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"If Rossini had been in the audience on Thursday night at the Harry de Jur Playhouse, he would surely have found the stylish and witty new production of "Il Signor Bruschino" by the Gotham Chamber Opera as cheekily funny as everyone else did.
The revival was overdue. "Il Signor Bruschino," the last of five one-act farces Rossini wrote for the Teatro San Moisè in Venice between 1810 and 1813, was last staged in New York in 1933, according to the Gotham company.
In this frothy, youthful comedy, Rossini experiments with the comic gift for mistaken identities evident in his later opera "Il Barbiere di Siviglia." The Venetian poet Giuseppe Maria Foppa wrote the libretto for "Bruschino," based on "Le Fils par Hazard," a French farce. Two young lovers, Florville and Sofia, want to marry. But Florville is the son of an enemy of Gaudenzio, Sofia's guardian, who in any event has already promised her to the eminent Bruschino family. Florville waylays and impersonates the legitimate groom, then convinces Gaudenzio that he is Bruschino's son.
Thanks to Robin Guarino's clever directing, an opera that could be mere bumbling slapstick is sharp, with snappy comic timing. Donald Eastman's set updates the action to the Via Veneto in Rome in about 1960. The costume designer Martin Pakledinaz presents Florville, sung by Alek Shrader, as a sort of Marcello Mastroianni, and Sofia, sung by Lisa Hopkins, as a demurely dressed Anita Ekberg.
There were other Felliniesque touches, like a Vespa, a bicycle, a priest and a scampering little boy who knocks on a door to mirror the moment in the overture when the violinists tap their music stands with their bows.
"Il Signor Bruschino" has plenty of tongue-twisting recitative and vocal acrobatics, but none of the strong cast seemed trapped in a coloratura torture chamber. At times they even made a merry farce of Rossini's bel canto obstacle course.
There was fiery chemistry between Ms. Hopkins and Mr. Shrader, both promising performers, who sang with good phrasing and control. Eric Jordan gave a fine, confident performance as the jovial, fabulously named Gaudenzio Strappapuppole, who almost seems a personification of Rossini, a cheery, witty gourmand.
Signor Bruschino was updated from a generic buffo character to an oily, scholarly-looking, suit-clad neurotic, excellently acted and sung by Marco Nistico.
As the maid Marianna, Emily Langford Johnson was a sexy, Sophia Loren-like flirt, while Filiberto, the burly barman, was sung with aplomb by Matthew Lau. Steven Goldstein, as the police commissioner and priest, was also strong.
Neal Goren, Gotham's artistic director, conducted a lively, tight performance of the chirpy score. Rossini reportedly declared that he was "born for opera buffa." On Thursday night it seemed that this cast had been as well."
- Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, January 27, 2007
"In its seventh season, Neal Goren's Gotham Chamber Opera scored another distinct success... The ostensible lynchpin of the enterprise [is] the noteworthy skill of the founder/conductor in forging a stylish ensemble from well-chosen orchestral force... As one has come to expect, Goren also fielded singers manifestly talented and well suited to their roles�The romantic leads are the kind of camera-ready young singers today's marketing directors dream of. Fortunately, unlike all too many so-termed "total package" artists these days, they can also sing�The audience left happy."
- David Shengold, Opera News, April 2007
"Artistic Director Neal Goren conducts a fizzy performance, as lively as a Broadway musical."
- Harry Forbes, Back Stage, January 30, 2007
"Thank god for the Gotham Chamber opera, which mounted a glorious, delectable winter trifle in the form of Il Signor Bruschino, a one-act Rossini opera as clever and delightful as anything onstage now in New York. Set in 1960s Rome, Director Robin Guarino's fabulous version was a veritable homage to the films of Federico Fellini with beautiful costumes by Tony-winner Martin Pakledinaz and exquisite singing by a cast of newcomers."
- David Hurst, Next Magazine, February 1, 2007
"Neal Goren has a real knack for locating fascinating, overlooked operas and matching them up with gifted directors."
- Celia Ipiotis, Eye on the Arts, January 26, 2007
"The intimate Harry de Jur Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center suited this frolic perfectly."
- Jack Anderson, New York Theatre Wire, March 3, 2007
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