April, 2006 - Nr. 4
Tragedy and Comedy meet
at Opera York
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
The last grand offering of Opera York’s ending season must have been a musician’s choice, for the two Puccini operas have a few things in common any musician would love:
-
They are short, short enough not to tire everyone involved out to the point of exhaustion.
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They are relatively unknown, therefore are something new.
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They have lovely musical scores, even if the librettos are a bit too schmaltzy for our times. But, a big BUT, there are a couple of unforgettable arias in there that are famous and let a singer shine brilliantly.
Opera York made the most of all the plus points these two short Puccini operas have to offer.
Starting
with the tragic story of Angelica, who is punished by her noble family for
having an illegitimate child, was sent to a convent
and
despite her exercises in piety, she longs to know about this child and wants
to be with it.
Mother Superior scolds her charges
The
family’s silence for so many years has not helped. Finally the Princess,
family administrator in the formidable form of an older
aunt,
arrives to obtain a signature from her ward and reluctantly informs Angelica
that her child is dead.
Angelica
is blind with grief and wants to commit suicide to unite with her child and
only too late realizes that the poison she took made her commit a mortal
sin. She begs understanding and forgiveness from the Holy Mother Mary,
receives it and departs this world in the garden she so loved and nurtured.
Stacy Carmona sang Angelica with much fervour and a lovely soprano voice. Still in the beginning of her career we look forward to hearing her more often. The surrounding cast and chorus complemented her passionate ploy to make up for her wrongdoings. Franc Pasian left nothing undone to create a setting most reminiscent of a genuine Italian monastery garden. We instantly feel transported into this world, into this plot that is like a religious soap opera in our more inclusive and tempered time.
However, there is a lesson for even nowadays teenagers to be learned that are allowed to roam the city in nightclubs until all hours of the morning: If you fall for the wrong guy and mix love up with sex too early, there is a price to be paid. May be we do no longer send the kids to the monastery, but bringing up baby while still being a child is not a joyride in any setting or circumstance. And worse, in this society, a kid could get seriously hurt or worse, not come home at all. An opera written now on that subject would likely have a lot more dissonant notes in it than this lovely Puccini one.
The
second opera, Gianni Schicchi, libretto also by Givacchino Forzano and just
as soapy as the other one, deals with people’s greed. The wealthy patriarch
has died and the family gathers to see what can be gotten.
Search for the will
Everyone
is hoping to get their fair share as they see it. Only there is s problem
with the testament, it hands everything to a monastery. The family is
outraged and seeks ways to reverse this fact.
Rage, sorrow & blame
Clever
Gianni Schicchi, whose daughter is engaged to one the have-not family’s
sons, has the brilliant idea of not letting on that the
old
gent is dead and poses himself as the same to dictate his last will and
testament to a notary public, called hastily to do the deed.
He
hands out mostly as the family had wanted, but as the trickster he is, he
awards himself a large portion of the estate.
Thus
he no longer is poor and neither is his daughter, whose happiness and
security he was out to secure. All is well that ends well, at least for him
and his daughter and her future husband.
The testament
The rest of the family howls about betrayal and thinks of ways to get even, knowing full well that this is impossible without implicating themselves in this fraud.
Andrew Tees, baritone, revels in this part as he always does when he can let his comedic talent fly. He commands the stage with his height and big voice, and a huge stage presence. The rest of the cast was superb as the flakily grieving medley of greedy souls from the year 12hundred something, brilliantly conceived in modern costume.
The moral of this story is clear: Nothing has changed much in 800 years. Greed still reigns supreme. Thus if one is afflicted with it, it is important to know who one can trust, or else someone else is laughing all the way to the bank.
Artistic and Musical Director of this duo was the talented and versatile Sabatino Vacca, who can also be heard together with other talent like Geoffrey Butler, Helena Holl and Jan Vaculik in a concert of opera and operetta as solo pianist April 25, 2006, at 7:30 in Christ Church, deer Park, 1570 Yonge Street, near St. Clair. For info call 905-545-3491.
New this time around was an effort to place subtitles for the audience. However, this technique requires a bit more perfection and drilling, yet it helped to understand the Italian stories.
What can we say but Bravo!
