Publication Date: Friday Oct 20, 2000

Sheer power

Most of the time, the discerning opera-goer looks for lead singers with intelligent phrasing, a care for dynamics and tone and an ability to match up the music with their characters. Occasionally, however, you just have to drop all that and pay tribute to sheer, unadulterated power. Just such an occasion arrived at West Bay Opera's "La Traviata," in which soprano Barbara Divis' larger-than-life fortissimos seemed to dig right into the reptilian brain, creating the kind of alarmed response usually reserved for rollercoaster rides and road rage.

It's clear that Verdi wrote the part of Violetta--inspired by the kept woman of Alexandre Dumas' play, "The Lady of the Camellias"--with just such a voice in mind. During "Sempre libera," her famous first-act declaration of independence, Violetta literally tries to drown out the far-off love song of her all-too-tempting suitor, Alfredo, with brilliant pealing cadenzas.

Divis does everything with the aria but throw lightning bolts into the audience. It wouldn't be half so effective, however, were it not for her equal attention to the softer dynamics: the pianissimo sigh of "mysterioso" in describing her new lover, the half-volume restatement of the piece's a capella pauses, even the final fortissimo, where you anticipate a single blast of dynamite, but Divis instead cultivates a spinning piano-to-triple-f crescendo.

No surprise that Violetta and her suitor are soon in love and living together in the country (opera plots are all about efficiency), but the bond seems a little more believable given the lovely tonal blend of Divis with her Alfredo, tenor Jonathan Boyd, in the first-act duet, "Un di felice, eterea." Boyd went on to suffer a few small cracks and baubles before finally loosening up in the second act, about the time that Alfredo starts crashing parties and throwing cash at his now-former lover (nothing heals the voice like a good fit of jealous rage).

Alfredo's father, Giorgio, is a problematic character at best-- proceeding from the arrogance of "saving" his son from Violetta's stained reputation to his humbling in the face of her sacrifice and illness--but baritone Richard Rovin doesn't help matters by playing his first scene so tough. Rovin is handicapped by a naturally imposing stage presence, but he could probably leave that door open for Giorgio's later redemption by using less dark cover on his equally imposing voice.

Peter Crompton's second-act set, a suitably impressionistic backdrop of the French countryside, got its very own applause, and his silhouettes of the Paris skyline--accomplished with the help of lighting designer Chad Bonaker--deserved one, as well. Costumer Leon E. Wiebers pitched in with Violetta's dazzling white, copper-fringed party dress.

After a couple of early tempo-debates with her principals, music director Mary Chun led the orchestra admirably, and you have to give the first violins (Virginia Smedberg, Lina Bouze, Carla Kountoupes and Heather Anne Haughn) extra kudos for those lovely appoggiaturas (a rhythmically strong dissonant grace note) preceding Violetta's swan song, "Addio, del passato."

As for the swan singer, Divis' playing of the whole deathbed scene was just masterful. She sang "Addio, del passato" as if she had one foot already on the other side, and handled the scene's unrealistic fortes (unlikely to come, after all, from a woman dying of consumption) by delivering them as all-consuming cries of agony and helplessness.

What: West Bay Opera's "La Traviata"

When: 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday. 2 p.m. matinee Sunday.

Where: Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto

Cost: Tickets are $36

Info: Call (650) 424-9999 or visit wbopera.org 

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