From around the world: Highland Park, IL.(Concerts And Recitals)(Opera Review)

On August 23, Ravinia continued its exploration of the Stephen Sondheim canon with a semistaged Passion, Sondheim's moody adaptation of Ettore Scola's primally disturbing film Passione d'Amore. Few compositions divide opinion so irascibly--some abhor the piece while others are obsessively caught in its spell, much as the anti-heroine Fosca is with her Giorgio. Though it plays quite operatically, Passion--unlike Sweeney Todd--has not realized a similar place of affection in the hearts of opera-lovers, and indeed the piece has a more select appeal. The work's unbroken musical structure and darkly labile sound-world do not appeal to all tastes, and James Lapine's libretto, with its frequent discourses on the nature of human emotion, sometimes threatens pontification. There is great beauty in this score, however, and a permeating complexity of affect, as even in its optimistic moments one is aware of an ever-present, quiescent sadness. Fosca's transformation by love is beautifully captured in the minor-to-major progression of her music, just as Clara's increasing disillusionment is reflected by an opposite development of her own. One may not find the protagonists fully sympathetic (while watching, you may wonder why you should even like these people), but there is an inevitable recognition of self in each of them, and anyone who has ever loved someone desperately cannot help but respond to some facet of this evocative, controversial work.

Audra McDonald contributed the evening's most memorable performance as the beautiful Clara, bet dramatic conception fully realized, her ravishing soprano with its gleaming top providing a superb aural representation of the woman's allure. Patti LuPone is an artist worth traveling miles across frozen tundra to experience [See "The Girls of Summer," June 2003]. Fosca's vocal writing ...