Little Women at SFCM
March 04, 2008
* Notes *
Some students and alumni of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presented Mark Adamo's Little Women last weekend. The plot is presented as a flash back, condensing the novel into a mere 2 hours. The opera is a bit like a cerebral musical, the libretto is charming, and the music switches back and forth from lyricism and atonality. Conductor Dana Sadava kept the singers and pianist Carl Pantle together, the latter played beautifully. The quartet of female voices had some shaky moments but also some angelic ones. Laryssa Sadoway acted well as Aunt Cecilia March, though she was a bit underpowered vocally. William O'Neill sang "Kennst du das Land wo die Zitronen blühn" pretty well, though his higher notes were a bit lacking in heft. I found Lang Nixon shrill as Amy, and slightly off key. The talented Indre Viskontas holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, and made a pretty Beth, playing piano on stage, and fainting a great deal. The star certainly was Kindra Scharich as Jo, not only was her rich, strong voice the most pleasant, her comic timing was flawless.
* Tattling *
The audience was rather small for the free performance, and included mostly friends and family of the cast and crew. There was a lot of chattering and candy wrapper noise. Before the performance, some students of SFCM were having a conversation in which a vodka vending machine was requested.