Music Reviews : Richard Bernstein Proves Worthy of Status Change

Richard Bernstein vaulted from the minor leagues to the big leagues Monday when he sang Figaro for the first time in the final Los Angeles Music Center Opera presentation of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

His prior credits had included Colline in Puccini’s “La Boheme,” the Friar in “Don Carlo” and the even less prominent role of the Commissioner in that composer’s “Madama Butterfly,” both for the home opera team, which also has announced him as Orest in Strauss’ “Elektra” next season.

It seemed his career was advancing at a vertiginous rate, but Bernstein proved that the company’s faith in him was justified.

Bernstein possesses a big, dark bass-baritone, unclouded, finely focused and even through most of the range, although at the top it tended to turn chalky. There was more steel than velvet in the voice, which was not necessarily a disadvantage here. Sometimes the tone thinned out, but not alarmingly.

As did his predecessor, Bernstein sang the embellishments from the Barenreiter score in “Non piu andrai.” And like his predecessor--and in fact the rest of his previously reviewed colleagues--Bernstein occasionally appeared discomfited by the erratic, sometimes even unsympathetic musical direction of Markus Stenz.

Still, there was nothing tentative about Bernstein’s Figaro. He acted the role with impetuous enthusiasm and confident, robust manliness.