The Opera Tattler

* Notes *
West Edge Opera gave the world premiere of Nicolás Lell Benavides' Dolores yesterday in Oakland. Set in 1968, the opera is about labor leader Dolores Huerta during the Delano Grape Strike. The piece is timely, moving, and, at times quite funny.

The music has a lot of interesting textures, and Maestra Mary Chun kept everyone together. There was a particularly lovely viola solo near the end of Act I with the title character singing alone. The pacing is good, everything moves at a fine clip.

Octavio Cardenas' direction is clear and direct, and there are some pleasant flights of fancy, especially with Tricky Dick (a version of Richard Nixon). The set has lots of screens of different sizes, benches, and a set of movable stairs. There were many historical images used, and this worked well to ground the action.

Mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra is convincing as Dolores, her strong voice has an incisive vibrato at the top and some very warm, rich low notes. Bass-baritone Philip Lopez embodied Cesar Chavez, as soon as he came out on stage it was clear who he was. Lopez has a powerful, round voice.

Baritone Rolfe Dauz (Larry Itliong) gave us both seriousness and humor, singing about "Talk, talk, talk" was quite hilarious. Tenor Alex Boyer (Senator Robert F. Kennedy) was charismatic, as was tenor Sam Faustine as Tricky Dick. Faustine moves sleekly, and practically oozed unctuousness.

The cast is rounded out  by soprano Chelsea Hollow, who plays both Chavez's wife Helen in Act I and Kennedy's wife Ethel in Act II, and tenor Sergio Gonzalez as busboy Juan Romero, who holds Kennedy as he is shot and bleeding. Hollow has an icy voice that cuts through the orchestration with ease. Gonzalez did a splendid job with his small role.

The opera ends with a rousing "Sí, se puede," which works so well and is rather poignant. Dolores Huerta herself was there to receive an ovation, and she spoke about how we need to keep fighting for justice.

* Tattling *
There were a few instances of electronic noise, but I was most distracted by the person next to me who kept falling asleep and startling awake many times.

I teared up at the end of this opera, and felt happy that Huerta was there to be acknowledged.