Singing good, acting great in Mercury's lively opera

May 12, 2006 - Mercury Opera Rochester is ending its inaugural season on a thoroughly entertaining light note.

It's light because Mercury is currently staging one of the most engaging comedies in the entire opera repertoire: Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore (Elixir of Love). And it's thoroughly entertaining because the lead singers in this production, which opened Thursday night at Mercy High School Auditorium, inhabit their roles with real energy and joy.

It's perhaps appropriate that Donizetti's comic masterpiece is on stage while the circus is in town, since Elixir could have easily been subtitled "A sucker is born every minute." A simple, lovable peasant named Nemorino has become smitten with the beautiful yet fickle farm girl Adina. She has no interest in real romance, but she enjoys reading aloud the Tristan and Iseult myth, in which Iseult slips Tristan a potion that makes him fall in love. Nemorino gets inspiration.

But he also gets a rival. Sergeant Belcore (a testosterone-laden bore who reminds one of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast) comes to town, and he also has an eye for Adina. Nemorino is almost out of luck, but then a traveling salesman named Dr. Dulcamara arrives on the scene with his wagon full of snake oil. He sells Nemorino the secret elixir he's been looking for and of course, it turns out to be just a bottle of Bordeaux. From that point on, Adina's worldliness, Nemorino's sweet-natured naivete and the bogus potion set the plot on its inevitable course.

Interestingly, the real magic in this production isn't the singing but the acting, and for that we have stage director Steven Daigle to thank. Daigle's sense of comic timing and movement proved to be flawless, and that made Donizetti's opera buffa of more than two hours fly by like a 30-minute sitcom.

There was no great singing at Mercy High School on Thursday night, but the good news is that there were no poor performances, either. Tenor Min Jin (Nemorino) may have lacked the clear and stratospheric high notes of Luciano Pavarotti (the most famous interpreter of this role in recent years), but he sang with a warmth that was especially appealing in its middle range.

Soprano Hallie Silverston (Adina) likewise revealed a voice that was plush and pleasant, though her coloratura lacked a certain effortless sparkle. Baritones Ted Christopher (Belcore) and Mario Martinez (Dr. Dulcamara) both sang with burnished voices that were best when not pushed too high. Otherwise, they were remarkably expressive and unfailingly funny. Soprano Holly Bewlay (Giannetta) was also memorable.

Music Director Gerard Floriano conducted his orchestra with polish and precision, though the uneven acoustics of the auditorium made the sound seem somewhat distant. Mercury's sets and costumes fell into the "budget but believable" category. It was a nice rustic farmhouse, but I could have done without the cardboard trees.

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