A Perfectly Pitched Performance

SANTA BARBARA — It is a thrill to report: A star is born. And a countertenor at that!

Bejun Mehta didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. In his early teenage years, he was a successful boy soprano. In his early 20s, he was a successful record producer. His father is a cousin of conductor Zubin Mehta, so he possibly has musical genes. But that hardly explains how, just two years after turning to opera at the age of 29, he is already the riveting, consummate performer he proved to be in Handel’s “Rodelinda” Friday night at the Lobero Theatre. The production was the highlight of the Academy of the West’s summer voice training program. The rest of the cast were students, as Mehta had been last summer. This was his West Coast debut.

Mehta is exactly the right singer at the right time. The countertenor is, finally, no longer a curiosity. A new generation of near stars looms, all breaking out of the early-music specialty. David Daniels has demonstrated the extraordinary dramatic force that a male singer reaching into the alto and soprano range can convey under the right theatrical conditions. Andreas Scholl, an elegant singer with a burnished tone, has the publicity machine of Deutsche Grammophon behind him. Another fine singer, Brian Asawa, has mainstream ambitions, although he overreaches on a sentimental new recording “Vocalise.”

With Mehta, such salesmanship should not be necessary. He strikes a listener as less a countertenor than simply a remarkable singer. He has a rare, wonderful stage presence in which voice, personality, physical movement and characterization all appear to emanate from a single source. Bertarido, the character Mehta sang, has six arias, and each adds something new and rich to a complex figure. A Lombard king, who had fled from his kingdom in internecine strife, he hopes to rescue his wife, Rodelinda, and child, who were left behind. His arias, which include three slow pieces of ravishing beauty and fathomless depth of expression, convey a sequence of emotions that range from remorse and uncertainty to rising and triumphant heroism.

It is easy to take an initial dislike to Bertarido (some king, to have abandoned beloved wife and kid to his enemy)--although Handel does give him an extraordinarily sympathetic opening aria, “Dove sei,” in which he pours out his anguish. Mehta brought to Bertarido the advantage of youth. His voice is supple, delicate, of exquisite timbre, yet of surprisingly bold physical presence (the Lobero is a small theater perfect for intimate Baroque opera and for young voices). He showed the king believably, as immature and impulsive yet dazzlingly charismatic.

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Each emotion in Handel found immediacy in Mehta’s performance. He brought the sweetest erotic sensuality to lovemaking, when Bertarido is temporarily reunited with Rodelinda, and wrenching anguish when he loses her again, as he is condemned to death. His final triumph was a stunning, show-stopping display of virtuosic singing, but its greater thrill was that Mehta made it the fulfillment of a character, not empty display.

The director of the production, Christopher Mattaliano, saw reasonable facsimile between 7th century Lombardy and fascist Italy. Troy Hourie’s set of arches, postmodernly askew, might have annoyed with its cheap, contrived look, but clever lighting and its amusing allusions to Santa Barbara architecture made it easy to live with. Randall Behr conducted with a heavy hand that conceded too little to Handelian subtlety, but didn’t defeat it altogether.

The young cast I heard on Friday (a different cast sang the Saturday production) seemed of varying experience. Edyta Kulczak (Eduige) and Anne-Marie Seager (Unulfo) were secure and convincing from the start. Rodelinda was sung by Karen Wierzba, and it was a pleasure to witness her rise, from a modest start, to the occasion. The villains were Lance Clinker (Grimoaldo) and Daesan No (Garibaldo), and they too ultimately found the meaning of their roles.

“Rodelinda” is a late, great Handel opera, once a favorite of Joan Sutherland, but not often encountered these days. The Academy of the West revealed its worth. If there is any justice in the opera world, it will now beat a path to Mehta’s Bertarido. He is ready for the great stages.