<<<  <<  -- 5 --  Maria Nockin    LUSTROUS SOUNDS

Donnie Ray Albert, more familiar as the Flying Dutchman or Amonasro in Aida, was convincing as the criminal Trinity Moses. There were six prostitutes who have little to sing but spend a great deal of time on stage. Two of them were portrayed by Karen Vuong who sang a lovely short solo in this company's The Coronation of Poppea and Priti Gandhi who has lent her dulcet tones to many roles at San Diego Opera. Others were: Catherine Ireland and Sharmay Musacchio as well as Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program members Natasha Flores and Rena Harms.

All of these disparate elements were effectively coordinated by conductor James Conlon, who assembled this unique combination of artists. This is a very different kind of work that does not appeal to all opera lovers, but Los Angeles Opera, like other companies that want to attract a broad spectrum of music lovers, stages a wide variety of compositions and productions. Mahagonny is a representative piece from Berlin in the nineteen-thirties that tells us a great deal about theater in that era.