TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1999

Opera 'Games We All Play' more a musical

By Tina Dhamija

On-Line Forty-Niner

Partially attentive wives and sleeping husbands were the result of Friday night's opera presentation of the "Games We All Play."

The opera, presented by students from the Cal State Long Beach music department's opera workshop took part in the Daniel Recital Hall and was performed in English rather than Italian - and resembled a musical rather than an opera.

The "Games We All Play" is a series of four separate operatic stories written to depict different strategies or games that humans play to get what they want. Perhaps the stories were meant to be amusing or meaningful, but they showed themselves to be rather confusing at times.

"A Hand of Bridge," written by Samuel Barber and "A Game of Chance," by Seymour Barab, were well sung by the performers but not very interesting to watch.

"The Consul," written by Gian-Carlo Menotti, was less tedious to follow. The piece revolved around seven people trying to see a consul in order to gain citizenship, and the secretary who will not let them see him. Magda Sorel (Jeralyn Lambourne) proved to be the gem of the piece, with her sob story life and untimely death that arrived riddled with mystery.

The last of the four stories was a time-period piece, set in 13th century Florence and performed in English. "Gianni Schicci," written by Giacomo Puccini, proved to be more impressive and interesting than the previous three. The story centers around mourners of a dead loved one who want more of his wealth than is written in his will.