Los Angeles Opera Review: DULCE ROSA (LA Opera)

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by Tony Frankel on May 23, 2013

in Theater-Los Angeles

NOT SO DULCE

It’s a shame that so much love, talent and money was bestowed upon the new opera, Dulce Rosa, which is the inaugural project of LA Opera’s Off Grand series, a program which offers new operatic works in venues other than the Dorothy Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."Chandler Pavilion. Opening at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica with all the pomp and press that any company would kill for, the fully staged opera employed first-rate singers, extraordinarily beautiful multi-media work, and sumptuous orchestrations gorgeously rendered by the 34-piece LA Opera Orchestra (under the baton of Plácido Domingo, no less). All of this was generously sponsored by the seemingly bottomless pockets of Eli and Edythe Broad and the many opera lovers who are desperate to have the genre thrive in the 21st century (not to mention those who want to establish LA’s Westside as a haven for the arts).

It’s a great story: Rosa, a betrothed girl in a South American country, seeks vengeance when her father, a beloved senator, is killed and their home destroyed during a military coup. While her intended is abroad, Rosa Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."inadvertently falls in love with the guerilla who ravished her. Based on the Isabel Allende short story “Una Venganza” (“An Act of Vengeance”), Dulce Rosa is chockablock with tragedy, revenge, injustice, death, war, lovers, familial bonds, and even rape – the very ingredients perfect for the heightened components of opera. The problem is the score. Composer Lee Holdridge and librettist Richard Sparks’ extensive work in film and TV has them woefully unprepared for this assignment. Holdridge presents that confounding and irritating new style of music where it sounds like someone just hurled notes on musical measures and let them land where they may. The underscoring, however, is lush and romantic, perfect for a soundtrack.

Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."And because there is scant attempt at melody, it is difficult to discern the sung text from the feeble arias. There is one passable love duet and a lovely moment when a father claims his love of home and daughter, but even the latter fails to materialize into a full-fledged aria. Almost the entire opera is written in a weird, motionless sort of recitative (even when attempting the few arias in the show), awkwardly following Sparks’ clumsy and declamatory lyrics. Quite often, they are better-suited for a straight play, evidenced in this passage from the senator:

Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."THAT IS HOW WE ALL START
I HAD ALMOST FORGOTTEN
IN SOME WAYS, TOMAS
YOU REMIND ME OF ME THEN
AND ONE DAY
WHEN I AM LONG GONE
DO NOT BE SURPRISED
WHEN YOU FIND YOU REMIND YOURSELF
OF ME NOW
WELL, IF YOU ARE NOT FULL OF FIRE
AT YOUR AGE
YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO BE YOUNG
YOU’LL LEARN, TOMAS
AS WE ALL DO
THE HARD WAY

The original seven-page story contains grand, poetic passages for which Allende (who was on hand for the world premiere) is well-known, but the storytelling is sparse. Instead of filling in the narrative, Sparks relentlessly and unnecessarily reinforces that which we already comprehend to the point of ennui. And in the Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."second act, there is so little forward-moving plot (and movement on the stage) that this opera could be called Soporific Rosa.

Plácido Domingo’s leadership was triumphant and forceful and the entire cast soared, even though just a few characters are fully fleshed out. Uruguayan soprano María Antúnez, as Rosa, is as beautiful as her voice, which never faltered; less convincing was her dialect (even with an English libretto, I was forced to glance at the supertitles, situated uncomfortably low on both sides of the house). Mexican baritone Alfredo Daza brings heat and emotion as the guerrilla leader, Tadeo Cespedes, especially in his second act aria describing his past victimization, which validates Rosa’s Stockholm Syndrome. Rosa’s father, the retired Senator Orellano, is given a lovely passage about his love of home; while the “aria” only teases us with hints of melody, tenor Greg Fedderly displayed a profound tenderness.

Other characters are schematically paper-thin, especially the advice-giver Inez, who we know lives on Rosa’s hacienda, but that’s about it. Thankfully, she has a lot of advice, because it gives the lush and resounding mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell Tony Frankel's Stage and Cinema review of LA Opera's "Dulce Rosa."a chance to show her wares. Sweet-throated tenor Benjamin Bliss plays Rosa’s fiancé, Tomas, with determination – it’s a shame his radical stance is so superficial. Craig Colclough is appropriately creepy as the devious and power-hungry government official, Juan Aguilar.

The direction by librettist Sparks is in the style of his lyrics – static. However, Jenny Okun’s video projections create a stunning palette of ever-shifting landscapes that perfectly evoke scenes from a village square to a war-torn hacienda. Her coup de théâtre brings to vivid life what the authors could not.

photos by Robert Millard

Dulce Rosa
The Broad Stage
Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center
scheduled to end on June 9, 2013

for tickets, call (310) 434-3200 or visit http://www.thebroadstage.com

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