"The sheer visceral wallop and power of opera in an intimate production." - New York Times Dicapo Opera Theatre 184 East 76th Street New York, NY 10021 (212) 288-9438 e-mail Dicapo Michael Capasso General Director Diane Martindale Artistic Director	The New York Times2000 IN REVIEW NEW YORK CITY – Claudia Legare, Dicapo Opera, 1/14/05 April 2005 , vol 69 , no.10 In 1978, when Robert Ward’s Claudia Legare had its world premiere at Minnesota Opera, it was indifferently received, with Harold Schoenberg writing in The New York Times, “One cannot see Claudia Legare making much of a dent in the operatic repertory.” The intervening decades have proved him right, but the adventurous Dicapo Opera decided to give the piece a fresh hearing this season (seen January 14). Originally commissioned but never produced by New York City Opera, it is based on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. Reset by Ward and librettist Bernard Stambler in the post-Civil War South, it emerges as a sort of macabre riff on Gone With the Wind. Claudia’s former lover Orlando and husband, George Lowndes, here compete not for academic position but over civic planning for the New South. Colonel Blagden (especially here, as played with insouciant swagger by Matthew Lau) resembles a smarmier Rhett Butler; references to the local house of ill repute call Belle Watling to mind; and the late-night vigil of rivals Daphne and Claudia during Orlando’s night of debauchery seems a cynical reflection of Scarlett and Melanie’s nervous wait for the return of Ashley Wilkes. The score, conservative to the point of sounding old-fashioned, is harmonically accessible but melodically undistinguished, with conversations unfolding in a meandering, undifferentiated arioso and the orchestra doing most of the word-painting; Stambler’s libretto, faithful to the original in all but locale, is not always idiomatically set. But for those who like melodrama, the opera has its moments: Orlando and Claudia’s steamy, electric encounter in Act I, a climactic moment in the score, was a highlight in this performance. Dicapo gave Ward’s opus a thoroughly professional staging, in attractive, detailed settings by John Farrell and richly textured but unbecoming costumes by Angela Huff. Director Michael Capasso offered a straightforward, realistic take, allowing his artists plenty of room to emote. The young singers, well versed in these unfamiliar roles, gave it their all and displayed healthy, impressive voices, sometimes lacking the last degree of technical polish. For the most part, they made an earnest effort to put across Stambler’s occasionally stilted text, though words were sometimes lost in the orchestral deluge. Susan Foster as the sour-pussed Claudia had the least luck with diction, but her big, steady voice, hurled out with force and abandon, aptly expressed the anti-heroine’s raging discontent and reckless spirit of rebellion. Kathleen Theisen, vocally solid and impassioned, made a pretty but ditzy Daphne, overacting in Dicapo’s intimate house. Yet in her overwrought Act I confrontation with Foster’s Claudia, the two young voices, poured out at top volume, made for a thrilling effect at such close range. Lau offered a striking, rich lower register, with a top that was not always ideally steady; vocal unevenness notwithstanding, his easy, commanding presence drew focus whenever he was onstage. Tenor Eric Van Hoven made an appropriately milksop George, understandably left in the shadow of his charismatic rival. Gary Lehman, as Orlando, ran away with the vocal and dramatic honors. Resonant of voice, impressive of bearing, intensely engaged and rock-solid of pitch, he provided a touchstone for the rawer talents around him. Conductor Pacien Mazzagatti made his small forces sound larger than they were and kept the drama moving along, except where the score threw up roadblocks in the form of chorale-like ensembles that were stirring in themselves but tended to halt the action unnecessarily. . LOUISE T. GUINTHER Opera April 2005 Erik Meyers NEW YORK: A total of 72 hardy souls braved New York City's blizzard of January 22 to attend Dicapo Opera's production of Robert Ward's Claudia Legare. Originally composed by Ward (a Pulitzer Prize-winner for The Crucible) in 1978, the opera was being given its New York premiere in a run of six performances. Ward and his librettist, Bernard Stambler, based the work on Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, transposing it to the American South just after the Civil War. In this version, the Tesman figure advocates reconstructing the South by reviving the plantation system, while the Lovborg equivalent favours a plan of industrialization. Aside from this, the plot conforms quite closely to Ibsen's original. Ward produced two separate version of the score: one for full orchestra and another reduced to seven instrumentalists. Dicapo, a chamber opera company, used the latter. Ward's dramatically taut, essentially tonal score recalls Barber's Vanessa in its surging, full-blooded sonority, but its force is severely compromised in the chamber version. A seven-piece ensemble cannot really do justice to these raging operation emotions. Dicapo's general director, Michael Capasso, staged the production, and encouraged committed performances from most of the principals. Christina Rohm, who alternated with Susan Foster, was the Claudia. Her large-scale soprano showed promise, but her acting leaned towards a kind of generalized petulance which rarely plumbed the tragic depths of the role. Rohm still appears to be very young, and this was only her second performance; perhaps she needs more time and practice to inhabit fully such a complex character. As her childhood friend Daphne (Ibsen's Thea), Kathleen Theisen effectively conveyed a sense of desperation. Mechelle Tippets was a bright-voiced Aunt Julia; the small part of the maid Jenny was sung in lovely, limpid tones by the young soprano Danielle Freeman. Among the men, the tenor Eric Van Hoven did well in the rather thankless role of Claudia's husband George. As Claudia's lover Orlando Beaumont, Gary Lehman missed conveying the tortured, brooding sexiness integral to the part. Matthew Lau was scheduled to sing Colonel Blagden, the equivalent of Ibsen's Judge Bjork, but was left voiceless due to illness. Instead, he mimed the role onstage while baritone Scott Lefurgy heroically sang the part from the pit. Lau's physical performance was the most strikingly intense and charismatic of the entire cast. It made one long to hear what the voice sounded like.
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