Mozart helps NJSO forget its troubles

By BRADLEY BAMBARGER
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

REVIEW
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Where and when: 8 tonight at Patriots Theater, War Memorial, Trenton; 3 p.m. tomorrow at Prudential Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark
How much: $21-$79. Call (800) ALLEGRO (255-3476) or visit www.njsymphony.org.

Just like the bows moving on its set of very expensive - and controversial - old instruments, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's year has been up and down.

On the upstroke, there were the real coups of signing on new music director Neeme Järvi and chief executive Simon Woods; on the down, there is the ongoing Axelrod scandal, as well as a multimillion-dollar deficit.

To Woods' considerable credit, he came out before Thursday's concert at the State Theatre in New Brunswick - the first in the season's last subscription weekend - and spoke briefly to the audience, not only about the ups but the downs.

With an easy, forthright manner and an authoritative brand of British charm, Woods sought first to assure the audience that the string instruments that the NJSO acquired from Herbert Axelrod were authentic Golden Age treasures. He added that the instruments were definitely "ours - and not only the NJSO's but yours, the community's."

Before the reassurances and soft pitches for subscription renewals, etc., Woods - a musician by background - referenced the whole point of the evening by noting the "magic" of the Mozart the audience was about to hear.

The NJSO presented a concert version of excerpts from Mozart's opera "Le Nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro"), under the baton of New York City Opera music director George Manahan and with a troupe of young singers in tow. Arguably, other types of opera play better in such a no-costumes, no-sets format, whether they're abstract (Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle") or symphonic (Wagner or Berg). Yet even in the stripped-down format and with performances often a notch or two shy of magical, Mozart's score and Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto indeed never fail to enchant.

With their story based on a revolutionary play by Beaumarchais, Mozart and Da Ponte created a fizzy sexual/political comedy that turns the period's creaky class relationships on their head. Figaro, the valet, is crafty, forward-minded, energetic, romantic. Count Almaviva, his lord, is insensitive, reactionary, decadent, priapic. Over the course of his defensive intrigues, Figaro outclasses the Count, aided by the maid Susanna (his fiancée) and Almaviva's neglected wife, the noble-hearted Countess.

The opera may upset the class cart, but Thursday's performances saw the Count and, especially, the Countess, retaining pride of place. Tall and striking in a gorgeous mauve dress, soprano Cynthia Watters made for an empowered and engaging Countess. She sang with warmth, poise and a real Mozartian stylishness, shining solo and in ensemble. It was an impressive turn by a singing actress whose career is one to anticipate.

As the count, baritone Stephen Powell allied his rich, regal tones to a sympathetic stage presence. His antipode as Figaro, Andrew Wentzel, was no vigorous up-and-comer, à la, say, Bryn Terfel. Wentzel was wan and inappropriately pompous, vocally and dramatically. While playing well with others, Tonna Miller was a nicely coquettish but sometimes squally Susanna. Jennifer Hines, as the page Cherubino, has the boyish frame and the large mezzo (even contralto) voice tailor-made for trouser roles; yet the apparently nervous young singer overwhelmed "Voi che sapete" with all the grace of a Humvee.

Manahan conducted with his usual stage-wise flair, although he draws a more rhythmically and texturally sparkling Mozart from his own ensemble than he did from the NJSO. The audience, the biggest and most enthusiastic of the orchestra's State Theatre season, seemed to enjoy every aspect of the evening, from Woods' intro to the grand finale. Let's hope that things go for the NJSO as they do for the characters of Mozart's opera - and that all is well that ends well.

PHOTO CAPTION: Andrew Wentzel, as Figaro, sings his mind to Count Almaviva (Stephen Powell) in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's concert version of excerpts from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." CREDIT: SETH WENIG/FOR THE STAR-LEDGER