“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” That often-quoted quip applies as much to opera as to theater, and nothing is harder in operatic comedy than Gioachino Rossini. Not only are there vocal challenges in the bel canto style, but the often repeated lines and many numbers seem to scheme against momentum. Coming up with enough silliness to fill out the tired plot turns (which sometimes seem to take forever to play out) requires creative invention.
Skylight Music Theatre opened its season with a production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) with mixed results. Act One especially seemed to labor on at times. The second act was much more entertaining, with director Jill Anna Ponasik finding fresh comic ideas more consistently, especially with the six men of the chorus, who added lots of hijinks.
At her best, the unusually dark qualities of Sishel Claverie’s voice, in the title role, combined with fluid agility, proved convincing, though her singing was at times uneven. As the prince who rescues her from dreariness, tenor Luke Grooms comically exploited high notes north of high C, getting some of the best laughs of the evening. His voice is more interesting the higher he sings; the middle voice is rather weightless.
Baritone Dimitrie Lazich’s good-natured Dandini came off well enough. As Don Magnifico, traditionally a bass role, Andy Papas’ resonant and attractive voice sounded like a sizable tenor or high baritone, which was odd to hear in this part. The voices of the two stepsisters, Erin Sura and Kristen DiNinno, did not blend particularly well in their duets, with vibratos that tend toward a wobble, though they gave spirited performances. LaMarcus Miller sang well as Alidoro, the heavenly presence who enables Cinderella’s transformation, but was reserved as an actor.
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Lisa Schenkler’s two-tiered set for the tattered castle where Cinderella labors is cluttered with the many bright-colored garments of the stepsister floozies. The simple prince’s ball set, in contrast, is in blacks, whites and silvers, echoed in the costume designs of Cesar Galindo. His stylish and outlandish gowns for the female party guests and the stepsisters were good visual jokes.
