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Classical Music
Janelle Gelfand on the classical music scene


Janelle's pen has taken her to Japan, China, Carnegie Hall, Europe (twice), East and West Coasts, and Florida. In fact, Janelle was the first Enquirer reporter to report from Europe via e-mail -- in 1995.

Janelle began writing for the Cincinnati Enquirer as a stringer in 1991 while writing a Ph.D. dissertation in musicology at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She joined the Enquirer staff in 1993.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from Stanford University, Janelle has lived in Cincinnati for more than 30 years. In her free time, this pianist plays chamber music with her circle of musical friends in Cincinnati.

She covers the Cincinnati Symphony, May Festival and Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, chamber music ensembles, and as many recitals and events at CCM and NKU as possible.

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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Is Don Carlo coming to Cincinnati Opera?

Given that both Cincinnati Opera's general director/CEO Patty Beggs and artistic director Evans Mirageas were in the audience last weekend at LA Opera to see Verdi's epic opera Don Carlo, conducted by Cincinnati's James Conlon, one might wonder whether we might find it on an upcoming Cincinnati Opera season.

Sunday's production directed by Ian Judge in Dorothy Chandler Pavilion had a dream cast that included the fantastic Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra (Don Carlo), Lado Ataneli (Rodrigo), Dolora Zajick (the world's reigning Princess Eboli), Ferruccio Furlanetto (King Philip II), Annalisa Raspagliosi (Elisabeth de Valois) and Eric Halfvarson (The Grand Inquisitor). It was absolutely a knock-out. (The 1884 four-act version was sung in Italian.)

Verdi wrote this opera for Paris, so the opera is rich with spectacle, huge choruses and lavish scenes, yet it is also surprisingly intimate at times. The production would work in Music Hall, but I did not love the scenic design by John Gunter -- basically lots of interchangeable red and black arches painted with bloody, Goya-like images.

Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition, the tale (based on Schiller) mixes love and politics, and pits father against son, as Don Carlo becomes a champion of Flanders, a Protestant country. As Verdi expert Mary Jane Phillips writes in the notes, Philip was known as "the Catholic king, obsessed with driving heresy from his lands."

Or, as Evans Mirageas remarked at intermission, "What a wonderful day for an auto-da-fe."

Conlon was absolutely in synch with his singers, and the orchestra captured all the power, intensity and drama of this fascinating opera.

The highlight of Act I, of course, is Eboli's Veil Song. I would have liked more sensuousness in that moment, but Zajick brought rich characterization to her role of Eboli. And what a tenor! Licitra's singing was ardent, expressive and Italianate, reminiscent of a young Pavarotti. His friendship duet with Rodrigo was a showstopper. Ataneli, who has sung in Cincinnati, was truly impressive as Don Carlo's friend and the King's confident.

As the king, Furlanetto captured all the angst of his position as king and father; his scene with the Grand Inquisitor was a portrait of pain and grief. If Raspagliosi's role of Elisabeth was not as complete a portrait, her light soprano voice made a refreshing change from the intensity and power of the others.

Will it come to Cincinnati? We can only wish for a cast as great as this.


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