Opera review: Captivating, comic 'Algiers' is opera at its best

If its second act were as fizzy as its first, Gioachino Rossini's "The Italian Girl in Algiers" (1813) would be universally acclaimed as one of the greatest of comic operas, equaling, if not exceeding, the same composer's "The Barber of Seville."

Alas, Act II meanders, and its curious mix of big themes -- feminism, Italian patriotism, European-Ottoman relations, the course of true love -- threatens at moments to burst the comedic bubble.

The threat is deftly evaded, however, in the Minnesota Opera's effervescent presentation, which opened Saturday at the Ordway Center in St. Paul. Set within a 1930s-style pop-up book, which hinges open as the overture concludes, the production originated at the Santa Fe Opera and has traveled to several prominent American houses.

But only in St. Paul have Robert Innes Hopkins' clever set and David Woolard's color-saturated costumes been joined with Helena Binder's arch, masterful stage direction, farcical yet fastidious. In an evening of captivating performances, she steals the show.

The madcap finale of Act I is Binder's tour de force. Driven to whirligig frenzy by conductor Robert Wood, it's as brilliant a piece of physical comedy as I've seen in an opera house. The strobe-lit slow-motion sequences are especially breathtaking (and bespeak arduous rehearsal).

The singers, led by mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux in the title role, are fully worthy of the production. Genaux is a stunner, her voice wonderfully free and fluid throughout its wide compass. She has a charisma that is not a function of volume, and she succeeds in painting a distinct personality with her coloratura. Kenneth Tarver shines as her inamorato, Lindoro; his essentially lyric tenor, if a bit strained at the very top, has decided dramatic overtones, here used mock-heroically. As Mustafà, the endearingly clueless Bey of Algiers, Wojtek Gierlach gets better, and sillier, as the evening progresses; his antics in Act II are risible, and he deploys his resonant bass with uncommon agility.

Company regulars Kyle Albertson (Haly), Alison Bates (Elvira) and Andrea Coleman (Zulma) round out an estimable ensemble.

Binder and her cast effect a remarkable integration of song and movement; characters sing, with apparent ease, while running, dancing, dressing, bathing and applying lipstick. This is a performance in which absolutely everyone can act -- still a rarity, but no longer the impossibility it once seemed. Especially if you're inclined to regard opera as a museum of subpar theatricality, you owe yourself a visit to Algiers.

Larry Fuchsberg is a music writer.