Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991 TAG: 9102050317
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Southwest Virginia Opera's program consisted of "the good parts" from five different operas, including favorite overtures, arias, duets, ensembles and a scene. For a Mozart lover, it was like a Whitman's sampler with nothing but the little chocolate guys and the cherries.
There was no transcendent vocalizing on the Civic Center stage, let it be said. But the six soloists and the chamber-sized orchestra conducted by Victoria Bond delivered themselves of thoroughly competent performances that made for a most pleasant evening. Bond is a good opera conductor who is content to allow her vocalists some autonomy.
Most of the singers were from outside the immediate area. The most pleasant surprise was bass-baritone Gardner Rhea, who was trained as a physicist and who is just winding up a tour with the U.S. Navy. He lacks a long list of performance credits, but his mellow and expressive instrument should make the trip from the laboratory to the opera house an easy one.
Rhea was impressive in Sarastro's aria "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" from "The Magic Flute," an Enlightenment hymn of faith in man's reason, which perhaps gained some ironic context from the current international situation. He was particularly fine in the beloved duet "La ci darem la mano" from "Don Giovanni," which he sang with soprano Deborah Golembiski.
However, the best single performance came from director Craig Fields, who was a fine Figaro in "Non piu andrai," in which he terrifies the pampered pageboy Cherubino with the horrifying prospects of the latter's coming hitch in the army. Fields not only has a supple and resonant baritone, but his hundreds of performances on opera stages around the world have made him a strong actor, with an intuitive sense of the appropriate gesture and move. Fields concluded his aria with an ironic salute.
The other singers included mezzo Karie Brown, who sang Dorabella from "Cosi Fan Tutte;" tenor Tracey Welborn, who sang Ferrando's parts from the same opera; and Nancy McDuffie from the Virginia Tech voice faculty, who joined the rest for "Ah che tutta in un momento," which wraps up Act I of "Cosi Fan Tutte."
Golembiski is a good actress and was a funny Despina in arias from "Cosi Fan Tutte" and a strong Susanna in "Cinque . . . dieci" and "Deh vieni, non tardar" from "The Marriage of Figaro." She also sang "L'amero, saro constante" from the only work on the program that is not well known, the pastoral opera "Il Re Pastore."
Bond led the orchestra in the overtures from "Cosi Fan Tutte" and "The Marriage of Figaro," which opened the first and second halves of the concert, respectively. And the evening concluded with a rousing run through "Ah che tutta in un momento" from "Cosi Fan Tutte," which featured some lovely duets by Fields and Welborn and by Brown and McDuffie.
by CNB