Music Review : Roderick Cook in ‘Orpheus in Underworld’

More John of Gaunt than Falstaff, more scrawny Ghost of Christmas Future than jolly ol’ St. Nick, Roderick Cook has been substituting for Dom DeLuise--whose mother is critically ill in New York--since June 17 in Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

DeLuise was Public Opinion, a Greek-chorus figure representing the composer’s cynical view of hypocrisy. In the original 1985 English National Opera production, the character resembled British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Reworked here by stage director Peter Mark Schifter for the Music Center Opera, the role shed its political edge and acquired a facile contrast between DeLuise’s florid physique and the character’s moral righteousness.

Poor Cook, with his pinched face, reedy voice and thin body, couldn’t quite fit that bill. He looked like a schoolmarmish Mother Goose.

Still, with his experience in the role for Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit in 1986 and his impressive Broadway, film and television credits, Cook refused to stoop to crassness to conquer. He delivered his speeches faultlessly, with clear, precise enunciation, high-tone British accent and fluency and pleasure in closing cadences on verse couplets.

He was a quick study, too, his gestures, verbal pacing and point uncannily mirroring DeLuise’s.

Vocally, he parlayed an actor’s voice--a la Rex Harrison--more successfully than his predecessor into reasonably acceptable song.

But it didn’t matter. Although Cook tried to inject maximum energy into the surprise ending--reworked for DeLuise--the concept didn’t work for him. It didn’t make that much sense to begin with, but at least it had a payoff.

According to a company spokesman, officially Cook is still only covering for DeLuise until his anticipated return. There are six performances left, through Sunday. The rest of the cast was previously reviewed.