There's something so enchanting about an opera - the lavish costumes, the immense sets, the dramatic music, the spectacle of it all - that draws the audience in by attracting all the senses. But opera, when performed as a form of high art at venues such as the Met in New York or the Bastille Opera House in Paris, can be daunting for first-timers. Even the Met's production of Hansel and Gretel, intended for children, came off as intimidatingly artistic and cultured.
Fear not, Bostonians, for we have our own solution to this problem - the Boston Lyric Opera. The beauty of the BLO is that it presents to its audience well-known operas in an easy-to-swallow form. Though not necessarily on par with the level of haute-couture one might find in operas elsewhere, it is precisely this lack of pretension that makes the BLO's performances so accessible.
You might not be moved to tears like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, but you may be inspired to offer a standing ovation in homage to the pool of talent from which the BLO draws. This is especially true for its newest production of Gaetano Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment. The production lacks the sheer size one usually associates with opera - the sets are impressive, but not as imposing as they might be on a larger stage, and the chorus is often drowned out by the orchestra at key dramatic points. However, this opera comique does not require the massive emotions of a work like Carmen, and goes well with the BLO's cast and the modest Schubert Theatre.
One of the major inhibitors to layman's appreciation of opera is the language barrier. Most operas are written in Italian or French, and often, even when translated into English are difficult to understand. Most opera houses are now equipped with teleprompters projecting subtitles toward the audience for their edification, and the Shubert is no exception. The BLO, however, has gone an extra step by not only performing an English translation of the French opera, but also by eliminating most of the libretto in favor of unaccompanied spoken word. The result is a much clearer presentation, though some of the dreamy "operatic" experience is lost. The spoken lines - combined with the fact that Daughter of the Regiment is a comedy - make this production more similar to a Gilbert and Sullivan piece or a Broadway musical than a bona fide opera.
Just as every firehouse has its dalmatian, so the Twenty-First regiment has its daughter, Marie. In Daughter of the Regiment, the "Bad News Bears" of Napoleon's troops adopt orphaned Marie, played by soprano Tracy Dahl, and raise her in the manner befitting a soldier: she drinks, burps, swears, and sings just like all of her fathers. When a peasant in the Tyrolean Alps of Bavaria saves her from a perilous fall, she stumbles into love and vows to marry Tonio, her savior, played by tenor Theodore Green. As there would be no drama without conflict, their budding romance is met by the resistance of an army of Marie's fathers, who claim that Army regulation forbids Marie from marrying outside the Twenty-First. As to the fact that the arrangement implies marriage to one of her fathers, the commander of the regiment, Sargeant Sulpice, played by bass-baritone Donald Sherrill, claims they haven't quite worked that part out yet.
But it seems as if Tonio has, and he readily enlists in the undefeated Twenty-First as a grenadier and prepares to take Marie for his wife. However, circumstances reveal that Marie is related to The Marquise of Berkenfeld, played by mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne, a local noblewoman who insists on saving Marie from the disrespectful life of an army-brat and bringing the young girl back to her castle where she will be married to a suitable nobleman.
Just before Marie is to sign the marriage contract that will end her life as she knows it and renew the fortune of the old maid Marquise, Tonio rallies the troops to interrupt the introduction and convince the Marquise that true love is more important than social class. Moved, the Marquise reveals that she is Marie's mother. When she mets Marie's father, a grenadier in the Twenty-First, she fell for him and learned the importance of true love - they sincerely meant to marry, but she recalls that it just kept slipping their minds. So she allows Marie and Tonio to marry, and they all live happily ever after.
Dahl's spunky and spoiled Marie shines in the spotlight, with a rich and light soprano that lends itself to both dynamic duets with Sulpice and dramatic arias in which she laments her tumultuous love. Green plays Tonio equally as well, particularly in his duets with Marie. He sings in an almost forced and staid manner, mocking both the genre and his character while still remaining true to the text. The two share lilting duets and do so with the same self-conscious sense of humor that pervades the rest of the opera.
The youthfulness of the production allows for a certain degree of self-consciousness through which Daughter of the Regiment almost makes fun of itself. With an energetic and enthusiastic cast, pastel Easter egg-colored costumes, humorous songs and entertaining choreography, BLO's production of Daughter of the Regiment is a great opera for first-timers, or those who prefer to avoid the stuffier venues.
