Double Dose of Humor Ideal for Opera Skeptics

In a healthy way, the recent musical doubleheader at Ventura College was ideal for those who don’t like--or are at least skeptical of--opera. The Ventura College Opera Workshop wisely chose a path of operatic levity, putting on Mozart’s frothily satirical piece “The Impresario,� and PDQ Bach’s frequently hilarious “Oedipus Tex.� Although distinct in musical language and era, with roughly 200 years separating the two, each is a short and smart bit of opera theater, dipping into humor both broad and refined.

Director Dean Lundquist coyly localized “The Impresario,� with references to the budget woes of this opera company and the impresario Mr. Scruples (Robert E. “Doc� Reynolds) making references to an impending retirement in Ojai. But its sendup of the dubious machinations of art and commerce need no update and are probably more timely now than in the 18th century.

Its plot swirls around ego-clashing, dueling would-be divas, wonderfully sung by Patricia Lathrop-McPherson as Madame Goldentrill and Jill Walker-Guth as the aspiring Miss Silverpeal. In the periphery is the young reluctant impresario-to-be, Mr. Bluff (Steven Cox), and the patron with loin-level ulterior motives, Mr. Angel. That role was sung by David Hodgson, who also returned as the swaggering, drawling protagonist of “Oedipus Tex.�

The work of PDQ Bach (a.k.a. Peter Schickele) effectively mixes high culture and comic high jinks in his revisited Oedipal tale. Incestuous trouble arises when Tex falls for Billie Jo Casta (sung with great garish glee by extra-lipsticked Suzannah Underwood).

High-minded campiness rules, as the gloomily clad Greek chorus sings fervently, and relentlessly, about “tragedy,� and the principals do their work amid chaps, hats and spring-loaded eyeballs.

At the end, the chorus sings “The Eyes of Texas� while the orchestra (conducted by Marc D. Williams) plays “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.�

With luck, this wonderful show chipped away at the prejudices of resident opera-phobes, boding well for the future of opera in these parts.

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Close-Up Theater: Opening this weekend in the inimitable and intimate Theater 150 in Ojai is writer-performer Chris Wells’ “Liberty,� an irreverent romp through New York and that other place attached to it, America. Bridget Carpenter is the director and Fred Cassidy the composer.

* “Liberty,� opening Friday, Theater 150, 918 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends April 7. $15. (805) 646-4300.

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Ojai Alert: The Ojai Festival, always a highlight of Ventura County’s cultural calendar, has officially announced its program. While the festival is departing from tradition in the sense of not having a resident orchestra this year--partly a budgetary decision--the menu of chamber music should be enticing enough to bring the usual music-loving hordes to Ojai from May 29 to June 2.

The stars of this year’s festival will be the esteemed Emerson String Quartet, performing the last quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich over two separate concerts, as well as noted vocalist Ute Lemper, guitarist Eliot Fisk, and--from the up-and-comer’s corner--the critically acclaimed young Italian pianist Mario Formenti. It all opens with a marathon concert, from 6 p.m. to midnight May 29 at the Ojai Center for the Arts, and continues through the weekend at the Libbey Bowl.

A heads-up: the Los Angeles Philharmonic will return to the festival in 2003, led by the great maestro Pierre Boulez, whose several visits to Ojai have resulted in some of the memorable programs there.

* Ojai Music Festival, May 29 to June 2. (805) 646-2094; www.ojaifestival.org.