Singers Sam Mungo, left, and Kevin Grace performed Saturday night in Alamo City Opera's production of "A Little Night Music.
Singers Sam Mungo, left, and Kevin Grace performed Saturday night in Alamo City Opera's production of "A Little Night Music.
Photo: Courtesy, Kristian JaimeIn the midst of its sixth season, Alamo City Opera brought out one of Broadway's treasures Saturday night, a tender, heartwarming production of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."
The show represented a widening of ambition for the chamber opera company, requiring 16 singers/characters and 13 musicians, who performed in the pit of the Buena Vista Theatre at the University of Texas at San Antonio's downtown campus.
The musical's story is complex, revolving around the romantic entanglements of several families, set in Sweden about 1900, with new affairs forming and old ones remembered and rekindled.
The musical has its fans 45 years after its premiere. About 250 people attended the Saturday night performance.
The acting and singing merged magically under the guidance of stage director Russell Fox, who paced the show efficiently. Nuanced glances between characters and silences enhanced the show's wit and drama that pulsated with themes of generational conflict, jealousy and sexual frustration.
This is a Broadway musical that lends itself to operatic talent. Its waltz-like songs stretched the vocal rangers of male and female singers alike. Its duets flowed into trios and then into ensemble singing in contrapuntal layers requiring exquisite timing.
The deepest emotional moment, of course, came with "Send in the Clowns," the musical's most famous song. It was delivered with a quivering sense of regret by mezzo-soprano Laura Mercado-Wright as a gentle and feeling Desirée.
This was followed soon after with "The Miller's Son," which articulates much of the musical's meaning of choices and patterns of life. The song was robustly performed by mezzo-soprano Nora Graham Smith as the maid, Petra.
All actors were sharply distinctive in their characters, Samuel Mongo as Fredrik, Amanda Golden as the youthful Fredrik's young wife Anne and Cindy Sadler as Madame Armfeldt, among them. Adding much to the narrative was the sarcasm in the acting of Sishel Clavarie as Charlotte, the wife of Count Carl-Magnus, sung by Kevin Grace.
The orchestra, led by Kristin Roach, played in perfect balance with the singers in the UTSA hall.
The only defect was a short period of microphone distortion toward the end of the first act, but the distraction cleared up after the cast mustered through the crackling noise.
The musical repeats at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at UTSA downtown's Buena Vista Theatre.
dhendricks@express-news.net
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