I must be a “Cockeyed Optimist,” going out as Toledo was encased in ice to see the Toledo Opera’s dress rehearsal Wednesday night.
I was well rewarded. As the ice and sleet and rain slickened the streets, I spent a few hours in the sun-drenched South Pacific with Nellie Forbush, Lt. Joe Cable, Emile De Becque, and Bloody Mary.
Ok. I was really in Toledo’s Valentine Theatre, which wasn’t packed and a little on the thin side in the pit as not all the musicians could make it in.
So it’s a Broadway musical, not an opera by Giuseppe Verdi or Giacomo Puccini, but many of the musicals of the mid 20th century are definitely worthy of the operatic genre. After all, what does opera mean but the Latin term -- opus—for work. The sweeping melodies, the singing, the story, all make up the real deal.
Conductor J. Ernest Green said that the music seamlessly folds into the songs, well noticed during the performance, as seamlessly as the waves follow one another to break upon the shore.
The show opens with the developing love story between Frenchman Emile De Becque and Nellie Forbush in his villa on a hillside. Keith Phares was Emile, with a few things to hide, and Nellie Forbush, and Navy nurse who has strayed from Little Rock, Ark., for the first time to a far-flung island in the South Pacific.
Claire Leyden portrayed Nellie, and her voice and her acting made us believe that she indeed was a “Cockeyed Optimist,” a young woman full of energy and a light-hearted gal who grows more serious and less optimistic as the plot unfolds.
Phares, who portrayed Danilo in The Merry Widow, had a much different part to play in De Becque, and his voice was different too. His baritone in the former was light and airy, but in South Pacific, his voice showed its true colors, rich, deep, and strong as the part demanded. His resonance and power were on full display in the classic Some Enchanted Evening, as he recounts how he saw Nellie “across a crowded room.”
I cannot critique his French accent; I will leave it to those who know French better than I.
(A critic, writing about star Rise Stevens and her recent performance in Carmen, despaired of the soprano’s French. He sat next to her one day, and she started speaking to him en Francais. The critic told her, “Madam, I do not speak French.” She said crisply in English, “I do.” I don’t).
Mike Schwitter, the doomed Marine Lt. Joe Cable, absolutely looked the part of a young soldier on a secret, dangerous mission. He falls in love feetfirst with the lovely Liat, Bloody Mary’s daughter, portrayed by Toledo Opera Resident Artist Sarah Rachel Bacani, who doesn’t have a lot to say or sing. Schwitter does, delivering one of the loveliest songs ever, “Younger than Springtime,” in a crisp, clear, and sweet tenor, and then again the main theme of the show in “You’ve got to be carefully taught” in the second act as he realizes that it was something ugly that made him tell Bloody Mary that he could never marry Liat.
Blood Mary, the Tonkinese islander and female counterpart of Navy rapscallion Luther Billis, is portrayed by Kamryn Loy. Her songs are few, but they do include Bali Hai, an ode to the mysterious island. She and Billis are the comic relief, though Bloody Mary is a mother, so it is up to her to see that her daughter Liat is well-married, and the one who must support the girl when tragedy befalls Lieutenant Cable.
The role of Billis, who runs the island laundry and other schemes, was delightfully portrayed by baritone Robbie Raso, a Toledo Opera resident artist. The role is a substantial one, and Raso gives it all he’s got.
The costumes definitely gave off the 1940s’ vibe, and the senior officers, who didn’t have singing duties, carried themselves with proper military gravitas, and the scenery, while minimal, was not so sparse that you had to keep reminding yourself that you were supposed to be in the South Pacific, not the Valentine Theatre.
Kudos as always to the Toledo Opera chorus members, whose presence and voices made each scene lively, as they consistently do.
And let’s not forget choreographer Domonique Glover, whose numbers are fresh, energetic, and innovative in every production he does.
So do your Valentine a favor. Take them to the South Pacific for an evening of romance, timeless melodies, and beloved songs. You don’t even have to leave Toledo to do it.
The show repeats on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Opera says Sunday is almost sold out, so hurry.
Perhaps attendees can go home and have some Enchanted Evening.
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