Eve Queler. Photo by Steve J. Sherman

Maestra Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY) continued their season of opera-in-concert at Carnegie Hall—begun in December with Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena”—with Verdi’s turbulent twelfth opera, “Il Corsaro” (1848), a relative rarity here, based on Lord Byron’s dramatic poem “The Corsair.” Queler cast the terse, blood-and-thunder opus with a principal quartet of fearless young singers and three of them proved fairly accomplished.

In this story of West meets East, with predictably bloody results, Corrado and his pirate band are enlisted to vanquish the Turkish Pasha Seid. Successful in burning down his palace, they face defeat when they stop to rescue the women of the harem. Gulnara, the Pasha’s favorite, takes a liking to the condemned Corrado and, after stabbing Seid to death, releases the prisoner from his bonds and flees with him to his island in the Aegean. Corrado’s love, Medora, presumes him dead, takes poison, and dies in his arms just after his return. Grief-stricken he hurls himself into the sea as Gulnara falls, senseless, to the ground. Apart from two climactic ensembles, the tale unfolds through the opera’s arias and duets.

Francisco Casanova, who sang in “La Juive” and “Attila” under Queler, took the role of Corrado, associated with Carlo Bergonzi, who sang it at Town Hall in 1981, and José Carreras, who recorded it, and, to his credit, seemed inspired by the former. Though he sometimes seemed to be drawing on his vocal capital instead of the interest, Casanova managed ingratiating quiet singing in his entrance cavatina, “Tutto parea sorridere,” and followed it with a rousing cabaletta, “Sì: de’ corsari il fulmine,” aptly ornamenting the repeat. Casanova also sang a sensitive legato prison monologue, essentially a lyrical recitative, and was heartily cheered for it.

The picture of innocence as the gentle Medora, newcomer Rossana Potenza sang her harp-accompanied, elegiac romanza, “Non so le tetre immagini,” in a limpid lyric soprano and delicately decorated the second verse, but ended a climactic a cappella cadenza a shade sharp. Past the challenges of their entrance solos, Casanova and Potenza collaborated on a fervently sung farewell, complete with an almost Donizettian stretta.

Baritone C.Y.Liao lent sturdy, round baritone sound to Seid’s second act prayer and third act vengeance aria.

Verdi reserved his most demanding music for Gulnara, fierce second cousin to his Lady Macbeth. The roles shared a creator in soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini. For many listeners, Maria Callas set the gold standard for how early Verdi soprano music should be sung, both in roles she undertook and in those she did not. But Callas was a law unto herself and for 40 years— from Elena Suliotis through Marisa Galvany to Veronica Villaroel--imitating her late-career mannerisms, without her interpretive depth, has become a cliché. Maria Dragoni won the Callas Competition in 1983, studied with Gina Cigna, and sang the soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem with La Scala’s orchestra and chorus at Carnegie in 1992. For Gulnara’s entrance aria and duets with Seid and Corrado, Dragoni darkened her tone, after Callas and Cigna, and indulged in glottal attacks and lunges at notes. These vocal choices—exciting, perhaps, but not the healthiest--left her sound by turns brittle, hollow, and wobbly. She exhibited flexibility in her cabaletta, “Ah conforto è sol la speme,” and ended the evening with a sustained and resounding high D-flat, but often seemed to be pushing her voice uncomfortably close to the breaking point.

That said, the ensembles--a grand concerted number at the end of Act Two, after Corrado’s attempted conquest goes awry, and the final trio for Corrado, Medora and Gulnara—worked well indeed. The latter led Verdi to choose to set Francesco Piave’s libretto and, in an opera that is not without its formulaic stretches, inspired his most mature-sounding, heartfelt music here.

Kudos to Queler and her Opera Orchestra, the OONY Chorus, directed by Italo Marchini, and additional solo singers Derrick Ballard, Guillermo Lagundino and William Ferguson for providing strong support.

OONY’s season continues with Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda,” with Aprile Millo, Marcello Giordani, Milena Kitic, Elena Obraztsova, Anoosha Golesorkhi and Luis-Ottavio Faria, at Carnegie on April 20, and a recital by soprano Olga Makarina at Carnegie’s Weill Hall on April 29.

Carnegie Hall 881 7^th Avenue

March 21 & April 20 tickets $25-115

April 29 tickets $35