MUSIC REVIEW : Setting a Bit Too Modest for Revival of ‘Rose-Marie’

Some art forms readily conform to a radical reduction to theiressentials. Given first-rate singers and a fine orchestra, an opera in concert version can be just as moving as when it’s fully staged. Given talented actors with a love of language, Shakespeare can succeed in the round, without the assistance of elaborate sets or period costumes.

After attending San Diego Comic Opera’s shoestring version of “Rose-Marie” Thursday night at the Casa del Prado Theatre, however, it remains doubtful that a classic operetta from the 1920s can survive a thorough downsizing. In the golden age of American operetta, the book’s modest plot was camouflaged with the grand spectacle of chorus and dance. And equally grand voices distracted the listener’s attention from embarrassing dramatic lurches. It was no fluke that the first to perform the role of Rose-Marie, Mary Ellis, was a regular singer at the Metropolitan Opera.

“Rose-Marie” is set in the Canadian Rockies, since after World War I, the typical Middle European settings of Viennese operettas were both unfashionable and unpatriotic. In a conventional triangle, the sweet young French-Canadian Rose-Marie loves the handsome adventurer, Jim Kenyon, but her family wants her to wed her well-to-do suitor, Edward Hawley. Hawley frames Kenyon for a murder he caused in order to get his rival out of the country. Kenyon is trailed by an unusually slow-witted patrol of Canadian Mounties, who provide a touch of local color and ample chorus possibilities.

The local company has a fine singing actress in leading lady Christene Lindsay-Hildenbrand. Her bright soprano voice met all of Rose-Marie’s vocal challenges with high notes to spare, and her effervescent stage presence was good enough to clone. And it needed to have been. She was surrounded by leading men with as much charisma as cigar-store Indians.

Russ Lorenson, who played Rose-Marie’s romantic interest, Jim Kenyon (in the 1936 movie adaptation, this was the Nelson Eddy role), sang without a trace of ardor. There was no chemistry between the two ill-fated lovers, and it was not the soprano’s fault. As the villainous Edward Hawley, Russ Simbari appeared to be more of a self-absorbed dandy than a sharp-witted cad preying on the naive Rose-Marie. With the exception of Lindsay-Hildenbrand, the company’s singers had smallish voices that did not convey the characteristic lyrical arch of Rudolph Friml’s romantic tunes. Iris Brito brought genuine pathos to Wanda, the American Indian who bore the brunt of prejudice and callous treatment.

If the operetta’s serious drama never caught fire, San Diego Comic Opera did live up to its name in the comic relief category. J. Sherwood Montgomery’s purposely oafish but brilliantly timed buffoon, Hard-Boiled Herman, was adroitly paired by Harriet J. Whitman’s Lady Jane, a boisterous floozy with a permanent pout and a terminal Brooklyn accent. The duo consistently stole the show, even when their voices were only heard off stage. Kellie Evans-O’Connor turned out a classy sophisticate in Ethel Brander, Hawley’s partner in crime.

Leon Natker’s otherwise efficient direction was overly busy in the crowd scenes. But his staging solution for the pantomime--using a strobe light and having the actors employ the exaggerated gestures from early silent films--proved a winning solution for a particularly dated convention. Jack Klauschie’s inventive choreography for the Indian totem dance was a highlight, although the male dancers in a later ballroom scene made the waltz appear to be a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

Symptomatic of the production’s modest scale were the 12-piece ensemble approximating a pit orchestra and the chorus of 10 young men in red uniforms trying to pass for an entire Canadian Mountie regiment. Although conductor Chris Allen kept all of his forces in line with a clear, well-disciplined beat, the meager tonal output from the pit diminished his heroic efforts.

“ROSE-MARIE”

Book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II; music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart. Leon Natker, director; Chris Allen, conductor; Jack Klauschie, choreographer; Ron Vodicka and Darren Taylor, lighting design; Eric Flanken, costume coordinator. With Christene Lindsay-Hildenbrand, Russ Lorenson, Peter Craig Morse, Harriet J. Whitman, J. Sherwood Montgomery, Rafael Pinedo, Robert Cervantes, Russ Simbari, Iris Brito, and Kellie Evans-O’Connor. At the Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park, through April 7.