The Catskill Chronicle

Maestro Anthony Barrese conducted a superb orchestra for Opera Company of the Highlands’ excellent singers.

By Barry Plaxen

For its summer 2010 offering, Opera Company of the Highlands (OCH) chose to regale us with a concert version of one of Verdi’s early musical masterpieces, Rigoletto. With a not-so-masterful libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, this 1851 opera is based on the play Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. I witnessed the July 9 performance in Newburgh, just two days prior to a repeat performance at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) on July 11.

Hugo’s story of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” is told via the unveiling of the destruction of innocence, along with the message that those who support corrupt power can also be destroyed by that very same power, as you watch a man whose support of a corrupt and powerful degenerate leads to the destruction of that man’s one valued possession, his daughter.

Because the story was based on an actual monarch of the Restoration period, both the play and the opera have fascinating histories of censorship from the censors of the French monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which controlled Venice, the location of the opera’s first performance.

Musically speaking, Verdi introduced some innovations, such as the opera’s famous quartet in which the four singers sing different melodies, rather than the usual sharing of the same melody. But it is his genius of dramatic musical composition that stands out over everything else, and a concert version was a clever choice to emphasize his skills and inspirations.

For this staged concert version, a talented cast of singers was assembled – some experienced professionals – including OCH artistic director, Claudia Cummings who sang the cameo role of Countess Ceprano and experienced young performers including Chad Karl as Rigoletto, West Coast soprano Shira Renee Thomas as his daughter, and newcomer Alexander Carabello as the corrupt Duke of Mantua in the leading roles. For their excellent dramatic/acting abilities in addition to their vocal prowess, C. David Morrow as the man who puts a curse on Rigoletto, Erika Person as Maddelena and Nathan Baer as Sparafucile need be mentioned.

A fine group of performers rounded out the cast that Jacob Feldman (also one of the singers) directed with simplicity so that the music stood out over the drama. In the title role, Chad Karl became an audience favorite with his dramatic and lyrical singing.

A highlight for me was the importation from our second city, Chicago, of the superb conductor Anthony Barrese. Also a composer, Barrese has conducted for many opera companies in Sarasota, Dallas, in Italy and France, among others locales.

For OCH he led a wonderful orchestra made up of area professionals, many of them familiar to Newburgh Symphony attendees, supporting the singers on a very high level. A good example – one of many – was the introduction to the famous aria Caro Nome, magnificently phrased by oboist Joel Evans, followed by Sira Renee Thomas’ meticulously clean and precise vocalizing.

Rigoletto is the first of a number of live opera performances in Sullivan County this summer season. OCH will bring its production of Rigoletto to SCCC on Thursday, July 15 at 8:00 p.m.

The July 18 performance of Rigoletto will be held in air-conditioned Aquinas Hall at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, not in Washingtonville as originally scheduled. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. For information and tickets call 845-496-9626.

The Delaware Valley Opera season will begin July 31 in Narrowsburg.

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