THEATER REVIEW : Dramatic Opera Has Premiere

A world premiere dramatic opera that opened Wednesday at the San Diego Repertory Theatre has had four years and generous grants to support its development, but co-librettists Julie Hebert and Octavio Solis have come up with a tale with scant relevance or interest to contemporary audiences.

Very loosely inspired by Calderon de la Barca’s 17th-Century Spanish play “Life Is a Dream,” “Burning Dreams” tells the story of Rosaura, a 17-year-old adopted California girl who discovers in a dream that her biological mother died giving birth to her and a twin brother who also died.

Under the co-direction of Hebert and San Diego Rep producing director Sam Woodhouse, this passive story is plumbed for over two hours of operatic anguish in English and Spanish (the parents hail from an island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico). It’s a slooooow evening.

Don’t blame the performers--kudos to the passionate and powerful vocal delivery of Alex Britton as the angry biological papa, Cheryl Carter as the doomed biological mother, Catalina Maynard as the luckless midwife, Anita De Simone as Rosaura and Rinde Eckert, fascinating as the grown, bald and babyish-looking dead twin in pink long johns.

The warm greens and golds and cool blues of Robert Brill’s poetic set provide welcome, occasional relief to glazed eyes. Gina Leishman’s modern music composition is haunting at times, well executed by Leishman and six additional on-stage musicians, but hard to separate from the banality of the story. Deborah Slater’s choreography, John Phillip Martin’s lighting, Mary Larson’s costumes, Jeff Ladman’s sound add to the piece’s professional sheen.

But there’s nothing under the sheen. And that’s the true tragedy of “Burning Dreams”--so much talent is wasted.

* “Burning Dreams,” San Diego Repertory Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.; Feb. 23, 2 p.m. Ends March 5. $18-$24. (619) 235-8025. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.