If you grew weary of all that “Hooray for Hollywood” stuff during Oscars weekend, maybe you could use a shot of bitters with your Kool-Aid. Minnesota Opera provides that with Minneapolis-based composer Dominick Argento’s “The Dream of Valentino,” which demonstrates how Hollywood can build and tear down a legend in quick order.
That legend is Rudolph Valentino, a silent film star who became the prime male sex symbol of the early 1920s. In this telling of his story, the Italian immigrant aspired to become a great stage actor but was soon delivered into Hollywood’s clutches, where he became a sensation before battles ensued over who owned Valentino and his career ended as quickly as it started.
It might have the makings of a great opera, but the 1994 work Argento created with librettist Charles Nolte (like Argento, a longtime University of Minnesota professor) doesn’t delve deeply enough into the issues it raises. It could be more sexy, more insightful, the conflicts and characters more sharply drawn. But the Minnesota Opera production is musically well executed, standing as an excellent example of Argento’s angular style.
If old-fashioned romantic melodicism is what you seek, Argento’s score provides little of that. He tends to take vocal lines in unexpected directions, seldom letting you rest in the comfort of common structures and resolutions. Phrases fly upward when you’re expecting down and vice versa. It’s tricky stuff for singers, and the Minnesota Opera cast handles it admirably, as do conductor Christoph Campestrini and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. Standouts are soprano Brenda Harris and bass-baritone Alan Held as the two chief adversaries in the battle over Valentino. In both voice and characterization, they are the two most magnetic figures onstage.
Speaking of magnetism, that was what put Rudolph Valentino on the map, the penetrating gaze of his “bedroom eyes” considered “catnip for the ladies” and box office gold. For all of the times journalists have said tenor James Valenti has “matinee idol looks,” he at last plays a genuine matinee idol. He looks as good as usual and sings the only two arias he’s offered with supple strength. But he lacks the grace and stage presence for which this role seems to beg.
It might seem paradoxical to say this two-hour opera clips along yet feels slow-moving at the same time. Consider that a conflict between Argento and Nolte’s opera, which takes us from one key moment in Valentino’s brief career to another, and Eric Simonson’s direction, which chooses smoothness over swiftness in each gesture and transition. While it does lend a dreamlike aura to the action, it softens the impact of what could be a hard-hitting lesson on how individuals sell themselves and are sold by others.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.
What: Minnesota Opera’s “The Dream of Valentino”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $200-$20, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org
Capsule: A musically strong production, but the opera doesn’t go deep enough to be gripping.
