MUSIC REVIEW : Garden Grove Symphony’s ‘Night at the Opera’ Is a Lukewarm Potpourri

It wasn’t encouraging Saturday night at Don Wash Auditorium to read the printed program for the Garden Grove Symphony’s “Night at the Opera”: It announced that conductor Edward Peterson and singers Celeste Tavera (soprano) and Dennis McNeil (tenor) had up their sleeves such selections as “A rendetemi la speme ‘Quila Voce Sua Soave’ ” from a work apparently called “I. Puritani” by somebody named “Beleni,” as well as “E Strana a Forsec Lui Sempre Libra,” apparently by Verdi, and other anomalies.

Peterson opened the potpourri proceedings with a slow, earthbound “Zauberflote” Overture so lacking in any Mozartean magic that even its correct designation seemed to be one of those malapropos program listings.

Frederick Charlton, the orchestra’s principal bass player, ventured the A-major Concerto for Doublebass by Bottesini, a piece short on inspiration but long on technical demands. Charlton struggled valiantly with these, occasionally managing a fine run or a songful line. But the constant excursions into harmonics taxed him severely, as did the need to produce pure, carrying sound. At the high end of the pitch spectrum, intonation often was aberrant.

Tavera and McNeil presented their credentials in arias from “Rigoletto.” Her “Caro nome” revealed a warm, attractive middle voice, solid low register, and a top, not as secure, that could turn hard.

McNeil lost the rhythm immediately in a lackluster “Questa o quella” but recovered with the ingenuity of a real musician. His Flower Song from “Carmen” was decidedly better, he prescribed diminuendo on top B-flat nicely accomplished.

Naturally, the Verdi excerpt proved to be the great recitative (“E strano”), cavatina (“Ah, fors’ e lui”) and cabaletta (“Sempre libera”) that end the first act of “La Traviata,” not an aria about the seventh sign in the Zodiac. Tavera’s generalized delivery included some thin as well as lustrous sound, and only modest agility. In her “Puritani” aria, the subtle delicacy of Bellini’s writing for both soloist and orchestra found no embodiment.

In Bizet’s first “Carmen” Suite, previously persistent orchestral scrappiness evaporated, intonation and rhythm were consistent, and the woodwinds made it all sing.