Despite recession, SD opera honcho sings about 2010 season

By Jeff Britton

SDUN Music Critic

Along with “Carmen” and “Aida,” “La Boheme” is one of the most popular and frequently staged operas. The story is so compelling that there have been numerous modern adaptations, including the Broadway musicals “Rent” and Baz Luhrmann’s outrageous 1950’s version with actors strutting around in leather jackets and T-shirts.

So it is fitting in these uncertain economic times that San Diego Opera kicks off its new season Jan. 30 with Puccini’s timeless masterpiece.

The recession has resulted in four operas this year instead of the usual five, and one less performance of each. SD Opera general and artistic director Ian Campbell sees that trend continuing for the next few years at least since opera companies are often the last to benefit from an economic recovery.

“When we saw the economy turning, we looked at our track record and were able to reduce the budget by $2 million,” Campbell says. “Many companies are living on lines of credit. Los Angeles Opera required a huge government stipend and even the Met has had to cut back.”

Campbell, who has been with the company since 1983, feels that four operas is the optimum level since bookings are required several years in advance. The 2013 season is already booked, for example.

The current season is a reasonable mix of the tried and true such as “Boheme” and “La Traviata,” which concludes the season in April, and slightly adventurous fare such as Verdi’s “Nabucco” and Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Last staged in San Diego 29 years ago during a summer Verdi festival, “Nabucco” may end up being the sleeper success of the season. Based on the biblical story, it tells of the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s eventual conversion to the Jewish faith. It is very much a choral opera with the famous Hebrew chorus “va pensiero” at its heart and soul.

But for any opera novices willing to dip their toes into this loftiest of the performing arts, “La Boheme” is a perfect primer. It centers on a poor seamstress, Mimi, and her poet lover, Rodolfo, who live in a dank Parisian garret amid a group of bohemian friends who love song and dance as much as their art. Mimi’s tragic death underscores the timeless theme of love and loss.

Campbell attributes its appeal to the wondrous melodies from beginning to end and characters with whom we all can identify. The passion is so great, including jealousy, that we live their lives with them.

“It’s all very human. We share their joy in the café in Act 2, and the heat is still there but it has become a damaging heat by the last act,” Campbell observes. “So many operas are about kings and queens – even in ‘Madama Butterfly’ we are in an exotic place, but everyone can relate to the loss and complexity of love (in ‘Boheme’).”

He also cites Puccini’s lush orchestration, heavy on strings, for warmly touching hearts and wrapping around audiences with its rich melodies.

Most importantly, the cast features some extraordinary talent, he said. Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, in his San Diego debut, will sing Rodolfo. The veteran of major opera houses in London, New York, Vienna, San Francisco and Zurich is on such a career arc that he is booked through 2014. Campbell describes him as the kind of tenor that only emerges every now and then, with a lustrous voice of elegance and class. Beczala doesn’t just sing the notes, he says, but uses color and style of line in his delivery.

Campbell is equally effusive about Ellie Dehn as Mimi, whom he first heard during 2007 auditions in New York where he wrote on her audition evaluation, “This is a voice with a huge potential.” In her twenties, the American soprano will debut the role of Mimi, but has already sung major roles at La Scala, San Francisco and Munich, among others.

Perhaps his most heartfelt praise is for longtime San Diego resident Priti Gandhi: “Priti grew up in San Diego and was a mezzo in the chorus and smaller roles. She has since moved into a higher tessitura from mezzo to soprano.”

Gandhi assays the role of Musetta, whose famous “Musetta’s Waltz” is one of the great standards of the operatic repertoire. Its swaying melody of bonhomie is the most recognizable in Puccini’s lush score.

This production is also the first time both the stage director and the conductor are women. San Diego Opera’s longtime resident conductor, Karen Keltner, will join E. Loren Meeker in her company directing debut. Five years ago, she was Campbell’s assistant stage director on “Boheme,” and he says she is now more than ready to assume the mantle.

Performances are Jan. 30 and Feb. 2, 5 and 7 at the San Diego Civic Theatre downtown. For more information, call (619) 533-7000 or go to www.sdopera.com.