Comedy and Tragedy Open Cincinnati Opera's 2012 Season
Cincinnati Opera opens its 2012 Summer Festival with a
two-fer.
A double bill, that is, and what a double bill: “Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncavallo and “Gianni Schicchi” by Giacomo Puccini. Performances are June 14 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Music Hall. Richard Buckley (artistic director of Austin Lyric Opera and principal conductor of Opera Cleveland) will conduct. Canadian director Alain Gauthier (of Cincinnati Opera’s 2006 “L’Étoile” by Chabrier) will direct.
Both are operas are short and each contains a famous aria, Vesti la giubba from “Pagliacci” and O mio babbino caro from “Gianni Schicchi.”
“Pagliacci” is a tragedy, the familiar story of the clown who must laugh though his heart is broken. “Gianni Schicchi” is a comedy about folks plotting to get their hands on a deceased relative’s wealth. It is not the usual pairing. That would be “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Pietro Mascagni) and “Pagliacci,” universally known as “Cav/Pag,” last heard at Cincinnati Opera in 1993.
However, it was the production -- from Opéra de Montréal, directed by Gauthier -- that sold Cincinnati Opera on the idea. “In the beginning, when they came to Montreal, they were looking for a ‘Pagliacci’ set,” said Gauthier. “They saw the concept and they liked it.”
What Gauthier has done is to update the operas to the 1950s and tie them together, said Mirageas. “There is a wonderful theatrical conceit, in that the man who plays Tonio in “Pagliacci” is also Gianni Schicchi. He is the animateur of the evening, as it were. A couple of the troupe that is playing ‘Pagliacci’ turn up in ‘Gianni Schicchi.’ And the mourners from ‘Gianni Schicchi’ walk across the stage in ‘Pagliacci.’ There are other little inside jokes, too,” Mirageas said.
Although both operas share the play-within-a-play concept (literally in “Pagliacci”), their stories could not be more dissimilar. “Pagliacci” is about a traveling commedia del’arte troupe, whose personal lives get mixed up with the show. The head of the troupe, Canio (the clown Pagliaccio), knows his wife Nedda has been unfaithful to him and kills her as they are acting out a comedy about the same subject. Canio kills Nedda’s lover Silvio as he comes to her aid from the audience.
Originally set in 13th-century Florence, “Gianni Schicchi” is based on a real character alluded to in Dante’s “Inferno” (where he been consigned to one of the Circles of Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and falsifying his will). In the opera, relatives of the just-deceased Donati discover that he has left his fortune to a monastery. Rinuccio, a member of the Donati family, has been refused permission to marry Lauretta, daughter of the peasant Gianni Schicchi. Rinuccio enlists Schicchi to help the family retrieve their inheritance. Since Donati’s death and the contents of his will are not yet public, Schicchi dresses in his clothes, summons a lawyer and dictates a will leaving everything to himself and allowing Rinuccio and Lauretta to marry.
“Gianni Schicchi” is part of “Il Trittico,” a trilogy by Puccini that also includes “Il Tabarro” and “Suor Angelica” (last heard at Cincinnati Opera in 1982). It is his only comic opera and the last opera he completed (“Turandot” was left unfinished at his death). It is the most popular of the three, and soon began to be performed separately, or in combination with other operas, including “Pagliacci,” beginning in 1926 at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Gauthier had the choice of placing it first or second with “Pagliacci” in Montreal. “What led us into choosing ‘Pagliacci’ (as the opener) was that it starts with a Prologue that is sung by Tonio, who is an actor talking to the audience, explaining what is tragedy and what is theater and what they are going to see during the evening. Then I realized that ‘Gianni Schicchi’ ends the same way, because at the end, you have Schicchi coming back and addressing the audience.”
Gauthier, who began his career as an actor in Montreal, wanted to link them visually, as well. “It’s difficult because they are not the same. ‘Pagliacci’ is in a village on an outdoor stage, where the commedia del’arte is going to perform. ‘Schicchi’ is set indoors in Florence.” What he and set designer Olivier Landreville came up with was to start (and end) the show with no set at all.
“The sweet thing is the whole evening begins with no scenery,” said Mirageas. “You hear the first chords of the Prologue and Tonio comes on the stage and clicks on the lights. As he is singing, ‘Pagliacci’ is assembled. The backdrop flies in, a hillside comes in from the edge of the stage, and slowly the characters enter.” The visual link between the two pieces is Florence, said Gauthier. “In ‘Gianni Schicchi,’ they talk about Florence a lot. It’s almost like one of the characters. So I thought, ‘Why not put ‘Pagliacci’ on a hill next to Florence, the way people stop and put up their tents and do shows?”
You will see Florence in both, Gauthier said. “Most of the set of ‘Pagliacci’ is in ‘Schicchi’ and part of ‘Schicchi’ is in ‘Pagliacci.’ For example, the house in ‘Schicchi’ is the little house for the commedia in ‘Pagliacci.’ There is a car onstage in ‘Pagliacci’ (a Volkswagen), and in ‘Schicchi,’ the little boy is playing with the same car, a small one.”
With a comedy and a tragedy, the evening is not only well balanced, said Mirageas, but “in some ways you’re looking at the beginning and the end of the verismo (reality) movement. ‘Pagliacci’ is among the first two or three verismo operas. By the time you get to 1917 and ‘Gianni Schicchi,’ Puccini has almost completely left that behind. It’s also a lovely traversal of the Italian melos after the death of Verdi and into the 20th century. It’s basically the end of the Italian opera that has become the core of our repertoire.”
Singing the role of Tonio in ‘Pagliacci’ and the title role in “Gianni Schicchi’ is baritone Roberto de Candia. Canio in “Pagliacci” is tenor Frank Porretta, with soprano Kelly Kaduce as Nedda, baritone Ljubomir Puskaric as Silvio and tenor Thomas Glenn as Beppe. Rounding out the cast in “Gianni Schicchi” are soprano Maria Luigia Borsi as Lauretta and tenor Edgaras Montvidas as Rinuccio. The other Donati relatives are mezzo-soprano Catherine Keen as Zita, soprano Alexandra Schoeny as Nella, tenor Thomas Glenn as Gerardo, bass Thomas Hammons as Simone, mezzo-soprano Stacey Rishoi as La Ciesca, bass Kenneth Shaw as Betto di Signa and baritone William McGraw as Marco.
The operas will be sung in Italian, with English surtitles.
Tickets begin at $25, available at the Cincinnati Opera box office at Music Hall, online at www.cincinnatiopera.org or call (513) 241-2742.