan Stone do their parts in amplifying the ridiculous (but in some ways, also endearing) Magnifico, Clorinda, and Tisbe. The choices for the toylike soldiers all decked in red, for the humble Cinderella in rags who then turns into the gowned princess of the ball, for Alidoro with his long cloak of mystic colors and sparkles, and for both servant and Prince who switch just enough in costume to fool those around them are all more examples of costume and wig excellence. Appreciations also worthily go to Properties Designer Daniel Yelen.
To be able to see such a well-performed, well-produced production as described above in settings a tiny fraction of the size where such an opera would normally be shown is the gift Pocket Opera brings to the Bay Area. After its opening weekend in Mountain View, the Company moves first to San Francisco and then to Berkeley in equally intimate settings, with plenty of time left to grab a ticket and enjoy this must-see La Cenerentola.
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
La Cenerentola continues in production by Pocket Opera March 3 at the Legion of Honor Museum, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco and March 10 at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley. Tickets are available online at https://pocketopera.org or by phone Monday – Friday, noon – 4 p.m. at 415-972-8934.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Pocket Opera
