Review: Central City Opera’s “The Sound of Music” soars into Denver

It may be an overstatment to declare this but what the heck:

* * * ½ Classical musical opera-style

If a theater company — or in this instance the Central City Opera — solves the problem of Maria, they are well on there way to a successful mounting of “The Sound of Music.”

British soprano Katherine Manley charms as the aspiring postulant. Her voice is warm, her acting gently winning. Physically, she even evokes the star who proved the quintessential Maria, Julie Andrews.

The opera company has come down from its mountain home to bring the Austrian Alps to Denver. Last summer, Central City brought the “Show Boat” to the Buell Theatre.

At the Ellie Caulkins Opera House through Aug. 10, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s most enduring musical (and that’s saying something) hits consistently high notes for a family adventure in theater-going.

Elegantly staged, the show, opens with beckoning beauty. Candles flicker as the nuns of Nonnberg Abbey sing their evening vespers. When they rise and hold hands, one of them nearly stumbles into a gap. Someone appears to be missing. Again.

It hardly makes sense to give you rundown of “The Sound of Music.” Who doesn’t know about the lively young woman from the nearby mountains who may not be cut out for the cloistered life but makes a wonderful governess for Baron Von Trapp’s mischievous youngsters?

So many of us know the songs that feel like they will be sung for a thousand years, starting with the titular “The Sound of Music,” dropping into the valley of “Edelweiss” and soaring upward with “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.” Oh yes, and then there’s “My Favorite Things,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “The Lonely Goatherd,” “Do-Re-Mi.” You’re unlikely to be disappointed.

Instead, the divide here between musical theater and opera occasionally widens around acting. The three nuns who sing “Maria” are good but not quite hilarious.

Those who bridge the two well include: Mezzo-soprano Maria Zifchak as the Mother Abbess; Robert Orth as “Uncle” Max, the mostly lovable opportunist who wants the children to perform at the Kaltzberg Festival; and Lucy Schaufer as von Trapp’s cosmopolitan paramour, Frau Schraeder.

The actors performing the von Trapp young’uns are a charming bunch. Ian O’ Brien brings a lovely tenor to Rolf, the messenger whom Liesl (the very good Julie Tabash) grows increasingly fond of.

Baritone Troy Cook performs the Austrian naval hero with the expected ramrod mien. Only one wished his fine baritone was more supple. It is the singing that gives Captain von Trapp away as someone more tender than tyrannical.

Fresh off of death-watch duty with Central City’s superb “Dead Man Walking,” Ken Cazan directs with family-pleasing zest.

“No one gets stabbed,” a man said approvingly to his wife during intermission. True, but the backdrop is the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich.

And for those who don’t want to repress that dark shadow, Cazan has staged a subtly wise, aptly uncomfortable scene transition from Captain von Trapp being given a German commission and the night the Von Trapp Family Singers compete at the concert hall where the family will make their exit from Austria.

The von Trapp house gives way to the festival where soldiers stand guard. In the Ellie the huge, unfurled Nazi banner has disquieting heft. The audience is invited to join the baron in his mournful and defiant rendition of “Edelweiss.”

On opening night, many accepted the invitation.

Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy

“The Sound of Music.” 3.5 stars. Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. A Central City Opera production. Directed by Ken Cazan. Craig Kier conducts. Featuring Katherine Manley. Troy Cook. Maria Zifchak, Lucy Schaufer and Robert Orth. Through Aug. 10. Runtime 3 hrs. At the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 14th and Curtis streets. Tickets $30-$106 via centralcityopera.org or 303-292-6700