MAKING 'MERRY' THE STARS AND DIRECTOR OF L.A. OPERA'S LATEST SHOW TRY TO BALANCE HUMOR, DEPTH AND SENTIMENT.

Byline: Rick Mortensen Staff Writer

In the radio ads for Los Angeles Opera's production of ``The Merry Widow,'' baritone Rodney Gilfry tries to change the title of the Franz Lehar operetta to one more focused on his own role. As his on-air ``straight man'' points out, ``The Merry Widow'' is all about the wise and witty Anna, played by Carol Vaness.

The L.A. Opera production of ``The Merry Widow'' is even more focused on its title character than Lehar's original. An English translation, that production was adapted to suit the talents of superstar soprano Joan Sutherland.

The adapters changed a few keys to give the leading lady more vocal fireworks, turned one duet into a solo aria and added the song ``Love Live Forever,'' from Lehar's other operetta, ``Paganini.'' They also added a 10-minute ballet to round out the second act.

Relaxing with opera

A lyric soprano, Vaness said she doesn't do all the ``twiddles and twaddles'' that were added to showcase Sutherland's coloratura. She does a few vocal ornaments, but that's not what excites her about the role. With a resume that includes multiple turns in such heavy roles as Tosca and Donna Anna, Vaness is thrilled to play a sexy, comic character.

``Nobody dies, I don't have to kill anyone, I can just relax and enjoy the fun of it,'' she said. ``For me, it's fun being sensual and sexy and just having a chance to kick your heels up a little bit. When does an opera singer doing 'Tosca' ever get a chance to dance around?''

Being back home is also nice for Vaness. Born in San Diego, she grew up in Pomona, where she attended Pomona Catholic Girls High School and Cal Poly Pomona. For graduate school, Vaness attended California State University, Northridge.

Even though she's based in New York City, Vaness keeps a house in Upland, which she shares with her parents when she's in town. ``The Merry Widow'' marks Vaness' sixth appearance with L.A. Opera since her 1988 debut.

``When you're a free-lance artist, it's not exactly like you're a regular anywhere,'' she said. ``Every now and then you luck out and, if they like you the first time, they hire you again. I've had a really good time being able to come home and be in the California sunshine and sing and have my family around, too.''

Gilfry keeps a more permanent residence in Rancho Cucamonga with his wife and children. A native of Claremont, Gilfry returned to the Inland Valley in 1994, after seven years in Europe. He did a German-language version of ``The Merry Widow'' in Zurich, and he said the work's underlying passion must show through its high-society gloss.

``I think what's important is to have real relationships between the characters and to not make it kind of a veneer of operetta,'' he said. ``Danilo and Anna are relating to each other on a very high-society level. ... I think what's important is that there's this constant and very evident passionate undercurrent that comes out once in a while, through loving expressions or outbursts of anger or some kind of passion.''

Anna is a peasant by birth who married a rich old Parisian and is now a wealthy widow. Danilo is the prince of a small, bankrupt Baltic nation. The two were in love before Anna married, but Danilo caved in to family pressure and broke it off.

The play begins with Danilo working halfheartedly in his country's French embassy and spending a lot of time drinking and carousing.

``Danilo's pretty much a playboy,'' Gilfry said. ``He spends all of his time at Chez Maxim, a famous cabaret nightclub, and it's really in compensation for his lost love. He just tries to forget about his problems by carousing and staying drunk most of the time. Having missed out on this one true love, life has very little meaning for him.''

A sense of humor 

Anna, on the other hand, has learned to laugh at herself, which Vaness said is a distinguishing characteristic of her character.

``There are quite a few things that encompass Anna, but the main thing is that she has a great sense of humor about herself and about life,'' Vaness said. ``Now that she's rich and single, all of these men want to marry her so they can have her money. Anna has a very good sense of humor about that.

``She's not a hard character in any way,'' Vaness continued. ``Her tragedies do make her emotional, but you're not going to see any great tragedy in this at all. You are going to see a lot of depth throughout.''

Because so many men seek Anna's money, Danilo doesn't want to join them in seeking Anna's hand. At the same time, he still has feelings for her, which come through in witty barbs answered in kind.

``What you see throughout the operetta is a very long battle of wits between the two of them, both loving each other and neither of them wanting to give in and say it,'' Vaness said.

Latfi Mansouri, who helped adapt the Joan Sutherland production, directs revivals of it all over the world, including the L.A. Opera production. His production at San Francisco Opera overlapped with his production here, so he enlisted the aid of Stanley Garner as assistant director to run the early rehearsals.

Garner, who has directed two of his own productions of ``The Merry Widow,'' learned Mansouri's staging from archival videos of past productions. He got a sense of the characters in a meeting at Mansouri's studio in which the director performed the opera playing every role.

``I would say it's a very high comedy,'' Garner said of Mansouri's production. ``There's not a lot of pratfalls and slapstick going on. It's very charming and certainly fits the music.''

A lucky charm

However refined the production is, it wasn't above casting Hollywood cabaret singer Jason Graae, known for hammy performances at the Hollywood Cinegrill as well as being the voice of Lucky the Leprechaun on TV cereal commercials. Garner said Graae lends a Danny Kaye-type energy to the production.

One stylistic guideline Mansouri gave Garner was to watch the films of Ernst Lubitsch, a 1930s director who worked with Greta Garbo and other stars of that era.

``It's a style that is not afraid of sentimentality,'' Garner said. ``I think a lot people are afraid of sentimentality because it becomes cornball. It's only cornball if you apologize for it. This is the kind of genuine sentimentality where you'll be in the theater and a husband will reach out and take his wife's hand.''

Vaness also appreciates Mansouri's positive vision of the operetta and noted its uplifting qualities.

``Basically, Latfi feels that there's not a single negative character and that even the bitterness that comes out from Danilo, or the hurt that might happen to Anna, all the different things that could happen throughout the opera, they all have a positive result,'' she said.

``It should be a relief to the audience to see that not only can serious things happen in life, but they can have a funny and positive bend at the end of them.''

THE MERRY WIDOW

Where: Dorothy Chandler PavilioWhen: 7:30 tonight, Wednesday, Friday and Dec. 12.

Tickets: $30 to $165. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Carol Vaness, with Rodney Gilfry, takes on the title role in the L.A. Opera's ``The Merry Widow.''