Opera review: L.A. Opera premieres 'Il Postino'

(09-25) 04:00 PST Los Angeles - -- Operagoers who complain that they don't write 'em like they used to can take comfort from "Il Postino," the lovely though limited new work by composer-librettist Daniel Catán that had its world premiere Thursday night at the Los Angeles Opera. Catán wrote this one exactly like they used to.

And by "they" I mean very specifically Giacomo Puccini, whose dramaturgy, melodic style and harmonic language suffuse nearly every measure of "Il Postino." Catán's lush, singable score is fashioned almost entirely on the models of "Madama Butterfly" and "Tosca," with a few snippets of "La Bohčme" thrown in.

You could do worse, of course. The piece may not be particularly new or inventive, but it is undeniably beautiful, and it packs an emotional punch. Best of all, it provides a role superbly tailored to the great Plácido Domingo, who delivers it magnificently.

"Il Postino" ("The Postman") is a faithful adaptation of the popular Italian film from 1994, in which the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda - exiled for his left-wing politics to a remote island near Sicily - becomes friendly with a sensitive young mail carrier, Mario Ruoppolo, and inculcates him into the worlds of poetry and communism. Poetry also turns out to be Mario's ticket for getting Beatrice Russo, a beautiful young barista, to return his love.

This is a story just made for the Puccinian bag of tricks, and Catán (who wrote the libretto in Spanish) dips into that bag with gusto, often borrowing openly from his sources. The score includes love duets whose harmonies and pacing are based on those from "Butterfly" and "Bohčme," and a last-act tenor aria that begins like a riff on Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle" from "Tosca." Even scenes with no dramaturgical parallels in Puccini - particularly the set pieces devoted to some of Neruda's poetry - show his influence.

Fortunately, Catán is a skilled mimic. He writes a soaring, rhapsodic line for Beatrice, zesty comic bits for the minor characters, and fragrant textures, dominated by the harp and strings, for the orchestra.

But Catán's great success here is his conception of the character of Neruda, and how perfectly it suits Domingo's artistic personality at this stage in his career. Like Domingo himself, Neruda embodies a fascinating combination of youthful romanticism and the canniness and authority of middle age.

In the film, that blend was encapsulated by the brief, gentle tango - at once erotic and endearingly domestic - performed by Neruda (played by Philippe Noiret) and his wife, Matilde, and it finds a perfect counterpart in the amorous duet that Catán sets early in the opera and in the ardent love poem that follows it. Neruda's vocal lines here have all the passion associated with a traditional operatic tenor, and Domingo sings them with astonishing freshness and clarity.

But you can hear, too, the passing of years and the emotional maturity that comes with them; this is how Puccini's lovers might have ended up, you feel, if they had grown old together undisturbed by tuberculosis or American imperialism. Something similar happens in Neruda's heartfelt lament over political oppression in Chile - he sounds like Cavaradossi, grown wiser without losing his deepest beliefs.

Mario, by contrast, is a familiar figure, naive and full of fire, and on opening night tenor Charles Castronovo sang the role exquisitely (it was interesting, too, to hear how deftly Catán finessed the challenge of writing so many scenes for two tenors).

The rest of the cast was no less fine. Soprano Amanda Squitieri was an alluring Beatrice, rich-voiced and provocative, and soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs made a knowing Matilde. Nancy Fabiola Herrera, as Beatrice's ferociously watchful aunt, and Vladimir Chernov, as Mario's boss at the post office, made entertaining contributions.

The production was fluidly staged by director Ron Daniels, with help from the efficiently spare sets and costumes of Riccardo Hernandez and Jennifer Tipton's evocative lighting. Grant Gershon's conducting was compelling, if somewhat excitable.

Los Angeles Opera: "Il Postino." Through Oct. 16. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. $20-$270. (213) 972-8001. www.laopera.com.

E-mail Joshua Kosman at jkosman@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle