COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Everyone knows that all the world’s a stage, but the current season at Glimmerglass Opera suggests a variant: All the stage’s a Globe. The company is presenting four works in repertory, each somehow related to Shakespeare. All four inhabit the same set, designed by John Conklin: a raw-lumber representation of the Globe Theater in London.
This is Glimmerglass’s second consecutive themed season. Last summer, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo,” Michael MacLeod, the general and artistic director, presented that work and three other operas based on the Orpheus myth. This year Mr. MacLeod is offering what are being called the first fully staged American performances of “Das Liebesverbot,” an early Wagner opera based on “Measure for Measure,” and three more familiar works, reviewed here, based on Shakespearean themes.
Of these, the greatest departure is Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate,” the first Broadway musical Glimmerglass has staged. The plot concerns backstage intrigues and romantic entanglements among members of a roving theater troupe mounting a musical version of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Here the action is set in Cooperstown, with local references unobtrusively plugged into the dialogue and scenery.
The production, directed by Diane Paulus and seen on Friday, is a near-constant bustle of motion. Actors portraying choristers and stagehands move props and set pieces around between songs, and sometimes break into modestly effective dance numbers. Most of the singing is decidedly nonoperatic in tone, but the performers, unamplified, never resort to belting. Supertitles, while seldom needed, were deftly timed to not spoil punch lines.
Brad Little was a handsome, charismatic Fred Graham, an actor-impresario with a wayward eye. As the imperious diva Lilli Vanessi, Lisa Vroman was a marvel, whether wistfully reminiscing about better times or ferociously roaring through her Shakespeare scenes in a glittering cat suit, gleefully brandishing a medieval arsenal.
Other characterizations were less satisfying. Courtney Romano, a capable, charismatic performer, played the ingénue Lois Lane as a ditzy, chirpy Barbie doll. David Larsen, as the gambling-addicted actor Bill Calhoun, slithered onstage with clichéd hip-hop affectations, which happily disappeared almost immediately.
Michael Mott and Bradley Nacht stole scenes as gangsters sent to collect on a gambling debt. Their show-stopping duet, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” ended with a sly original verse by Kelley Rourke, the dramaturge, filled with references to the other Glimmerglass offerings. Robin Seletsky, the principal clarinetist, blew a jazzy solo onstage during “Too Darn Hot,” which also featured Damian Norfleet’s rubber-limbed dancing.
After the lurid colors and eye-popping set pieces of “Kate,” including a castle that looked like a Cubist watermelon, the somber tone and stark stage used for “I Capuleti e i Montecchi,” by Bellini, took some adjusting to. That opera, from 1830, is a streamlined adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet story based on an 1818 play by Luigi Scevola rather than Shakespeare.
The austere staging, directed by Anne Bogart and seen on Saturday afternoon, includes arresting visual effects: Giulietta’s first appearance on an upper level of the stage coinciding with Romeo’s exit below her, for instance. In another striking moment that ends the first act, Giulietta is pinned by a spotlight while soldiers circle her with long staffs raised.
More often, Ms. Bogart seemed not to know what to do with her black-clad male chorus. They lumbered en masse from spot to spot, struck poses, made odd hand gestures and, in one scene, rearranged furniture seemingly acquired from a Veronese Ikea. A noisy offstage battle sounded like a clanking invasion by the Blue Man Group.
Ms. Bogart had no such trouble deploying her leads. Emily Righter, a 23-year-old mezzo-soprano from Glimmerglass’s Young American Artists Program, replaced an indisposed Sandra Piques Eddy as Romeo. In what should surely prove a star-making engagement, Ms. Righter sang with rich tone, focus and agility, and assumed her character with a buoyant physicality and impetuousness. The soprano Sarah Coburn, a Glimmerglass favorite, was elegant and appealing as Giulietta, though she sometimes sounded steely where softness was called for. The pair had amorous chemistry in abundance.
The tenor John Tessier was an ardent, lyrical Tebaldo (Tybalt). Christopher Job, a bass, blustered mightily as Capellio, Giulietta’s father; Soon Young Park, a baritone, was a sympathetic Lorenzo, the family doctor. Ms. Seletsky, the clarinetist, and Gabriel Kovach, a horn player, offered stylish solos from the pit.
The engaging production of Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” is imaginatively directed by Robin Guarino. Gabriel Berry’s playful costumes include 1930s-era military uniforms for Caesar and his soldiers, what looks like Afghan rebel garb for the Egyptians and a series of lavish outfits for the sibling regents Cleopatra and Ptolemy (Tolomeo).
The mezzo-soprano Laura Vlasak Nolen was a powerful, swaggering presence in the title role on Saturday night, with Lyubov Petrova, a soprano, a dynamic, alluring Cleopatra. Both proved superb Handelians, negotiating fast, florid lines and heart-wrenching slow arias with equal flair.
Gerald Thompson, a countertenor, verged on histrionics, portraying Tolomeo as a flamboyant child-man often more humorous than malevolent. Lucia Cervoni, a mezzo-soprano, sang well as Cornelia, wife of the slain Pompey, though her portrayal lacked gravity. Another mezzo-soprano, Aurhelia Varak, performed bravely as Sesto, Cornelia’s son; she occasionally struggled at the high and low ends of her range, because of illness, a Glimmerglass representative said.
Though cut, the unfailingly entertaining production served Handel’s noble opera well enough. David Stern drew a lithe, idiomatic account from his players. The same could be said for David Charles Abell’s buoyant work in “Kate” and David Angus’s sensitive leadership in “Capuleti.” That the orchestra could sound this good in such vastly different pieces, played in close succession, is definitely a feather in its cap.
Read the full review here.