Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.

Valentine's Day might have been this past Tuesday, but Opera Omaha isn't letting that stop the spirit of true love — or hearty laughs. Friday night it debuted a sparkling production of "The Marriage Contract," the first of three performances slotted for this weekend at the Scottish Rite Center's Jewel Box Theater.

Gioachino Rossini, beloved for "The Barber of Seville" and the "William Tell Overture," wrote the one-act opera in 1810 when he was just 18. The work easily established the composer as a master of both witty and wacky farce, which translates well even when transported in this production to 1950s Italy.

"The Marriage Contract" features only six performers but is packed aplenty with mishaps, misunderstandings and mayhem — as well as the occasional flying fish. Café owner Toby Mill is determined to marry his lovely daughter Fanny to Mr. Slook, a wealthy Canadian fur trader. Fanny, though, bats her eyelashes only for Edward Milford, her charming but penniless beau. With the help of café workers Clarina and Norton, the lovers conspire to scupper the arranged marriage.

Tightly directed by Helena Binder and conducted by J. Gawf, this production featured three performers new to Opera Omaha: Sarah Jane McMahon (Fanny), Levi Hernandez (Mill) and Amanda Crider (Clarina). More familiar voices included Brian Donan (Milfort), Corey McKern (Slook) and Liam Morton (Norton). Together, the six formed a formidable comic ensemble.

McMahon demonstrated fully the confidence for which she has been lauded on other stages, her soprano vivaciously robust whether tying her would-be suitor to a chair or pouring celebratory Champagne. She also embraced the wryness of her part, singing with great aplomb for example, phrases such as "I think I'm gonna puke," a snippet of libretto seldom associated with opera.

Crider, a meticulous mezzo-soprano, was delightful as Clarina, her coquettish facial expressions on par with the best of comediennes. When she fretted about Slook returning to the frozen tundra, the arch of her eyebrow and vibrato in her voice indicated her saucy solution.

As the determined but clueless father, baritone Hernandez was obviously having fun. He sang with bumbling earnestness and blustering bravado, both of which let him establish an immediate and easy rapport with the audience. Whether wrestling with maps or coming to the realization that he might be on the losing side of a duel, he easily owned some of the production's funniest moments.

Some of them. From the moment he entered the stage, McKern stole the show as the swaggering, befuddled Canadian, a buffoon with a heart of gold. With his bushy beard, unkempt hair and frontier wild-man attire, he was funny before he even sang a note — and then his booming baritone turned the comedic farce into a full-blown madcap comedy. At the curtain call, he received hefty applause and truly well earned hoots of approval.

Binder's stage direction was brilliant, and she made sure that no moment, no gesture, no opportunity for a laugh was wasted. If audience members focused on Slook flirting with the ladies in the foreground, they would have missed Norton and Mill going through the Canadian's luggage — which is where, incidentally, the flying fish figured in the action.

And lest anyone worry about the ending, true love wins out — just as Opera Omaha wins with this truly wonderful production of "The Marriage Contract."