MUSIC REVIEW : ADMIRABLE EFFORT AT CAL STATE

Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” inspired a student cast to admirable efforts Friday at Cal State Fullerton. Only when the work turned toward pathos and sentiment did the production fall flat.

Dean Hess staged the work as a scintillating comedy of manners. He stressed the artificiality of operatic conventions through synchronizing stylized, clockwork gestures to Rossini’s buoyant musical phrases and rhythms.

He deftly positioned and repositioned the characters in symmetrical patterns and drew upon physical comedy--somewhat of a cross between commedia dell’arte and Laurel and Hardy--to provide irresistible exaggerated effects.

Still, he kept most of this within reasonable bounds. The sisters, for instance, despite their foot-high coiffures, were more silly than ugly. And the abuse they and their father heaped on Cinderella’s head seemed more discomfort than evil.

The students seemed to find the high jinks congenial, but were utterly unable to convey any credible sense of courtly elegance. And the final scene, when Cinderella forgives her tormentors, took place in a moral and emotional vacuum.

Vocally, the students responded to the composer’s florid demands with widely ranging security, but generally shared an inability to project the text--an English translation by Paul Csonka and Ariane Thesloef--clearly. Rossini’s quicksilver patter in particular became just so much squirrel chatter.

Still, showing promise were Karen Anacker (Cenerentola), Gregory Cross (Prince Ramiro), Susan Holsonbake (Clorinda) and Cathryn Tortell (Thisbe).

Edmund Williams led an occasionally pitch-plagued orchestra with an ebullience not always congenial for the youthful singers, but wondrously sympathetic to Rossini’s sparkling score.

The cast seen Friday will alternate with another in performances that begin on Thursday and continue through the weekend.