West Edge Opera stages a Viennese rarity

There’s a temptation to imagine that 18th century musical Vienna was populated by Mozart, Haydn and a bunch of guys named Moe.

[...] Sunday afternoon’s delightful performance — the first of three in the hangar-like performance space that the company has cobbled together in the Pacific Pipe warehouse in Oakland — was a welcome demonstration that there were other people on the Viennese scene who could write an engaging tune.

The antilove forces are embodied by the goddess Diana, who inhabits an enchanted realm with a trio of nymph attendants.

Helping to enforce her puritan sexual ethic is the titular tree, which sniffs out any hint of lascivious behavior and pelts the offender to death with fruit.

Cupid — a male character sung by a woman who spends much of the opera, Cherubino-like, in drag — sports a spangly hot pink heart over his privates and two more athwart his melon-size boobs.

The trick in listening to Martín’s music is never to compare it in your mind’s ear with Mozart’s, which is no easier than not thinking about an elephant.

Diana gets the most daunting assignment — including a pair of electrifying bravura showcases and a series of delicate emotional shifts — and soprano Nikki Einfeld rose superbly to the challenge, negotiating both the grueling coloratura and the expressive nuances of the role with ease.

Mozart’s is a big shadow to evade, but the truth is that (as Leporello says when “Figaro” is quoted at Don Giovanni’s banquet) it’s music we may know a little too well at this point.