Haydn's Armida at Opera Theatre of St. Louis

Not that it really matters, of course. Armida, which dates from 1784, is Haydn's nod to the waning genre of opera seria. Operas in this genre - mostly by Italian composers and often with librettos by the celebrated dramatist Metastasio - concentrated on heroic deeds by mythical or legendary figures, nearly always sung in technically demanding da capo arias. Historical reality was largely irrelevant. Audiences came to these operas expecting spectacular singing, lavish costumes, and impressive stage effects.

The Opera Theatre production of Armida succeeds as far as the singing and costumes are concerned, anyway. Every member of the six-person cast is more than a match for Haydn's difficult and showy arias and the two principal singers - tenor Charles Workman as the Crusader Rinaldo and St. Louis favorite Christine Brewer as the sorceress Armida - are just plain spectacular. Workman is particularly impressive His first aria in Act I was a stunner - every note in place, wonderful articulation, and a strong, controlled voice. Soprano Erie Mills is a real delight as Zelmira, who falls for the Crusader lieutenant Clotarco. Clotarco and his superior Ubaldo are sung in appropriately heroic manner by tenors Gregory J. Turay and William Burden, respectively.

Costume designer B. Modern has produced appropriately colorful garments for the cast and director Tim Ocel moves everything along as effectively as Haydn's often static music will allow. They seem to be working on a different opera than set designer Neil Peter Jampolis, however, who has chose to decorate the stage with ruined columns, broken bits of 18th-century furniture, and other indicators of decay chaos. It fits well with the faux-brick festival stage, but is oddly out of synch with everything else. Worse yet, it allows for none of the elaborate sets or effects that Haydn's audiences would likely have expected, and which the libretto seems to take for granted.

Haydn's music doesn't help much, either. It's easy to see why his operas have largely fallen into obscurity. Peter Branscombe and Stanley Sadie, in an essay on German opera of this period, describe my own reactions to this opera rather well. They note that the "sense of character" in Haydn's operatic music "is limited and its dramatic timing is uncertain. Many movements unfold at the pace of symphonic music, irrespective of situation; the sustained ensembles rarely show cumulative energy; and opportunities to provide music that might vividly shed light on character or situation are passed by." In short, the things that made Papa Haydn a great symphonist made him a mediocre opera composer.

Still, if this genre interests you at all, you won't be disappointed by the performers here, especially Workman and Brewer. And conductor Daniel Beckwith does a splendid job holding it all together. Haydn's Armida continues in rotating rep through June 20th at the Loretto Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Rd. in Webster Groves. Call 961-0644 for ticket information.