Cinderella on Steroids - La Cenerentola, in Italian

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella. She’s the virtuous, but abused, stepsister whose virtue is eventually rewarded when she meets and marries the prince. But you probably have never seen it as an opera, in Italian. You really should.

Last night, I enjoyed La Cenerentola, composed by Gioachino Rossini, at the California Conservatory Theater in San Leandro, California. The 67-seat performance space guarantees intimacy, as it has for the other fine productions I’ve seen there. I had literally front-row center seats, too, so I was not only looking up at the actors/singers, but one time one of the stepsister’s hands brushed again my knee during a scene played in front of the stage.

You may not think of yourself as an opera enthusiast, and many people are put off by the intense performance of these highly trained singers. A show like this could change your opinion. The entire performance was sung in Italian, but I found that I forgot about the words, thanks to some supertitles (which gave the gist of the action) and the emotion communicated by the singers’ physical presence and voices.

This production was presented with the sincerity the story requires but also was filled with humor. The costumes, for example, were modern, but in the first scene, the two stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, appear in their garish, tightly-stretched track suits, “getting in shape” for an expected appearance by the prince, who has to take a bride. And their clothing never gets more tasteful than that, as these two play comic buffoons through the whole show—while still maintaining the high standards of professional opera.

This production, which runs for only a single Friday through Sunday, December 13-15, 2013, is put on by Opera on Tap (OOT), a non-profit organization whose mission is to make opera a real choice for people who may have never considered going to experience one. If you can appreciate a dramatic pop singer, how about a whole cast of them? OOT brings opera to accessible neighborhood venues, at reasonable prices, to expose more people to this classical style in an informal way. Nobody in the audience was wearing jewels, and the sets were quite simple—the kind you’d see in a community playhouse. But it worked beautifully. Visit their website for more information.

Part of this effort includes two matinees on Saturday and Sunday, abridged for children, with a different cast. Next time, I’m planning on attending one of those too to see how they do it.

The music was supported—you might even say driven—by the rousing performance of the six-member chamber orchestra, directed by Michael Anthony Schuler. At stage right, facing away from the actors in their own virtual “pit,” sat a string quartet plus bass and piano. They provided a stirring platform for the voices. Occasionally, I looked over to watch Schuler directing the musicians as he followed and conveyed the stage action, and the musicians focused intensely on their music—and each other.

It’s really hard to single out one particular vocal performance because I thought they were universally excellent. I am not an expert on opera, so I had no way to evaluate the technique. I do see from the program that all of the performers studied under expert teachers to perfect their art, and some have long performance histories.

Jessica Winn, as Cenerentola, is a powerful mezzo-soprano, and managed to convey, in her jeans and headscarf, the downtrodden and miserable house servant who is then transformed into the beautiful future princess and queen. It’s a comic touch in a sad situation when as Cenerentola, she pulls out a pack of cigarettes from her jeans pocket.

Cenerentola’s stepsisters, played by Krista Wigle and Jamie McDonald, kept the tension high with their overreaction to their various disappointments and their pervasive sibling rivalry. It was hard to be sympathetic to these characters—they are meant to be “mean” -- but the singers’ performances were powerful.

The male characters were complicated by a classic switch. Prince Ramiro, played by Jonathan Smucker, spent more than half of the play disguised as his squire/valet, Dandini (Daniel Cameron) who has to act as a prince should. This device, of course, is to ferret out how the women will really treat people, and it works. It also gives the actors a chance to play two parts, essentially. As the pretend valet, Smucker almost seems like he’s watching a science experiment, from the side holding his chin and observing. When he takes back his identity again, he not only gains his suit jacket and royal red sash, but doffs the glasses he’s worn—and they go onto Dandini, who suddenly seems the servant again, while the Prince becomes royal.

Andrew J. Chung, as Don Magnifico, is a powerful singer and he fills the stage, even with he’s out there alone. His role is not as a good guy—he craves power and attention, and is, after all, the father of those two obnoxious daughters—but what a performance!

Alidoro, the tutor, has a special role as the catalyst and advisor, who links the scenes and action. Kenneth Keel serves ably in this capacity. He also appears early in the show as a homeless beggar with a huge gray beard with a black mustache. In this scene we observe Cenerentola’s compassion versus the contempt Alidoro receives from the stepsisters. This, of course, leads the prince to seek her out, and there’s our story.

The program contains a five-page cartoon, explaining the story. Amusing in itself, it also helps provide the familiarity you want to have when you attend an opera, so you can concentrate on the exquisite beauty of the performance.

