Review: It's CLEOPATRE Meets HAVISHAM at On Site Opera's Benefit

On Site Opera is one of New York's most endearing little companies, under Artistic Director Eric Einhorn, frequently giving us a chance to hear unfamiliar works in congenial settings and get up close and personal with the performers. Their big current project has been bringing us alternative versions of operas based on the Beaumarchais "Figaro" plays (i.e., no Rossini, no Mozart); it culminates in June with Milhaud's LA MERE COUPABLE.

For its first benefit dinner, the company presented a double bill of monodramas, simply and surely directed by Einhorn, in a ballroom of the Harmonie Club on East 60th Street. It began with the more familiar work (to symphony-goers and on disc, at least), Berlioz's LA MORT DE CLEOPATRE, text by Pierre-Ange Vieillard, which provided the occasion for a fresh, engaging performance by mezzo Blythe Gaissert (and unbilled guest snake).

Berlioz wrote the cantata in his third attempt to win the Prix de Rome from the Paris Conservatoire in 1829 but, as they say, "No Cigar." (He did tie for first prize with his next effort, SARDANAPALE.) Nonetheless, the piece has become a favorite showpiece for sopranos and (mostly) mezzos.

During the running time of about 20 minutes, Gaissert wended her way around the ballroom in this energetic performance. The "serpent of the Nile"--as Shakespeare (and perhaps the ex-Mrs. Richard Burton) called Cleopatra--is one of those great roles that actors and singers can't resist, and the performance here gave a pretty good indication why the Berlioz is in that tradition: It is vocally and dramatically challenging, as the Queen reflects on her life and decides that enough is enough. Gaissert's sonorous performance, as she paced the room from end to end like a tiger in a cage, was beautifully and sensitively accompanied by the Sybarites5 string quintet and other members of the instrumental ensemble under Music Director Geoffrey McDonald.

I think there were members of the audience who wished that Cleopatra's asp had stuck around to save them from Dominick Argento's MISS HAVISHAM'S WEDDING NIGHT. Carved out of Argento's full-length 1979 opera, MISS HAVISHAM'S FIRE, it was created as a farewell vehicle for Beverly Sills, commissioned by New York City Opera. (Sills was either ill or too smart and never appeared in it.) Havisham is based on the Dickens character from GREAT EXPECTATIONS, a rich woman who was left at the altar and never got over it. It's not a bad idea for an opera, although I'm not sure that John Olon-Scrymgeor libretto made the best of it.

The real problem, however, here was the vocal music. Despite the heroic efforts of soprano Leah Partridge, who followed Gaissert's sinuous path, flitting around the ballroom, there didn't seem much "there" there. Even though it was composed in English, Partridge was only understandable in the Sprechstimme passages; the rest of the time, she might as well have been singing "lalala," since it was written in a range where the text was intelligible only to bats. She hit all the notes, all right, but to what end?

Conductor McDonald and his forces, however, played it as if it really mattered--and, granted, the orchestral writing was at times much better than the vocal. While it's to be applauded that the company attempts to do more than the same-old-thing, there were, surely, better choices than this.

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