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.

Wine, Tapas and New Orleans Jazz Satisfy Completely

Last night, I was looking for some action and decided to visit a small restaurant that was featuring a quartet. Based on not much more information than that, I drove to the warm center of San Leandro, California (just over the hill) and checked out The Vines Wine & Tapas, which sits right next to the popular Englander restaurant/bar/music venue.

Well, it turns out the quartet was Mike Slack's New Orleans Jazz Band, and they put on an energy-packed show worthy of Bourbon Street. Spun off from the larger San Francisco Feetwarmers, these guys filled the charming, brick-walled, wood-ceilinged venue at just the right volume and intensity to make it possible to talk with the friendly wait staff but at the same time motivate the crowd.

I sat by myself at a small table close to the band. A smiling waitress handed me a single-sheet menu filled with, naturally, wine and tapas offerings. Tapas are appetizers, meant to not distract from conversation in the Spanish cuisine, and they certainly didn't distract from the Jazz.

I ordered two items from the menu of about 27 selections. From the Cheese and Meat section I picked the Manchega cheese made from sheep's milk (creamy good, and it came with raisins, walnuts and slices of baguette. The other was the Garlic Shrimp from the Tapas listing. Delightfully rich, it was five luscious shrimp with garlic sauce on top of baguette slices. Be sure to see the complete menu by clicking the restaurant's link above.

Meanwhile, the band took a break and I was able to talk with them. It was Mike Slack, the leader, on cornet. He used four different mutes for a range of sounds, but always blew strong and true. Louis Armstrong is a major force in Dixieland Jazz and surely was an inspiration. Pete Main deftly handled the clarinet and saxophone, switching off as needed. He also blew strong and sweet, with a warm tone and quick fingers.

In the the rhythm section was Bill DeKuiper strumming a nice Gibson guitar. His chords kept things moving, and his solos were melodic and showed alacrity. I especially liked his Wes Montgomery style octaves. Carrying it all at the bottom was Tom Clark, playing a beautiful blonde string bass. He kept that baby moving throughout, and got plenty of shots at virtuosic solos too on the warm-toned gut strings. He told me he's played for 50 years and you can really tell. All four musicians blended together well, just like the delicious food on the small square and rectangular plates in front of me.

Songs included fast and slow numbers, including the traditional Just a Closer Walk, the Winin' Boy Blues, and a rousing "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" to close the show.

I picked a nice glass of 2007 Baileyana Pinot Noir from Edna Valley, California, which arrived in a large wineglass--the better to enjoy the nose. It was a recommendation from the wait staff. I was full from the food, but decided I'd better sample from the desserts too to make the evening complete. The lava cake with vanilla ice cream was perfect--the cake hot and softly melting in the middle with the ice cream a firm scoop. I came out even with alternating bites!

The entire meal was $33, including tax--quite reasonable. You could have one tapa and skip dessert and it would be downright inexpensive. The music was free, but of course I threw money in the tip jar and bought one of the group's CDs called West End Blues.

The band plans to return to the Vine in October, but you can check their schedule, and the Vines is always there Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. at 135 Parrott Street in San Leandro.