With one short intermission, this evening kept my attention and enthusiasm, and the passion shown in the singing and instrumental performances at times had me in tears. I look forward to seeing future operas by this company, and you should plan to go, too. Curtain Call Performing Arts is the theatre company in residence at The California Conservatory Theater. These opera performances by OOT fit perfectly into Curtain Call's vision of bringing fine art performances to everyone.

Coming for a weekend in July, 2014 – Carmen!

California Conservatory Theater
999 E. 14th Street
San Leandro, CA  94577

Doors and Sardines -- Noises Off Opens in San Leandro

Noises Off, written in 1982 by English playwright Michael Frayn, is a farce. That's a good thing. But it also means that there's plenty of, well, noise, and pants falling down and axe-wielding and carefully-timed entrances and exits through the multiple doors built into the versatile set. There are many constantly relocating plates of sardines, a theme that works its way through the entire evening. There's a pretty lady in her underwear during much of the play. Someone sits on a cactus -- and you see it placed on the chair at center stage and know that a cast member is going to hurt themselves before long.

The production is a play within a play in three acts (all of them called Act 1). We get to see the first act of the production of Nothing On, performed within Noises Off, three times. The first is the dress rehearsal just hours before the first performance. Lines are missed, blocking is still awkward, and tension is high. We meet the actors and director in Noises Off and we see them as the performers in Nothing On. They step in and out of character, and prepare the audience to be ready for an evening of hilarity but one that will require us to pay attention so we can remember who's speaking when an actor opens his or her mouth.

Cute: There's a program-within-a-program for Nothing On, complete with humorous cast biographies.

The second Act One gives us a view from behind the scenes a month into the 10-week run. The staging again takes place in the country home of the Brents (who are sneaking back from out of the country, where they have gone for tax purposes). However, in the dark between scenes, the actors have literally rotated the set 180 degrees, so we now see the backside of the stage, and against it, the dark underside of life in the theater. It's who's dating whom, who's mad at whom, who's bored, who's tired, who's gossiping about whom. We learn that all of the doors open to a common space.

Meanwhile, the play, to which we've already been introduced in the first Act One, proceeds out of our sight. Listen carefully, and you'll hear the same parts, but, of course, not delivered in exactly the same way, with comic results. It's really yet another play starring the actors of Noises Off taking place behind-the-scenes of Nothing On.

The third Act One shows us the complete breakdown of the production in a performance near the end of the run. We're looking at the Brents' living room again, but it's a very weary cast, and the hilarity ensues when we see how each actor (in the inner and outer play) copes with the mess. There are some surprises worthy of Monty Python -- and Bugs Bunny. Most fascinating to me is how some Nothing On actors can improvise -- perhaps too well -- and others can't get away from playing the part exactly, even when it's ridiculously inappropriate. This got big laughs.

Director Erik Scanlon, in his Note on the inside cover of the program, compares this kind of wild farce to Looney Tunes cartoons, and it's true. The manic energy, carefully timed comings and goings, loud noises and pratfalls are here done with people, not animated characters, but it's the same feeling. Anything can happen, and probably will.

There's a third level in this play -- the actors themselves. In these conditions it may be hard to separate the real person from the two actor parts each must play on the stage. Certainly it's an energetic and likeable cast, including local veterans, mostly younger actors. From Row 4, Seat K, it was easy to hear and to understand their delivery. It must be a challenge to have to act as an actor and as an actor performing as an actor (do you follow me here?), especially when the performers in Nothing on are meant, like the Rude Mechanicals in Shakespeares's A Midsummer Night's Dream, to be hilariously incompetent. The rodeo clown must be the best rider and roper, remember.

I had a chance to speak with several cast members after the show, and they were gracious, funny, and, well, exhausted. They were also, being pros, nothing like the roles they played in either play. I may have to attend the final performance to see if they, like the cast of Nothing On, have fallen apart too (somehow I expect that they won't). 

Noises Off  is the latest production at the Curtain Call Performing Arts Theater at 999 East 14th Street in downtown San Leandro, California. CCPA's vision is to ensure that performance-based arts are accessible to everyone who desires to participate or attend performances by keeping ticket prices low and class/workshop tuition affordable.

Performances run from the Friday, September 27 show I saw through Saturday, October 26. Shows begin at 8 p.m. on  Friday and Saturday nights 2 p.m. for Sunday matinees. See www.curtaincallperformingarts.org for details. Tickets are $25 general admission (with assigned seating) and $22 for students and seniors. The theater is intimate, holding a maximum of 67. There's not a bad seat in the house.

Ricardo Garcia - Opera Star in the Making

Have you ever wondered what Luciano Pavarotti was like when he was just getting started? What Placido Domingo sounded like as a young man? You may get an idea if you go hear tenor Ricardo Garcia sing.

