Opera Preview: Will ‘Gems’ sparkle for AZ Opera?

There is plenty of luster among the cast members gathered by Joel Revzen, artistic director for the next Arizona Opera production “Gems.”

A retrospective of 40 years of the company’s history, “Gems” opens at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 2 at Tucson Convention Center’s Music Hall, 260 S. Church Street, and continues with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Feb. 3.

Revzen keeps his keen ear tuned for singers wherever he goes, whether it is preparing a production in New York, as he did with the Metropolitan’s recent “War and Peace,” or haunting great opera houses around the world, prosthelytizing for his company and inveigling better and better singers to appear with a company that cannot pay Met and Covent Garden salaries. Regardless, they love to sing in Arizona and appreciate the reception they receive from the company and especially the audiences.

“Gems” could be sub-titled “AZ Opera’s Greatest Hits,” for the program truly runs a gamut from solo arias nearly every opera-goer loves - “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” from “La boh�me” through the beautiful duet “Barcarolle” from “Tales of Hoffmann” to the hugely dramatic “Quartet” from “Rigoletto.”

These are crowd-pleasers all, and if they do not necessarily qualify as “the best of the best,” they certainly are most familiar and beloved. If well-sung, it promises to be a richly satisfying performance musically and very likely to make a strong contribution financially to the season of the always-cash-needy opera.

So what is the prospect for an evening of effulgent singing? A sampling from the cast shows a great deal of promise. Standing firmly on her eleven seasons at the Metropolitan Opera is Emily Pulley, soprano.

With roles like Marguerite in “Faust,” Blanche in “Dialogues of the Carmelites,” Musetta in “La boh�me, debuting at Covent Garden as Mimi and even Gretel in Humperdink’s Annual Holiday Happening, this is a voice to be heard.

Pulley created Lysia in the world premier of “Lysistrata” in Houston and repeated it at New York City Opera.

She has appearances in New Orleans, Kentucky and Amarillo during 2007-08.

Last season, she sang in Atlanta, Anchorage, Kansas City, Central City and Baltimore, the Ravinia Festival, the Lincoln Center Mozart Bicentennial Celebration and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.

Adding Carolyn Betty to the “Gems” tray of precious stones provides not only the second voice for the “Barcarolle” but a solo aria from “Il trovatore.”

A graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Center, Betty has appeared in “Magic Flute,” “Cosi fan tutte”, sang Annina in “Traviata” in St. Louis and Micaela in “Carmen” in Pittsburgh.

Baritone Donnie Ray Albert was recently Tonio in “Pagliacci” in Houston.

Appearances in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Dallas followed his role in the Arizona Opera’s “Girl of the Golden West” some seasons ago as well as the title role in “Nabucco” in Cincinnati. Albert has sung Wotan in “Die Walk?re” in Austin and numerous roles in Cologne and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Tenor Carl Halvorson is best known as a concert artist, having a repertoire that extends from Hayden and Mozart to Britten and Honegger.

He has performed with the symphonies of Phoenix, Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Israel and the New York Philharmonic.

Halvorson gave the United State’s premier of Britten’s “The World of the Spirit” at Carnegie Hall. His opera credits include Boston’s Lyric Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Washington National Opera. Seiji Ozawa called him to Japan for a role in the Tokyo Opera’s production of “Elektra.”

Tickets for “Gems” are available as part of a mini-series from the Arizona Opera at (520) 293-4336. The opera box office will also handle individual seats for “Gems,” as will Ticketmaster at (520) 321-1000.

The opera season can be viewed at www.azopera.com.

Information about opera events in Green Valley and bus transportation to the performances is available at 625-3361 and rayw7sy@att.net.

donald.behnke@yahoo.com