Dicapo in the News

Opera News
Sun, 04 Aug, 2002

L'Amico Fritz

Manhattan's Dicapo Opera proves most valuable when airing unjustly neglected works (Barber's Vanessa and Falla's El Amor Brujo graced recent seasons). This season brought a welcome, effective staging of L'Amico Fritz, a charmer long absent from the city. Mascagni's highly melodic, engaging work, from 1891, would seem a natural for regional companies tired of "one more Butterfly"; it's an audience-pleasing romantic comedy with a small cast, haunting tunes and no elaborate scenic demands. Fritz belongs to the large, varied cadre of turn-of-the-century art suffused with the vanishing of rural ways, and the melancholy embedded in its folk-like tunes (in chorus, violin solo and aria) still can bring a lump to the throat. Michael Capasso's direction kept the love story clear and straightforward, and his performers created a believable ensemble onstage. John Farrell provided simple but effective geometric shapes and a small house unit for the opening scene.

There was not a cherry in sight for the famous duet, though Suzel later carried a basket of apples; Angela Huff's handsome costumes were a plus. As the lifelong (until Act III!) bachelor Fritz, tenor Ravil Atlas (April 26) displayed a substantial voice with a Latinate throb that would suit the hero of Puccini's Edgar (on Dicapo's docket for next year) better than the more lyric portions of Mascagni's writing here. Idiomatic in basic timbre and diction, Atlas deployed a patchy technique, with Broadwayish overvibratoed huskiness and unsupported crooning intruding on more pleasingly formed tone.

Jacqueline Venable displayed a remarkably full, rich lyric soprano as Suzel; each of her arias was a highlight. With a lovely face and an aptly shy stage manner, she seems already like a potentially world-class Micaela (by no means a common species these days), with promise for Agathe (in Der Frei-schütz) and Elsa in decades ahead. No terrific chemistry was generated, but Atlas and Venable partnered one another effectively. The most accomplished performance came from Andrew Krikawa as the matchmaking Rabbi David, with an attractive, cultivated baritone, well-honed acting and a precise understanding of verismo style admirable in such a young singer. Krikawa has the real artist's hallmark of listening to others (including the very solid offstage chorus). Dark-toned mezzo Kerry Grubel was Beppe (a travesty role descended from Pierotto in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix), singing gamely if not with an entirely equalized tone. Louis Salemno brought stylistic understanding to the score, and his twenty-four players mustered finer ensemble than most "off-Broadway" companies can offer. The wind soloists did notably fine work. Concertmaster Yuri Kharenko ascended from the pit to play the Gypsy violin music with soulful virtuosity, evoking genuine emotion in listeners onstage and off.

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