HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR U.S. Edition Try a Digital Subscription Log In Register Now Help Search All NYTimes.com Music WORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS ART & DESIGN BOOKS DANCE MOVIES MUSIC TELEVISION THEATER VIDEO GAMES EVENTS CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK Log in to see what your friends are sharing Log In With Facebook The Rare Heroine Who Prevails on nytimes.com. Privacy Policy | What’s ‘The Kiss’ at the Opera Theater of St. Louis This? By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER What’s Popular Now Published: June 23, 2013 Is It O.K. to Kill Red Cross Fears ST. LOUIS — In a recent interview the mezzo-soprano Alice Coote FACEBOOK Cyclists? 1,000 Deaths in Philippine said that the opera industry was “very much still a male preserve,” TWITTER Typhoon adding, “It’s still a man’s world.” Few recent premieres have featured GOOGLE+ scores or librettos by women. But Czech lady librettists were common SAVE in the late 19th century, when Smetana wrote his now rarely Log in to see what your friends are sharing Log In With Facebook on nytimes.com. Privacy Policy | What’s performed “Kiss,” a comedy set to texts by Eliska Krasnohorska. E-MAIL This? SHARE Enlarge This Image When it comes to opera heroines, What’s Popular Now especially rebellious ones, few survive PRINT Is It O.K. to Kill Red Cross Fears unscathed, if at all. In the role of the REPRINTS Cyclists? 1,000 Deaths in peasant girl Vendulka, Krasnohorska Philippine Typhoon created a rarity: a strong female protagonist who lives to tell the tale, with sanity intact. The soprano Corinne Winters portrayed the wholesome heroine with a radiant voice and winsome allure here on Thursday in the Opera Theater of St. Louis’s Ken Howard charming staging, a co-production with Ireland’s Wexford Drawing a line: Corinne Winters as Festival Opera. Vendulka in “The Kiss.” Vendulka is to marry Lukas, whose wife has just died, a Connect With Us on Twitter match not approved of by her father, whose cranky Follow outbursts were amusingly conveyed by the bass-baritone @nytimesarts for Matthew Burns. Out of deference to Lukas’s deceased arts and entertainment spouse, Vendulka refuses to kiss Lukas until their wedding. news. Lukas, whose manipulative tricks and eventual repentance Arts Twitter List: Critics, Reporters and Editors were vividly illuminated by the bright-voiced tenor Garrett MOST E-MAILED RECOMMENDED FOR YOU Sorenson, sulks, drinks and flirts with other women. Vendulka, upset, joins a band of smugglers. Lukas asks for 1. Thor’s Nemesis Makes Some Thunder forgiveness and the opera ends with — what else? — a kiss. A sortable calendar of noteworthy Anthony Barrese conducted a lively reading of the score, cultural events in the New York 2. Dern Has a Story for You region, selected by Times critics. with its tuneful Czech-inflected melodies and stirring Go to Event Listings » orchestral accompaniment. (Smetana was completely deaf Enlarge This Image when he composed the work in the mid-1870s.) 3. Chris Chase, Actress Who Turned to Writing, Dies The action, ably directed by Michael Gieleta, unfolded in front of an attractive wood-paneled backdrop, enlivened by 4. Adam Driver, an Unlikely Face on TV or in the cast’s colorful Czech costumes. Cast members in the Fashion smaller roles, all well sung, included the mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Batton, the soprano Emily Duncan-Brown, the 5. Liberating the Librettos baritone Matthew Worth and the bass-baritone Charles Z. Owen. 6. OPERA REVIEW Ken Howard Voices Raised for Peace, With Noh and The Opera Theater of St. Louis is also presenting Puccini’s Manga Kelly Kaduce and Tim Mix in the Opera Theater of St. Louis’s “Tabarro” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” as an intense production of “Pagliacci.” double bill this month, with both conducted by Ward Stare 7. Opera and Classical Music Listings for Nov. 8-14 and directed by Ron Daniels. 8. CITY ROOM The heroines of both works rebel against the confines of their bleak lives, but in typical A Restaurant That's 'Too Sit-Downy' operatic fashion, one ends up dead, the other heartbroken. 9. MUSIC REVIEW An Operatic Monster Mash The atmospheric set of “Il Tabarro” featured a photograph of a barge on the Seine from Jean Vigo’s 1934 film, Atalante. As Giorgetta and Michele, the unhappily married barge 10. ARTSBEAT dwellers, the soprano Emily Pulley and the baritone Tim Mix revealed the couple’s misery Lithuanian Opera Rounds Out Prototype with emotionally nuanced singing and acting. The tenor Michael Hayes sang expressively Festival Lineup as Luigi, the equally unhappy stevedore murdered by the jealous Michele. Log in to discover more articles based on what you‘ve read. Mr. Mix wielded his sonorous baritone to even more potent effect as Tonio in the What’s This? | Don’t Show company’s sizzling production of “Pagliacci,” a work usually paired with Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.” Nedda, like Giorgetta, dreams of escaping a life she abhors. Riccardo Hernandez’s striking sets were dominated by large, illuminated letters spelling “circus.” Sinister clowns in whiteface and ruffles (costumes by Emily Rebholz) wandered in the audience and watched the play within a play like a silent Greek chorus. The lustrous-voiced soprano Kelly Kaduce offered a tour de force performance as Nedda, in a black bodice and tutulike skirt as Colombina, Nedda’s stage persona. The simmering tensions between Nedda and Canio, her husband, portrayed with fierce intensity by Robert Brubaker, reached a boiling point in this riveting staging. The fine cast also included Troy In a rediscovered trove of art, Cook as Silvio and Matthew DiBattista as Beppe. a triumph over the Nazis' will You knew what was coming, of course, but it was nonetheless hard not to feel shocked as Also on NYTimes.com Explore paintings discovered in Germany Nedda, murdered by her jealous husband, sank to her knees like a dying swan. An artist tests Saudi Arabia's limits “The Kiss” will be repeated on Wednesday and Friday, and “Pagliacci” and “Il Tabarro” on Tuesday and Saturday, at the Opera Theater of St. Louis; (314) 961-0644; opera- stl.org. A version of this article appears in print on June 24, 2013, on page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: The Rare Heroine Who Prevails. SAVE E-MAIL SHARE Ads by Google what's this? Subscribe to the International New York Times newspaper and save up to 65% Currency Transfers £2k+ Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics Specialist Currency Broker. No Fees Get a Free No Obligation Quote Now! Opera Opera Theater of St Louis www.TorFX.com Puccini, Giacomo Ads by Google what's this? La Traviata at Masada Enjoy the opera at the magnificent open air historic sites of Israel! www.israel-opera.co.il INSIDE NYTIMES.COM FASHION & STYLE » ARTS » SUNDAY REVIEW » THEATER » SUNDAY REVIEW» N.Y. / REGION » Observer: The Other Paris, Beyond the Boulevards Away from the center of the city, the languages swirl and you can see the future of Paris. Weddings & Celebrations Sidestepping the Digital One Player, One Role? 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