Startling ëAndrea ChÈnierí Director Trelinski Opens Season With Production of Enchanting Power by Gary Tischler Watching Mariusz Trelinski speak at a September reception at the Polish Embassy in honor of the Washington National Operaís season-opening production of "Andrea ChÈnier," which he directed, Trelinski had a Peter Pan boyishness about him, smiling, thin, brown-haired and charismaticóthe kind of quiet-looking man who looks eternally younger than he probably is. He spoke in Polish about how film led him to opera, which makes him a man of at least two artistic worlds. With his background in movies, itís not surprising that Trelinskiís approach to opera is, among other things, very visual and cinematic. When the curtain was raised recently on "Andrea ChÈnier," audiences could immediately feel a sensibility that wanted to explore traditional material in a highly non-traditional way. In other words, the season opener of the Washington National Opera wasnít going to be your grandmotherís night at the opera. There are timesóand a season opening night at the Kennedy Center is surely one of themówhen an evening at the opera is more like a midsummer nightís dream. People still look, behave, and come for reasons that seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the real world. They dress to the nines and 10s, certain protocols are in place, and the world is full of aficionados, memories, romance and champagne-filled intermissions. People have their expectations of what theyíre about to see, even those who are not newspaper critics. Directors such as Trelinskióyoung, with their own frame of reference and sensibilities, especially coming from the cinematic worldóare more serious than that. Opera is old Europe, and the cinema is post-modern. When the two sensibilities collide, it ought to be at the very least startling and dramaticóand so it was with Trelinskiís handling of "Andrea ChÈnier." It should not have come as a total surprise that Trelinskiís approach might be a bit innovative. He directed a 2001 version of "Madama Butterfly" here that people were still talking about at the recent reception. "Andrea ChÈnier" is the most famous work by Italian composer Umberto Giordano, by all accounts a genial man with a gift for soaring music. Although he died in 1948, Giordanoís music is very much in the 19th-century poetic and transcendent romantic manner. Itís a quality not easily defeated even in the 21st century. "Andrea ChÈnier" tells the story of a tragic romance set during the bloody French Revolution. The object of affection here is the beautiful aristocrat Maddalena, who remains a vision of musical flesh, while her love, Andrea ChÈnieróskulking and sulking at the mansion ballólooks almost like every wounded opera tenor poet who has ever sighed on a stage. An odd thing happens: When ChÈnier and Maddalena recognize one another as each otherís soul mate, opera lovers who might have been balking or looking toward the exit at this rash tinkering are suddenly rewarded beyond their expectations. The great young tenor Salvatore Licitra transcends himself in his arias. When Licitra and soprano Paoletta Marrocu as Maddalena sing together in very much the traditional manneróknee to knee, eyes to the heavensóthe emotional and musical payoff is all the more powerful. And when they sacrifice themselves, as they should in a world gone mad, and surrender themselves in a whirlwind of wondrous music, you are at the place where opera is a blissful, unreasonable passion. Trelinski has created a stark world all about suggestion, ideas, allegory and metaphor, as well as blinding reds and visions that remind you of all sorts of things. The visual ideas ensnare you: Weimar cabarets, Red guards, Roman coliseum crowds, stripped-down valets and merciless mobsóall the stuff that barely belongs in the period in which this production is set. But thatís the idea. Trelinski is perfect in this age of multitasking and contradiction, if not nuance. These touches are hard to keep your eyes off of, as your mind churns, albeit subconsciously, with notions of powdered aristocrats rising from sheets like arthritic vampires or colorful women about to break into a can-can. In an opera thatís about star-crossed lovers caught up in the French Revolution, those ideas constitute a kind of set: a background for what remains resolutely an opera full of enchanting power. "Andrea ChÈnier" runs through Oct. 2 at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $45 to $290. For more information, please call (202) 295-2400 or visit www.dc-opera.org. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.