| Home | Cavalleria Rusticana | I Pagliacci | Buy Tickets |
|
|
June 3, 2007, 3 pm
NEC's Jordan Hall
30 Gainesborough St, Boston
With the New England Conservatory Children's Chorus, Jean Meltaus, Director. Concert performance in Italian with projected English translations.
Pre-concert lecture at 2 pm by noted musicologist Steven Ledbetter.
Concert and lecture sponsored by Concert Opera Boston.
See press release for this concert.
So exuberant, so dramatic, so poignant, and so lyrical, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci helped shape verismo, the quest for realism in late 19th century Italian opera. Chorus pro Musica last performed these operas together under Music Director Jeffrey Rink in 1997, to an enthusiastic full house at Jordan Hall.
The original inspiration for today’s soap operas, verismo operas are based on “real life”, but that means life as found in the tabloids! These operas are full of intrigue. Here is a brief synopsis of the action.
Rustic chivalry. Santuzza loves Turiddu, but Turridu rejects her for his old flame Lola. Lola loves him, but she’s married to another man—Alfio, the teamster. When Turiddu refuses to take her back, Santuzza tells Alfio that his wife has been cheating on him. Alfio challenges Turiddu to a knife fight. Asking his mother, Lucia, to care for Santuzza, Turiddu accepts the challenge, which ends in tragedy for all.
Tears of a clown. Pity the clown Canio. Hs knows his wife Nedda has a lover, but who? Nedda won’t tell, even when he threatens her with a knife. Yet he is forced that night to star in a comedy playing Nedda’s cuckolded husband. The show must go on! Dressing, Canio bitterly asks himself, “Are you not a man? You’re a clown!” He sings one of the most famous arias in opera, “Vesti la giubba”, which was the first record to ever sell one million copies (by Enrico Caruso). The show has scarcely begun when Canio snaps and demands that Nedda tell him the name of her real lover. “How realistic!”, exclaims the audience. Little do they know! Canio stabs Nedda and her lover, Silvio, when he comes to her aid. The comedy, and the opera, come to an abrupt end.
Both operas are filled with the warmth and passion of south Italy—the joy of spring, a fervent Easter hymn, a rousing drinking song, and the feverish excitement of a small town as the carnival comes to town.
 Michael Hayes (Turiddu and Canio) |
 Layna Chianakas (Santuzza) |
 David B. Murray (Alfio) |
 Jacque Wilson (Lola) |
 Janice Edwards (Mamma Lucia) |
|
Michael Hayes (Turiddu and Canio) |
 Maryann Mootos (Nedda) |
 Jason Stearns (Tonio) |
 Joshua Benaim (Silvio) |
 Gregg Jacobson (Beppe) |
About Michael Hayes as Don José in the March 26, 2005 Teatro Lirico d'Europa production of Carmen:
“Michael Hayes has the power of delivery that makes his tenor a commanding one. When he goes up the register for the high notes his voice fills the hall, and the passion of the moment is driven home in accoustical waves of delight and awe that clearly mark this singer as a major talent. Mr. Hayes has good stage presence, he acts the role and he delivers the goods in a manner that spells Star! Well done.”
—Review by Paul Joseph Walkowski in OperaOnline.us.
Early operas had been about divinities (and demons), great deeds of antiquity or the intrigues of the more recent nobility. With verismo, authors turned to “real life”, the joys and sorrows of our own existence—though by no means reducing the operatic intensity of the portrayal! As Tonio (speaking as the Prologue) announces at the start of I Pagliacci:
“The author has sought to portray for you a slice of life. His single maxim is that the artist is human and that he must write for humanity. And he was inspired by a real event. One day deep within his soul a nestful of memories was singing, and he wrote with real tears, and his sobs marked the beat!
“So, you will see love just the way human beings love; you'll see the melancholy fruits of hatred. Pangs of grief, angry shouting you'll hear, and cynical laughter! And you, instead of our poor actors' costumes, think of our souls, because we are men of flesh and blood, and just like you we breathe the air of this orphan world!”
What is a Verismo Opera? In an essay written for the Baltimore Opera's performance of Tosca, William Yannuzzi lists the chief characteristics of verismo as “ordinary people, local color, and full-blown passions”—a combination that certainly makes for an exciting night at the opera.
In connection with our concert, Michael Sims discusses Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, and the Verismo Style for Concert Opera Boston.
| CpM Home | Top | Buy Tickets |