The Opera Tattler

* Notes *
A new production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s David et Jonathas (ovation pictured, photograph by author) opened at West Edge Opera on Sunday afternoon in Oakland. This French Baroque opera is based on the friendship between David and Jonathan in Old Testament and has some utterly beautiful music.

Director Mark Streshinsky takes the love between the two title characters and makes it into a more romantic situation. The production has a content warning that reads “contains mature themes, including sexual situations, nudity, depictions of violence, and references to mental health struggles.”

There is a lot of ballet music in this piece, much of it is quite sensual, as are the vocal lines, so this isn’t coming out of nowhere. The four male dancers are bare-chested and otherwise scantily clad, but do move very elegantly. An enormous puppet and a dancer are also used to depict the fight between David and Goliath, and the proceedings are definitely not for children.

The orchestra sounded robust under Adam Pearl, though the ensemble was rather small, only 15 musicians. The flute and recorder kept the strings from sounding too acerbic. It was great to hear this lovely music that is rarely done. 

Both David and Jonathan are cast as tenors in this production, though the roles were written for haute-contre and boy soprano. Both have lovely sounds, but nicely distinct from each other. Tenor Aaron Sheehan is light and sparkling as Jonathan., while tenor Derek Chester is more full-bodied. Both had a lot of ease, especially Chester with his high notes.

Baritone Matthew Worth was suitably tormented as Saul, and showed a range of different negative emotions ranging from jealous to angry to sad. There were a few moments when his voice did not cut through the orchestration in the beginning but he did very well the rest of the opera.

Mezzo-soprano Laurel Semerdjian was suitably spooky as the Witch of Endor, her rich voice added another layer to the piece, and it was nice to have some feminine energy in a work that is very dominated by masculinity. Likewise it was a fine contrast to have bass-baritone Wilford Kelly on hand with a resonant depth as Achis, since there are so many high voices featured.

The cast was completed by bass Richard Mix in a small part as the Ghost of Samuel and tenor Benjamin Pattison as Joebel.

* Tattling *
I was a bit scandalized by the sex in the first half of the production but more comfortable with violence and death in the second part, which I am sure says something about me that is alarming.

The production was successful in that the audience was engaged and interested.