Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

The Most Happy Fella

The well-dressed gentleman to my left kept sneaking peeks at the illuminated BlackBerry under his program during the opening performance of The Most Happy Fella at the New York City Opera last night but not even this self-absorbed display of master-of-the-universe boorishness could cast a chill on Frank Loesser's big, warm-hearted musical/opera about an aging, but lovable Italian immigrant, the mail order bride he lures to his Napa Valley vineyard with a picture of his handsome young foreman, and the complications that inevitably ensue.

To be absolutely fair, the man to my left was one of a large group of tuxedo-clad gentlemen who appeared to have been dragged to a pre-concert gala/merchandising event having something to do with Napa Valley wines by their fashionable, if mostly post-reproductive, wives and had--under some duress--stayed around to see the show. Paul Kellogg appeared to have attended the wine event, himself, judging from his preliminary remarks, getting the name of the female lead character wrong four times before being loudly corrected from the wings by the stage manager and managing to mispronounce Frank Loesser's name twice.

As musical theater, Fella is something of an orphan; neither a true Broadway musical nor an opera in the classic sense. Each character has a distinct musical voice but some require operatic technique and others need only decent, conventional singers. Somehow, Loesser pulls off this unlikely meshing of styles and the whole show feels seamless. As the aging vineyard owner Tony Esposito, who is "not young, not good-looking, and not smart," the veteran stage and screen actor Paul Sorvino reminds us of what of missing in so many operas--good acting of the kind that makes you believe in the character. There are better singers around (although Sorvino's singing is more than adequate) but there are no male pure opera singers that I know of who could have made your eyes well with tears as you share Tony's joy at the finale.

The acting is uniformly good, especially Lisa Vroman as Rosabella, who makes you believe she really has come to love her accidental husband and Leah Hocking, who steals every scene she is in as Rosabella's best friend, Cleo. As Joe, the hunk, Ivan Fernandez is convincing and does a fine job with the show's most beautiful song, "Joey, Joey, Joey." (Leon Bibb did the greatest recording ever of this song if you're lucky enough to find a copy.)

Fella is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year but this production manages to be fresh and lively, summoning from a kinder, gentler period of American history a fairytale that reinforces our need to believe that love, indeed, conquers all. The story of the heart triumphing over simple natural selection is one of the most durable of human narratives and one that has given us many moments of pleasure--from Beauty and the Beast to Phantom of the Opera and King Kong. It's the kind of thing only an asshole with a BlackBerry could resist.

posted by Jerry Bowles 3/08/2006