Rimsky-Korsakov Operas

[Finn_McCool]

I caught the second-to-last performance of Bel Cantanti's staging of "The Tsar's Bride" last Saturday. There was a good-sized crowd in the small theater, including support from the local Russian community.  The company director, from Belarus, expressed her desire before the performance to share Russian culture by presenting Rimsky-Korsakov operas like "The Tsar's Bride", "Sadko" (last season – sorry I missed it!) and "May Night" (next season, apparently).  It was obviously a labor of love to put on this opera and I'm going to say that the company largely succeeded.  I was impressed with the voices of the young singers, although some singers had more stage presence than others.  The synopsis in the program was a little confusing and the opera started off a little slowly for me.   Each character got a chance to lament his or her own situation and, while some of the arias were quite lovely, I was not fully engaged until midway through the second act when the plot picked up steam and I was able to figure who was who and what everyone's motivations were.  After that, I was totally engaged.  The Marfa character got all the best music and I think the singer who was cast in the role was probably the best performer overall.  She really got into the character, including a convincing mad scene at the end.  I would say the whole cast gave it their all and a couple, like the singer who played Marfa, really stood out.  I will definitely have to seek out a recording of the opera to hear the full orchestration.  The small orchestra (four strings, four winds and a piano) only rose up to a big orchestral thrill once, which was probably to be expected.  The sets lived up to my expectations, which were not much.  Really minor quibbles, though.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was good to see a nice turnout for the unsung composer!