Berkeley Opera gala 2010 a charming irreverent family affair; New productions coming

Berkeley Opera Gala 2010/Mark Streshinsky/Marie Plette/Evan/Photo: Heather Ehmke and Cindy Warner

Berkeley Opera’s 2010 gala at the Julia Morgan designed Chapel of the Chimes last Sunday had an intimate and friendly tone making the event at the chapel oddly enough ripe for Berkeley Opera’s characteristic irreverence. This being my second gala in a row, it was nice seeing some friendly faces and I enjoyed the personable, down to earth, quirky and inspired performances, particularly the song from the comedy Don Pasquale. Pictured above, soprano Marie Plette, husband and Berkeley Opera artistic director Mark Streshinsky, son Mark.

Foolish old bachelor gets taught a lesson in love

Before delving into the story of the kind hearted but foolish old bachelor bent on taking a young wife of child-bearing age, I’ll just say the line-up of talent was delightful and often a family affair. It's also refreshing to distinguish Don Giovanni from Don Pasquale. The lesson in each case seems to be grow up . . . anything starting in Don . . . comes with red flags. Don Juan, Don Quixote . . .

First Christine Abraham sang solo from Pagliachi. She wore berry colored off-the-shoulder lace and a black skirt. Pictured below.

Berkeley Opera Gala 2010/Christine Abraham/Photo: Heather Ehmke and Cindy Warner

Christine Brandes, a baroque singer, followed in her black leather coat, saying she’s a human popsicle without it. She wore a black pony tail. She sang in English, I always dreamed when I got married . . . I know this man, must I make him a stranger? She sang with a bluesy tone reminiscent of Porgy & Bess. Strenshinsky commented after she finished her song, we should do that opera!

Streshinsky introduced his wife of fifteen years, Marie Plette, saying he had followed her to the Met and to Seattle Opera. She peformed the barcarole from Tales of Hoffman, which was a magical production last year by Berkeley Opera. Marie sang with Christine Brandes and in the chapel the two sounded like a chorus. Bravi! called a woman in the pew in front of me.

Marie sang solo for her Turandot aria, with Mark Streshinsky commenting,

Yeah I get to be married to that!

Mark Streshinsky and Marie met at the Merola program and have been married fifteen years. Their son Evan says he sings, acts, dances and draws, being a Renaissance man at eleven.

New productions coming

Mark Streshinsky further announced that next year Berkeley Opera will stage a new opera called Caliban Dreams. The opera received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts but it’s not stimulus funds. It’s from the Shakespeare and told from Caliban the monster’s point of view.

Spring will also mean a new adaptation of Carmen with Buffy Bagget, who has been in Carmen in Chicago. Berkeley Opera’s will be smaller but with all the tunes.

The fall show in November will be a return to baroque with Xerxes.

Creativity comes in pairs?

Another married couple performed. Husband Don Sherrill, who Streshinsky kept referring to affectionately as Donna, has also performed with the Dallas Opera in a production of Die Fledermaus directed by Charles Nelson Reilly. Donna is married in real life to Paula Rasmussen. Don performed in smooth and shiny shaved head; She performed with him a duet from Don Giovanni, in a beautiful black dress with a sheer bodice.

Berkeley Opera Gala 2010/Don Sherrill/Paula Rasmussen/Mark Streshinsky/Photo: Heather Ehmke and Cindy Warner

The couple ended their performance with a real kiss. Later she would change into a black silk jacket with roses embroidered on the lapels. Paula Rasmussen would end the show with an aria by Handel. It’s about a Persian king who is not so good relating with women but he communicates well with a certain tree. He’s spoiled and he loves clothes. The aria opens the opera. Pictured abovce, Don & Paula with Mark Streshinsky on the right.

Donizetti's "Don Pasquale", Don "Donna" Sherrill

Getting back to hubby Donna who performed Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.

Gaetano Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale was first performed in Paris in 1843 and later that year in London. Basically the moral of the story is, when it comes to love, There’s no fool like an old fool. To this end Donna skips and frolics down the aisle at Chapel of the Chimes as his 70 year old character says he feels like a twenty year old. Donna touches the face of an older woman in the front row flirtatioiusly but cavalierly. He’s animated, on his knee by the piano, acting triumphant but suddenly clutching his heart and short of breath at the end.

There’s mental age and then there’s chronological I always say.

Streshinsky said Don Pasquale seems like a reality show, where the 70 year old bachelor full of himself is being made a fool of. He’s told a chaste and humble young woman will marry him and he’s envisioning half a dozen children, thinking he’s twenty again.

This situation struck such a chord with me I went to the main library in San Francisco and checked out the libretto. It’s a quick and easy read and sheds light on why older men will even lie about their age these days on Match.com to catch a young woman of child bearing age.

Bravo to Berkeley Opera for judgment and shrewdness in selection of material. A classic with a cathartic effect to sooth the soul.

Don P: What is the cause of my sudden elation?
Have I now undergone rejuvenation?
Once I thought age knew troubles in plenty;
I feel as cheerful as if I were twenty.

. . . I want a son and heir, I want a family,

. . . Yes, half a dozen at least I will have.
Come fair lady!
I’ve no more time to waste, I must get married before I’m in my grave.

I read along to find that for the old bachelor Don Pasquale, getting married himself is a way to disinherit his dependent nephew and heir. The young Ernesto is betrothed but marrying for love. His love is returned by a penniless adventuress named Norina, poor and with an unblemished reputation.

Ernesto only wanted wealth and splendor for his beloved anyway.

Don P since he is a bachelor is trying to keep himself first with Ernesto, facing an empty nest and loneliness.

Yet Norina plots to show the old fool the error of his self-centered ways, setting a trap with her simple feminine persuasion, like a spider for a fly.

Norina sings:

For foolish folk my traps I set,
They fall into them nicely;
Resist me they cannot,
In vain they seek to fly.

Norina and the Doctor Malatesta plot together:

I need only lift a finger,
I shall turn him round and round;
He will learn that in Norina
He his match at last has found.

Meanwhile the arrogant and vain Don Pasquale hides his age behind elegant clothes, hoping that clothes make the man:

Don P:

For a man nearly seventy-hush though!
I must not let the lady know that.
I am pretty well preserved, I’m hale and hearty,
And I must say my tailor is a genius!

So dressed for the part he is set to prey on the humble and sheltered young woman’s supposed innocence, that of her character Sophronia:

Don P: I suppose of an evening
You’re accustomed to go into society?
Norina disguised as Sophronia: No indeed sir;
In the convent our life was very tranquil.

Don P: Never went to the opera?
Sophronia: I’m told that that diversion is not quite proper.
Don P: Well, I dare say you’re right there.
However, one has to pass the evening somehow.

Norina though whispers aside, he’s in his second childhood.

You saucy varlet . . . Smack!

To teach him a lesson after the two snare each other in marriage, she basically runs up the bills so he finally explodes and calls her a Jezebel in scarlet. She retorts, you saucy varlet, smacking him in the face with her fan. Take that! Take that indeed; She also takes a lover and she finally sobers him up to reality.

Happy ending:

For the youthful and the foolish
Marriage may be all very well,
But at your age, Don Pascuale,
Marriage is certainly sure to be Hell.

The Tender Land in April

Berkeley Opera next presents The Tender Land by Aaron Copland. A coming of age tale set in rural America, The Tender Land opens Saturday, April 10, 2010 at eight p.m. with only two more performances. Friday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 18 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets cost $25 - $65.

The Ring will follow.

For more information: www.BerkeleyOpera.org

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