Handel in the West Wing

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Feb. 11, 2005)

"Vita brevis amor edurat"

(Life is short, love endures").

These words in golden letters descended over the stage at the conclusion of Handel’s "Ariodante" Thursday night at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Patricia Corbett Theater.

Members of the chorus, having shed their black coats to reveal shirts and blouses of pristine white, beamed at the lovers Ariodante and Ginevra as the king placed his crown on Ariodante’s head.

The walls of the chamber – a kind of abstract "West Wing" – now bear the slogans (in Latin) "charity, constancy, faithfulness, love, dignity, honor."

But what’s this? A figure in black lurks at the edge of the stage.

"That’s politics" is what director Sandra Bernhard seems to be saying.

Politics is what Bernhard had in mind when she conceived this production by the CCM opera department.

Based on episodes from Ariosto’s "Orlando furioso," "Ariodante" is about intrigue at the Scottish court. Ariodante is a prince engaged to the king’s daughter Ginevra. Polinesso, a duke with designs on the throne, wishes to marry Ginevra himself. He persuades Ginevra’s secretary Dalinda to impersonate Ginevra and stage a fake tryst with him. Ariodante goes off to kill himself. Polinesso tries to step in, but all’s well that ends well when the plot is revealed and Polinesso is discredited (and killed).

Bernhard, in her first production since becoming CCM opera head in 2003, has updated Handel’s 1735 work to an unnamed modern country. The set, designed by CCM’s Paul Shortt, is framed with mirrors and black panels covered with numbers. A curving staircase represents the incline of power - the king presides there, Polinesso climbs to the top craving supremacy, Ariodante rolls down it cursing his fate.

The chorus – bureaucrats all - mill around, cell phones to their ears, rolling files on and off the stage and generally looking busy. They engage in a spectacular fight in act three when Polinesso is dispatched by Ariodante’s brother Lurcanio.

Music is what Handel operas are all about and the CCM forces delivered splendidly. Guest conductor William Averill, a CCM graduate pursuing his doctorate in early music at Indiana University, led with insight and skill.

There were lots of bravas for the cast (as opposed to bravos) and with good reason, since five of the seven roles were sung by women. Three of those were men’s roles. (Male roles in baroque opera were often written for high voices and would have been sung by castrati in Handel’s time.)

Singing Ariodante was Christy Pritchard, with Latoya Lain as Polinesso and Elizabeth Andrews Roberts as Lurcanio. All handled their assignments with distinction.

Pritchard and soprano Caitlin Lynch as Ginevra, poured deep feeling into their arias and duets. Pritchard’s "Scherza infida," in which the prostrate Ariodante laments his fate, was a highlight of the performance, while Lynch captured all of Ginevra’s complex emotions, from joy to devastation.

Soprano Audrey Luna as Dalinda was the evening’s vocal standout, with her pealing high notes and nimble coloratura, and she and Roberts made a delightful pair as Dalinda and Lurcanio discover each other at the end.

Baritone Corey Crider was highly effective as the King, a loving father who must nevertheless mete out justice to Ginevra when faced with her apparent wrongdoing.

A staging highlight was Ginevra’s delirium at the end of act two in which the chorus acted out a horrific, fog-bound vision of her wedding to Ariodante.

The opera is sung in Italian with English supertitles and is double cast. Repeats are 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Patricia Corbett Theater. (Thursday’s cast performs at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.) For tickets and information, call (513) 556-4183.

There will be a special dinner, "Ariodante’s Backstage Bites," including a discussion of "Ariodante" and CCM opera by Bernhard, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Mick and Mack’s Contemporary Café in UC’s Tangeman Center (just off the bridge behind CCM). $40 per couple, $25 individuals. Reservations: (513) 556-4553.