Small, storefront opera companies survive on agility, nerve and an unwavering commitment to their art form. They don’t pursue opera on a grand scale, which gives them a unique freedom. In Chicago, where “Off-Loop” theater has long flourished, Chicago City Opera recently demonstrated this spirit with a nimble, inventive double bill at the Fulton Street Collective in West Town. The pairing joined two compact Mozart Singspiels separated by nearly two decades: Bastien und Bastienne, written in 1768 when Wolfgang was a mere 12 years old, and Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), composed in 1786 when he was 30. The Impresario satirizes the vanities and frictions of theatrical life; Bastien und Bastienne is a pastoral comedy of young love.

Rather than staging them as separate pieces, the company’s creative team, led by director Alannah Spencer, combined them into a single dramatic experience. Spencer reworked Impresario’s German dialogue and many of its numbers into English and streamlined the comedy. Wisely, she retained the work’s two soprano arias in their original German as part of a transformation of this work into a battle  between two sopranos for the lead role in a small theater company’s upcoming performance of Bastien und Bastienne – and Impresario’s arias are their audition pieces. Valerie Beck’s Madame Herz secures the part, leaving Tracey Furling’s Mademoiselle Silberklang stuck as an embittered understudy. Meanwhile, tenor Matthew Peckham and baritone Ian Murrell try to keep the audition from falling apart.

Without an intermission, the audition dissolved directly into the fledgling company’s production of Bastien und Bastienne. Furling’s Silberklang doesn’t take her understudy role lying down, and silently sabotages the production, culminating in a tit-for-tat between her and Beck’s Herz that leave them pulling one another offstage to play the shepherdess Bastienne, opposite Peckham’s Bastien, and Murrell’s Colas, a magician.

The Impresario satirizes theatrical ambition, prima-donna rivalry and the business of assembling a company. Placing it before Bastien und Bastienne allowed the production to use backstage competition as the fuel to transform 12-year-old Mozart’s country love story into a comedy of errors. Where Impresario mocks ambition and artifice, Bastien und Bastienne celebrates simplicity and feeling. Having just witnessed the sopranos fight over a role, we watch that fight continue as they try – and fail – to depict a story of true love.

The concept worked because the cast understood the joke. Acting was physical and fast-paced, supported by solid singing. Beck brought a warm, mellow timbre to Herz, giving her aria, “Da schlägt die Abschiedsstunde” (There tolls the hour of farewell) a surprisingly tender depth. Furling countered with bright, agile vocalism in “Bester Jüngling! Mit Entzücken” (Dearest young man! With rapture) Furling’s Silberklang was calculating and lively, which made her vocal duel with Beck playful rather than tedious. When trading lines in the second opera, their contrasting voices gave the slapstick a genuine musical charge.

The men held their own, though with varying presence. Murrell offered a rich, jovial sound, leaning into the comedy with unforced charm. Peckham sang with a lyric sweetness that suited the youthful Bastien. His acting captured the panic of a man caught between two dominant sopranos. On his own, Peckham’s phrasing was expressive and clean. In ensemble passages, however, his tenor sometimes lost focus and drifted behind the larger voices.

Conductor Alexandra Enyart managed the musical pacing from the side, working closely with pianist Jordan Crice. This was only my second time attending Chicago City Opera, and I noticed yet again that the absence of an orchestra presented no real limitation. Strip an opera of its orchestra, and you risk losing its texture. Yet Crice’s crisp playing maintained the drive. Enyart kept a tight grip on the tempos, letting the score’s natural wit come through without pushing the singers.

Chicago City Opera approached these minor Mozart works without trying to inflate them into major statements. The result was a compact, thoughtfully connected evening, driven by the performers’ willingness to sustain its comic premise. And it demonstrates something at odds with the philosophy behind Mozart’s Impresario: Chicago City Opera’s spot-on creative instincts are serving its audience and the wider field well.

Originally published on Seen and Heard International