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News Article
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New life for ‘La Bohéme’ and concerts galore
By Betty Ligon
Puccini’s weepy opera “La Bohéme” takes the cake as one of the most passionate love stories ever written. The version that played around town last week wasn’t your grandmother’s idea of proper opera, but then we’re not living in the early 1900s, either.
When the electric spark known as David Grabarkewitz, El Paso Opera’s new artistic director, announced contrary to earlier rumors that the company would perform “La Bohéme” this season, I wondered how he could pull it off with a five-figure debt hanging around the opera’s neck.
His answer? Eat and treat by staging a scaled-down version called “La Vie de La Bohéme,” with young singers from the Met and New York City Opera in major roles. They performed the story of impoverished 1830 Parisian Bohemians not in a theater but in local restaurants, a la dinner theater.
I attended the first one, sung in Italian, at Lancers Club West. Shows were also staged at eateries like El Pisto, Ardovino’s Desert Crossing and Lancers East.
David, who for years has been a director at the newly revived New York City Opera, convinced a dozen friends/vocalists to help save El Paso Opera, sin salary.
The whole affair worked beautifully. David is a dynamo director. He skillfully pared libretto and score, preserving the original story of “La Vie de La Bohéme” and saved all the gorgeous, well-loved arias, beginning with Rodolfo’s great Act I “Che gelida manina.”
Four struggling artists, Rodolfo the poet, Marcello the painter, Colline the philosopher and Schaunard the musician, shared a barren, cold garret. Mimi was the delicate seamstress who became Rodolfo’s lover and Musetta was the fiery off-and-on paramour of Marcello.
All of the singers turned in performances of high quality and, for the most part, were convincing actors. Christian Reinert’s handsome Rodolfo made a romantic lover for Kate Mangiameli’s tender Mimi. She has the vocal stuff but it failed to radiate the whole time. Their rapturous duet “O soave fanciulla” was a heart pounder.
Scott Guinn’s Marcello and Sharon Kim’s Musetta expressed bickering lovers with robust vigor. She in a sexy skintight red dress pretty well stole the show, though her extremely high notes tended to screech a bit. Tall Christopher Dickerson’s sexy Colline was the best of the bunch vocally. Paul Bower’s Schaunard was well done.
The original four-act opera was reduced to the first two, one intermission and a final act that became a cabaret devoted to popular songs from the opera or musical theater. Holding it all together was the singing emcee, a tremendous R&B and rapper, James Kinney, convinced to join the cast even though he has no operatic aspirations!
Two other performers with clockwork consistency were the incredible pianist Josephine Lee Riggs and whiz-bang conductor Dan Saunders. Dan has been an assistant to top-notch conductors James Levine and Seiji Ozawa.
Musical consort
Bruce Nehring Consort featured a pair of very talented El Paso natives, Douglas Riva and Geoffrey Hamlyn, as soloists for a rapturous concert in Temple Mount Sinai. El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras’ first outing under new director Andy Moran, another “local boy makes good,” was booked the same weekend in Abraham Chavez Theatre. Both concerts were terrific!
Andy made sure the quality of youth performances has not dribbled away. His rapport with students in the top Youth Orchestra came through in Borodin’s “Symphony No. 2.” Bassoons and horns nailed the first movement while solo horn and solo flute shone in the third.
Big brass really pumped in the final Allegro. Former director and EPSYO founder Ben Loeb was in the audience and heard to say, “I am so happy to see the kids are in good hands!”
At Bruce Nehring’s concert, violist Geoffrey Hamlyn proved he’s eligible to join his musical family as another super talent – uncle Mike Goldman, violinist; aunt Gloria Lavis, vocalist; and mom Debbie Hamlyn – okay so she’s into city government as deputy city manager.
Geoffrey is a 2000 grad of Coronado High who recently earned a master’s of music at Juilliard. He’s already racked up an impressive record of recitals and festivals.
The concert was shared with pianist Douglas Rivas, a 1968 Coronado grad. He’s now an acknowledged authority of Spanish music, particularly that of Enrique Granados. After years of involvement in El Paso music, he went on to study at Juilliard, New York University and in Spain, where he became a leading expert on Granados.
Besides demonstrating his impressive skill at the piano in five colorful and rhythmic works by Latin composers, Douglas performed the long-hidden Granados masterpiece “Cant de les estrelles” that he was instrumental in bringing to light. It was given its third public performance with the Consort singers, Rivas at the piano, Bruce at the organ, plus off-stage singers from Coronado High.
It was magnificent!
Family singalong
There was a nice surprise at the Consort concert: the entire Washer family singing with the Consort.
They are father Michael, mother Eileen, daughters Rebecca and Naanya (who won the recent radio show “From the Top” award taped at the Plaza Theatre and aired two Sundays ago) and young son Ilan.
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