La Forza del Destino, the latest production of the SF Opera, opened yesterday in a wonderful new production. The Opera completely reinvented this classic, and came up with a fresh and polemic take which delighted us. And with the brilliant singing we enjoyed last night, no one will mind much of the liberties taken with the sets and costumes.

Forza is a monumentous production. It lasts 3h40mn, with a huge cast, a large choir, an action which goes across Europe as if it was served by southwest airlines, four acts and two intermissions: the operatic equivalent of the summer blockbuster.

The storyline requires suspension of disbelief, but it is part of going to the opera anyway. It goes roughly like this: Leonara is being caught in the middle of the night, in the midst of eloping with her suitor Alvaro, by her dad. Alvaro ends up killing the old man accidentally. Alvaro and Leonara run away but get separated in the confusion. Carlo, Leonara's brother, vows to avenge his father and kill both lovers. The forces of destiny will bring Carlo, Alvaro and Leonara together over the course of many years and many travels, so they can meet their fate.

Photos by Terrence McCarthy/SF Opera: above, Vladimir Kuzmenko and Andrea Gruber, below Željko Lučić and Jill Grove

Leonara is sung by Andrea Gruber, a soprano with a powerful voice. She has no trouble filling up the Memorial Opera House, but we felt she had difficulties controlling her power. Andrea's life story is a pretty compelling narrative, worth its own libretto: opera divas act like rock stars too! Doing drugs, getting addicted to pain killers, being fired from the Metropolitan Opera in NY, going in rehab, becoming overweight and topping 300lb, having gastric bypass surgery, and then reclaiming her life and resuming her successfull career. So we are all cheering for her, we love catharses, redemptions and happy endings. Still, in the first part, we did not enjoy her singing. Her tremolo –a vibration of the voice volume to project the voice better- was too accentuated and was muddying her pitch. She would attack her notes a quarter tone below, and slide it up. In the quieter moments we found her technique much more accurate. Luckily, Leonara finds religion at the end of Act II, and leaves torments and tremolos behind.

After she disappears in a convent, Carlo and Alvaro take their turns as central characters. Alvaro, sung by tenor Vladimir Kuzmenko making his US debut, was spectacular: a rich voice, being in turn delicate or powerful, a strong stage presence. His opening duet, brimming with energy, had us seduced already. When later he exclaimed, in joy that Leonara is still alive --"E vive! Ella vive, gran Dio!"-- it sent a shiver through our spine. Željko Lučić, the baritone playing Carlo, was superb as well. While Kuzmenko's character has a fundamentally good heart, Carlo is all darkness. He is consumed by his manic desire to avenge his honor. Lučić manages to convey this ferocious drive, this relentlessness, perfectly. Another singer who wooed us was Jill Grove, as Preziosilla. A Gypsie fortune-teller-slash-prostitute, Preziosilla came on stage in a full Matrix garb, outfitted like Carrie-Anne Moss's Trinity. She sang her part gamely, confidently and without the affectation of a prima donna.

The costume and set designs, by Andrea Schmidt-Futterer and Roland Aeschlimann respectively, present a darker Forza. The force of destiny is visually depicted by a slanted set, destiny being the gravity which pulls the people in their prescribed path, downward. Going up, extricating oneself from the forces of destiny, requires finding faith, as both Leonora and Alvaro eventually figures out. The different sets underline the stages towards making this discovery: a black one in Act II, with these black trenchcoats; a camouflage of gray in Act III, with both the soldiers uniform and the floor and walls in black and white camouflage; a white one in the last act. The sets color an inner path towards redemption, while the outside world stays extremely violent: this is expressed by sanguinolent cross-bearer, by the realistic grittiness of the military costumes, similar to the Desert Storm outfits, the exposed –fake and sagging- breasts of the prostitutes who looked like they escaped Mad Max, the KKK-like pilgrims, the mummified necropolis of the last act: violence pervades this Forza. With such a display of scary costumes, it should have opened on Monday!

The direction, by Ron Daniels, emphasizes the hopelessness of our grim world as well: a group of a barely adult youth gets drafted into the army on stage; or Friar Melitone (an excellent Lucas Meachem), typically viewed as a comic character, threatens the peasants with the ladle he serves them soup with, etc. This gives Forza a mythic portent: the first scene becomes an eviction from the garden of Eden, when the wrath (and then death) of the benevolent dad catching them on the verge of biting the apple, sends Leonora and Alvara in this despairing real world. At least, we read the Arc de Triomphe in the background as an allusion to the Elysium they left behind.

The orchestra conveyed Verdi's music with great precision, conducted by the young and very passionate Italian maestro, Nicola Luisotti. It irked us a bit that he got the orchestra to salute after the ouverture (five minutes down, 215 to go, hardly time to celebrate), but he otherwise got from the orchestra a precise and textured performance. Notable was the clarinette of Carey Bell in Act III, particularly luscious in its duet with Alvaro. Another instrument we noticed was the cimbasso, which basically rings three times when Leonora dies in the arms of Alvaro (ooops, we spoiled that ending, didn't we?) We mention it, as it is a rather funky looking trombone/trumpet hybrid and it is used very rarely in orchestras. When you go see Forza, check it out in the pit.

La Forza del Destino
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
Tickets from $25, $10 for standing room only.
301 Van Ness Ave.
Box office: 864-3330.
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours 40 minutes.
Sung in Italian with English Supertitles
Sat. November 5, 12 pm
Tue. November 8, 7:30 pm
Fri. November 11, 7:30 pm
Thu. November 17, 7:30 pm
Sun. November 20, 2 pm
Wed. November 23, 7:30 pm
Sat. November 26, 7:30 pm