Meet Sir John Falstaff, a rogue and a scoundrel of a human being with ample girth and a booming baritone. It seems Sir John's gotten himself into a spot of trouble - after stealing a drinking buddy's money and then spending it on (what else?) more drinks - he realizes he hasn't gotten any money of his own left and must come up with a scheme to get some more.
This being opera, of course his scheme involves getting two rich women to fall in love with him and then magically, give him all their money (yeah, I'm not sure about that one either). He writes two identical letters (tsk tsk, Jacko, where's the romance in your soul?) not realizing that the objects of his affection ("Meg" and "Alice") will compare notes and hatch a scheme of their own to teach him a lesson. Of course their scheme involves luring Falstaff into believing Alice is madly in love with him, setting a secret rendez-vous where they are (oh no!) nearly caught by her jealous husband, causing Sir John to hide in the laundry basket and get tossed into the Thames with the rest of the laundry. (For some reason, all of Alice's laundry was white. Lemme tell you, if it was getting tossed into the Thames on a regular basis, her stuff would SO not be white). Sir John's mad for being made a fool of but this does not stop him from falling for another trick - this one involving the Queen of the Fairies and creatures of the forest and a haunted tree (I wish I was making this up) but he sees the error of his ways and repents. There's a wedding (two characters who appear to have stumbled into all this from another opera) and then everyone happily accepts that men are all fools and trot off to dinner. And.... curtain.
Lyric's production of Falstaff was pretty - the set was compact and had trapdoors everywhere and pieces that could be moved into different configurations. The last time Lyric performed Falstaff (I was still at Loyola so maybe 1999 or 2000? Earlier? I never got to see it when he did it and am just kicking myself now.) the title character was played by Bryn Terfel. He sang Falstaff's Act One aria a the Gala concert and stole the show. Andrew Shore (who stepped in for the originally cast Falstaff) had big shoes to fill, but sang the role very well. He was also really funny as Falstaff and was getting all kinds of laughs.
The other members of the cast - Veronica Villarroel (Alice), Boaz Daniel (Ford), Stacey Tappan (Nannetta - and ohmygoodness what gorgeously floated high notes!), Bryan Griffin (Fenton), Meredith Arwady (contralto - last seen in Dr. Atomic - superb), Elizabeth de Shong (Meg), David Cangelosi (Dr. Caius), Rodell Rosel (Bardolfo), and Andrew Funk (Pistola) no "big names" among them (although David Cangelosi is pretty well known in Chicago and also was at the Met in... something... I read the review and he got a good notice). Many of them are members of the Ryan Opera Center for American Artists, Lyric's training program for young singers. All of them did very well - sang like the pros they are and were also decent actors. I basically ignored the plot (you pretty much had to) and the gibbering old biddies behind us (arrghhh! Can i tell you how well behaved the main floor audience is by comparison? Next year - single tickets = better seats! I swear, some of this audience nonsense is really starting to sour the experience for me)
Next up - Eugene Onegin and Barber of Seville...
** Update: so reviews for Falstaff are in today's Tribune and Sun Times and apparently this production had three of its principal singers bow out (the singers playing Falstaff, Ford and Quickly). I had initially thought it was a little strange of them not to have any major cast members, but I guess this is why. Still, it is a great opportunity for the Opera Center members to be on the stage and they were all wonderful. So go! See Falstaff if you can. But for future reference for any potential subscribers - stay away from the upper balcony on Monday nights unless of course you enjoy kabbitzing blue haired biddies blabbing noisily throughout the performance, people taking illegal photography DURING THE PERFORMANCE (curtain calls though I think are fair game) and seat neighbors who unwrap candies or peanut butter sandwiches - during the performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment