'Tosca' helps adults appreciate opera

The Baltimore Sun

As about 50 of her opera appreciation students lingered after Summer Opera Theatre Company's production of Tosca last week, Mary Ann Cashman couldn't have looked more pleased.

While some of us questioned the lack of passion between the two leads, others enthusiastically praised Edgewater baritone Jason Stearns' performance as the villain Scarpia.

The lively discussion was the byproduct of Cashman's teachings.

Although Cashman taught college classes in voice and acting, she hadn't taught any continuing education courses in opera appreciation until February 2000, when she was recruited by Anna Marie Musterman, then the Annapolis Opera president.

Cashman started a series on coming Annapolis Opera productions for 12 students at the Arnold Senior Center in 2001. It soon expanded to a series on composers Puccini, Verdi and Mozart.

"When I first agreed to teach courses on the subject of opera, I thought it would be something new and different, but I soon realized that this was something I'd been preparing for my whole life," Cashman said.

"Looking back on what we've accomplished, I consider that teaching these classes has been one of my most rewarding, life-enriching experiences."

Today, she teaches more than 200 budding aficionados spread across four senior centers.

All classes, sponsored by Anne Arundel Community College, include viewing recorded segments of video opera performances. Cashman usually shows two video performances of the same opera to highlight aspects of each, allowing students to compare, for example, vintage videos of Carmen sung by Shirley Verrett or Grace Bumbry with contemporary productions.

"I've loved opera since I was a child in Germany, and I thought as an adult I knew a lot about opera," said one of Cashman's students, Wally Good. "But in [the]classes I have heard so many operas by composers I had never heard of before - like Czech composer Leos Janacek. This is what makes me return each year, so that I'll hear the whole opera repertoire."

From the beginning, Cashman made live operatic performances an integral part of her course. The first season she arranged for students to attend Annapolis Opera rehearsals. In April 2002, some of us traveled by college van to New York's Metropolitan Opera for Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, which premiered earlier that year at the National Opera, with the title role sung by Jose Carreras. At the Met, we heard Placido Domingo as Sly.

Even more memorable was the November 2002 trip to the Kennedy Center for the National Opera's Vanessa by Samuel Barber, starring Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in the title role.

The highest point of our year is always the trip to a preview performance at the Summer Opera at Catholic University in Washington. Now in its 29th season, Summer Opera generously offers preview performances to opera students of all ages for a suggested $10 donation.

We saw Puccini's Suor Angelica and Mozart's The Impressario in 2005, Verdi's Rigoletto in 2005 and Mozart's The Magic Flute and Verdi's Il Trovatore last year. On Thursday it was Puccini's Tosca, a verismo favorite that drew at least 50 people.

Tosca might have lured some of us because Stearns has many local fans who looked forward to his portrayal of Baron Scarpia - a sexier role than his earlier acclaimed performance as the jester in Rigoletto.

Tenor Benjamin Warschawski, who has served as cantor at Greenspring Valley Synagogue in Baltimore, also won us over in the role of painter Mario Cavaradossi. Dara Rahming making her Summer Opera debut as the diva Tosca was new to us.

Tosca loves Cavaradossi and becomes jealous of the blue-eyed subject of Cavaradossi's painting. The police chief, Scarpia, convinces her that Cavaradossi could be involved with this woman, whose likeness is captured in Mary Magdalene.

She is really the sister of escaped prisoner Cesare Angelotti, whom Cavaradossi allows to hide in his villa. Scarpia suspects that Cavaradossi helped Angelotti escape and schemes to uncover the truth through Tosca.

Cavaradossi's torture precedes Scarpia's planned seduction of Tosca and a promised mock execution of Cavaradossi before the tragic end.

The lovers lacked emotion in much of Act I. Warschawski's first aria, "Recondita armonia," expressed more ardor than the love duet that followed with Rahming.

Act I came alive, however, near the end when Stearns sang "Va, Tosca" and mused about her during the Te Deum, saying Tosca made him forget God.

At intermission after Act I, most of us agreed that Rahming's Tosca lacked fire. Vera Holt, a student who sings with the Annapolis Chorale, remarked that Rahming and Warchowski often looked at the conductor for cues but rarely looked at each other.

Act II belonged to Stearns, who sang with power and beauty, bringing a malevolent seductive quality to his Scarpia. He might have elicited more emotion from Rahming's Tosca - albeit negative - than was seen in Act I. Rahming came into her own, however, with a "Vissi d'arte" that was all it should be.

"Jason Stearns is the first Scarpia who looks like he knows what to do with all that lust," student Mary Ann Elliott of Annapolis remarked.

Early in Act III, Warschawski delivered a compelling "E lucevan le stelle" but the later duet lacked feeling.

Teri Murai conducted the orchestra with verismo to contribute drama while maintaining balance with singers and chorus.

Whether we took one of the buses or carpooled back home, many of us enjoyed lengthy discussions during the trip. It seemed that all of us wanted to savor the performance by discussing aspects that others might not have caught.

A final performance will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Hartke Theatre, 3801 Harewood Road N.E., Washington. Tickets cost $40 to $65. 202-319-4000 or www.summeropera.org.

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