It may all be a matter of taste, but a lot of us find Baroque opera, well, boring. All those arias recycling identical forms and similar melodies . . . Even if you enjoy what you’re hearing initially, after intermission your mind may be screaming Basta! regardless of the performers’ talent.
So if Long Beach Opera were bound and determined to kick off Artistic Director James Darrah’s second season (after not one but two show cancellations related to personnel issues that are outside the scope of this review) with Handel’s Giustino, it was probably a savvy nod to the large percentage of non-purists that make up their subscriber base to throw in numerous contemporary wrinkles that would Handel spinning. But whether you think this Tejano take on the internecine conflict that led to the ascension of Byzantine Emperor Justin I succeeds depends largely on your expectations and focus. For example, where do you stand on Handel turned disco?
One fine day, young Giustino (Luke Elmer) is visited by Fortune (j) with tidings of glory and riches, the opportunity for which soon knocks in the form of Emperor Anastasio (Marlaina Owens) soliciting Giustino’s help rescuing his wife Arianna (Anna Schubert) from rebel kidnappers Amanzio (Douglas Williams) and Vitaliano (Orson Van Gay). Or something like that. The plot was convoluted before Darrah tinkered with it, and tinker he has (the libretto has been “taken apart and reassembled by Darrah,” LBO tells us), to the point that we aren’t sure exactly who Leocasta (Amanda Lynn Bottoms) is. (It certainly didn’t help that a 7:30pm start time this late in SoCal spring makes the supertitles unreadable for the first 20 minutes.)
But when I go to the opera, I don’t give a fuck about fidelity to Handel or the lives of the Byzantine emperors or even plot — just give me spectacle! On this count, there is fun to be had with this Giustino. Even before white-suited Fortune sashays onto the scene with moneybag in hand and Día de los Muertos iconography on her sleeves, the Big Gulp cup at the foot of the yellow motel bed where Giustino slumbers is enough to let us know this isn’t going to be your great-great-grandfather’s Handel. There’s visual pleasure in the characters’ color schemes: Leocasta’s long yellow stockings and platform heels, Vitaliano’s green tracksuit, evil Amanzio as a man in black, Arianna’s orange and Anastasio’s minor symphony of beige. Giustino is the least distinct — but those boots! Kudos to costumer Adam Rigg for a color-coded hodgepodge of fun that provides the audience with ready identifiers.
Rather than go for the mannered acting one expects with opera of old, Darrah’s cast is often fast and loose with their choices. This isn’t always successful — sometimes they’re a bit unfocused, while at others they are too restrained — but it’s good fun when they hit the sweet spot. Delightful, for example, is Van Gay’s entrance: he sets down a six-pack of beer on top of the motel-room TV, then joyously works the catwalk in anticipation of the mayhem he will soon cause.
Nothing about LBO’s Giustino is likely to be more divisive than the music, particularly the use of trap drum kit and electric guitar and bass. It’s quite a shock the first time an aria is suddenly discofied by an eruption of four-on-the-floor from the rhythm section. But hey, spectacle! You can’t fault composer/arranger/sound designer Shelley Washington for lack of courage, even as you lament her inability to sonically integrate these instruments with the rest of the orchestra. And while perhaps this failure can be chalked up to logistical difficulties inherent to such an intimate outdoor space, the occasional seeming randomness of axillary percussion is simply puzzling.
Vocally, there’s a lot to like. Anna Schubert’s smooth command of everything she voices stands out in a show with a lot of standout moments across the board; but because I’m no fan of Handel, it’s the personality the entire casts bring with their technical prowess that wins me over. Even Doug Williams, who was having vocal issues serious enough to merit a pre-show announcement and ostensibly forced him to sing his part an octave low, worked his role successfully (particularly when he finds his inner fabulousness in Act Two). And perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Luke Elmer’s embodiment of the title role is how his acting makes his fine singing seem like an afterthought.
Curiously, LBO’s staging does not deliver as promised. “The action of the scenes will move amongst the audience and to different parts of the location,” says LBO’s website, “and will be live-filmed to create a movie within an opera playing at all times.” This is simply untrue. Although there are entrances from offstage between bleacher sections set up in the MoLAA sculpture garden, not once are the performers “amongst the audience”; and only a couple of scenes are “live-filmed,” with most having no video accompaniment other than static, generic Southwest landscapes that background the supertitles.
Similarly, the lighting does not fully deliver on the possibilities inherent to the combination of MoLAA’s outdoor grid and what LBO adds to the scene. What’s nice at the outset feels static by Act Two, and only toward the finale does LBO layer enough lighting cues to make things interesting again.
No, Long Beach Opera’s Giustino does not fully deliver on concept — and yes, that concept will be unpalatable to purists. But Darrah and company produce enough positive energy to give a philistine like me a pretty good time with Handel. And that’s no easy trick.
Long Beach Opera’s Giustino
Details: May 28, 7:30 pm
Location: Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave. Long Beach 90802
More Info: molaa.org, LongBeachOpera.org