La Cieca’s misnomered intime No Expert writes:

The New Orleans Opera Association likes to describe New Orleans as “America’s First City of Opera,” and it’s true that opera performance has a long history in the Crescent City, dating back to at least 1796 when André Ernest Grétry’s Sylvain was presented.  Since then, New Orleans, and opera in New Orleans, has had its ups and downs…. like the fire which destroyed the French Opera House in 1919, and Hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed the whole city in 2005.  

Mab about the boy: Matthew Worth, Mercutio at New Orleans Opera. Photo by Balance Photography.

The New Orleans Opera Association lost many of its costumes and sets in the flooding, and its performing home, the Mahalia Jackson Theater was severely damaged which forced the company to perform in temporary lodging.

So, our local community is delighted that this year marks the return of opera to the restored Mahalia Jackson. The new stage is named in honor of famed tenor and occasional baritone Placido Domingo, who helped organize a 2006 charity gala that kept our opera company from closing down.  (The gala was held at the sports arena…. one of the few venues in town that wasn’t devastated at the time) Unfortunately the renovated theater still has its familiar acoustic eccentricities:  strings and male voices are a bit muffled.

I attended the recent Sunday matinee performance of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette …a work first heard in New Orleans in 1869. The theater looked great, as did the traditional production. The costumes and sets in Act I had a rich, golden appearance that resembled an illuminated manuscript.

Tenor Paul Groves, last seen in New Orleans in 2007 as Faust was an effective Romeo. Juliette was portrayed by Nicole Cabell, who has a charming stage presence and looks the part. Her voice has a warm, creamy quality, but, unfortunately her coloratura was a bit smudgy. There were moments when she and the conductor briefly parted ways. And, frankly I did not hear a trill out of her all evening. During the Act IV “Ce n’est pas le jour” duet, there were some odd acting choices that briefly threatened to turn the opera into a teen sex comedy. I imagine that was the director’s fault. Cabell managed to get things back under control with a strong, if not spectacular, “Amour ranime mon courage.”

I was accompanied by a friend who is not really an opera fan who said the highlight of the evening was “that turtledove song” performed by Jennifer Rivera’s Stephano.  I wouldn’t go that far, but she definitely made the most of her solo turn. Michael Worth was very appealing as Romeo’s fun-loving but doomed friend Mercutio.