by Robert Leeper
Despite frequent comparisons to the now-defunct City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera has managed to avoid all of the baggage that comes with filling City Opera's void. The 13 year old GCO has made itself an essential part of the NYC opera landscape by continuing to do what it's always done: produce underperformed, high-quality chamber operas.
In 2003, the then two-year old company presented a double bill of short comic operas by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, to critical acclaim. Fast forward 11 years, and they have come around to Martinu once again with a presentation of two of the composer's comic operas at the Gerald R. Lynch Theater at John Jay College: the little-performed Alexander Bis, with a French libretto by André Wurmser, and Comedy on the Bridge, with a Czech libretto by Martinu.
Not for nothing, Comedy on the Bridge is Martinu's most successful opera. Originally produced for radio and based on a play by Vaclav Klicpera, the amusing little plot—about a group of people caught on a bridge between two opposing armies, unable to get a laissez-passer forward or re-entry back—needed just the deft, satirical treatment Martinu provides. Gotham Chamber Opera founding artistic director Neal Goren led the chamber orchestra in a sharply defined neo-classical style, with subtly presented syncopations and sharp bitonality neatly underlining the comic action onstage.
The farcical Alexandre Bis, written as an update to Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, tells the tale of an insecure man who shaves his beard and pretends to be his own cousin from Texas in an attempt to test his wife's fidelity. The music was warmer and the situations more complex than in Comedy on the Bridge. The moral of Comedy is that we all have faults and should forgive each other; that of Alexandre Bis is that we all have faults and shouldn’t tempt one another.
Soprano Jenna Siladie led the powerful young cast, all of whom were clearly enjoying themselves. Ms. Siladie’s round, smooth tone as the sweetly serious – and then playful and amatory – wife of Alexandre, Armande, was complemented by a compelling performance from baritone Jarret Ott, who played both Alexandre and his American “cousin”.
The unnaturally active portrait of Alexandre over the mantle was given life by the rich bass-baritone, Joseph Beutel. The maid Philomena was given a tart, quick-witted performance by Cassandra Zoe Velasco, whose portrayal flirted with tactlessness. More distracting were the churlish antics of Armande’s suiter, Oscar, who was given a competent performance by Jason Slayden.
Cameron Anderson’s modular black and white set, augmented by shifting lighting, was used in both operas to great effect: a comically large couch in Alexandre became the bridge of Comedy. Projections that created the setting for a small country town on the bridge also lent a hazy fog to a dream of Armandes in which she is confronted by her own extramarital desires, brought on by her husband's prank.
The final two performances are tonight and tomorrow at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Tickets and info available here.