Review: Finale Is a Pleasing Historic Romp About Opera’s Rossini

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John Lamb

From left: Sadie Harvey as Angel, Paula Stoff Dean as Bella and Tim McWhirter as Rossini in Finale.

In its world premiere at the West End Players Guild (733 Union Boulevard, westendplayers.org), the romantic and musically inclined Finale gives audiences an intimate glimpse into the predilections, proclivities and genius of famed operatic composer Gioachino Rossini. Following the structure of a farce, the show is bawdy and comical, with a touch of musicality that helps convey the artist’s unique approach to writing as well as his complicated romantic history.

The quick-paced, sharp-witted play opens in 1816, in a spare dressing room in the back of an opera house in Rome. We find Rossini furiously transcribing music from his mind onto blank sheets. He is working on the finale to the first act of Barber of Seville, his most recent opera, which is set to open in about an hour and a half. Rossini’s close friend Domenico “Dom” Barbaia bursts into the room, anxiously pacing and demanding the missing pages.

The dialogue is spirited and challenging, but never mean, with Rossini insisting that his friend’s yelling inspires him. That is, until Dom’s fiancée Isabella “Bella” Colbran, a vocalist renowned for her expansive yet flawless range, walks in. From the moment Rossini realizes Bella is that prima donna, his attention and his life are permanently altered. In a matter of minutes, we watch as the singer turns from interruption to muse, even as a previous muse hides in the dressing room’s armoire.

In contemporary terms, we’d consider Rossini a charismatic bad boy, with a coarse sense of humor and almost irreverent approach to everything except his compositions. As personified by Timothy McWhirter, Rossini is brash and charming, almost always in the mood for a tumble in bed and always, always composing — even while he’s in bed. His appetites seem insatiable and McWhirter ensures his characterization is constantly prowling and purposeful, moving comfortably between gamesmanship and seduction.

Rossini discovers his match in the older, wiser and equally musically gifted Bella, played by Paula Stoff Dean, a performer with a truly impressive range of her own. Matt Anderson is amiable and forgiving as the wealthy impresario Dom, and Sadie Harvey turns in a lively performance as Angel, a comely soprano who serves as an additional muse to Rossini.

Director Steve Callahan embraces the light touch of the comic script, particularly the delightfully farcical first act. The tone is upbeat, with a sense of youthful optimism that matches the successful 19-year-old composer’s drive. The second act, set 13 years later, is decidedly more philosophical in tone, content and pacing. While the first act zips by, the shorter second act seems to plod along without adding much to the story, leaving this reviewer wanting a more satisfying resolution. And the last few moments of the play are genuinely confusing, although they seem to suggest the composer completely exhausted himself until he collapsed, physically and musically.

There was a time when local professional theater companies regularly employed an in-house playwright. While that arrangement has mostly fallen out of practice, this opening is playwright (and nuclear physicist) Vladimir Zelevinsky’s fourth original production with West End Players Guild. Each has featured an entertaining story, solid direction from Callahan and an appealing and capable cast. Finale is among the most entertaining and engrossing of the bunch; theater lovers would be wise to seek it out.