This is 'Sound of Music' on a grand scale, with a lovely Maria
In its second of five planned spring productions of classic musicals by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the Lyric Opera of Chicago finds a sweet Alpine spot with director Marc Bruni's admirably lively new production of "The Sound of Music," a lavish yet accessible and family-oriented affair that features the kind of gorgeous picture-book design from Michael Yeargan that would delight the Austrian Tourist Office. There's an orchestra of 37 players under the baton of Rob Fisher, more singing nuns than anyone has the right to expect in this economy, a steep mountainside down which Maria can gambol (warbling all the way) and the Family von Trapp can make its escape, and an intermittently insouciant and wholly lovable Maria from the oft-underrated Broadway veteran Jenn Gambatese, an experienced but vulnerable performer in her vocal prime.
Bruni does not stage a revisionist production, nor one full of major surprises in its staging. But this is a far superior production to last year's Lyric "Oklahoma" (although, in fairness, that was a much tougher Rodgers-and-Hammerstein piece to make work in an opera house). Bruni has been handed one of the small clutch of near-perfect American musicals, along with an ample budget. But he does not squander these gifts. On the contrary, he has figured out a very viable point of intersection of opera company and musical theater, a tricky challenge with which many skilled directors struggle.
