Review: Updated Scipio's Dream turns early Mozart opera into a fun romp

Jana McIntyre, Charles Sy, and Holly Flack | Photo credit: Owen Carey

A lot of men would love to wake up in bed with two comely women. That’s the situation at the outset of “Scipio’s Dream” (“Il Sogno di Scipone”) devised by Christopher Alden in an OrpheusPDX production (August 3). He took the early Mozart opera and ingeniously updated the story, adding just the right amount of humor, so that it would to appeal to contemporary audiences. As a result, the performance that I saw was a genuine hit with the capacity crowd a Lincoln Performance Hall.

Based on a story by Cicero, “Scipio’s Dream” tells of a Roman warrior, who must decide between Fortuna or Costanza to determine his future. In Alden’s retelling, the warrior becomes a slacker dude, whose carefree life is interrupted by the two female goddesses. He tries to avoid choosing but is brought to task by his grandfather, a great war hero, and a chorus of soldiers, warning him to man up and fulfill his destiny.

Using a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, Mozart linked a chain of recitatives and da capo arias to create “Scipio’s Dream.” You could hear some of his lyrical style emerging, but at fifteen years old, he was just figuring things out.

Tenor Charles Sy struck just the right balance as Scipio, commanding a myriad of florid passages with a golden tone. He expertly conveyed bewilderment and fear before transitioning convincingly to an upright man of action, choosing Costanza (representing calm constancy) over Fortuna (exciting changeability).

Soprano Jana McIntyre had a field day as Fortuna, conquering a withering range of vocal acrobatics with ease. She also reveled in her character’s mercurial nature by modeling a plethora of enticing outfits, rifling them from a large closet. That elicited loads of laughter from all corners of the hall.

Soprano Holly Flack maintained the calm resoluteness of Costanza with a variety of yoga poses and even wrapped the bedsheet around herself a la the Statue of Liberty. She also lit up the house with vocal pyrotechnics, soaring to a jaw-dropping B-flat above high C during one of her arias. She did that twice – which certainly convinced listeners who might not have believed their ears the first time around – and received the loudest applause of the performance.

Tenor Norman Shankle created a forceful Publio, the grandfather who shames and encourages Scipio renounce his slacker life and make a choice between the two goddesses. He toppled Scipio to the floor and put him in a full-body press while singing of his obligation to a higher calling.

A chorus of soldiers, consisting of eight singers, backed up Publio with a dead-earnest demeanor that bordered on zombie-like obsession. They climbed through the windows to Scipio’s room, bobbed up and down, danced with each other, and pointed to a map of Northern Africa that was pinned to the wall – referring to where the real-life Roman general, Scipio Africanus conquered territory for the empire.

In this version of “Scipio’s Dream,” two minor characters from the original were eliminated, and the opera was streamlined to a tad under 90 minutes. Conductor Deanna Tham employed crisp tempos and sensitive dynamics to get a rich sound from an orchestra of 25 musicians that included five of Portland’s best high-school-aged string players.

Excellent lighting by Allen Hahn enhanced Andrew Cavanaugh Holland’s minimalist set design. The group of globe lights that were lowered from the ceiling perfectly matched Costanza’s aria about the harmony of the spheres. Wielding a briefcase and a newfound sense of purpose, Scipio smashed through the butcher paper walls of his apartment and exited with big strides to become the man he was meant to be. That created a final hilarious moment when the cleaning lady stepped through the opening in the wall with her vacuum cleaner and surveyed the mess with a look of surprised confusion on her face.