ENTERTAINMENT

Opera review: Sarasota Opera stages a ‘Happy’ delight

Gayle Williams

Correspondent

Alexander Charles Boyd, left, as Tarabotto and Hanna Brammer as Isabella in a scene from Rossini’s “The Happy Deception” at the Sarasota Opera.

The Sarasota Opera season opened a new, COVID-altered season Friday night with “The Happy Deception,” a one-act farce by Gioachino Rossini that proves an absolute delight through and through.

The choice to replace the typical full-length, full-drama productions of the company’s winter season with shorter, less-familiar operas with smaller casts is one of the most brilliant pivots in the local arts world since the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Happy Deception” (“L’inganno felice”) premiered at the Teatro San Moise, Venice in 1812. It was Rossini’s second of four “farse” in which his talent for lyrical beauty and the use of enlivening rhythm to quicken the action was already in full display.

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Musically, the 19-year-old Rossini seemed to pour on the ornamental and florid lines for all the voices, but none more so than for the Duke’s lovely wife, Isabella, given a moving portrayal by soprano Hanna Brammer.

The story centers around Isabella’s life after her husband, Bertrando, was duped by his brutish friend Ormondo into believing she had cheated on him. In fact, Ormondo exacted his revenge after she rebuffed his advances by ordering his lackey, Batone, to abandon her at sea. After being rescued by the miner Tarabotto, Isabella lives for 10 years disguised as his niece before the Duke and his entourage come to town.

If this sounds like the typical operatic melodrama, it almost is, but – spoiler alert! – no one dies at the end and the lovers are reunited.

Christopher Bozeka as Duke Bertrando and Alexander Charles Boyd as Tarabotto in Sarasota Opera’s production of “The Happy Deception” by Rossini.

The music and the strength of the vocal actors turn the production into an evening of pure and charming diversion. Brammer’s Isabella is at once courageous and defiant and next fretting and fearful. This dichotomy of her character feels authentic despite some of the wild vocal acrobatics Rossini’s score throws at her.

As Bertrando, tenor Christopher Bozeka enters the action with bravura in stance and voice in an aria matching wits with an equally brave and acrobatic flute line in the orchestra. Both are flexible and accurate to our amazement given the challenges.

When we first meet baritone Alexander Charles Boyd’s Tarabotto, he is discovering Isabella’s hidden past. Boyd fully captures the strength of character and forthrightness of the man who engineers the happy ending.

Soprano Hanna Brammer as the heroine Isabella in Rossini’s “The Happy Deception” at Sarasota Opera.

The somewhat muddled hitman Batone plays an unlikely comic role despite being bullied by Ormondo. The two baritones, Batone’s tall Joseph Beutel to Ormondo’s more squat Joshua Devane, counter each other well in the drama, though Devane could be even more aggressive in tone. The beauty of Rossini’s music made that harder to imagine.

For lovers of Rossini’s more well-known operas like “The Barber of Seville,” many elements of the score will feel very familiar. There’s almost a formula to Rossini’s long string of successes being tested in these early operas. “Happy Deception” features many vocal lines with ornamented detail. The running eighth note “patter” for the baritones is used to insert both rhythmic drama and comic commentary under the lyricism. And most, enjoyable of all, Rossini worked his magic with three and four voice in ensemble to heighten the energy as the finale approached.

From the first notes of the overture – which itself holds up to Rossini’s career-long high standards under the baton of Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi – there is a sparkle to this production. When the curtain rose Friday night, a collective intake of breath was heard in appreciation of the scenic detail – a commanding tree, mountains in the background and the miner’s hut and mine shaft entrance in the foreground. It was clear that the team for set design and lighting had planned well. Kudos to stage director Martha Collins, costume designer Howard Tvsi Kaplan, lighting designer Ken Yunker, and hair and makeup designer Kellen Eason.

‘The Happy Deception’

By Gioachino Rossini. Conducted by Victor DeRenzi, directed by Martha Collins. Reviewed Friday, Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. Through Feb. 25. Tickets start at $25 for in-person performances. More information: 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org