Schwabacher Concert Framed by Verdi

Last night the Merola Opera Program presented its annual Schwabacher Summer Concert in the Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Traditionally, this has been a program of extended episodes from the operatic repertoire, performed without costumes but with staging, most of which was directed last night by Omer Ben Seadia. Action was limited to an elevated area at the front of the Concert Hall stage, while most of the remaining space was filled by a generously-sized orchestra conducted by Steven White, who led the ensemble with his back to the semi-staged action.

The entire program was framed entirely by selections taken from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. It began with an excerpt from Rigoletto taken from the second act. This began with the narrative’s first encounter with Gilda (soprano So ry Kim) and her father, the title character (baritone Kevin Godinez). This is followed by the first efforts of the Duke of Mantua (tenor, Daniel Luis Espinal) to seduce Gilda.

The program concluded with the second act of Otello. This begins with “Credo in un Dio crudel” (I believe in a cruel God), sung by Iago with a bone-chilling account by baritone Eleomar Cuello. This is followed by Iago’s machinations to evoke suspicions in Otello (tenor, Thomas Kinch) that his wife Desdemona (soprano, Juliette Chauvet) is betraying him in favor of Cassio (tenor, Sahel Salam). Every note in Verdi’s score has its own drop of intensity; and, even with limited staging, one could appreciate every twist and turn in Iago’s destruction of Otello’s character.

Dulcamara (right, Finn Sagal) convinces Nemorino (left, Demetrious Sampson, Jr.) of the powers of his elixir (photograph by Kristen Loken. courtesy of Carla Befera & Company)

In sharp contrast was the episode in Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (the elixir of love) in which Dulcamara (bass-baritone, Finn Sagal) peddles his patent medicine as a love potion for Nemorino (tenor, Demetrious Sampson, Jr.). This was the one selection staged by Merolina Tania Arazi Coambs, who clearly understood how timing lies at the heart of every comic scene. As the old saying goes, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” Coambs knew how to make comedy look easy, and the interplay between Sagal and Sampson could not have been more engaging.

The remainder of the program spanned three centuries. The earliest selection offered a scene from George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare. The nineteenth-century selection was taken from Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet, and the most recent offering was Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. The last of these was the least compelling, never really establishing the underlying narrative or the characters involved in the scene. From a musical point of view, Puts’ score was the weakest of the overall program.