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SARASOTA - All Verdian roads lead to Sarasota this time of year. Sarasota Opera has made its mark with two projects: an ongoing survey of all of Verdi's operas, now about halfway through the canon, and annual productions of rarely seen works.
This year, the Verdi and the rarity are one and the same, with Il Corsaro, which is among the three least performed Verdi operas, along with Oberto and Alzira, according to artistic director Victor DeRenzi. Il Corsaro is plainly better than Oberto, Verdi's first opera and a blunt piece of work, done in Sarasota three years ago. It is also superior to Alzira, chiefly notable for its exotic setting in 16th century Peru, staged in Sarasota in 2000.
But the respective merits of these obscure operas is beside the point. Where else outside of Italy could you experience Oberto, Alzira and Il Corsaro?
Verdi's 12th opera, premiered in 1848, was a product of his (and many other composers') fascination with Byron. Based on the poem The Corsair, it features a dashing tenor part for Corrado the corsair, who has a soprano in every port, including Medora on his island refuge in the Aegean, and Gulnara, a Turkish harem woman who comes to the corsair's aid when he is captured by a pasha.
Il Corsaro got off to a good start in last Saturday's opening performance, with DeRenzi bringing out the extremes of a prelude that went from rambunctious brass and percussion to delicate strings. Unfortunately, Gabriel Gonzalez displayed reedy tone and insecure intonation as Corrado in his Act I scenes, one with a pirates' chorus, the other as he bid Medora farewell to go off to war with the Turks.
Dara Rahming, in the lyrical role of Medora, was excellent in the plaintive Non so le tetre immagini, accompanied by harp, begging Corrado not to leave.
A greater opera - Fidelio by Beethoven - came to mind as the Act III, Scene 2 curtain rose on Corrado in a prison cell, pining for the woman he loves, not unlike Beethoven's hero, Florestan. By this point, Gonzalez's wayward pitch had settled down. Lighted by a single torch, with solo cello setting the bleak mood, it was the opera's finest moment.
Gulnara, colorfully declaimed by Barbara Quintiliani, had a dramatic duet with Corrado, after she murdered the pasha in his sleep. But the bloody dagger scene was a pale shadow of its counterpart in Verdi's Macbeth.
Il Corsaro has good tunes, but they never achieve the character development of top-level Verdi. Probably the most dramatic moment for many in the audience came with the entrance of the harem in the rich costumes designed by Howard Tsvi Kaplan.
REVIEW:Verdi's Il Corsaro has performances at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Wednesday and 1 p.m. March 21 and 27 at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N Pineapple Ave. $17-$96. Toll-free 1-888-673-7212 or (941) 366-8450.