Opera San José’s ‘Swallow’ soars like a hawk

By Eman Isadiar

This season of Opera San José comes to a close with Puccini’s La rondine (The Swallow), which opened at the California Theatre on April 24 and runs through May 9, 2010. The principal roles of Magda de Civry and Ruggero Lastouc were sung by Rebecca Davis and Christopher Bengochea. Khori Dastoor and Michael Dailey appeared as Magda’s maid Lisette and Prunier the poet. Krassen Karagiozov sang the part of Magda’s companion Rambaldo Fernandez.

Rebecca Davis as Magda and Christopher Bengochea as Ruggero (photo by Pat Kirk)

The Opera is set in 19th century Paris with the final act in Nice. It follows Magda—a woman with a shady past—who now lives with the wealthy banker Rambaldo. When Magda meets a humble country boy named Ruggero, she realizes that her life of privilege has not satisfied her longing for true love. She leaves Rambaldo and follows Ruggero to the Mediterranean coast, much like a swallow migrates to warmer climes.

Magda is quite content as Ruggero’s lover, but is suddenly conflicted when he proposes marriage. She struggles with guilt about her unspoken past, and feels unworthy to be Ruggero’s wife. Her internal anguish comes to a head when she realizes, too, that they are broke and must move in with Ruggero’s parents in the countryside. So she tells Ruggero that theirs is an impossible love, and—once again like a bird—wings her way back to her former life of luxury in Paris with Rambaldo.

In the first aria of the opera, “Il bel sogno di Doretta” ("Doretta's Sweet Dream"), Magda completes an unfinished song by her friend Prunier about a young woman named Doretta who must decide between love and riches. In Magda’s version, Doretta chooses love over fortune, foreshadowing Magda’s own impending decision to leave Rambaldo for Ruggero.

Requiring supreme vocal control, “Doretta’s Dream” is one of Puccini's most moving tunes with a heart-rending pair of descending thirds, which stretch the upper range of the soprano voice to its very limits. If there were an instrument for measuring audience goose bumps, Rebecca Davis might well have broken it with her stunning rendition of this aria.

As the love-stricken Ruggero of Act 2, gifted tenor Christopher Bengochea certainly maintained the standard set by Davis in the preceding act. His powerful delivery of “Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso” ("I Drink to Your Cool Smile"), was one of the highlights of the production. In another moment of pure vocal magic, Begochea left the audience breathless with his soul-stirring aria“Dimmi che vuoi seguirmi” ("Say You Wish to Join Me") of Act 3, where Ruggero sings of the happy life he and Magda would share as husband and wife.

Soprano Khori Dastoor brought just the right dash of playfulness to the opera as Magda’s loyal and mischievous maid. In addition to her highly refined voice, Dastoor is known for her trademark facial humor and physical comedy when appearing in supporting roles. Tenor Michael Dailey was compelling as the debonair poet Prunier, and made a particularly well-suited stage partner for Dastoor.

Baritone Krassen Karagiozov was simply brilliant as Rambaldo, and may have even left the audience regretting that Puccini didn’t write more for his role.

Stage director Jose Maria Condemi deserves credit for the all-around superb acting. The awkward romantic moments often expected in opera were entirely absent in this production, and every embrace was warm, passionate and convincing.

Opera San José music director Maestro David Rohrbaugh led the orchestra in a sensitive and acutely well-balanced accompaniment, even during a few scenes when vocalists sang from the rear area of the theater’s surprisingly deep stage.

Until recent times, La rondine remained one of Puccini’s least-performed operas owing to a number of reasons, including some conflicting versions left by Puccini and partial destruction of the score in bombings during World War I.

Another possible reason is the story’s rather flat ending for an opera—there is no murder, suicide or death of any kind, and love does not conquer all. Naturally, the work went largely neglected until the mid-‘90s, when the missing orchestration was reconstructed and a new version was performed in Turin.

One woman, however, may have also influenced the resurgence of interest in this quasi-forgotten opera—Angela Gheorghiu. The Romanian super-soprano recorded La rondine with the London Symphony Orchestra in the late ‘90s, and appeared in following years in new productions of the work with the Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera. Gheorghiu has also performed “Doretta's Dream” extensively in concert.

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Eman Isadiar is a San Francisco-based pianist and music writer.

Silver Season Ends with Golden ‘Carmen’

By Eman Isadiar

Marking the conclusion of the company’s 25th anniversary, Opera San José’s latest production of Carmen opened on Saturday, April 18, 2009 to a near full house at the California Theatre. Mezzo-soprano Cybele Gouverneur appeared as Carmen opposite tenor Alexander Boyer, who portrayed her disgraced lover Don José. The performance was conducted by Opera San José’s founding music director David Rohrbaugh.

