An Evening Of Warmth Filled The Opera House

Spokane Symphony and Symphony Chorale Friday evening at the Opera House

A good-sized audience Friday night proved that the Spokane Symphony does not have just fair-weather friends. Perhaps the warm Opera House auditorium was its own attraction for those who had been without electric power for most of the week.

Friday’s real attraction was the chance to hear the Spokane Symphony and the Symphony Chorale, trained by guest chorusmaster Edward Schaefer, perform opera choruses under the baton of two conductors who know and love opera, the symphony’s own music director Fabio Mechetti and his father, Marcello.

Marcello Mechetti, recently retired as a conductor of Brazil’s Opera Theater of Sao Paulo, has been leading opera performances and training opera choruses for more than 40 years. Experience counts, so does skill. His son is better known as a symphonic conductor. In past seasons, though, Spokane has seen the quality Fabio Mechetti can achieve with limited resources and short rehearsal time in productions of “Turandot” and “Fidelio.”

Marcello Mechetti drew sounds of haughty grandeur from the orchestra and the chorale in the Triumphal March that ends Act II of Verdi’s “Aida.” And the spring-like atmosphere he produced in the opening chorus from Masgagni’s “Cavalieria Rusticana” achieved an Italianate warmth many in the audience could take home to cold houses and apartments.

Fabio Mechetti brought to opera choruses by Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and excerpts from Wagner’s “Tannhauser” the same rhythmic vigor and sensitivity to orchestral and choral colors he regularly shows in his symphonic conducting. In my view, there are few conductors in opera now, even those with major opera companies, who can rival Mechetti’s skills in dealing with the dramatic and musical aspects of opera.

The evening’s scene stealer was Perry Lorenzo, Seattle Opera’s education director. Lorenzo’s witty, informative introductions to the excerpts from Verdi, Mascagni, Borodin and Wagner were star turns, welcome additions to the singing, playing and conducting that followed.

, DataTimes