Thanks to Edna Garabedian’s mythic determination, Cal Opera’s ‘Dido & Aeneas’ comes to life

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Two days before rehearsal, Garabedian was one of 42 members of the arts community who used their citizen-allotted rights to speak for two minutes each before the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission of the City of Fresno, which was slogging through a bureaucratic issue involving Measure P, the city sales tax initiative that promises to be a boon to Fresno arts organizations. By the time Garabedian was called forward, the pleas from speaker after speaker seemed to devolve into sameness, roughly along these lines: The arts are important, so please give us our promised funds right away instead of the limbo you’re keeping us in.

Garabedian was different. She didn’t simply walk to the podium; she made an entrance, seeming to float into our field of vision, like Glinda in “Wicked.” She didn’t mumble into the microphone or peer nervously at her notes; she was smooth and musical in her diction. She didn’t repeat what came before; she asked all the California Opera artists and supporters in the audience to stand, and when they did, it was a moment of gravitas that could have been staged by, well, an opera director.

Even her closing was dramatic as she invited the commissioners to the fully staged “Dido & Aeneas.”

“A performance is worth a thousand words,” she said.

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The casting for “Dido & Aeneas” includes an interesting range of singers. Playing the leading role of Dido is mezzo-soprano Alexandra Jerinic of San Francisco, a Cal Opera veteran. Aeneas is performed by Marcus Cardenas, a Fresno-area musical theater veteran making his opera debut. International cast members include tenor Joseph Yeh (Taiwan), countertenor Peter Wu (China) and soprano Miwako Isano (Japan). Soprano Hanna Staley is a senior at Fresno Pacific, and soprano Laura Castro graduated from Fresno State.

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Edna Garabedian offers a rehearsal note as Maestro Gregory Magie works with rehearsal pianist Jordan Williams.

I was surprised to see Cardenas on the cast list because I associate him so strongly with Good Company Players, Fresno City College and the world of musical theater.

Chalk it up, once again, to Garabedian’s powers of persuasion.

Cardenas is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, where he was firmly installed on the musical-theater track. Switching to opera is certainly broadening his range of experiences. When he auditioned for Garabedian, he sang a number from “Titanic.”

“I went in thinking I’m a baritone, but Edna definitely said I’m a tenor,” he says. “Yeah, this is my very first opera, though I’ve worked on classical stuff with my teachers. I haven’t even done a Rodgers and Hammerstein!”

But Garabedian saw promise. “I can work with that,” he recalls her saying. “How soon can you learn the role?”

I ask him the biggest differences between opera and musical theater.

“There’s no tap,” he says drily.

“And no fast costume changes,” he adds. “And I can focus on one track, so I can focus on my scene partners. And just projecting without microphones.”

Has he been bitten by the opera bug?

“Edna’s already asking me about ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ ” he says, almost shyly.

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‘Dido & Aeneas” is the “big” production of this summer’s Cal Opera season, though other events continue through Aug. 3, including the popular “Doctors in Concert” performance on that date at The Big Red Church.

Conductor Gregory Magie is a fan of “Dido & Aeneas,” composed by Henry Purcell, using such words as bright, energetic, rhythmic and tuneful to describe the early English Baroque style. Plus, it’s in English.

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Soprano Ericka Kruse rehearses a scene as one of the witches in California Opera’s ‘Dido & Aeneas.’

“It’s a very light, simple texture,” he says.

Magie, who conducts a Paso Robles chamber orchestra called Symphony of the Vines, has worked with California Opera for six years.

The famous aria is known as “Dido’s Lament,” the title of which is a good indication of the inevitable path the narrative takes. The storyline might not have the most nuanced character development you’ve experienced, but there is an interesting tension in the love story between Dido, still despondent over the death of her husband, and Aeneas, who is, sadly, not quite as into the relationship as she is. The Rome thing is on his mind.

“His eye is on the prize,” Cardenas says of his character.

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Still, opera is about heightened human emotions. Love – or at least good old fashioned lust, on the part of Aeneas – is certainly on display.

On the bare stage in the rehearsal hall, the singers cuddle on a chaise. Jerinic makes eyes at Cardenas, who is slightly more reserved in his affection. They aren’t singing, just gazing.

To me, the most arresting part of the scene is occurring at the director’s table. Although there is action elsewhere on the stage, Garabedian is laser-focused on her two leading actors. (Earlier, she had declared “Step it up!” to them, presumably in the name of intensifying the romantic vibes.) The look of determination on her face rivets me. She peers at them as intently as a hawk circling overhead looking for a rabbit. Nothing escapes her view.

For Garabedian, the most important thing in this moment is not the hundreds of operas behind her. It’s the next one coming up. And she will do everything to make it the best she can.