Mezzo-soprano Cybele Gouverneur appears in the title role in Opera San José’s Carmen (Photo by Pat Kirk)

Carmen is the loftiest product of the mind of French composer Georges Bizet, who completed the work only months before his death. The opera’s phenomenal success with perhaps three of the best-known arias of all time—the Habanera, the Seguedilla and the "Toreador Song"—has by far eclipsed other contemporary works of the genre, including Bizet’s own seven other operas.

Sung in French, the three-act opera tells the story of a hot-tempered gypsy girl named Carmen, with a mysterious, almost magical power over men. She struts her stuff on the plaza in the opening act while singing the famous Habanera “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love, A Restless Bird”) and throws a flower to the only man in the crowd who seems unmoved by her beauty—a soldier named Don José.

After Carmen leaves the scene and the crowd disperses, a young woman named Micaela delivers a letter to Don José from his ailing mother, in which she urges him to marry the lovely messenger. Upon reading the letter, Don José announces to the blushing Micaela his intention to fulfill his mother’s wish.

In the following scene, Carmen is arrested for slashing a girl’s face in a catfight at the cigarette factory where they both work. She is bound and delivered to Don José, who must take her to prison; however, the plot thickens.

A strong attraction—of the fatal kind—soon develops between them, complete with its own haunting orchestral leitmotif. As a result, Don José goes to jail for Carmen, abandons his military career and his fiancée Micaela, and joins a band of smugglers.

With his life now virtually ruined, Don Jose also oversteps the threshold of sanity when he learns that Carmen has taken up with a dashing bullfighter named Escamillo.

Baritone Krassen Karagiozov sings Escamillo's "Toreador Song" with the Opera San José Chorus in Act 2 of Carmen (Photo by Pat Kirk)

In the final act, Carmen and her new lover Escamillo are surrounded by admirers as they walk toward the bullfighting arena. Carmen learns that Don José is nearby and wishes to speak to her, so she separates from the group to find him.

A disheveled and distraught Don José emerges from the shadows and begs Carmen to reunite with him. Carmen states that she belongs to no one and does only as she pleases. He repeats his plea merely to receive the same reply.

Eager not to miss the bullfight, Carmen tells Don José to either kill her or to step aside and leave her in peace. As the crowd cheers Escamillo’s slaughter of the bull, so does Don José stab his knife into Carmen’s heart.

Cybele Gouverneur was more than convincing as the sultry seductress of Seville. Her distinctive timbre has a particularly rich texture near the lower end of her range. A memorable highlight was Gouverneur’s enchanting rendition of the famous Seguedilla of Act 1, “Près des ramparts de Séville” (“Near the Walls of Seville”), where, after being arrested, Carmen charms her guard Don José into letting her go.

Gouverneur’s inspired Carmen was paired with an equally compelling Don José by Alexander Boyer. The gifted tenor’s performance achieved its highest point in the tavern scene aria “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” (“The Flower You Threw My Way”), where Don José, after spending two months in jail, declares his undying love to Carmen.

Tenor Alexander Boyer and soprano Rebecca Davis sings the parts of Don José and Micaela in Opera San José’s Carmen (Photo by Pat Kirk)

One of the opera’s many pleasant surprises came from soprano Rebecca Davis, who was simply stellar as Micaela. Her unique chemistry with Boyer made for an unforgettable duet in Act 1—“Parle-moi de ma mere” (“Tell Me of Mother”)—where the tenor and soprano sing in such close harmonic proximity that their voices seem to fuse together in the end.

The colorful details of the story came to life under the direction of Sandra Bengochea, who created a vivid and poignant Carmen as a proud marker of Opera San José’s quarter-century history.

Baritone Krassen Karagiozov and sopranos Jillian Boye and Alicia Lynch deserve mention as the talented voices of Escamillo, Frasquita and Mercedes respectively, as do the chorus master John Bailey and choreographer Lise La Cour, whose parts were especially important in the tavern scene of Act 2.

The backbone of this Carmen, however, was the impressively skilled orchestra led by David Rohrbaugh. From the very first note of the thrilling overture to the ominous, gripping finale, the orchestra provided a perfectly nuanced and highly attentive accompaniment worthy of the finest of opera houses.

Ladies and gentlemen, the bar has been raised for season 26.

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Eman Isadiar teaches piano at the Peninsula Conservatory and writes about music in the San Francisco Bay Area.