Operatic Operations in ‘Puccini Project’

Playwright Howard Burman takes a nasty tumble off the current theatrical season’s Puccini bandwagon with “The Puccini Project” at CalRep.

Based on an actual incident, the play concerns a scandal involving Puccini (Patric Taylor), his jealous wife Elvira (Katie Johnson) and Doria (April Hall), a young serving girl who’s dismissed and publicly humiliated by Elvira, who accuses her of having an affair with Puccini. When the girl, actually a virgin, subsequently drinks a lethal dose of poison, Elvira winds up being tried on criminal charges.

It’s a scenario of operatic proportions. Supposedly to drive home that point, gold-robed opera singers--including L.A. Opera’s Jonathan Mack at selected performances--warble intermittent arias to comment, Greek chorus-style, on the dramatic events. Lolling on the sidelines, characters observe the action through feathered masks, breaking into applause at the conclusion of each scene.

One assumes that such a theatricalized staging is meant as a sardonic commentary on how, in Puccini’s case at least, life cruelly imitated art, but Burman and director Joanne Gordon lard the proceedings with so much stylistic tripe that the dramatic thrust is largely lost. The actors range from the competent to the overblown, as do Ronda Dynice Brooks’ costumes and Danila Korogodsky’s set design.

* “The Puccini Project,” California Repertory Co. at the Studio Theatre, Cal State Long Beach, 7th Street and West Campus Drive. Wednesdays, 6 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees this Saturday and Oct. 18, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 25. $15. (310) 985-7000. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.