La Sonnambula
Bellini's Bel Canto Masterpiece About a Sleepwalker
By: Victor Cordell - Feb 16, 2025
A concise definition of bel canto opera eludes aficionados, but its composers have been identified ex post facto, and one of the foremost was Vincenzo Bellini. Despite his brief life of 34 years, several of his operas remain in the repertoire. Among them is the 1831 pastoral opera La Sonnambula, given a fine production by West Bay Opera.
The narrative is simple. Amina, a young woman who is a treasure of a town that could be anywhere, is to marry Elvino. The night before the ceremony, she is seen at the lodgings of a visiting Count. While the opera goer realizes that she sleepwalks innocently and believes that she is in the company of her betrothed, the townspeople are not aware of her condition and turn on Amina as a result of the scandal. Incredulous and callous Elvino returns to his past love, Lisa. Ultimately, the Count absolves Amina and the wedding is back on. The end.
La Sonnambula brims with melodious music that is delivered by a cast with outstanding voices. Those voices are mightily challenged as Bellini composed for a particular soprano who had an especially mellifluous head voice, and she was surrounded by others with acrobatic vocal skills. Not only is the overall tessitura of the three key roles unusually high, but artists are required to hit the high notes, often high D’s cold without a run up.
Coloratura soprano Michelle Drever portrays Amina and nails the part with precision, clarity, and a rich tone throughout her range. Shawnette Sulker performs Lisa, the innkeeper and Amina’s competition for Elvino’s heart. Shawnette’s surname couldn’t be more apt, as she spends much of the opera sulking over her losing Elvino. But her vocals are the equal of Drever’s as she too masters the heights of the soprano range. Each sings with considerable but controlled vibrato and embellishes beautifully in the bel canto manner.
The love interest in this triangle is Elvino, sung by Chris Mosz, who possesses a brilliant and uniquely eerie timbre virtually unique to select operatic tenors. Having sung Tonio in La Fille du Regiment with its eight high C’s multiple times, he certainly suits this part which demands that he enter the stage for his first aria on a high note. Mezzo Courtney Miller as Teresa, Amina’s mother, and Casey Germain as Count Rodolfo also deserve recognition for fine singing and acting.
A bit of a surprise is the chorus. Mostly comprised of veterans with the company, this performance stands out as the best that this reviewer and other confidants can remember. Whether singing pizzicato and sounding like a score of bass violins being plucked, or wafting harmoniously in full voice, they make a difference. Kudos to Chorus Master Bruce Olstad and Director/Conductor José Luis Moscovich who also coordinates orchestra and chorus to produce the big, beautiful sound that belies their numbers.
The opera itself was a great hit with critics, audience, and fellow composers alike upon its premiere. However, tastes and audience demands change over time. One deficiency by today’s standards is that until the critical juncture arrives toward the end of the long first act, the action is very static with little dramatic impact. Arias typically make operas memorable, but until the sleepwalking scene, one aria after another contains pleasant melody, but nothing hummable or declamatory, and very little interactive. Amina’s sleepwalk along with her claim of innocence in her aria ‘D’un Pensiero e d’un accento’ that lead to the rousing, complex act-ending ensemble, a structural fixture of the time, largely redeem Act 1.
Act 2 is comprised of five short scenes that move quickly and provide the highlight of the opera. Amina reprises her sleepwalk. This time, before reaching the townsfolk assembled, she must negotiate a dangerous ledge across the mill stream. Designer Peter Crompton’s projections of cascading water behind the vulnerable Amina creates a strong dramatic effect. Her ensuing “mad scene,” which includes ‘Ah, non credea mirarti,’ her ode to dying flowers from Elvino, is composed and performed exquisitely.
This opera is an important piece of Bellini’s output and has much to recommend it. La Sonnambula influences other opera composers, and it was parodied or reflected in works as varied as Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas and George Eliot’s novel The Mill on the Floss.
La Sonnambula, composed by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani, is produced by West Bay Opera and performed at Lucy Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA through February 23, 2025.