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Dicapo in the News OPERA NEWS REVIEW: Manhattan's Dicapo Opera Theatre went off the beaten path again in December with the Iberian answer to Cavalleria Rusticana, Manuel de Falla's early (1905) La Vida Breve (The Short Life), in its first fully-staged performances here in over forty years. Each of Falla's three operas has built-in problems, despite much inspired music. La Vida Breve has sub-minimal action, while El Retablo del Maese Pedro and Atlantida pose virtually impossible staging demands. Atlantida, in fact, had its premiere in concert form, followed by a balletic production with mute dancers onstage and the singers in the orchestra pit. La Vida Breve could likewise be successfully performed in either of those ways, for the fact is that, except for the incidental dances (one ultra-familiar from pops concerts), this is less a conventional opera than a concert in costume. This stasis is compounded by Carlos Fernandez Shaw's sedentary libretto. The fact that Dicapo's well-mounted presentation did nothing to alter that opinion wasn't the company's fault -- New York City Opera's 1957 production, despite sets imported from Spain and an outstanding cast conducted by José Iturbi, suffered similarly. Like City Opera, though, Dicapo's musical performance saved the evening. Michael Recchiuti's conducting was alertly idiomatic, the moderate-sized orchestra was good, the production team of Michael Capasso, John Farrell and Diane Martindale sensibly set the action (what there is of it) 1in 1913, the year of the opera's stage premiere, and all cast members performed with as much dedication as the work allowed. 
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 The only interesting character is the impressionable Santuzza-like Gypsy girl Salud, betrayed by her caddish upper-class lover Paco. Soprano Cecilia Angell had the right sultry yet vulnerable demeanor and lush voice for the part -- she admirably passed the gauntlet of her two impassioned arias, while her big Act I duet with tenor Bernardo Villalobos (a handsome, vocally solid Paco) was the musical highpoint of the evening. Supporting singers headed by Ellen Rabiner and Ozie Garza-Ornelas did well, it was a pleasure to hear well-accented Castillian Spanish instead of the "new world" patois we're used to hearing in this city, and the English surtitles were readable for once. In addition, effective local color was offered by dancer Gabriela Granados and the bravely improvisatory BILL ZAKARIASEN / Opera News, April, 2001 Copyright Opera News RETURN TO DICAPO IN THE NEWS
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