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Allegra De Vita Allegra Reviews Flavio at New York City Opera 
So, yes, this beautiful, three-hour opera is extremely long and intricate. So, for a limited-time special offer I have included a very brief synopsis (in my own crazy words of course): Act I: Vitige (the cute mezzo I-am-a-woman-playing-a-17-year-old-boy part) is secretly talking with his lover Teodata about their passionate love. (What a shocker!) In some other random part of town, Guido marries the cutie soprano Emilia and they have a nice, long song about their blissful happiness (which just screams ruin when you're watching opera). Elsewhere Ugone, Teodata's and Guido's papa, presents his ravishingly beautiful daughter to Flavio, who is immediately smitten with her. Flavio, the ever-present womanizer, decides to present Theodata's father with the position of Governor of England just to get rid of him, so that Flavio can become better "acquainted" with his daughter. Lotario, the person who should have gotten the post of Governor, and who's also Emila's father, storms away in anger. Sometime later, Ugone's father flies in a rage after being slapped by Lotario (yes, I said slapped). Ugone orders his son, Guido, to take revenge, and Guido says he will fight a duel to the death. Now this is a yitty-bitty problem for Guido, because it would mean killing the father of his betrothed -- see how confusing this is? And its only Act I! Act II: Ugone (the ever-frantic one) rushes into Flavio's house distressed about his loss of honor. Teodata, thinking her father found out about her affair with Vitige, confesses her sin. Ugone, who had no idea about the affair, goes emo, thinking that everyone has turned against him. Elsewhere Emilia's father, also feeling dishonored, tells his daughter that her marriage is void. Sometime later Guido challenges Lotario to a dual and powns him. Lotario wastes his dying breath telling Emilia, who has just come in, that Guido, who has just fled, killed him. Emilia is all like...reveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenge!!!!!! Act III: The Cliffhanger!! No way am I giving the ending away -- you'll just have to go see it for yourself! Handel has done it again! Another stunning opera full of gorgeous mezzo arias, crazy flamboyant countertenors, and overshadowed divas! The opera begins with one of Handel's stunning overtures and then flows nicely into a lovely duet between Teodata (Kathryn Allyn) and Vitige (Katherine Rohrer). I loved Rohrer (the mezzo pants role), she had a lovely clear voice, strong dynamics and was really, really adorable as the little boy with the tortured soul. Next out to make an impression is the countertenor Guido, played by Gerald Thompson. I was initially not very impressed with him. His coloratura was a little weak, as he seemed to slide up some of the scales. However, my appreciation for him grew as the night progressed, and his coloratura quickened and became very clear. His acting also improved, although his constant mantra of angsty, angsty, angsty seemed to go on throughout the entire production. I also found his fach a little distracting as he sang a very angry and bitter song about revenge. I was having a lot of trouble believing this -- he sounded so gosh darn pretty! This, of course, is all Handel's fault for not giving the mezzo-soprano this part...but I'm not biased! Emilia, Guido's little lover played by Marguerite Krull, had very, very impressively clean coloratura. Her high notes were a tad shrill, but only towards the end of the opera. Of course, as the overshadowed-by-countertenors diva, she had her acting moment to shine in the sun, as she cries, anguished over her father's death. This caused my eyes to roll with annoyance, "yes darling! That is your father, and yes -- he is dying! Stop standing there moaning!" Moving onto the title character. He deserves an entirely new paragraph just because his entrance was so awesome. There were no special effects: no smoke, fog, rain, cows, donkeys or any other assortment of strange stage phenomena...just a chair. But oh what a chair! It's a brilliantly silver chair with fabulous silver wings, so incredible that I spent a good five minutes planning how I was going to steal the chair from backstage and squirrel it away in my room...it was that marvelous! I really loved Flavio's voice. He had nice, clear tones and really smooth supported high notes, even through his characteristic Handel moment of standing-still-and-hoping-your-coloratura-can-keep-up-with-the-speed-of-the-orchestra. I also really loved his excruciatingly flamboyant costumes. They were quite amazing and perfectly complemented the scenery. Oh, the scenery. I can't say I really enjoyed the puke-green/grass-green/lime-green combination but hey, to each their own. I adored this opera! My only problem was the length. And of course, it's all due to Handel's love of the little train-tracks mark at the end of the bar, leading to the bazillion repeats of the exact same line. While I found it interesting the first five times, some people might begin to lose interest a lot sooner..so to all you die-hard we-love-opera-more-than-Linkin Park fans (and I do love Linkin Park), I recommend it as one of my favorite Handel pieces! But for the opera newbies I might suggest a re-route to Carmen or Pirates of Penzance. |