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Practicing Cultural Economics

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles Opera closes its 2001-02 season with a rarity of a double bill: two acknowledged masterpieces from the 20th century, Bela Bartok’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.”

Bartok’s single opera and Puccini’s single comedy, both first produced in 1918, are different stage animals but are complementary. The former is mysterious, allusive, symbolic and ambiguous; the latter, accessible, beautifully crafted and easy to love. Each represents a high point for its composer.

At the Friday night opening in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the accomplished and multi-gifted Samuel Ramey sang both title roles. The American bass-baritone’s versatility could not surprise longtime admirers, yet his myriad vocal and dramatic resources, remarkably demonstrated as the enigmatic, many-faceted Bluebeard and as the genius-scoundrel Schicchi, had to thrill even the observer who knew in advance the scope of these challenges. Ramey is a national treasure.

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The new productions, designed by Gottfried Pilz, with lighting designs by Paul Pyant, mesh with the effective staging by film director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”), who has European operatic credits.

The “Bluebeard” realization can be controversial. Two examples: In place of crowning Judith, Bluebeard at the end of the piece strangles her, a piece of business not in the libretto. The three immortal wives appear only as ghostly flying things--swooshing linens instead of real women. Therefore, at the end, Judith, instead of taking her place among the other wives, merely remains on the floor, dead and hardly immortal.

“Gianni Schicchi” seems to have been updated to post-Mussolini Florence; Buoso Donati’s house is high-ceilinged and palatial in a 1950s style; his family’s general affluence is reflected in rich, fashionable clothing of the time, which the singing actors wear handsomely.

With admirable wit, the designer carries over from the opera about curiosity to the opera about greed a few props, plus a huge and stunning circular staircase, which dominates the action.

Kent Nagano, the company’s principal conductor, led both works. His “Schicchi” is sometimes pushed and not always savored, but it retains many of its numerous musical charms.

His “Bluebeard” is loose and often unspecific about tempo-relations; as a result, what should be a taut, accumulative musical experience becomes haphazard. The work is a great one and, incidentally, the largest orchestral canvas the composer ever created. The Friday performance merely approximated that greatness without delivering its substance.

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As Judith, Bluebeard’s curious fourth wife, Denyce Graves is seriously overmatched. Not only does her mellow voice lack all the expressive hues the score calls for, she also chose to omit the high C at the center and climax of the work.

More than other 20th century composers, Bartok valued symmetry above all: This work begins and ends in the enigmatic nether regions of F-sharp, but at its center--where the Fifth Door is opened--it peaks on pure, pristine C major. The vocal outburst on high C at that moment--complemented by one of the loudest orchestral climaxes in the literature--cannot be changed without damage to the entire structure.

The cast of “Gianni Schicchi” supports Ramey’s definitive title character with strength and humor. Veteran mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias is at the center of this resourceful ensemble, which also includes Roberto Iarussi, Jessica Rivera, Stefano de Peppo, the delightful Tony R. Dillon (as Simone), Vitalij Kowaljow and Suzanna Guzman.

The lovers are Danielle De Niese and Rolando Villazon. Given the lack of resonating surfaces on this huge stage, all the voices sound small. That hardly matters; the ensemble’s the thing. Also contributing are James Creswell, Pablo Porras, Robert Hovencamp and Reid Bruton.

In both works, the orchestra plays well and reliably. Only the crucial buildup to the Fifth Door in “Bluebeard” lacked its wonted substance; it came too soon because it had not been properly prepared.

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Los Angeles Opera: “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” and “Gianni Schicchi,” Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and June 12 at 7:30 p.m. and June 15 at 2 p.m. $30-$165. (213) 365-3500.

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