Opera Review: Her Daddy Said: "A Whore"

Bard SummerScape plucks Mascagni's rare Iris.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pimp daddy: Kyoto (Douglas Williams) menaces Iris (Talise Trevigne) in Mascagni's opera.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2016 Bard SummerScape.

Composer Pietro Mascagni once famously said that of all his operas he regretted writing Cavalleria Rusticana first. This month, his Iris is the centerpiece of the annual Bard SummerScape festival,  held at the shiny Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center (on the verdant grounds of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson New York.) At Sunday's matinee performance, conductor, artistic director and Bard president Leon Botstein made a forceful case for Iris as a lost Mascagni masterwork.

Superconductor 2016 Summer Festival Preview III: Bard Festival

Up the Hudson, the Bard Festival revisits Puccini.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Just a settin' on the lawn. No, that statue of Puccini isn't really there.
Original photo of the Fisher Center © A. Zahner and Co.

The third part of our Summer Festival Preview features the Bard Festival, that celebration of the forgotten and the unusual in symphonic and operatic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Held on the sprawling verdant campus of Bard College and fcused around the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center For the Performing Arts, Bard has a reputation as one of the elite summer festivals, a grand day out at the opera that is worth the long trip.

Opera Telecast Review: Pag Before Cav, from La Scala

"I'm gonna go build my own theme park! With blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the park!"
--Bender Bending Rodriguez

Daniel Harding on the podium

La Scala returned to Symphony Space on Thursday afternoon with a live broadcast of director Mario Martone's new double-bill production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Mascagni's Cavelleria Rusticana. In an unusual decision, the live broadcast switched the verismo twin bill, leading off with Pagliacci.

Martone has set Pagliacci's troupe of players as modern urban gypsies, putting on their show out of the back of a broken down camper, parked under in a highway overpass patrolled by hookers. (What is it with directors who equate verismo with the oldest profession?) Picked out in ugly neon pink and green light this was a sleazy, sordid setting for the commedia dell'arte. And when Silvio (Mario Cassi) picked up a streetwalker while rollin' in his BMW, the director's unsubtle point was made.


The cast anchored by the superior Tonio of bass Ambrogio Maestri. He dominates from his opening "Si puo?" with a dark, rounded tone and a sarcastic leer. Unfortunately tenor José Cura'turns strident when he approaches forte, the voice spreading unattractively in the climactic phrases of "Vestia la giubba." He is not helped by the blunt soprano of Oksana Dyka as Nedda. She was unimpressive in her La Scala debut.

Leoncavallo's most famous opera blurs the line between actors, audience, and onstage spectators, creating a theatrical ambiguity at its climax that is this work's particular genius. Silvio is sitting in the front row of the orchestra when he gets knifed. But having a blood-drenched Canio say "La comeddia e finita" and exit up the main aisle of the La Scala house shattered that barrier completely.

Cavalleria had the opposite problem: an exceptional cast stuck in an unimaginative staging. Lucina D'Into was the chief attraction. Her large, powerful soprano voice copes well with Santuzza's histrionics and heroics, rising effortlessly over the lush orchestra and cutting through the big choral ensembles without sounding shrill or forced. She was ably matched by Salvatore Licitra's exceptional, amoral Turiddu who still somehow elicited sympathy before his death. Bass Claudio Sgura was a fine, dark Alfio--an easy winner in any knife fight.

What didn't work in this Cav was the director's idea of adding a brothel to the village (Alfio was a customer) during the opening scena. (The hookers strike again!) This took away from the lush, succulent phrasing under the baton of Daniel Harding, who led both operas with theatrical flair. Following the church processional, most of the action took place in front of the villagers, gathered in prayer under a giant crucifix. This dark, dull production ended on an empty stage, as if the director had finally run out of ideas.

Opera Review: Reality Blurs, Murder Occurs

Cav/Pag at the New York City Opera.

The New York City Opera's new Stephen Lawless production of Cavallieria Rusticana and Pagliacci takes the classic verismo double bill and turns it on its head. Led by house maestro George Manahan, this is a powerful one-two punch of these great operas, made all the stronger by Lawless's decision to integrate the characters of the two works, blending the lines of reality and increasing the dramatic power of the evening.

At first, the crossovers start without the audience realizing it, when Silvio (the lover of Nedda from Pagliacci, played by Michael Todd Simpson) shows up in Cavalleria as Turiddu's callous drinking buddy. Later, a visibly battered Lola (Alfio's wife in Cav, played by Rebecca Ringle) wanders through the carnival of Pag, suicase in hand.

Alfio (the killer in Cavalleria, played by baritone Andrew Oakden) crosses the stage at the start of Pagliacci, pockets his switchblade (the murder weapon) with a nod to the audience, unbuttons his jacket, vest and shirt, and reveals that, underneath he is dressed as Tonio, the evil clown who destroys Canio's marriage in the second opera.

Both operas were anchored by strong performances, and both featured the stellar baritone of Andrew Oakden, singing his first City Opera performances as Alfio and Tonio. This was a sturdy performance, brilliantly acted. He sang "Il Cavallo Scalpita" with feeling and rhythmic snap, and nailed the confrontation with Turriddu (tenor Brandon Jovanovich.) Oakden's second performance, (as Tonio) was creepy and malignant from the Prologue onward. The audience was aware that Tonio was really Alfio--not just the same singer but the same man who committed the murder in the first opera. This made Oakden's performance all the more disturbing.

Brandon Jovanovich displayed a fine, ringing voice as Turiddu in the first opera. He pulled real pathos from the opera's climax and treated Santuzza (Anna Marie Chiuri) with venomous contempt. The two did not shy from the physical aspects of playing the feuding ex-lovers--their chemistry and kinetic fight choreography enhanced Mascagni's music and practically leapt off the stage. As Santuzza, Chiuri was a powerhouse, the right mix of beautiful singing and pure rage. Susan Nicely was a moving Mamma Lucia, her final scene with Turiddu was the emotional climax of the opera.

Pagliacci was also blessed with good physical acting and fine vocal performances. Maria Kanyova was an athletic Nedda--making one wonder how she produces such beautiful vocal tone when contorting her way across the red velvet couch upon which she canoodles with Silvio.

The famous, murdering clown, Canio, was played as an alcoholic actor and sung by tenor Carl Tanner, who has a fine, round voice and chose his own interpretation of the "laughing sob", not resorting to hamming or cliché. It was interesting to see Canio do his clown bit in grease paint and a striped suit--the character was so depressed and angry that he didn't even bother to get into costume. The rest of the cast, Robert Mack as Beppe and Michael Todd Simpson as Silvio, provided some nice singing and able support.