Pocket Opera Concludes 2023 Season with Puccini

Yesterday afternoon in the Gunn Theatre of the Legion of Honor Museum, Pocket Opera wrapped up its 2023 season with its final performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. The opera was sung in English, using the text translated by Pocket Opera founder Donald Pippin. The leading vocalists were soprano Michelle Drever in the title role, baritone Spencer Dodd as the Baron Scarpia, and tenor Alex Boyer, this year’s Hurst Artist, singing the role of Mario Cavaradossi. The performance was staged by Elly Lichenstein.

Mary Chun conducted the Pocket Philharmonic, a reduced one-to-a-part ensemble of twelve musicians. Since the Gunn Theatre lacks an orchestra pit, the musicians were placed behind the staged action (as has been the case in this site’s account of the season’s earlier performance of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring). Fortunately, between the front row of seats and the edge of the stage, there was a moderately-sized video monitor on the floor, large enough for the performers on stage to see the image of the conductor.

For the better part of his life (he died on July 7, 2021), Pippen published four volumes of English translations of opera librettos. When I first encountered him, he was giving regular performances of his translated versions in abbreviated versions. Sitting at the piano, he would accompany a few vocalists, that would perform his translations of the key musical episodes. The rest of the narrative would be accounted for through his narrations. This was, truly, a “pocket-sized” approach to grand opera! It has been only recently that these translations are given full-length performances with accompaniment by more than a piano.

Among the vocalists in yesterday’s performance, Dodd was the most familiar. Over a decade ago, I had come to know him through his work with Yefim Maizel’s Opera Academy of California. It would be fair to say that, yesterday afternoon, he delivered a convincing account of Scarpia’s character without magnifying it to a point of distortion; and his vocal work was consistently compelling. Boyer delivered an equally solid account of Cavaradossi through both his solid tenor voice and his acting chops.

Sadly, the only disappointment was to be found in the lead. Drever tended to overplay most of her postures and gestures, almost as if she had been performing for a silent movie. Similarly, her vocal work tended to go “over the top,” as if to follow up on her exaggerated stage activities. Fortunately, Lichenstein’s staging proceeded at a satisfying clip, which allowed those exaggerated moments to come and go without overburdening the narrative.