In 1711, as George Frederic Handel’s first Italianate opera produced for the London stage, Rinaldo fared poorly with critics of the time who weren’t prepared for it, but the more amenable audiences loved it.  It went on to be wildly successful then and is now considered one of his most artistic works.  That said, in part, it is a pastiche of reworked pieces that sometimes differ in style from the overall musical idiom.

No stranger to Handel operas, West Edge General Director Mark Streshinsky wanted a new take on Rinaldo and charged Director Keturah Stickann to find the humor in the story.  Since it takes place in the conflicts of the Crusades, that may seem a stretch, but at least none of the principals die.  Ultimately, Stickann found parallels with American superheroes popular in comic books and films and went with it.  Thus, along with both outstanding singing and orchestra conducted by Emily Senturia, the enterprising and entertaining production is full of laughs, colorful action, and modern dance movement.

Purists may object to this treatment, but if they love Handel’s music, they will still get that.  A majority of the audience probably appreciates both the music and a fresh interpretation of the action.  A final segment, admittedly including me, may not favor Baroque music but finds it more palatable with the diversionary depiction.

One issue with Baroque opera in general is its vocally unbalanced, typically high overall tessitura, driven by the frequent use of a castrato (now usually sung by a countertenor or mezzo-soprano) in the male lead part.  In this case, smooth and mellow countertenor Kyle Tingzon is exemplary in the title role, and he gets to mug his way through the comic elements, flexing his biceps and throwing judo-type kicks.

But the tessitura wasn’t yet high enough for Handel, so he specified another lead part as a trousers role, Goffredo, who is the Chief in this realization.  The score calls for a contralto, and fortunately, the Bay Area is home to one of the finest of that rare breed, the robust and vibrant Sara Couden.  This role calls for the high end of her range, unlike the normal expectation of a chesty vocalization.  Indeed, not only are the timbre and range close to that of Rinaldo, Tingzon has also performed Goffredo.

The die is cast during the opening prelude, full of Keystone Cops type pratfalls with chases, fights, and dance.  The ensuing plot involves superhero Rinaldo helping Goffredo to rid the city of a crime syndicate led by Argante, played by Efraín Solis, whose warm baritone, which includes well-sung coloratura passages, is the only respite from high end voices.  The two remaining key characters are talented sopranos.  Shawnette Sulker is Almirena, Goffredo’s daughter who is in love with Rinaldo.  Nikki Einfeld is Armida, a super villain working for and in love with Argante.  However, she captures Almirena, and in the process, Argante falls for her.

Kudos to all of the cast for strong singing but also for the special acting required, including many sight gags and much physical comedy.  They play over-the-top for laughs to a plot indicated by the supertitles for the audience.  Yet, while acting silly, they are still singing to a libretto of action from a millennium ago, replete with Saracens, chariots, and an attack on Jerusalem.

Musically, Handel is resourceful both in his use of varied instrumentation and by repurposing arias from other cantatas, oratorios, and operas.  His most distinctive contributions diverge from the main musical idiom.  Sulker embraces the most haltingly beautiful aria, Almirena’s “Lascia ch’io pianga” (“Let me weep”), a stately sarabande that was an instrumental in an earlier opera Almira.  Also memorable is the brief “Sonata per l’arciliuto” with melody by a theorbo, an instrument of the period, and supported by plucking from the other strings in the orchestra.

Upon reconciliation of the principals, the opera closes with a full ensemble.   Its message is noble but perhaps foreboding – “Only virtue can defeat evil.”

As with the company’s The Turn of the Screw, a creative contribution standout is from Projection Designer Yuki Izumihara, whose projections include the comic book use of colorful graphics splashed with words like BAM and SWOOSH to accompany fights, as well as flashes of newspapers.   The other special recognition goes to Bethany Deal’s costume design particularly for the brilliantly lively outfits of the principals.

In all, Rinaldo is inventively produced and well performed, providing a superior, if eccentric, opera experience.

Rinaldo, composed by George Frederic Handel with libretto by Giacomo Rossi drawn from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata, is produced by West Edge Opera and is performed at Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland, CA through August 15, 2026.

The British Isles have long been a font of bubbly literary humor from the likes of George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, P. G. Wodehouse, and Alan Ayckbourn.  Preceding them all, and though he penned three other socio-comedic plays that continue to amuse, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest ranks not only as his most successful but is perhaps the most popular of all British theatrical comedies.

Silicon Valley Shakespeare has produced this antiestablishment drawing room comedy with amiable results, delivering its absurd notions farcically, but not over the top.  Performed outdoors on a stage venue surrounded by stately redwoods, the combination of provocative culture and the grandeur of nature provide an embracing evening.

