Opera review: Domingo in 'Cyrano de Bergerac'

Franco Alfano's 1936 opera "Cyrano de Bergerac," which the San Francisco Opera introduced Sunday afternoon as a vehicle for tenor Plácido Domingo, is a busy little whirlwind of dueling, subterfuge, theatrical satire and tongue-in-cheek swashbucklery.

But the beating heart of the opera lies in a matched pair of love duets at the ends of Acts 2 and 4, in which all the sly, knowing elegance of the libretto and the dry functionality of Alfano's vocal writing get tossed aside in favor of a burst of pure emotional fervor.

My lord, but they were glorious.

Combining Domingo's mellifluous, full-throated tenor - still thrillingly beautiful, even at 69 and in the face of an announced indisposition - with the sharp-edged but alluring strains of soprano Ainhoa Arteta, these two set pieces offered a powerful glimpse into the inner worlds of the two main characters, bringing the audience right along.

The libretto, by Henri Cain, is drawn directly from Edmond Rostand's famous play. The title character is a dashing poet-soldier, whose romantic swagger is impeded only by the enormous nose that mars his good looks. The lovely, if undercharacterized, Roxane is a ripe target for Cyrano's amorous eloquence - but only as ventriloquized through the handsome but dull-witted Christian.

This lopsided love triangle finds its fullest expression in the gorgeous Act 2 finale, in which Christian - with Cyrano feeding him lines - pays court to Roxane under her balcony at night. But soon Cyrano himself takes over, disguising his own voice, and Alfano's music deepens from Christian's tentative and conventional melodies into a surge of Puccinian ardor.

The matching bookend comes at the opera's haunting close, when Roxane - after 15 years as Christian's widow - finally learns the truth. In a duet full of musical reminiscences and autumnal regret, the two lovers are reunited for a brief moment, and Alfano's urgent music rises to the occasion.

Those two scenes alone were enough to make Sunday's performance a vital and memorable one - and that was fortunate, because "Cyrano," which has had a mini-revival in recent years thanks to Domingo's advocacy, is otherwise pretty second-rate stuff.

Alfano, still best known for having completed the unfinished "Turandot" after Puccini's death, wavers between the Italianate emotionalism of those duets and a more austere harmonic palette derived from Debussy (the opera is in French). This only makes the big expository scenes feel cluttered and uncertain of tone - although there is a striking scene in Act 3 for a chorus of woebegone soldiers - and the various nobles and military men who fill out the cast are never really distinguished in musical terms.

Still, it was worth it just to hear Domingo do his first staged opera since Massenet's "Hérodiade" in 1994. The appearance onstage of General Manager David Gockley midway through Act 2 only confirmed what had been obvious all along - that Domingo had some congestion that was obscuring his middle range - but the high notes still sounded as clear and bell-like as ever.

Domingo doesn't quite command the physical energy to make the opening duel pay off (though some of the blame should go to director Petrika Ionesco's nonsensical staging), but as a lover - especially an older, disappointed lover - he is second to none. His aura of rueful dignity in the last act was heartbreaking to witness.

Arteta's Roxane was a vocally alluring figure, mixing sumptuous tone with sure-footed melodic phrasing, and she was well matched by the company debut of tenor Thiago Arancam as a crisp-voiced Christian.

Baritone Stephen Powell gave a vigorous but somewhat blunt performance as the lecherous De Guiche, and the other baritone roles were capably handled by Lester Lynch (Carbon), Brian Mulligan (Ragueneau) and Timothy Mix (Le Bret). Adler Fellows Leah Crocetto, Maya Lahyani and Austin Kness made strong contributions in a variety of smaller roles, and Ian Robertson's Opera Chorus sang superbly - especially in the battle scene of Act 3.

Conductor Patrick Fournillier, in his company debut, made as good a case as I suspect can be made for the score, investing the emotional high points with rhythmic buoyancy and getting through the rest with crisp efficiency. Ionesco's production, once past the elaborate but static opening act, boasted a handsome combination of grandeur and expressive intimacy.

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

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