Back to Herbst Theater three days later to see the other Merolini in this summer's complete opera production. The staging was of course the same as that of the other cast, with just a few minor changes. Dr. Bartolo did without a cane, which was fine; the other performance with the cane was not convincing. He sported a voluminous gray wig, rather than the previous voluminous bright red wig. Figaro got a marvelous bit of stage business early in Act 1: after Rosina “accidentally” dropped her note to “Lindoro” serenading her, Figaro somersaulted (briskly!) from the left side of the stage to the center to pick up the note, accompanied by a rapid-fire run on the harpsichord, a brief quote from the overture. Oh, what you can do with young singers!
Our cast:
Fiorello: Suchan Kim
Almaviva: Daniel Curran
Figaro: Mark Diamond
Rosina: Renée Rapier
Dr. Bartolo: John Maynard
Don Basilio: Peixin Chin
Berta: Marina Boudart Harris
Conductor: Mark Morash
Director: Roy Rallo
Diamond made a superb Figaro; Curran’s Almaviva was a couple of cuts above what I heard in the prior performance. Boudart Harris gave us a marvelously perky Berta. But my favorite was Peixin Chin, whose “La Calunnia” resonated with considerable power and depth. I am very much looking forward to hearing him at Merola’s Grand Finale—I hear that he will sing the Osmin half of a duet from The Abduction from the Seraglio, which features some notes so low that some very fine basses are unable to reach.
It’s not clear how much difference the cast made, and how much difference one more evening of on-stage experience made, but I enjoyed this performance much more than the previous one. A beta.
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