It Wasn't Actually Donizetti.

I went to the opera this afternoon, expecting to see a third-rate Donizetti comedy. What I got, though, was a better-than-first-rate Donizetti comedy.

The weirdest thing about it was that it wasn't by Donizetti and it most certainly wasn't written in Italian. That's because it was Das Liebesverbot, Richard Wagner's second opera, here performed by Pocket Opera in Donald Pippin's English translation as No Love Allowed.

Friends, mostly you wouldn't have recognized it as Wagner. The Sorcerer-of-Bayreuth-to-come peeped out occasionally in small harmonic pings, though what struck me most strongly was the composer's skill in structuring the music effectively. It's true that the source material, William Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure, is good, and in creating his libretto, Wagner apparently dealt well with it.

The music is lovely, sometimes better than that. The big ensembles that end both acts are mighty impressive; the composer did a good job of handling potentially difficult material. The Pippin translation is pretty funny. The singers were all excellent and appeared to be having a darned good time; they worked together fabulously as an ensemble. The staging by Nicholas Garcia is straightforward and effective and does a lot with about six pieces of furniture. The orchestra under Jonathan Khuner played well and with great spirit. One performance remains, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. You can buy tickets at Pocket Opera's web site.

Any opera company in search of a comedy should take a look at Das Liebesverbot. It's not canonical Wagner, but so? It's a fine romp through comic fields and should be performed regularly. (Here are Joshua Kosman's thoughts on the performance and work.)

As I said, everyone was darned good, so here are all of their names:

Leslie Sandefur as Isabella

Michael Dailey as Luzio

Spencer Dodd as Friedrich

Aléxa Anderson as Mariana

Sonia Gariaeff as Dorella

Michael Grammer as Brighella

Eric Levintow as Antonio

Julio Ferrari as Angelo

Pete Shoemaker as Danieli

Michael Mendelsohn as Pontius Pilate

Maria Caycedo, Ensemble

Daphne Touchais, Ensemble

Christopher Pilcher, Guard

Andrew Green, Ensemble

Chase Kupperberg, Ensemble