Ricky, as he's known to his friends and family in the San Francisco Bay Area, is home again to perform five shows on January 18 through 20 at the recently refurbished California Conservatory Theater in San Leandro, presented by Curtain Call Performing Arts.

I had the pleasure of attending a preview. Dressed in black shirt and coat over blue jeans and boots, Ricky performed four songs for us, accompanied by his teacher, Burr Cochran Phillips. From the first note, he filled the cozy, black-walled theater space with warmth and power. It was hard to believe that this nice young man, who had been chatting amiably a few minutes earlier, could deliver the dynamics and focus that he did on that empty stage.

Even if you're not an opera enthusiast, Ricky's performance really stirs up your emotions, from the enthusiastic but frustrated suitor in Tosti's Marchiare, to the grief stricken sole survivor in Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. Ricky sang the Marchiare in Italian--such a perfect language for opera--while the latter was in English, but you can't help but feel it in your guts, whether you understand the words or not.

When you attend a solo performance, there's not much to look at except the performer, and Ricky moved in a way that reinforced the beauty and expression of the vocals. He explained that it's part of his training to study the physical gestures--doing character research to understand on how the role he's playing would act and feel. That makes it more convincing and enjoyable for the audience.

It's unusual and exciting to see a young person so focused on achieving a difficult goal, but that's the life for those aspiring to professional singing careers. Ricky's now a sophomore at the University of the Pacific, but he plans to graduate, continue in graduate school and then seek out a program for young artists. It's a long process, and it sounds even harder than becoming a doctor!

Why pursue something so difficult? Well, because you appreciate your God-given gift and you love doing it. That helps Ricky to persevere through the long days and difficult work of perfecting his voice for the future. Even with the struggles and the setbacks, "there has to be joy in the work," he said.

Ricky started singing early, along with his lifelong love of baseball. His most recent Curtain Call performance was as the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol, the Musical, back in 2008. He was only a high school sophomore at the time. More recently, Ricky performed last September at the Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, where he received a standing ovation. Placing in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Competition in 2011, where he competed against much older singers, was a big step, as well.

I learned today that male operatic voices are considered to mature later than a female, so a man may not be in top form until his 30s. Of course, with proper care and good fortune, he can work for decades afterwards. Ricky even has special exercises to get his body ready to successfully and safely deliver a powerful performance. "It's like yoga," he said. He sometimes runs a couple of miles and stretches before a show to get warmed up.

According to Ricky, it's a very competitive market after a young opera singer finishes his education. It's a "cutthroat" business.  But he gets a lot of support from his family, his professors, his friends and his colleagues. Having "nerves of steel" is also helpful, and he recommends never comparing yourself to others as you audition.

Since 2008, Curtain Call Performing Arts (CCPA), led by Artistic Director and Producer Andrea Gorham, has brought Broadway style theater to the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Their vision is to make performance-based arts accessible to everyone who wants to participate or attend performances. Class and workshop tuition is affordable, and ticket prices are low--for this show they're only $25 for adults and $22 for students and seniors.

You owe it to yourself to see at least one of these performances:

Friday, January 18, 8 p.m.
Saturday, January 19, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, January 20, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

There will be a question-and-answer session after the show.

California Conservatory Theater (CCT)
999 E. 14th Street
San Leandro, CA 94577
Box Office: 510-909-9516
www.curtaincallperformingarts.org

Steampunk Cinderella Sticks to the Story

The shoe fits!

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella. When her father remarries all seems well, but when he dies, the cruel stepmother pushes forward her two daughters and Cinderella becomes their servant. Enter prince, fairy godmother, ball, wedding, and happily ever after.

This favorite story was put to music in 1957 in a fine Rogers & Hammerstein version written for television. This beautiful production and music are still performed today. Last night, I saw a Steampunk version that reliably delivered the tale--with a very different look and feel.

Steampunk originated in the 1980s and 1990s, incorporating elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history and speculative fiction. Just think of a steam-powered computer. Lots of dials and watch gears. You see a lot of it at Comic-Con. What it means, on the set, is that folks were dressed in jackets, boots, goggles, strange hair and odd colors -- nothing you'd expect. Cinderella's costume was very plain and simple, but when it was transformed (surprisingly instantly) for the ball, Steampunk was forgotten and gorgeous and blue appeared before our eyes. Artistic Director/Costume Designer Andrea Gorham did a sensational job.

This is community theatre, but it is very well arranged and performed. Several actors stand out. Of course, Cinderella herself, the slim and beautiful Catherine Willamson, was able to move from the poor and put-down house servant to belle of the ball with ease. She is given solo songs, such as In My Own Little Corner, her lament early in the production, and she sings along with Prince Christopher, played by Matt Ono, later on. The ensemble singing was especially strong, and Williamson's sweet and powerful voice carries over everyone.

