'Orpheus' at Atlas: The Gods Rise Above

Gods sing better than mortals. So anyone would expect. And therefore all is right with the world in the InSeries production of Offenbach's classic operetta "Orpheus in the Underworld," which opened on Saturday and runs through next weekend at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

The mortals Orpheus and Eurydice (Philip Bender and Randa Rouweyha) offered banter and dry, colorless singing in their first scene. But when Pluto (Richard Novak) took the stage, an operatic sense of a larger-than-life voice came with him (though he didn't sustain it). And Jupiter, as sung by Bryan Jackson, emerged as a fitting ruler of the evening.

This is a pretty conventional hierarchy for an operetta that seeks to subvert convention at every turn. But there was not much subversive about Rick Davis's production. Kelley Rourke's English translation, created for the Glimmerglass Opera production in 2007, is wholesome and obedient. The tone is set from the start when Public Opinion (Grace Gori) takes the stage and gives a slightly stilted delivery of a slightly stilted homily, in which words seem to be erected like a barrier between audience and actor so that even the funny lines, like "Opinion must be paid," fall a little flat.

And while there is broad satire in the aria of John Styx (Richard Tappen), a self-described "maverick politician" who managed to hit every buzzword from the recent presidential campaign, the level of contemporary reference woven through the original "Orphée" (first performed in 1858, revised in 1874) was absent here. The gods were simply gods -- in modern-day clothes, to be sure, down to Mars's military uniform, but without reference to today's actual familiar leaders.

This was especially notable since Davis set the piece in present-day D.C., very much in keeping with the spirit of the work. In practice, however, the action played out in the nebulous, unspecific time into which opera so often defaults. Osbel Sussman-Peña's minimal sets could as easily have worked for Franz Lehar's Asian fantasy "The Land of Smiles." In fairness, InSeries, working on a small budget, is setting out with no loftier goal than to provide diversion, and in that they succeed tolerably well.

Perhaps it is fitting that the gods were more diverting; once they make their entrance, the mortals -- well, Orpheus, anyway -- fade into the background. Music indeed appeared to be the food of love, since two of the vocal standouts were Cupid (Serena Canino) and Venus (Daniele Lorio), both physically and vocally sensual (though Venus's skimpy-yet-unsexy dress in the first act was the only serious misstep among Donna Breslin's costumes). Laura Lewis offered a prettily serviceable Diana.

I have a lot of time for Jackson. In November, in a small role in Washington Concert Opera's "Maria Padilla," he already showed he has a warm, firm voice; here, as Jupiter, he showed that he can carry a leading role, sing well and be both commanding and funny on stage. He even inspired the other singers: Rouweyha, at least, delivered by far her best singing of the night in her duet with him, in which Jupiter turns into a fly and buzzingly attempts to seduce Eurydice. In her own aria earlier in the scene, Rouweyha didn't get a lot of help from Joel Lazar in the pit, whose work was efficient if not communicative.

But what about the cancan? For many people, this is the whole point of seeing "Orpheus" at all. InSeries had the fine idea of having it danced by four undergraduate dance majors from George Mason University: They introduced a ragtag, ebullient, infectious energy that was nicely in keeping with the mood and level of this well-meaning production.

Orpheus in the Underworld will have final performances at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE.