FROM AROUND THE WORLD: CHICAGO.(Review)

The Great Gatsby arrived on a high sea of advance publicity when John Harbison's opera had its premiere at the Met in December of 1999. No doubt the volume and intensity of the hype raised expectations and, perhaps, helped contribute to the large number of sharply critical notices.

The Lyric Opera's important second mounting of the Met production appeared troubled from the start; with cancellations by Dawn Upshaw and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Jerry Hadley was the only principal remaining from the New York run. Proving once again that the Lyric roster has more bench depth than the Yankees, the company responded with a less starry cast, but one that equaled and in some respects exceeded the lineup of the Met premiere.

As Daisy Buchanan, Alicia Berneche was a brighter, more fragile presence, lacking Upshaw's lurking intelligence, which, arguably, made her better suited to the character. Berneche was effective in Daisy's aria, "Where is the old warm world?," and in the first-act duet with Jordan Baker (Patricia Risley), "Soon it will be the longest day of the year," evoking the jazz-age smart set's bored decadence with subtle precision.

Jerry Hadley appeared more comfortable, vocally and dramatically, in the title role, singing his big solo aria with point and sensitivity. Risley was superbly effective as Jordan, all brittle cynicism and long-legged languor. Rich-voiced Russell Braun was a quietly strong presence as Nick, Clifton Forbis aptly odious as Tom. As George Wilson, Andrew Shore was terrific, all resentful fury and agony, nearly stealing the show, while Jennifer Dudley made a campy, over-the-top and tremulous Myrtle.

Yet despite a strong cast, production and music direction, the problem remains with the opera itself. Even with judicious trimming of some protracted scenes -- shortening the work by about twenty minutes -- and a subtle acceleration of tempos to avoid the fatal stasis of the Met production, Harbison's Gatsby remains dramatically inert and musically pallid, with isolated effective moments that never cohere into a convincing dramatic whole. The characters are underdeveloped, spending most of the opera talking about events rather than actually experiencing them. Key scenes and famous dialogue, such as the observation that Daisy's voice "is full of money," fly by unremarked, buried in Harbison's restless counterpoint and busy figurations.

The most successful parts of The Great Gatsby are still Harbison's clever pastiche of 1920s dance music and songs -- given a big assist by Murray Horwitz's brilliant lyrics -- Michael Yeargan's evocative white, pink and silver minimalist sets, Jane Greenwood's marvelous beaded dresses (as well as Gatsby's audacious pink suit) and the energetic Charlestons and period dances by choreographer Robert La Fosse. David Stahl conducted effectively in his Lyric debut.

The thick fog that rolled in off Lake Michigan the following night seemed to presage the even foggier inspiration of some of director Christopher Alden's ideas in the Lyric's new Rigoletto. This was the debut Lyric production of Alden, twin brother of David Alden, whose revisionist Lyric staging of Verdi's Macbeth last season was universally condemned.