Dicapo in the News

OPERA AROUND THE WORLD:
New York

Martin Bernheimer
Opera, September, 1999

A brave little company called DICAPO OPERA THEATRE, which occupies a 204-seat auditorium in a church basement on the Upper East Side, mustered a rare staging of Robert Ward's The Crucible on April 25. The opera, based on Arthur Miller's play, focuses on the Salem witch-hunts for allegorical commentary on the evil of the McCarthy era. The sociopolitical criticism may seem a bit less urgent now (only a bit) that it did in 1961, and the essentially neo-Romantic score has gained little in immediacy. It is undeniably well-crafted, however, and Bernard Stambler's libretto delineates the characters and their plight neatly, melodramatic cliches not withstanding.

The generally strong cast included a number of promising young singers, most notably the baritone Gregory Keil as the tough John Proctor, the mezzo-soprano Maria Zifchak as his long-suffering wife Elizabeth and Brigitte Bellini, particularly intense as the earthy Abigail Williams. The seasoned tenor William MacNeil (son of Cornell) portrayed the bigoted Judge Danforth forcefully, Michael Capasso, Director of the Dicapo Company, brought straightforward simplicity to the staging scheme. Michael Recchiuti conducted a rather scrappy 25-piece orchestra with obvious sympathy.

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