The college’s SummerScape festival stages Bedřich Smetana’s tuneful 1868 opera, which finds the title character imprisoned for murder even as he attracts the romantic interest of his victim’s sister.
By
Heidi Waleson
John Matthew Myers and Cadie J. Bryan PHOTO: MARIA BARANOVA
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
This year’s opera rarity at Bard SummerScape, in Dutchess County, is Bedřich Smetana’s “Dalibor” (1868), running through Aug. 3, a tuneful Romantic work hampered by a creaky, static libretto that was translated from German into Czech. The title character, a 15th-century knight with a popular following, spends the opera imprisoned for killing a government official in revenge for the execution of his beloved friend, the musician Zdeněk. Milada, the official’s sister, first demands Dalibor’s blood from the king but then falls in love with him and plots his rescue—there’s a “Fidelio”-type adventure with Milada disguising herself as a boy to get into the prison. It doesn’t end happily.
“Dalibor” is a sturdy vehicle for big dramatic arias, choruses and a colorful Wagnerian orchestration, complete with harp and violin solos to accompany Dalibor’s obsession with the dead Zdeněk and ominous, foreshadowing brass choirs. The American Symphony Orchestra was in excellent form under Leon Botstein. The two principal singers, late substitutions for European artists stymied by visa problems, acquitted themselves admirably—John Matthew Myers (Dalibor) with his enormous, clarion tenor and Cadie J. Bryan (Milada) with her sensitive soprano. The impressive cast also included the bright-voiced Erica Petrocelli as Jitka, who conspires with Milada to free Dalibor; the suave bass-baritone Alfred Walker as the conflicted King Vladislav, who condemns him to death, and the booming bass Wei Wu as the jailer Beneš.
Director Jean-Romain Vesperini and designer Bruno de Lavenère devised an ingenious unit set: A pair of spiral staircases formed a double helix on a revolving central platform, and Étienne Guiol’s shadowy black-and-white images, projected on silvery hangings, seemed three-dimensional. Christophe Chaupin’s lighting accentuated the show’s overall darkness; Alain Blanchot’s handsome costumes nodded to the opera’s 15th-century setting without being too literal. An actor, Patrick Andrews, appeared as Zdeněk’s ghost, another reminder of Dalibor’s central motivation, and the onstage prop violin, which also plays a central role, was a vielle—a period-appropriate medieval instrument.
AndyManshel.nyc 