Opera News Review: Hoomes, Crider, Guarrine in Florentine Opera's "Die Fledermaus"
"The production was staged by director John Hoomes, who is never short on ideas. The Schirmer English translation was employed, and while—let’s be honest here—many of its jokes are real groaners, Hoomes minimized eye-rolling by celebrating banality instead of fighting against it. The results lacked Viennese elegance but brought some big, honest laughs. There was some entertaining stage business for Frosch (given a nice comic turn by actor Bill Theisen) and a funny sneezing bit for Leroy Y. Davis’ cranky Ivan. The czárdás found Rosalinde tempting Eisenstein with audacious gyrations that came wickedly close to sexual thrusting (the guy was a goner). Orlofsky fielded a hilarious reference to Pabst Blue Ribbon, which delighted the Milwaukee audience—“Chacun à son goût,” after all.
Mezzo Amanda Crider was right up there too, with a skillful handling of those tricky vocal fillips in Orlofsky’s couplets. . . Jamie-Rose Guarrine pealed Adele’s laughing ditty vivaciously, with some pert variants in the upward runs and a good, solid top D."
-Opera News