Grand opera should be everything its name implies – a big, audience-pleasing spectacle with a thrilling fusion of music, drama and visuals.
Opera Colorado’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball),” which opened Thursday and runs through May 8, delivers on all counts.
Its biggest triumph comes in what is the most important aspect of any operatic production – the music. Opera Colorado has put together a thoroughly top-flight cast of singers, who all ideally suit their roles vocally and mesh as an ensemble.
Such fine performances don’t just happen, no matter how talented the singers. Much of the credit belongs to conductor David Agler, who has boosted several previous Colorado productions, including “The Marriage of Figaro” in 2005.
Agler is again in terrific form, drawing the best from the singers, chorus and pit orchestra of Colorado Symphony musicians. He infuses this production with theatrically savvy pacing that makes the most of Verdi’s evocative score and ensures the maximum impact of each scene.
Menace and deceit hang in the air in James Robinson’s intense, involving staging. On one hand, this opera is an intimate series of character studies, with Robinson expertly showcasing the tormented psyches of King Gustavus,
Anckarström and Amelia, who are entrapped in a triangle of wrongful love and revenge.
But it is also grand spectacle, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Robinson’s zesty staging of the Act 1 scene in the cave of the witchlike fortuneteller, Mam’zelle Arvidson. She foretells all that is to come in this tragic tale.
It would be hard to imagine a more convincing, more delightful portrayal of Mam’zelle than that of Nancy Maultsby, who uses her dark-hued mezzo-soprano voice to stunning effect. She hobbles on two canes and twists her body, deftly inhabiting the character with the help of wild makeup and an amazing dress with a giant bustle by costume designer James Schuette.
The only part of this production likely to draw criticism are the sets by Allen Moyer, an Opera Colorado regular. They are ingenious in their way, with the king’s great hall breaking apart to form the fortuneteller’s lair. Later, they are reconfigured to evoke the graveyard and ballroom.
Literalists will no doubt wish for scenery that depicts each setting in a more straightforward way instead, for example, of the split floor and four shrouded chandeliers lying on their side that semi-abstractly suggest the shadowy graveyard.
In some ways, such concerns are understandable. But this set is meant to be metaphorical and less directly descriptive. From that point of view, it succeeds, conveying the interconnectedness of the scenes and claustrophobic nature of this ever-constricting story.
Reigning over this production in more ways than one is veteran tenor Frank Lopardo, a natural actor who brings real star power to his compelling portrayal of the king.
Equally important, Lopardo possesses a wonderfully agile, multifaceted voice. He deploys it with experienced skill and seeming ease, whether projecting the monarch’s commanding presence or tenderly expressing his love for Amelia in their extraordinary Act 2 duet.
Erin Wood is a limited actress, but her superb singing made it easy to forgive any limitations in her depiction of Amelia. She possesses a rich, full soprano that is consistently strong from top to bottom of her range.
Baritone Charles Taylor more than held his own as the loyal and then vengeful Anckarström. An operatic late-bloomer, he displays almost unlimited potential, with an expressive voice of enveloping force and resonance.
Also deserving note is soprano Heidi Stober. She lit up the trouser role of Oscar, the king’s perky page, knocking off the role’s challenging coloratura passages with ease.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
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| “Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball)”
OPERA |Opera Colorado, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and May 8| $27-$157 |303-857-2787 or operacolorado.org.
