How is that for nice planning: Gay marriage becomes legal on June 16th, the day after the SF Opera premiered Handel's Ariodante for the first time. Ever. Check this out: Ginevra and Ariodante love each other, plan on gettingmarried, but Ginevra is also courted by the evil scheming Polinesso, who in turn is the object of Ginevra's attendant Dalinda's unrequited attention.

Oh, and all of these roles are sung by women. How appropriate.

We attended a show later in the run, so here's a brief round-up of the other reviews:

Unanimous agreement says that the principals, Susan Graham and Ruth Ann Swenson, are exceptional. Susan Graham, magnificent last year in Iphigenie, transcends in yet another role, and floored us with her lively color and lightning-quick agility in the truckload of notes, trilles, and mordents that Handel hurls at her. The Chron Joshua Kosman rejoices in her performance marked by nobility and technical bravura. Her coloratura execution was flawless, and the expressive depth of her "Scherza infida" was, if anything, even more astonishing. The Merc talks about extended flight of searing vocal intensity that makes her the high point of the performance. The Opera Tattler is the best judge of fashion: Graham also looked dashing, her statuesque height is to her advantage in this role. There you go. Most amazing is that Graham is not yet in full command of her role, losing track for a couple bars at the end of Act I. Oh! To be a fly in the prompter box at this time!

Pictures of Susan Graham and Ruth Ann Swenson above, and Sonia Prina, below, by Terrence McCarthy.

Ruth Ann, one of the newly appointed SF Opera Medalist, delivers as well. The Opera Medal is not a new Olympic competition, it's the highest honor bestowed by the company. But come to think of it, an Olympic diva competition would not be a bad idea. We mean, Opera is up there with figure skating with tacky unflattering costumes and rife with drama. Ruth Ann gets all 10, except for a 6 from the Romanian judge. Her voice, as agile as Graham, has a pillowy softness to it. She was angelic in her scene kneeling in front of the King. For the Merc, Ruth Ann brought a gorgeous, radiant tone, dazzling technique and a touchingly fragile characterization to the role. The Reporter reminds us that she was born to sing Handel, earning ravishing reviews in the company's versions of "Semele" and "Giulio Cesare."

None of the reviews we read mentioned the most glaring aspect of this production: they all say that Sonia Prina, who sung Polynesso, took the role over when Ewa Podles fell ill, but none mention the striking resemblance of Prina with, gosh, what's the html for the Love Symbol?, well, with the Artist Known As Prince. Short and velvet clad, the comparison is obvious. Her costume, designed by Michael stennett, is green, not purple, specifically to avoid the affidavits from Minneapolis. Also, Prina, a contralto, might have a deeper voice. She had long phrases that would leave us breathless half way through, but that she went through effortlessly. Maybe Sue Gilmore had Prince in mind when she wrote that Prina, though noticeably shorter than all the other principals, proved a capable and convincing villain, adopting a bit of a short man's compensatory swagger to flesh out her character.

The production is rather innocuous: big walls move about to create a space or another, but it's rather plain and it stays mostly out of the way, leaving the focus squarely on the performers (as for the Roman Ruins which pop up in the back here and there, we say: why?) No one seemed to mind, except for Brian who got all grumpy about it, and saw more evidence of the downward artistic spiral that San Francisco Opera is becoming. We usually love his comments, but we violently disagree here.

Patrick Summer conducted with verve, and the music sounded joyously infectious. Kosman called his conducting a career-topping performance. We'll leave the rest of the cast to San Francisco Classical Voice: As Dalinda, Veronica Cangemi sang well, but rose especially to the challenge of her angry aria, “Neghittosi or voi” (What will you do now, lazy heavens?). Richard Croft was an excellent Lurcanio, Ariodante’s brother, who actually plays an important role in the plot and has a showstopping second-act aria. They are more enthusiastic about Eric Owens, the bass who sings Ginevra's dad/King, who we found a bit sluggish in the quick paced ornamentation, and he fought a fit of cough.

Ariodante
SF Opera
War Memorial Opera House
Four more performances: tonight at 8 pm, Fri Jun 27 2008 at 8 pm, Tue Jul 1 2008 at 7:30 pm and Sun Jul 6 2008 at 2 pm.
Box Office: 864-3330