Vanessa
|
Lucy Schaufer, Kiri Te Kanawa
Photo by Robert Millard
|
By Michael Van Duzer
Critics love to pan Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. Its dour romanticism and verismo-inspired musical palette seemed quaint even at its 1958 premiere. But I’ve a sneaking suspicion that audiences, who haven’t had much of chance to see the opera lately, might find it a guilty pleasure. Recent American operas have proven that melody is still popular with the paying public and Barber has some lovely and effective melodies in Vanessa. Barber’s longtime companion (and even more popular critical punching bag) Gian Carlo Menotti wrote the libretto, supposedly inspired by Isak Dinesen stories. And, if the plot seems more Douglas Sirk soap opera than Dinesen grotesquerie, Menotti remains a shrewd theatrical craftsman. He is still the only composer/librettist to successfully produce opera on Broadway.
Vanessa focuses on three generations of rich, psychologically wounded women living a hermit-like existence in a frigid mansion surrounded by perpetual snow. Vanessa has hidden herself away awaiting the return of Anatol, the lover who deserted her twenty years earlier. Her mother, the Baroness, refuses to speak with her, and her niece Erika looks after both of them. Anatol’s handsome but impecunious son (also named Anatol) appears, eager to pick up where his father left off. He offers himself to Erika who turns him down even though she loves him, because she wants to be loved for herself--not her fortune. Vanessa has no such qualms and is soon planning to marry the young scamp, but what about the baby Erika is carrying from her one night with Anatol? Okay, it’s hardly Chekhov, but is it really any more tawdry than a dozen other opera plots we can name?
Vanessa offers a glamorous role for a soprano of a certain age, and Los Angeles Opera was lucky to land Kiri Te Kanawa in her company debut. Te Kanawa is still beautiful enough to convince as the Siren of the Snow, and her voice, while more carefully produced than in her youth, is still the luscious, seductive instrument that has enchanted audiences throughout her career. Although the opera is called Vanessa, the dramatic heart of the piece lies with Erika. Lucy Schaufner has sung the role with Dame Kiri before, and her experience shows. Using her flexible vocal instrument and keen dramatic instincts, she creates a sympathetic, three-dimensional character out of an admitted series of clichés. In a fascinating case of coming full circle, Rosalind Elias, who sang Erika in the opera’s premiere, plays the Baroness. Still singing with authority, her presence brings a spooky verisimilitude to the proceedings.
John Matz proves a sturdy, if unexciting, Anatol, and David Evitts makes the most of his moments as the Doctor, providing some much-needed comic relief. Paul Brown’s set and costume designs are appropriately elegant and spare, with giant glass windows that barely keep the cruel snow at bay. John Cox directs with an eye for understating the melodrama, and Simone Young conducts with verve and panache.
Los Angeles Opera: Dorothy Chandler Pavillion November 27-December 18
(213) 972-0777 www.losangelesopera.com
|
