Word: bruckmann
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Much appreciated relief came with the entrance of Sarita Cannon '98 as Belinda, Dido's confidante. Cannon's voice is consistently strong, clear and confidently delivered. As Dido, Lara Bruckmann is decidedly less imposing. Though her voice is clearly very highly trained, and possesses a wonderful, delicate vibrato and a good range, Bruckmann's performance, particularly in the first act of the two-part operetta, is hesitant and overly breathy...
...second supporting character likewise outshines Bruckmann: Jung Oh '00 as the unimpressively named Second Woman is fabulous. In marked contrast to Dido's cautious strains and pensive, almost petulant facial expressions, Oh breaks into her minor lines with unrestrained power and wonderful clarity. Her articulation is superb, though at times she seems to rush through the music in her enthusiasm. However, her performance distinguishes her as one clearly bound for greater roles than that of "second" anything...
...chorus, if not utterly disguised by the distractingly awful acting. Dido, even in her more musically successful moments, maintains a dreadful expression of peevish nervousness. Even as Belinda liltingly intones of the beautiful queen, "Her eyes confess the flame her tongue denies," all that this reviewer could observe in Bruckmann's eye was a sour distaste for the whole situation...
...performances of Cannon and Oh do much toward the production's redemption, but ultimately cannot compensate for the rest of the cast. Much of Bruckmann's singing, when she's not grimacing or missing her note in a dramatic squawk, is also worthwhile, as are many of Quilici's passages. But neither lead is ultimately compelling as a character or performer. And many of the choral members are simply liabilities to the production--their varying quality of vocal contributions fail to outweigh the ridiculous mugging and noise-making which someone apparently considered lively or endearing. In a fourth-grade production...