PRINCETON - Operas tell you who to root for, usually the soprano with the best tunes and the tenor with the well-placed high notes - not the vain, stingy, self-deluded baritone whose music is predominantly patter songs.
But in Opera New Jersey's Don Pasquale on Sunday, the buffoonish title character unexpectedly walked off with one's sympathies, significantly reconfiguring the opera's power axis in ways that made the difference between an all-around good production and one destined to be a point of reference in the future.
The Donizetti score is always a good choice for a young-artist company such as Opera New Jersey - the score's great tunes are made even more irresistible by unspoiled voices. In the title role, however, the locally-based Steven Condy immediately gave himself away as a mid-career artist with fully-matured pipes and the opera's style in his bones.
In contrast to the darker undertones brought to such roles by Kevin Glavin (often seen in Opera Company of Philadelphia productions), Condy exuded an endearing sweetness in this story about a man who marries late in life, with infectious delight and surprise that anyone would have him. The bride in question, Norina, claims to be fresh from the convent but, as soon as the marriage contract is signed, handles his money like a hardened denizen of Macy's.
Though she can take on a proto-feminist heroism, Norina's contrast to Condy put her within striking distance of Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel. Michael Scarola's direction was full of wit that reminded you this is a comedy - as part of Norina's redecoration scheme, one of the walls was demolished onstage with TNT - though the opera took on extra gravity when Pasquale's bewilderment lapsed into existential despair. Even Norina had a "What am I doing?" moment of remorse, which was masterfully played.
Vocally, Condy was wonderful; the others had great promise. Brian Anderson lent a light Irish tenor sound to the role of Ernesto, and Ava Pine displayed a steely technique and appropriately cool timbre as Norina. As the plot's instigator (Dr. Malatesta), Liam Bonner was an appealingly suave foil to the more hysterical characters around him, but his voice is perhaps too heavy for Donizetti. Mark Laycock's conducting was full of sensible decisions, though the New Jersey Symphony Chamber Orchestra's flabby chord tunings really did get in the way of what the music was trying to do.
In his curtain speeches, the company's general director, Richard Russell, has been talking up the idea of Princeton as a significant opera destination. How about as an overall music destination? Besides the late-spring Princeton Festival and its taste for specialized opera repertoire, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra is gaining strength under new music director Rossen Milanov, who is attracting interesting star soloists such as Jennifer Koh and programming new music worth traveling for.
