One-Woman Opera is 'Natural'

Published in the The Post-Journal, Jamestown, NY
July 19, 2010
By Robert W. Plyler

CHAUTAUQUA - The voice of Chautauqua Opera rang out Saturday evening, for the first time this season, and the result was magnificent.

There was outstanding singing, a beautifully controlled and presented orchestra, sensitive lighting, effective sets, costumes and make up, a well-prepared chorus ... well, what else is there?

"Norma" by Vincenzo Bellini is well known by opera lovers as a one-woman show, and Barbara Quintiliani was in splendid voice. Performing the title role, in the open-sided Amphitheater, competing with crickets, barking dogs, audience members with bathroom problems and the occasional cell phone, she twined her powerful soprano around Felice Romani's powerful words and touched hearts, without benefit of a microphone, all the way to the back row. She did it even in her gentlest, most poignant tones.

But, she didn't just sing well. This is opera and opera can appear larger than life to a contemporary audience, used to sarcasm and ultra-realism. Here was a Druid priestess, preparing to murder her own children for love of a Roman general, and I believed it. I cared about her decisions. She brought outstanding singing and outstanding acting together and made it seem natural.

Well matched to the soprano's talents was Elizabeth Bishop as Adalgisa. Her role is the woman, for whom the general has abandoned the mother of his children, yet the libretto keeps telling us she is pure and innocent, and she sold us that possibility. Her voice meshed perfectly with Ms. Quintiliani's and as the two women reach agreement on how to proceed, their voices flowed together as smoothly as honey from a jar.

Roy Cornelius Smith, as the general, isn't given show-stopping music in this opera, but he sang strongly in all registers of his voice, and made the best of everything he had. Conductor Joseph Coloneri showed us from the very first notes of the overture that he understood the cascading phrases of the music, and was capable of leading the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra exactly where the singers needed them to go.

Director Jay Lesenger made the best possible use of the Amphitheater's 3/4 thrust stage, so that every move someone made on the stage had a purpose relating to the plot of the opera, and all the needs of singing and acting were met.

Cheers to set designer Ron Kadri whose stark, easily-moved set functioned perfectly within the needs of the performance. More cheers to lighting designer Michael Baumgarten, costumer B.G. FitzGerald, and makeup designer Georgianna Eberhard.

I dearly wish I could encourage you to see the next performance, but we were given only one. Fortunately, the seats in the Amphitheater were nearly filled. And, after more than three hours of singing, most of the audience had the good sense to stay rooted in their seats.

Indeed, there are only two more performances in the entire season Hear a double bill of one-act operas: "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "I Pagliacci," on July 30 and Aug. 2, in Norton Hall, on the Grounds of Chautauqua Institution.