In the southern reaches of the Rossini Festival last
weekend, the UT Opera Theatre entertained its share of operagoers with two
one-acts of widely diverse content: Puccini's comedy, Gianni Schicchi, and
Stephen Paulus' The Village Singer.
The premise of Gianni Schicchi is often adapted to locales other than the 14th Century one that
Puccini and his librettist, Giovacchino Forzano used. Director Carroll Freeman
plunked his Schicchi down in a
1950s neo-Gothic ranch outside Las Vegas with the obvious implication that the owner,
Buoso Donati, has some kind of mob affiliation.
As the opera traditionally begins, Donati is dying in his
bed. Freeman's staging has the less-than-teary relatives, anxious for
inheritance, making attempts to speed up his demise by various comically vicious means
of increasing severity. Unfortunately, upon finding the departed's
will, the relatives learn that Donati has left most of his wealth to the
church, excluding his family from their rewards. To extricate them from their
difficulty, Rinuccio, a Donati nephew, suggests that they send for the clever
Gianni Schicchi (in this case a
local used-car salesman and con-artist). Schicchi arrives and presents his
plan: impersonate the now-expired old man and dictate a new will.
Unfortunately, he pulls another con posing as Donati, tricks the relatives, and
leaves the wealth to "his good friend, Gianni Schicchi."
The wonderful ensemble cast, with some roles split over the
performances, threads their way through a deliciously constricted, even claustrophobic, bedroom set that makes their
dilemma and confrontations all the more believable. Singing the role of Gianni Schicchi was the
solid Jesse Stock, who looked quite the part of a red-neck used-car salesman.
However, Schicchi's daughter, Lauretta, must butter up her father to undertake
the charade, and she does so in the lovely and familiar aria "O mio babbino caro." Both
Laurettas, Jessica Cates and Rachel Ann Moore, were marvelous.
Donati's closest relatives, Zita and Simone, were sung by
Leah Serr and Andrew Gilchrist, respectively. In addition, Gilchrist's aging Simone had the
wonderfully comic task of pushing a walker around the tight bedroom set. In a
nicely executed bit, Serr's marvelous Zita led the relatives in the comic, but
silently expressive, reading of the will. Young Rinuccio, the would-be fiancée
of Lauretta, was sung by the excellent Stefan Barner. The remainder of the
not-so-grieving relatives were Nicholas Gulick as Gherardo; Anna Eschbach and
Sarah Hoeppner as Nella; Rocky Sellers as Betto; Seth Maples as Simone's son
Marco; and Denisha Ballew and Whitney Hansen as La Ciesca, Marco's wife.
The Village Singer, the second opera on the double bill, by the contemporary composer Stephen Paulus, is based on a short story by Mary
Wilkins Freeman.
There is much to like in this 1979 piece commissioned by the
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Paulus' orchestration is wonderfully evocative of
the Maine setting in an expressionist sort of way. His vocal modernism, though, fresh and refreshingly different in 1979, seems a tad stale in 2010.
The story involves Candace
Whitcomb, the long-time soloist in a village church choir in Maine. At a choir
party, she is given a photo album of her time with the choir which she later
discovers also contains a letter telling her, untactfully, that her services as
soloist will no longer be required. Her replacement is to be a younger singer,
Alma Way, who is, unfortunately, the fiancée of her nephew, Wilson Ford.
Whitcomb, who lives next door to the church, takes her revenge by opening her
windows during church services and offering her own hymns in competition with Miss Way.
I have nothing but total
admiration for Amanda Peavyhouse, who possessed a remarkable vocal stamina as a
wonderful Candace Whitcomb and brought a skillful irony to her ending bedroom scene.
Evan Broadhead sang the role of William Emmons, the choir director, and Cody
Boling sang Reverend Pollard. Erik Lickiss sang the role of the nephew, Wilson
Ford. The role of the younger singer, Alma Way, was sung marvelously by Valerie
Haber and Paige Patrick in split casting.
The Bijou's intimate acoustics were tamed beautifully by Maestro James Fellenbaum and Rachel Grubb conducting the UT Opera Orchestra.
Comments » 1
jerryb writes:
Nice review (i.e., I agree :-) ). An added point:
Although I generally do not care for opera updates, Carroll Freeman's was skilfully and tastefully done. I particularly appreciated the way in which the English surtitles were done, Matching the action and decor, AND in most cases keeping the accents of the Italian text, e.g., "Fer-ra'-ri" for "la mu'-la." It would take not much more effort (i.e., for Carroll, not for me) to produce a great even funnier English language sung libretto. Bravi Puccini, Forzano and Carroll Freeman.
jerryb
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