From Around the World: WASHINGTON, D.C.(Brief Article)(Review)

A half-century ago, when Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul opened on Broadway, the after-effects of World War II and the stark reality of police states, freedom fighters, refugees and bureaucratic paperwork were still felt strongly. That so many of the issues raised by this taut opera are still relevant in so many places doesn't say much for human development, but it made Washington Opera's fiftieth-anniversary revival of the work (Dec. 30, at Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater) all the more potent.

The production also provided another lesson in the vagaries of music history. In 1950, Menotti was dismissed by many as warmed-over Puccini, a sentimentalist, a hopeless conservative. Today, he doesn't sound dated at all. He seems more like a prophet, really, for musical Romanticism is the undisputed, dominant language now. It's possible to find weaknesses in The Consul's libretto, lines that don't quite ring true or scenes that seem overdone, but when fused to the music, everything seems right. Menotti's frequent flights of lyrical power still have a visceral impact; his flair for setting up theatrical situations through music, for underlining characters' thoughts and actions, remains striking.

The Washington staging, with painstakingly evocative sets and costumes by Zack Brown and moody lighting by Joan Sullivan-Genthe, highlighted the opera's strengths. A little more consistent vocal quality and a little subtler acting in places would have been welcome, but the venture ...