Like Algernon, whom the playwright probably identifies with, Wilde parodies hypocritical Victorian manners and exposes the truths that they hide.  A pointed and poignant observation concerns bunburyism, which derives from Algernon’s fictitious friend Bunbury, whose convenient illnesses provide cover for Algernon to avoid social engagements.  The hypocrisy extends to Algernon’s friend having a dual identity, in which he is Jack where he lives with his ward Cecily in the country, but Ernest when he cavorts in London………

By agreement with Talkin’ Broadway, my full reviews of South Bay plays for the remainder of 2026 will appear on their site. For continuation, go to: San Jose/Silicon Valley – “The Importance of Being Earnest” – 38/18/26 .

From its opening strains there is no doubt that an ominous tale will follow in the opera version of The Turn of the Screw.  The skittish devotees to fright will not be disappointed, and the West Edge Opera version should please aficionados.

Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera with libretto by Myfanwy Piper follows novella author Henry James’s narrative closely.  Indeed, in the minds of non-opera buffs, it is a rare opera which equals or exceeds its source material in merit, although Verdi’s Otello is often cited as an exception.  With elements of a Gothic novel and ghost story, it tells of an untried governess hired to care for a boy, Miles, and a girl, Flora, on a country estate.  Their parents having died, they are wards of an absentee uncle.  Two employees who were close to the children, the valet Peter Quint and the previous governess Miss Jessel, have also died. 

As The Governess, Laura Bohn’s intensity is amplified by being on stage for the full performance, even observing action she’s not involved in.  Though a lyric soprano, her voice possesses dramatic edge to convey the deep anxieties of The Governess as she descends from naïve optimism to paranoia.

Her vague unrest (“O why, why did I come?”) solidifies having seen, or thinking that she’s seen, the deceased employees.  Portrayed by powerful tenor Alex Boyer, Peter Quint is the opera’s male lead, yet his profound visual presence is through projected images.  Boyer and smooth soprano Aléxa Sessler as Miss Jessel sing unseen from an upper gallery of the auditorium, with their live images projected onto scrims on the stage.  A vocally and visually disemboweled state results that works perfectly to convey their otherworldliness.  And particularly, the macabre close ups of Quint make even the fair-faced Boyer look menacing.

Meanwhile, the children, played by Noah Hajduk and Roya Agarwal, become more disturbing with their morbidity. Increasingly, The Governess despairs that they are under the control of Quint and Miss Jessel. Housekeeper Mrs. Grose, played by accomplished veteran soprano Erin Neff, cannot cope, as she acknowledges that she isn’t capable of competing with the bright and devious children.

Britten’s score suits the instability of the haunting story and its characters with a mix of tonal and atonal music.  Jonathon Khuner’s orchestra is limited to 13 musicians, but many have solos, often imitating things in nature such as a flute sounding like a bird or a tom-tom drum like an uneasy heartbeat.  The general audience will appreciate the music for its inventiveness and foreboding.  Even the children singing the ditty Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son sounds grotesque.

Musicologists will appreciate the score more intellectually.  Motifs, especially the portentous 12-note “Screw” theme, which in part draws from Schoenberg’s 12-note atonal technique, appears in altered forms throughout.

The other prominent motif is “Malo,” which is Latin for “I prefer” or as sung by Miles “I would rather be.”  It comes from Miles’ language lesson and becomes his theme.  Except for diacritical marks, malo is a homophone for other words and has ambiguous interpretation.  It expresses innocence (the movie title based on the novella is The Innocents), but it also suggests admission of guilt.  Thus, Britten’s diversion from James’s novella makes the story even more ambiguous and interpretable, which many would consider a good thing.  Among the ambiguities, is The Governess delusional and seeing things with her vision of the dead, or was she just told that they were dead? Are the children’s behaviors just pranks, or are they really evil?

West Edge General Manager Mark Streshinsky directs the impressive production with its inventive use of technology.  Set and Projections Designer Yuki Izumihara devises spectacularly spooky staging starting with a black-and-white projection depicting the manor.  Two asymmetrical layers of scrims front and rear display most of the projections, creating a space where much of the action takes place.  While it could be characterized in many ways, it seems like a prison where this isolated party of four living souls is trapped.

In eerie contrast to the live proceedings, recorded moving images of Quint and the children enjoying activities like tossing balls and playing piano are often projected which have the feel of home movies.  Is this to say that superficial representations of how we live can often be misleading?

The Turn of the Screw, composed by Benjamin Britten with libretto by Myfanwy Piper and based on the novella of the same name by Henry James, is produced by West Edge Opera and plays at Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA through August 15, 2026.