Zanetto opens not with an overture proper, but with an offstage a cappella chorus singing wordless Ahs. Regretfully, their harmonies sounded more boozy than orchestral. The rest of the opera comprises just two voices: a soprano as Silvia, a faded rose of a courtesan, and a mezzo-soprano as Zanetto, a wandering minstrel who reawakens her dormant heart. Eleni Calenos and Eve Gigliotti had similar spinning vibratos, but voices of different timbres would have made a more interesting distinction between the characters. Zanetto's entrance had a nice staging twist: instead of singing beneath Silvia's balcony, he sang fom the house left balcony box down to Silvia's terrace.
Susanna's Secret is that she smokes cigarettes (gasp!), unknown to her newlywed husband, Gil. When he comes home to the aroma of tobacco he hopes the best, that his servant, Santé, has been smoking on the sly. He soon fears the worst, that Susanna has already taken a lover. Bass-baritone Kristopher Irmiter was a bagful of bluster as the jealous husband. Soprano Inna Dukach's greatest asset was her eyes, which brought out every nuance of her character. Steven Goldstein played the mute role of the servant with sly innocence and drew laughs with each entrance. The trio turned this dubious puff of a domestic squabble into the most entertaining highlight of the festival.
I am left wondering if this fledgling company can sustain itself by presenting operatic curiosities. The theater was filled to perhaps one third capacity, and there were no paid advertisements in the program. Odyssey Opera will need a heroic marketing push if they hope to survive.
