home | art & architecture | books & cds | dance | destinations | film | opera | television | theater | archives
|
||
(No performances scheduled) |
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Offenbach wrote an astounding ninety or more pieces for the stage,
most of them falling into the categories of either operas comiques or operettas.
The more serious and wondrously melodic Tales
of Hoffman assures his status with opera-lovers and some of the lighter works (La Belle Helene,
La Grande Duchesse De Gerolstein
,
La Perichole
,
Orpheus In The Underworld
)
continue to be included at least occasionally in the repertories of opera companies around
the world.
But what amused as light entertainment in nineteenth-century Paris does
not necessarily continue to sustain interest more than a century later and most of
Offenbach's works, highly popular in their day, have fallen into obscurity now. The 1861
operetta, Le Pont des Soupirs, certainly has been largely forgotten--there is no
recording extant and it's an extreme rarity on stage today.
Leave it then to the puckish Donald Pippin to resuscitate the work,
translating it into English, condensing it to its essence, and leading a performance by
his Pocket Opera company
under the title Carnival in Venice.
In Renaissance-era Venice, Cornarino, the Doge, has deserted his own
Navy for which the penalty is death. He sneaks about, hoping to see his wife Catarina
without being caught. Catarina, meanwhile has two suitors, a young page, Amoroso (a
"pants" role sung by a mezzo-soprano), whose feelings she reciprocates, and the
evil Malatromba, who covets not only Catarina, but the Doge's throne as well. Plots and
counter-plots abound in the customary buffa manner.
The well-established performing mode of Pocket Opera has Pippin on
stage at the piano, leading a nine-piece chamber orchestra at the rear and occasionally
addressing the audience directly in order to set a scene or provide a bit of telescoped
narrative continuity, often spiced with droll allusions to current events, not to speak of
shameless puns. The costumed cast performs in front of the orchestra, with minimal aids
such as a platform, some curtains, and a few props. Andrew Morgan's inventive stage
direction makes the most of the limited resources and keeps his cast in lively motion
throughout.
The style of Le Pont des Soupirs leaves little choice but to
play it for the fluffiest of buffoonery, to which the cast brings high levels of energy
and enthusiasm. Fortunately there is a great deal of musical talent among them as well,
most notably in the Amoroso of Sonia Gariaeff and the Catarina of Sarah Elizabeth Viola.
There's a lovely bit of comical business in Catarina's mock mad scene, during which
she strews flowers about, a spoof of more serious mad scenes in the repertory.
But, while Pippin quotes Rossini labeling Offenbach 'The Mozart of the
Champs-Elysees," there's all too little of Mozart's sparkle in these melodies from
Offenbach. Le Pont des Soupirs is an undistinguished score, forgotten by the time
the final curtain comes down, no less a century and a half later. The somewhat precious
libretto, emphasized in somewhat campy and often heavily hammy performances, makes it
difficult to sustain interest for the two hours of the performance. It comes most alive
when Pippin inserts his own comments, which offer more amusement than the operetta itself.
By performing in English, with simple productions allowing accessible
ticket prices, Pocket Opera seeks to reach out to audiences not generally found at the
Opera House and to stimulate an interest in classical musical theater. It is
disappointing, then, to note the absence of young people in the audience for Le Pont
des Soupirs--the house was a sea of gray.
San Francisco, May 16, 2005 - Arthur Lazere
