IU Opera Theater's production of Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers Saturday night had the audience listening with rapt attention, laughing boisterously and cheering.
Rossini's comedy is a rescue opera a bit like Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, but here it's the lady who does the rescuing. Isabella in search of her lost love Lindoro has taken to the high seas. On ship board, she and her fellow Italians have been taken by pirates and sold to the Mustafa of Algiers. In a hardly likely but dramatically convenient twist, it seems that the Mustafa has Isabella's Lindoro in captivity.
The Mustafa has grown tired of his wife, Elvira. He wants to divorce her and send her off to Italy with Lindoro while he finds a lively Italian girl for himself. With plenty of ups and downs, the clever Isabella takes command…reunites with her Lindoro, rescues herself and her fellow Italians and does a bit of marriage counseling for the Mustafa and his wife.
The vocal star of the evening was Deniz Uzun as Isabella, the ‘Italian Girl.' Uzun has said that she fell in love with Rossini from a recording that she heard when she was just eight and that "he's her buddy." It's a worthy friendship. She sang beautifully and handled the serious, dramatic and comic aspects of her part with aplomb.
Lucas Wassmer was her Lindoro where his musicianship and stage presence were his strong points.
Rafael Porto sang with power and expression and was very funny as the haplessly philandering Mustafa. Natalie Weinberg was a sympathetic figure as Elvira his put much put upon wife. Anna Hashizume had nice vocal and comic moments as her maid,Zulma.
Although everyone in the cast of The Italian Girl in Algiers has their comic moments, the comedian of the evening was Bruno Sandes as Isabella's companion Taddeo. Sandes sang, intrigued and mugged his way through the show in moments that drew loud laughter from the opera crowd. He was especially funny in moments partnered with the able Heeseung Chae as the Mustafa's Captain.
The IU cast in international with two of the baritones from Brazil, and one from South Korean. The two mezzo sopranos are from Minnesota and Mannheim. The lone soprano is a New Yorker transplanted to Atlanta and the tenor is from Poseyville, Indiana.
The all male chorus prepared by Walter Huff sang very well and in the show were very effective as a bunch of active guards, a blissed out hookah smoking harem crowd and the nattily dressed Italian captives.
Guest conductor Marzio Conti led the show with a sure hand for the pace, the tempos and drama with kind attention to the balances between the orchestra and the singers.Stage direction for the comedy was by guest Julia Pevzner and she handled the principals and the chorus with an imaginative, inventive and varied hand that always fit the music and the drama.
IU Opera Theater offers just two final chance to see The Italian Girl in Algiers with shows this Friday and Saturday in the Musical Arts Center.
At the theatre for you, I'm George Walker