Hill resident to star in Acadeny of Music operetta

by MICHAEL CARUSO

Chestnut Hillers will see and hear one of their neighbors on the stage of the Academy of Music Friday and Saturday nights, May 27 and 28, when the Savoy Company presents Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. Susan Blair will be essaying the role of Tessa in one of the most convoluted yet loved of all the G&S operettas.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Blair came to the Philadelphia area to attend Rosemont College, regionally following in the footsteps of a sister who attended Bryn Mawr College, and a brother who had chosen the University of Pennsylvania. Her dream was to become an actress and she got involved with the Repertory Company, where the acting techniques of New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse were taught. Although she works at a “day job” as a part-time paralegal for the Philadelphia firm of Bazehon, Less & Feldman, she has continued to pursue her acting career by working with many of the local theater companies. Blair even met her husband, Mort Paterson, via the theater.

“Mort is also an actor,” she explained. “We met when we were performing in a production of Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing.” The couple has three sons and the family has lived in Chestnut Hill since 1993.

Blair was involved with Shakespeare in the Park when it was performed in Chestnut Hill’s Pastorius Park and then shifted to the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival. She appeared there in Shakespeare’s King Lear as well as in Lanford Wilson’s Talley’s Follies and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at the Players Club of Swarthmore. She has sung with the Princeton Opera in The King and I and the Delaware Valley Opera Company in The Marriage of Figaro as well as The Daughter of the Regiment with the Concert Opera of Philadelphia.

“I made my debut with Savoy in 1996 in their production of Patience,” she said. “It’s still my favorite.” The role of Tessa in The Gondoliers provides her with her first solo.

“Mezzo-sopranos don’t get that many solo arias in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas,” she mentioned, “so I’m delighted to be able to sing ‘When a Merry Maiden Marries.’ And I do love the character. She’s so bright and goofy, really. She’s one of two ladies in the town who are both after marrying two of the young men, one of whom is going to be the King of Barataria while the other is merely a lowly gondolier.”

Blair spoke of the thrill of singing and acting on the stage of the historic Academy of Music and of working with a professional orchestra in the pit.

“You don’t always have that luxury working in community theater,” she pointed out.

She also spoke with relief of the contemporary use of body mikes to help the singers retain a natural style of delivery for both the spoken dialogue and the lyrics of the songs without having to push to project over the orchestra and out into a house that seats nearly 2,900. “Sometimes the lyrics need to be delivered so quickly, you can’t understand them all without the help of the body mikes, which work so much better than simply having microphones placed at the front of the stage. It ‘s such a literate libretto — you don’t want to miss a word.”

The Savoy Company is the oldest amateur theater company in the world dedicated solely to the production of the works of Gilbert & Sullivan and is now in its 105th season. The Gondoliers will be performed at the Academy of Music May 27 and 28 at 8 p.m., then reprised at Longwood Gardens June 10 and 11 at 8:30 p.m. Call 215-735-7161 or visit www.savoy.org for tickets.

‘IL TROVATORE’

The Delaware Valley Opera Company launched its 2005 season with a special concert version performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) Saturday night at the Hermitage Mansion in Roxborough. Chestnut Hill’s Doris Coleman was the music director and performance pianist, and East Falls baritone, Robert Wallace, narrated the slightly abridged arrangement.

Il Trovatore is part of a trio of great operas — the others being Rigoletto and La Traviata — Verdi composed during the 1850s at the start of his artistic maturity and what is generally considered his stylistic middle period.

Verdi’s genius for using melody to both reveal character and convey narration is never more effectively employed than it is in Trovatore. It can legitimately make the boast that its score contains not one aria, duet, ensemble or chorus that hasn’t successfully made it into the concert setting where it is regularly programmed in recital and concert programs of vocalists and choirs. Each one establishes either an emotional or descriptive universe all its own that somehow fits snugly into the overall structure of this story of tragic misidentification. And, with none of Verdi’s rather clumsy orchestration to get ever so slightly in the way, the essence of the music was efficaciously conveyed by Coleman’s supportive work at the piano.

Soprano Helen Huse Ralston was an impressive Leonore, the object of love of both Manrico, the troubadour of the title, and the Count di Luna, who turns out to be Manrico’s brother. Her large yet flexible voice quickly warmed up to the role’s demanding music.

Baritone Alan Rosenbaum was splendid as di Luna. His full-bodied, robust voice covered the gamut of its range, both registrally and dynamically, with flawless consistency of tone and unshakable projection to shape and mold each individual phrase and then fit it securely into the long arch of the line.

Tenor Douglas Rowland displayed a fine natural voice as Manrico, but one that is lacking in technical refinement. Whenever he sang loudly, his tone was attractive; but his soft singing lacked tonal focus and steady projection and the timbre of his voice began to fray around the edges as the evening wore on.

Delaware Valley Opera Company’s regular season of fully staged productions opens with Verdi’s La Traviata (in Italian) June 25, 30 and July 2. It continues with Verdi’s Falstaff (in English) July 16, 21 and 23 and Donizetti’s Elixir of Love (in English) August 6, 11 and 13. Call 215-725-4171 or visit www.dvopera.org.