Review: Opera NEO’s dazzlingly kinetic production secures ‘Armida’ success

Tyrese Byrd as Ubaldo Botond P l as Rinaldo and Emily Helenbrook as the title character in Opera Neo s Armida Photo courtesy Gary Payne Photography What was it about the story of Armida and Rinaldo drawn from Torquato Tasso s poetic paean to the first Crusade Jerusalem Delivered that convinced composers including Vivaldi Handel Rossini and Dvorak to set it to music It combined history heroism and a moral lesson in a story everyone knew But at its core lies a tragic love story and a powerful female protagonist arguably opera s first femme fatale With characteristic edge San Diego s Opera NEO channeled these last two ingredients into a vivid retelling on Friday night After Joseph Haydn wrote Armida in he humble-bragged I am advised that this is my best work so far Yet Haydn s version the preponderance frequently performed of his twenty-one operas and the most of frequently performed Armida by anyone received its U S premiere only in when iconoclastic director Peter Sellars staged it as a Vietnam War allegory Haydn saw Armida as a dramma eroico heroic drama a flavor of opera seria His biographer describes the opera as a work of dignity and unrelieved seriousness When required to write an opera buffa Italian comic opera the lighter more humorous domain Mozart was perfecting Haydn resisted I should be taking a big jeopardy for scarcely any man could stand comparison with the great Mozart An innovator like Sellars Andr s Alm si-T th the artistic director of Hungarian State Opera Opera NEO s partner decided to lean his Armida away from its opera seria roots and toward the relatable characterization and humorous predicaments of opera buffa The San Diego audience located much to enjoy and chuckle over In the libretto Haydn used Armida is a sorceress sent by Satan himself to distract Rinaldo away from his mission to rescue the Holy Land from infidels The call of duty that makes besotted Rinaldo s love predicament so excruciating is in this production secondary to Alm si-T th s deep psychological exploration of how humans deal with relationships that have run their curriculum as the campaign explained While this conception made the opera instantly relatable it also rendered mostly irrelevant the backstory that makes the opera s words and action comprehensible That Alm si-T th s Armida still satisfied came down to NEO s cast and innovative staging As Rinaldo Botond P l possesses a lustrous robust tenor but also a comic magnetism and natural gift for telegraphing Rinaldo s emotions torn between duty and love Perhaps less eager to embrace Alm si-T th s opera buffa conception soprano Emily Helenbrook combined vocal sureness and power with grounded poise She gave her character its gravitas Together Helenbrook and P l had the rapport and acting skill to make Alm si-T th s relationship-in-crisis interpretation viable Sturdy baritone Revere Taylor brought commanding menace to the role of Idreno king of the Saracens Tyrese Byrd projected a golden tenor and noble bearing as the Christian knight Ubaldo who pulls Rinaldo back to duty American soprano Katherine Malone ably inhabited Armida s handmaiden Zelmira and mezzo-soprano Vivienne Ortan persuaded in the Clotarco role normally assigned to a tenor Opera NEO s innovative staging responded to the challenges tight confines high ceilings plain concrete posed by UCSD s Park Arena first-floor foyer the opera was not performed in Park Field s Guggenheim Theatre As a kind of center stage a small platform was positioned between the two pillars in the middle of the room To provide greater mobility and staging variety two secondary stages were placed on either side of this central space Key scenes were also positioned on the stairway landing leading to Park Field s second floor The aftermath was the perfect antidote for a tight location a immersion experience as Opera NEO s Kelley Hart put it Virtually the entire room including at one point this viewer s aisle became the stage The audience was distributed to the left and right of the stage and orchestra with one row of VIPs between the center stage and orchestra If this meant much audience neck twisting it also created a powerful sense of immediacy and absorption into the drama very cozy one patron observed Limitations became assets Facing away from the room s center platform was the intimately positioned orchestra of conducted by Opera NEO Founder and Artistic Director Peter Kozma Coaxing remarkably energetic and unified playing from his crew he brought Haydn s special orchestral effects storms birdsong rustling leaves of Armida s magical forest to life Behind Kozma Opera NEO used Park Field s giant screen to project live images of the performance sometimes produced by cast members holding a camera occasional text and at the opera s beginning and end a recorded video by Zsombor Czegl di in which Helenbrook and P l perform a contemporary relationship drama further underscoring the relatability of Armida and Rinaldo s love Rich rd M rton designed the memorable costumes Elijah Thomas the vivid lighting There were flaws The horns suffered through persistent intonation wobbles and although the singers projected well the space seemed to defeat any chance at orchestral balance But a superb cast s execution and Opera NEO s dazzlingly kinetic production secured Armida s success Opera NEO is a first-rate troupe taking exciting and entertaining chances Donizetti s Elixir of Love July - in Balboa Park should not be missed Paul Bodine has been writing about music from classical to pop rock for over years for publications such as Classical Voice North America Times of San Diego Classical Music Daily Orange County Register and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Among the artists he s interviewed are Joshua Bell Herbert Blomstedt Sarah Chang Ivan Fischer Bruno Canino Christopher O Reilly Lindsay String Quartet David Benoit Laura Claycomb Jon Nakamatsu Paul Chihara the Ahn Trio Lucas Debargue and John Thiessen