Michael Ballam and the Utah Festival Opera singers could not have picked a finer display case for their wares Wednesday than Abravanel Hall with a full Utah Symphony behind them.
The effect was the same as a strand of pearls being softly set against black velvet.The program was an unabashed promotion for the Logan opera festival. The songs were old chestnuts, the pace was brisk and Ballam - with his honest appreciation for sentiment, gratitude and guts - was in full charm. True, the hall was just a little more than half-filled, so the troupe was singing to the choir - to the true believers - but the results were obvious. The success of the evening will undoubtedly pull more patrons north to Logan this summer.
And as Ballam knows, nothing succeeds like success.
The Utah Symphony, under the baton of Robert Henderson, opened with a clean, vigorous rendition of the overture to "Die Fledermaus" (one of the three productions being mounted in Logan), then easily slipped into a mode that might be called "high-minded Hollywood" for a good share of the evening.
Ballam opened with "The Impossible Dream," the anthem of choice for the show, then added Lehar's "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" in the second half. Most of the night he provided play-by-play and color commentary as he showcased the other voices in the troupe.
Susan Deauvono, who is the size of a fledermaus, won "audience sweetheart" honors for her supple "Adele's Laughing Song" and "Vilia" (from "The Merry Widow"). She sang them as if they were her signature pieces - which they very well may be.
But then every performer was called back to the stage for extra bows after each number. Baritone John Brandstetter tended to muscle around Cole Porter's "Night and Day" (as opera singers do), but his interpretation of Verdi's "Di provenza il mar" was a grand slam.
Amy Olden, a product of the Utah Opera Festival apprentice program, won applause and shouts for her control and range on "Un bel di," and Rebecca Ravenshaw showed some exotic sauce and power in "Sequidilla" from "Carmen" and Porter's "So in Love."
Mary Shearer did a superb job with Sczwinski's "Wien, Wien nur dul allein."
If there was one miscue, it may have been in ending the evening with Ethel Merman's brassy theme song "There's No Business Like Show Business." It felt a little like a sloppy kiss after a stylish night out.
But in the end, this was the kind of anthology program that seldom taxes the audience or the performers. Like some of the Met programs, it was an opera love-in. With luck, such shows rekindle fires in the long-time opera fan and makes the novice feel that grand opera just may be for Joe Blow as well.
That was the game plan going in.
And Ballam and company worked the plan to perfection.