review by Alex Brooks
The first production of the Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre opened this past weekend to a packed house at Hubbard Hall. The show was Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, in which two pairs of young lovers test their fidelity under the skeptical eye of the wealthy philosopher Don Alonso, who bets the young swains their lady loves will not remain constant in their absence. After staging their disappearance under the guise of army orders to depart, the two young lovers return tricked out as “Albanian nobles” trying to woo each other’s fiancees. Don Alonso recruits the ladies’ maid Despina to aid his schemes, and the game is on.
The fact that the two lovers in their disguise are reminiscent of Matt Groening’s characters Akbar and Jeff only adds to the hilarity. Despina has some fun ribbing them about their goofy costumes. Ivan Amaro, playing Don Alonso, Alix Jones, playing Despina, and Kara Cornell, playing Dorabella, are all accomplished comedians and get a lot of mileage out of wry expressions and subtle glances.
It’s unusual for opera to be so intimate. Most big-time opera is in large houses where audience is quite a distance from performer, and the acting is necessarily broad. To have it so close is a delight.
One might have supposed an opera in Cambridge NY would be populated with young, inexperienced, or shaky singers. One would be supposing wrong. The quality of the music and the singing voices is astonishing. Some are professionals from New York City, some are very talented local or sort of local artists. The small orchestra assembled by Conductor Richard Giarusso is very solid. The company was apparently assembled largely by Alix Jones, who in addition to singing the role of Despina, is the founder of this opera company and the Production Manager.
The opera is sung in Italian, which gives the audience a lot to do – appreciating the music, taking in the dramatic action, and keeping track of the English translations projected on a small screen keeps the spectator busy. In addition, the show can be taken on several levels. It can be understood seriously, as a meditation on human fickleness, or it can be seen as primarily a romp, with comedy foremost. There is much more to say about it than I have space for here, but suffice it to say that this is an auspicious debut for this opera company, and it is a rich experience well worth the trip to Hubbard Hall.
Remaining performances are August 21 and 23 at 8 pm, and August 24 at 2 pm. Tickets are $30, $25 for members, $20 for students. For information or reservations, call (518) 677-2495