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Strategies & Market Trends : Groundhog Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (3217)	5/4/2002 6:50:03 PM
From: John Pitera	Respond to of 6346

it'll be a night at the Opera for me -g- wonder if the Marx Brothers will be there -g- Paper: Houston Chronicle Date: TUE 04/30/02 Section: HOUSTON Page: 1 Edition: 2 STAR Splashy `Samson ' recounts earlier Mideast turmoil By CHARLES WARD Staff Israelis at war over Gaza on the Wortham Theater stage? Camille Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah , which opened Friday in a splashy Houston Grand Opera production starring Denyce Graves, may tell a millennia-old story. But there was no missing the reminder that today's Mideast turmoil is not just the result of recent diplomatic miscalculations. Led by the strongman Samson , the Israelites rebel against the Dagon-worshipping Philistines, burning their crops and filling them with fear. Enter revenge-seeking Delilah , who employs the diplomatic tool that no Cardinal Richelieu or Metternich could ever use quite so effectively: sex. She pouts and stomps until she learns Samson 's secret (thus explaining why the Gaza franchise of Supercuts failed). She then cuts his hair, and he loses his superhuman strength - until, in one last gift of God's grace, he is able to pull down the central supporting columns of the Temple of Dagon and kill all the ruling class inside. Sex as diplomacy has a special allure that the mere lies of Richelieu could never top. So this Jacqueline Susann-style tale lives on, in biblical words and Saint-Saens' voluptuous music. But it takes more than just the central character to make the opera sizzle. At Sunday's matinee, Graves had the right colleagues in Russian tenor Sergej Larin (Samson ), American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley (the High Priest) and Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan. Graves sounded great and looked equally smashing. Excepting a couple of thin high notes, her sound was rich and creamy. Her Mon couer s'oeuvre a ta voix, the work's signature aria, was dreamy. No wonder Samson gave in. Larin, who sings in the major European houses, made a very appealing Houston debut. His voice didn't have a heroic ping, but his lyrical outpourings were achingly effective, and his sense of drama was solid. It certainly didn't hurt that he was bidding for the role of Samuel Ramey's successor as opera's champion chest-barer. Grimsley was an excellent foil as the third party. He sang meatily when confronting Delilah over the need to have her spy for the Philistines (he never suspected she hated Samson ). He never overshadowed the leads, either. Jordan, the musical head of the opera and orchestra in Graz, Austria, and son of Armin Jordan, head of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for many years, was an ideal conductor for a production reminiscent of Hollywood's best biblical melodramas. His good looks and expressive hands, seemingly willed to him from Leopold Stokoswki, were just the obvious assets. He had a sure instinct of musical drama, which he conveyed with sharp flourishes. But his sense for color, nuance and mystery was even better. The Houston Grand Opera Orchestra played well for him. However, listeners could have wished for a virtuoso ensemble to turn his musical vision into a more electric reality. The production by Nicholas Joel came from the San Francisco Opera. Its show curtain vividly called up memories of fanciful Egyptian-style movie palaces. The big scenes of Acts 1 and 3 took place in grand surroundings in front of and inside the Temple of Dagon. Delilah 's hideaway in Act 2 was a tent of diaphanous fabrics. Unfortunately, the staging by Eric Vigie was pretty run-of-the-mill. Daniel Pelzig's pallid choreography in the famous Act 3 Bacchanale probably would've passed muster at Disney World - even with the skimpy costumes. A big bravo goes to HGO chorusmaster Richard Bado for preparing his 100th production for the company. As always, his ensemble sang very well. It was an irreplaceable part of the thoroughly enjoyable show. Samson and Delilah repeats at 7:30 tonight and continues through May 12.