FROM AROUND THE WORLD: ATLANTA.(Review)

Atlanta Opera's new all-Verdi season opened with a literally electrifying image for Otello: a frantic Desdemona silhouetted against billowing curtains as a blinding flash of lightning shot straight into the audience. That startling stage picture turned out to be prophetic, because, in an otherwise vocally uneven production (seen May 6), soprano Brenda Harris scored a stunning personal success in the first Desdemona of her career. Her voice sounded strong yet supple throughout. Minutes after effortlessly riding the crest of the big ensemble that closes Act III, she returned (without benefit of an intermission in this production) to deliver a willow song and "Ave Maria" of crystalline delicacy, capping the latter with a shimmering pianissimo. With a regal yet graceful stage presence, her Desdemona was no drooping victim but an authentically tragic heroine whose very innocence made it impossible for her to comprehend her husband's jealousy. Harris may add felicitous details in future performances of the role, but she scarcely can improve on the overall mastery she displayed here.

Her two male co-stars were not so satisfying. Eduardo Villa certainly seems to have the sheer vocal heft to sing Otello, but size isn't everything in this complex role. The tenor batted out all his notes strongly, most of them on pitch, but rarely sang with any real elegance or subtlety. An artist who is gravely in danger of overexposure with this company (he returns in a few months to reprise his Manrico, which he also sang in an earlier season's Trovatore), Villa is no great shakes as an actor, resorting to stock gestures to enliven an otherwise stolid stage presence. In contrast, baritone Brent Ellis, ...