Operatic Heresy-The Singing Comes First!
In today’s opera world with so many opera directors and production designers running rough-shod over the musical and artistic intentions of composers, particularly those of the Romantic and Verismo periods, it was a great pleasure and quite a relief to encounter Opera Orchestra of New York’s (OONY) presentation of Ferderico Cilea’s 1897 opera, L’Arlesiana on February 21, 2007, at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Eve Queler, the company’s musical director has been at the forefront of presenting seldom-performed operas in concert version for just about 40 years now. She is well known for giving new talent and for that matter, established opera singers a chance to show off their vocal and dramatic abilites before enthusiastic audiences who feel the voice is the most important element in opera. And on this evening, Ms. Queler, once again, made good on her pledge with an outstanding performance of Cilea’s versimo work before a hungry audience clamoring for an operatic feast.
It has become obvious over the years that Ms. Queler loves the opera singer, and she certainly demonstrated that with the four leads found in this work. She gave tenor, Giuseppe Filianoti, mezzo soprano, Marianne Cornetti, soprano, Latonia Moore and baritone, Weston Hurt, a wide berth in which to establish a close rapport with the audience, an overlooked attribute in many of today’s puffy, stuffy productions.
