West Edge Opera / Ressenyes

West Edge Opera is set to present an outdoor production “Eliogabalo” this summer at the Bruns Theater in Berkeley, California. The performances are set for July 31, August 6, and 8 and will star Randall Scotting in the title role. “I will be performing the part of the bad boy, the youthful and sex-obsessed Roman emperor, Heliogabalus. He is opera’s filthiest rich kid with infinite power to procure what (and who) he wants,” Scotting said in a press release. “The scandalous high-drama and dark comedy of Eliogabalo come wrapped in the gorgeous melodies of Cavalli, and the opera’s themes of power, betrayal, love, and loyalty could not be more timely. I just can’t wait to perform in front of a live audience again!” Scotting will be joined by a cast that features Derek Chester, Nikki Einfeld, Matheus Coura, Aura Veruni, Shawnette Sulker, Jean-Paul Jones, Nathan Stark, and Jonathan Smucker. The opera will be conducted by Adam Pearl and directed by Mark Streshinsky.

A brutal, predatory, narcissistic, misogynist autocrat; a failed insurrection; a Senate bought, sold, and compliant; a potential opposition hobbled by false loyalty ... Sound familiar? No, not recent Washington, D.C., but 3rd-century Rome, portrayed with satirical glee in West Edge Opera’s production of the opera Eliogabalo, one of the area’s first post-pandemic live-opera productions, in the beautiful outdoor Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda. Cavalli fashioned some fine arias for these questionable characters. Eliogabalo has a splendid moment of hubris near the end, crowing about how he can do anything, enacted with glee by countertenor Randall Scotting. Alessandro has perhaps the only well-known aria, “Misero, cosi va,” (“Wretched goes he”) delivered affectingly by tenor Derek Chester. Soprano Nikki Einfeld as Gemmira was moving in her plangent arias and in a stirring duet of climactic rage and revenge with Eritea (soprano Aura Veruni). Countertenor Matheus Coura as Giuliano had several affecting arias about his conflicts between love and loyalty, courageously singing one of them naked.

Roesner’s Doristo gives not only his splendid resonant voice to the plethora of female sound but its weight. And we welcome it. Round and luxuriant, from opening scene [...] to Finale, [...] Not a drop of unnecessary chastity, even in idea, here.

In any case, the role of Doristo was robustly sung by German bass-baritone Malte Roesner. His deep, dark voice was powerful.