Opera Opens With Patriotic Flair

NEW YORK (AP) - "Viva Italia!'' the opera begins - and the chorus seems to repeat it every five minutes.

"La Battaglia di Legano,'' among the works being re-examined in the centennial year of Verdi's death, is the most patriotic of the composer's operas and opened the season of Eve Queler's Opera Orchestra of New York.

The 14th of Verdi's 28 operas, it opened in 1849 and is one of his last non-hits, followed in the next four years by "Luisa Miller,'' "Stiffelio,'' "Rigoletto,'' "Il Trovatore'' and "La Traviata.''

"Battaglia,'' with a libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, hints at the musical breakthroughs Verdi was on the verge of creating and deals with the northern Italy joining together to defeat the German emperor Federico Barbarossa.

Queler's performance Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall had one of her more even casts, headed by soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as Lida, tenor Francisco Casanova as Arrigo, baritone Carlo Guelfi as Rolando and bass Vitalij Kowaljow as Federico.

Casanova's voice had sufficient heft for the role, but the singer had a bit too much of tenor mannerisms, failing to interact at times with Stoyanova, instead waving his arms and gesturing to the audience.

Stoyanova, singing the part of Rolando's wife and Arrigo's love interest, has a direct and vibrant Verdi voice, perhaps better in her full-out singing than her coloratura. It will be interesting to hear her in coming years in some of the composer's more common roles.

Guelfi, scheduled to open the 2004-05 Metropolitan Opera season as Iago to Ben Heppner's "Otello,'' gave the most rounded performance of the three principals, combining with Stoyanova for a moving Act III duet.

Kowaljow was booming and menacing in the small part of Federico.

Unfortunately, Verdi is not Queler's strongest area. The various scenes failed to connect and she couldn't raise the most dramatic parts of the score to a moving crescendo.

Queler's other selections for this season are Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvrer'' with Aprile Millo, Dolora Zajick and Marcello Giordani on March 3 and Donizetti's "Marina Fallero'' on May 13.