Repertory Opera Company
By Michael Van Duzer
With Repertory Opera Company, Los Angeles has a second seasonal producing opera company. And, if their productions aren’t designed to make the venerable Los Angeles Opera quake in its boots, their ticket price of $20 (less than a quarter of what the best seats cost downtown) should make opera lovers on a budget smile.
The productions are bare-bones, using the nave of the United Methodist Church as a stage, simple set pieces, cobbled-together costumes, borrowed wigs, no supertitles and single piano accompaniment by talented music director, Brian Farrell. But this is opera with a heart. Something that is occasionally overlooked in institutions with bigger budgets. The singers are a mix of students, emerging talents and opera-loving amateurs.
Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman is a daunting project for any opera company. The musical demands it makes on the singers, the multiple settings, and the choral episodes are just a few of the necessities that would tax the resources of much more established institutions than the Repertory Opera. But Artistic Director LizBeth Lucca is nothing if not ambitious.
Offenbach died before the premiere of Hoffman allowing others the chance to rearrange the scene order as well as interpolating music from some of Offenbach’s popular opera bouffe. This inauthentic edition was used as the performing version for nearly a century until music historians, studying Offenbach’s manuscripts, came up with several competing versions that claimed to better represent the composer’s intentions. Except for placing the Antonia scene before the Giulietta and the replacement of the recitative with spoken English dialog, director Lucca has chosen a traditional version. The stories of Hoffman’s three loves aren’t bookended by the appearance of his Muse, and cuts to the score are judicious and speed the production along admirably.
Alan August tackles the title role with a smallish tenor lyrique . Although we’re used to hearing more heroic voices in the role today, the French have always had an appreciation for this vocal type, and it probably is closer to the sound Offenbach had in mind while composing. Even with cuts, the role is killing, and August made it though the performance with only minimal vocal wear. The combination of August’s lanky frame and character looks along with the downplaying of his alcoholism made his Hoffman a wide-eyed Ichabod Crane-like character rather than the dissipated, Byronic poet we generally encounter. An interesting and refreshing choice.
Playing the villains of the piece, Herve Blanquart had the native-speaking advantage while singing, but his English dialog (luckily snipped the minimum) was barely intelligible. Playing multiple roles also left him at the mercy of his costumes. Although Hoffman contains both comic and grotesque elements, the costume choice for Dr. Coppelius was little too much of both; making him appear to be the love child of Charles Laughton and Ruth Gordon. Annette Nicolai was a hard-edged Nicklausse with a piercing top, while Mariana Ramirez piped prettily as the doomed Antonia. Kieko Clark’s Olympia got her laughs without sacrificing coloratura accuracy, and Lorraine Afzali’s Giulietta unfurled a large, dark-tinged soprano that bears watching.
Repertory Opera’s goal to make affordable opera productions available in Los Angeles is laudable. It will be interesting to see how they develop over time. The rest of their announced season consists of Cosi Fan Tutte, Lucia di Lamermoor, and Susannah.
October 13, 18, 20, 24 and 28 Wilshire United Methodist Church 4350 Wilshire Blvd.
www.repertoryopera.org 323 969-4602
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