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AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
Second Opinion. Mozart, Idomeneo:
Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera,
Conductor,Donald
Runnicles, San
Francisco Opera House, San Francisco, 28.10.2008 (HS)
Idamante - Daniela Mack (mezzo)
Ilia - Genia Kuhmeier (soprano)
Idomeneo - Kurt Streit (tenor)
Abace - Alek Shrader (tenor)
Elettra - Iano Tamar (soprano)
San Francisco
Opera has a short but distinguished history with Mozart's
long-neglected opera. The most recent performances, in 1999,
featured Gusta Windbergh, Barbara Bonney (spelled by Anna Netrebko),
Vasselina Kasarova and Carol Vaness, and they were memorable. A
young Karita Mattila starred as Ilia in 1989 and Maria Ewing paired
off with Carol Neblett in 1977.
In his final year as SFO's music director, Donald Runnicles conducts
the current performances with refreshing verve and attention to
detail, drawing muscular playing from the orchestra without losing
the essential Mozartean refinement. A good, if not quite stellar,
cast sings with purity and clarity if not as much panache as the
relatively inert story requires. In the end, the tale takes a back
seat to the sheer beauty of the music, and that's not necessarily a
bad thing.
Robert R. Reilly delineates the narrative in excellent detail in
his review of an earlier performance than the one heard on October 28,
the fifth of six. By his account and others, British mezzo-soprano
Alice Coote as Idamante stole the spotlight, but she missed this
performance with a back injury. Stepping in for her was the cover,
Argentina-born Daniela Mack, a first-year Adler Fellow in the
company's young singers development program. Mozart wrote this role
for a castrato, and Coote has the vocal heft and deep contralto
timbre to deliver a reasonable alternative to that sound. Mack owns
a more youthful look and sound, her high-lying mezzo more notable
for its grace and flexibility than power.
Power, in fact, was the one element missing from this vocal cast.
Tenor Kurt Streit, a consummate Mozartean, often sounded supremely
noble, even anguished, in a vocally beautiful performance, but not
heroic. Elettra is the other role that calls for some hard
edges—think Queen of the Night here, without the requirement for
extra-high notes, or perhaps Elvira, among other Mozart soprano
roles. The Georgian soprano Iano Tamar, making her company debut,
presented a voice with an appealing softness in scenes in which she
tries to ingratiate herself with Idamante but she came up short in
the fury department, a requirement for her Act III aria, "D'Oreste,
d'Aiace."
That said, the vocal rewards were many. Recitatives, though
extensively trimmed, still lacked the incisiveness to justify their
length, but arias, duets and ensembles sparkled, even from the
smaller roles. Among the highlights were several from Austrian
soprano Genia Kuhmeier as Ilia, also making her SFO debut. Her
supplication, "Se il padre perdei," was a highlight of Act II. "Zeffiretti
lusinghieri," a delicate, serene scene-setter that opens Act III,
and the ensuing duet, "S'io non moro a questi accenti," with
Idamante, a gorgeous succession of Mozartean thirds and sixths,
established Kuhmeier as this evening's vocal star on the
whistle-clean intonation and silky texture of her singing.
Streit could add his noble, beautifully paced and vocally refined "Torna
la pace" to a highlight reel of his own. And as Idomeneo's
confidante, Arbace, Alek Shrader, another Adler Fellow, made a
strong impression with a clear, high tenor, especially in "Se il tuo
duol," his Act II aria.
Harvey Steiman