‘Italian Girl’ brings season to joyous end

Sung in Italian with English supertitiles

Atlanta Opera. 7:30 tonight. 8 p.m. Friday. 3 p.m. Sunday. $25-$132.

Cobb Energy Centre. 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway. 404-881-8885. www.atlantaopera.org

There is no way Atlanta Opera could have predicted the last few weeks of stressful news events outside the opera world, so it is probably serendipitous – and fortuitous – that the company would close its season with a little comedy.

The production of “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” which continues through Sunday at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre has just the right amount of silliness, colorful recitatives and a jubilant performance the ensemble Act One finale to usher in spring.

The Rossini opera is the farcical story of Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers who is bored with his wife, palace and harem, so he begins looking for a bit of a challenge and believes an Italian woman to be the salve for his curiosity. He orders his servant Haly to find him such a woman. So Haly (Frederick Jackson) rounds up some pirates, a shipwreck occurs, the Italian Isabella just happens to be on the vessel – and comedy ensues.

This is Atlanta Opera’s first production of “Italian Girl,” which is set in the 1930s. The costuming and staging present a glamorous backdrop for Sandra Piques Eddy, who performs the lead contralto role more like an American bombshell in Hollywood. Isabella is searching for her shipwrecked lover Lindoro, who had been captured by Mustafa (Burak Bilgili). Sung with rich expression and fearlessness, Eddy gives that operatic rescue trope some well-needed equal opportunity.

The dashing Michele Angelini, making his Atlanta Opera debut as Lindoro, probably could have slipped Mustafa’s grasp if he’d sung the aria “Languir per una bella” a few more times. The tenor role demands plenty of bel canto trills, arpeggios and roulades, which Angelini manages with exuberance and clear lyricism.

The delightful animated sets, which received a a round of applause on opening night, were built to mimic a pop-up book of multicolored tiles, Moorish arches and wooden doors one would find throughout North Africa and Turkey. The costuming by David C. Woolard makes use of several Algerian styles, from Elvira’s (Ashley Emerson) authentic-looking beaded djellaba to the male chorus members’ turbans and fezzes.

There is an effort to use lighting to evoke slow-motion and characters’ thoughts. Atlanta Opera used this Broadway technique effectively during the bullfight in “Carmen,” earlier this season, but in “Italian Girl,” it is somewhat distracting, like a chorus of cellphone lights. And there are a couple of questionable moments, such as a bathtub scene that squelches any suspension of disbelief.

Still, “Italian Girl” is fun. It is a worthy reminder that we don’t always have to take the arts that seriously. The cast showed off their skill with playfulness and joy, and brought some laughs, too.