A Merry Go-Round

Los Angeles Opera had intriguing ideas for its first production of “The Merry Widow,� which it presented Sunday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Originally, it planned to bring a traditional production from the Zurich Opera that presents Franz Lehar’s irresistible operetta pretty much the way it was done in Vienna in 1905, but with a local twist. It was to be presented in English and Spanish, with different casts.

It didn’t work out that way (budget cutbacks?). The Zurich import fell through. “La Viuda Alegre� will be replaced by a night of zarzuela next month.

Meanwhile, the company went in search of a “Widow� closer to home, finding an available production from Utah Opera directed by Lotfi Mansouri, the former general manager of San Francisco Opera. Before leaving his San Francisco company last June, however, Mansouri hired himself to mount a brand spanking new “Merry Widow� up north that opened last week. Los Angeles, it appeared, was getting second best.

San Francisco, it turns out, is the city duped. Its so-called new production is but a slightly new model of the Los Angeles production.

Michael Yeargan’s fin de siecle Parisian sets are a little brighter and Thierry Bosquet’s costumes a bit more fanciful in their most recent incarnation. New dialogue for San Francisco by Wendy Wasserstein is slightly more ironic, and Mansouri has found a few ways to amplify gross jokes. The cancan girls, the grisettes, show a tiny bit more flesh--garter belts in Baghdad-by-the-Bay, bloomers for L.A.

But it is essentially the same show, down to the curtain-call confetti. The difference was that Tuesday night in San Francisco, laughs were restrained and a noticeable number of audience members did not return for the third act. Angelenos, on Sunday, stayed, laughed, clapped along, cheered. Sunday night’s show was simply funnier, better acted, more musical, less offensive.

Mansouri created the basic concept for his production two decades ago in collaboration with Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. Certainly, a lively environment was needed for an aging opera star who would convince no one that she was the alluring young widow with enough money to save her impoverished Balkan homeland, Pontevedro, and keep its Paris embassy in champagne. Interest was found elsewhere. The score was dolled up. A minor clerk, Njegus, was given a more prominent comic role.

The third act--originally a quick, clever summing up--becomes something grand with added ballet and a final number inserted from Lehar’s “Paganini,� a cumbersome new ending that gave Sutherland more to sing. Mansouri’s added sexist parody might have been amusing 20 years ago; it has been retained (it even survived Wasserstein in San Francisco) and, sadly, it got laughs here and up north.

The main advantages of the Los Angeles production--which was mainly staged by an assistant, with Mansouri arriving only for the final rehearsals--are a winning ensemble cast and conducting by John DeMain that provided both a Viennese lilt and expert comic timing. While Mansouri replaces Lehar’s sly eroticism with cartoonish wolf calls, he leaves Hanna (whom he renames Anna for no apparent reason) as the wry widow above it all. Fortunately, Carol Vaness, who has a grand manner, added a tiny hint of Mae West to her Callas to overcome the impression of a slumming diva (what Charles Ludlam or Groucho might have done with her!). She was also lucky to have Rodney Gilfry, as the dallying Count Danilo, to dance with. He makes anyone look good, and they both sang as if it were a great pleasure to do so.

Virginia Tola, a recent Operalia winner, was a dazzling Valencienne, an ambassador’s wayward wife; Charles Castronovo, an agreeable Camille, her lover. An ensemble of Los Angeles Opera regulars--Dean Peterson (Zeta), Malcolm Mackenzie (Cascada), Greg Fedderly (St. Brioche), Louis Lebherz (Bogdanowitsch)--provided a lively, convincing, entertaining ensemble, wonderfully playing off one another. Three comic women--Jessica Rivera (Sylviane), Marnie Mosiman (Olga) and Brooks Almy (Praskowia)--went beyond the call of sexist duty.

It was, however, Jason Graae’s antic Njegus who, in helping save the show, came close to stealing it. A few years ago, Tom Stoppard created a witty narration for “The Merry Widow� from the point of view of this Pontevedrian underling. A company with imagination would do well to entice the British playwright to flesh out that role for Graae.

Coyly, Mansouri needed to be enticed for a curtain call in San Francisco. He did not appear on the Chandler stage Sunday night. Perhaps he was afraid someone from the board of his hometown company might be in the audience. There is little doubt who won California’s “Widow� war.

*

“The Merry Widow,� Los Angeles Opera, Wednesday, Friday and Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 15 at 1 p.m., Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 22 at 1 p.m., $30-$165, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 365-3500.