Word: dido
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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...
Purcell's music itself is wonderful, full of interesting harmonies and surprising contrasts. Unfortunately, the beauty of his work is too often obliterated by the shoddy instrumental delivery or weak 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...
Depicting the forces of darkness is something which this Dido never does well. Perhaps the cast is just too nice--rare, indeed, would be the group of people which smiled more! The chorus of ostensible witches is, of course, the same which minutes before played a group of cherubic courtiers and flower girls. The actors seem to be relying on the black cloaks which partially cover their usual white robes to convey the transformation of their characters. They certainly don't act any differently, or smile any less. They do, however, make lots of silly ghost sounds and giggly cackles...
...Dido's acting problems do not end with the minor characters. Aeneas (Christian Quilici '01) smirks slyly to himself all the way through the scene in which he is first introduced to Dido. Coyly, he looks off to the side, away from Dido and all the other actors with whom he is supposed to be interacting. He beams like a bridegroom, embarrassed but already certain of his prize. Fortunately both the fated lovers sing better than they act, delivering consistently competent, and sometimes lovely passages. However, neither lead ever wins the audience's heart. The end of Dido...