IN REVIEW
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Die Fledermaus, Opera New Jersey, 2/22/09
Opera New Jersey's "winter" show this year was Die Fledermaus, presented in Princeton, Morristown and finally New Brunswick (seen Feb. 22). Strauss's evergreen comedy didn't quite fill the enormous State Theatre on a cold, drizzly Sunday afternoon, but a large crowd stayed to cheer, clearly admiring the work of a strong cast under Ira Siff's zany direction and Mark Flint's sure baton.
Flint's polished forces — Opera New Jersey regularly offers higher orchestral standards than many regional companies — played onstage, with a black scrim descending between them and the downstage playing area after the Overture. Monitors helped maintain good ensemble. Siff deployed only a few choice set elements to stage an effervescent drama; most of the visual elegance derived from Patricia Hibbert's lovely costumes, in which Lisa Vroman's Rosalinde, Rachele Gilmore's Adele and Allison Pohl's Ida looked stunning. Siff's enlivening touch was evident in the (well-timed) frenetic pace, overall verbal clarity, some borscht-soaked comic riffs and the odd insane touch (such as an evidently losing bout of Russian roulette audible in the wings during Orlofsky's song). His actors didn't stint on innuendo: surely this knowing work profits from a genuine layer of loucheness.
Vroman, a classical-trained Broadway star, has been making a stir in music theater parts lately; here, she gamely replaced an ailing Ruth Ann Swenson, learning her part in six days. This is one talented, classy professional: her singing was as fluent and delightful as her acting. Others have brought more tonal weight to the register extremes of the czardas, but she aced all the exposed high notes, sang with consistently clear tone and meaningful words and proved herself thoroughly at home in the idiom. Gilmore brought a genuinely rounded, fresh tone to Adele's music and handled her antics with aplomb. A droll presence, Leah Summers showed a rich mezzo in Orlofsky's ungrateful music.
Allan Glassman's randy Gabriel von Eisenstein was less aristocrat than homme moyen sensuel; nice to hear his pocket dramatic tenor not struggle in this Zwischenfach part. Keith Phares made a very dapper Dr. Falke, adept at dancing as well as producing the needed elegant legato phrasing. Tonio DiPaolo gleefully strewed tenorial prosciutto around the stage, the rare Alfred with a genuine italianate sound and the willingness and ability to parody his breed. Anthony Laciura doubled as Dr. Blind and Frosch; the first proved rather 'one-note,' but as the drunken jailor he repeatedly brought down the house with Siff-crafted shtick. David Ward's Frank and Pohl's Ida gave fine support. Here's to a bubbly afternoon.. 
DAVID SHENGOLD