Prince and Cinderella falling in love.

Another remarkable role was the very non-traditional Fairy Godmother, sung by the stunning Kristina Stasi. Tall and dramatic in her Steampunk regalia, she strutted the stage after making her grand entrance from the top of the gear-laden stage. Part of the non-traditional feel here was how she didn't just wave a wand and set up Cinderella for the ball--she told Cinderella that wishing wasn't enough--it's what you did with it that mattered! It was all about empowerment. Then she waved her arms, lights flashed, and an incredible pumpkin coach rolled in, stage right (great work, stage designers!).

This is a romantic story, but there was plenty of comedy, thanks to Cinderella's mean stepmother and her two pathetic daughters. Stepmother, played in a Cruella De Vil style by Ali Lane, had some funny asides and she was wondrously jaguar-like in her hanging on poor Lionel, the Prince's steward.

Lionel, played by veteran Kevin Foley, had the pivotal support role of announcing the Prince's ball at the beginning, counseling the Prince throughout, avoiding Stepmom during the ball, and helping the Prince find the true princess by carrying the glass slipper (not real glass in this production, of course). Foley did a great job as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Curtain Call production of A Christmas Carol last December.

Those clumsy and unpretty stepsisters made the audience laugh. Diminutive, squirrely Joy (Alice Beittel) was rubber limbed and wooden headed, giggling hysterically and flopping down like a rag doll. Her sister, Grace (Kate Offer), resembled a linebacker and charged up on the poor prince like a force of nature. The three step-women's attempts to place Cinderella's shoe on their oversized feet were hilarious, and set up the scene nicely for the dramatic moment when the shoe fits perfectly on Cinderella.

Stepsisters Grace and Joy had the audience laughing.

The staging stayed mostly with the main layout with its gears and 19th-century colors and angles, but there were times when the action moved offstage. For example, the prince, spotlighted, actually attempted to fit the glass slipper to a few women in the audience before visiting Cinderella.

The music was fine and appropriate throughout. I noticed there was no room for an upright bassist to stand in the pit, and that an electric one was provided (intentionally) by Music and Vocal Director Jedediah Da Roza. Da Roza took the Steampunk motif seriously. Replacing the bass was just one of the things he did. He changed which instruments played the parts, including adding keyboards, electric guitar and harpsichord. However, he left all the original and beloved Richard Rogers notes intact except for one spot. He ended "In My Little Corner" in a minor instead of a major key.

The ensemble dancers moved in a mechanical, Steampunk way at times, and when the mood required it, flowed gracefully. If this were a movie, I'd flip back and watch it again, because so much was happening at once and the richness of the costumes was somewhat dazzling to take it all in in one pass.

Curtain Call Performing Arts has brought Broadway style theater to the greater San Francisco Bay Area for four years.Their Gift of Broadway program has provided nearly 8,000 local K-8 grade school children with the chance to see live theater free.

The show runs through August 31st, with matinees on August 25 and 26. All shows will be performed at the Castro Valley Center for the Arts at the Castro Valley High School Campus on Redwood Road. Visit curtaincallperformingarts.org or call the box office at 510-889-8961 for more information.

A Christmas Carol - 3 Performances in One Day

In my quest for the full bass playing experience, I achieved another milestone yesterday. I played for three performances of the 90-minute musical A Christmas Carol --in one day.

The first two shows were at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., for schoolkids. You could hear the high pitched din as they came in and sat and waited for us to start. Of course, in the pit you can't see anything in the building, but we knew we had a full house. We got some visitors peering over the wall, and we did our best to make it an interesting introduction to musical instruments, showing off what they looked and sounded like. From the sound of the applause and cheering at the end, the kids had a great time.

Andrea Gorham, who owns Curtain Call Performing Arts, the company that put the program together, talked with the kids, telling them it was her dream to expose kids to theater. Her outreach program to schoolkids has shown live theater to about 5,000 kids so far. The local girl, who attended the school in which the performances were taking place, thanked two of her former teachers, who were in the audience with their students.

The evening show was for grown-ups. You could tell by how quiet it was. But--there was plenty of applause when we were done--and we had some visitors peeking in too.

The three performances all went well from a musical standpoint. Each time, I played a little better and more completely. Passages that I had just glossed over came into focus and I beat out the rhythm with confidence. It helped to have a fine bunch of fellow player in the pit with me, and a leader like Jon Siapno, who has years of experience in choral conducting, but was working with his first instrumental group.

Two more shows--one tonight and a matinee tomorrow, and then we wrap. Eight performances in two weeks. But so far, no blisters, and my sore feet recover quickly as soon as I sit down for a few minutes.

I'll have to see about doing this again next year. I'm thinking perhaps the Nutcracker!