MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Gypsy Baron’ of Topical Note

Today’s Europe more closely resembles the Central European landscape depicted in Johann Strauss Jr.’s “The Gypsy Baron” than any other time in the past 50 years. Balkan wars, rising nationalism, class conflict and the revival of prejudice against Gypsies give the 1885 Viennese operetta, which is set in the 18th Century, an unexpected currency.

Not content with evident parallels, the San Diego Comic Opera production of “The Gypsy Baron,” which opened Friday at Balboa Park’s Casa del Prado Theatre, borrowed a line from this year’s Republican convention. Stage director Leon Natker transformed the character of the unctuous royal commissioner of public morals into the “commissioner of public morals and family values.” (A bad omen for Republican candidates: The decidedly mainstream Comic Opera audience loved the put-down.)

“The Gypsy Baron,” which is the younger Strauss’ finest stage work after “Die Fledermaus,” recounts the adventures of Sandor Barinkay, a provincial Hungarian lad who is made an honorary baron by a troupe of Gypsies he befriends. Through his military valor, he eventually earns a real title from the crown and is allowed to marry Saffi, the comely Gypsy maiden who turns out to be--in true operetta tradition--the royal daughter of the last Turkish pasha to rule eastern Hungary.

It would be an egregious overstatement to claim that this English-language production exhausted the operetta’s musical and dramatic possibilities, but Natker and company did present an agreeable facsimile. He chose strong voices for most of the principal roles, expanded the pit orchestra from the usual 12 to 25 players--a convincing ensemble for the hall--and upgraded the sound system. On the debit side, the director pushed his singers toward caricature rather than thoughtful characterization, and the evening’s humor regularly teetered on the edge of slapstick.

Soprano Sylvia Wen made a stellar San Diego Comic Opera debut as Saffi. The Chinese soprano’s combination of vocal brilliance and subtle characterization gave this production a level of sophistication that has consistently eluded the company in its four-year climb from a church basement Gilbert & Sullivan troupe to a professional comic opera company. Instead of punching out her lines like a singer in a B-grade Hollywood musical, Wen deftly shaped every phrase as if Mozart or Verdi had written it. The gleam of her upper range was telling both in solo arias and as the soaring top of full chorus finales.

Natker, who is also the company’s artistic director, cast himself in the title role. He made a confident, winsome suitor, and he sparkled in the jaunty parlando sections. But when an effulgent, romantic melody was about to soar, his light tenor voice thinned out, and he was easily outsung by Wen.

On the other hand, baritone Richard Wright, a company regular who sang Barinkay’s nemesis Kalman Zsupan, used his ample voice with more bluster than his character required.

In the role of Ottokar, Andrew Richards’ promising, well-focused tenor served him well. But as his sweetheart Arsena, soprano Jane Bishop cultivated a Marilyn Monroe pout that was both ridiculously out of place and constricting to her vocal technique.

Lisbeth Abramson’s dusky contralto aptly fit the Gypsy seer Czipra, although her upper range proved shaky. Ed Hollingsworth’s deadpan humor as the royal commissioner of public morals and family values was matched by William Nolan’s aristocratic swagger as Count Homonay.

Conductor Chris Allen kept the big choral scenes together with a firm hand, but could not coax confidence from his instrumentalists in the more delicate, exposed circumstances. As in most recent SDCO productions, the chorus was the company’s most reliable asset.

Costume designer Pamela Stompoly outdid herself with colorful Gypsy finery and splashy military outfits for the Hussars, capturing the period with evident flare. J. Sherwood Montgomery’s all-purpose woodland set was adequate, and Ron Vodicka’s predictable lighting misfired a couple of times on opening night.

* San Diego Comic Opera’s production of “The Gypsy Baron,” by Johann Strauss Jr.; libretto by Ignaz Schnitzer, translated by Christopher L. Sherwood. With Andrew Richards, Lisbeth Abramson, Ed Hollingsworth, Leon Natker, Scott Wilson, Richard Wright, Pamela Porter Arnold, Jane Bishop, Sylvia Wen, Judith Chertkow-Levy, Tina Coffey, Jack Garcia, Robert Vroom and William Nolan. Directed by Leon Natker; conducted by Chris Allen; costumes by Pamela Stompoly; set design by J. Sherwood Montgomery, and lighting by Ron Vodicka. Oct. 2-4 at the Casa del Prado Theatre, Balboa Park. Tickets $12-$18 (239-8836).