What a treat the other day. The dress rehearsal of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, usually sung together to form an evening's entertainment. Sublime music, young hot singers and good stories given a new twist. Both about ordinary people in old Italy, they are tales of passion, a woman scorned, a husband cuckolded.
I am reminded of Congreve's "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." The very stuff of great (and mediocre) literature and art.
Santuzza has given herself to Turiddu but he has abandoned her for Lola, wife of Alfio. Santuzza begs Turiddu to return to her but he scorns her and so she takes revenge by telling Alfio the identity of his wife's lover. Alfio seeks revenge, challenges Turiddu to a deadly duel. When I have seen this in the past the killing takes place on the steps of a great church. In this production created by the Dallas Opera, the killing takes place off stage . Alfio had brought with him some dark-glassed and suited thugs who look business. Poor Santuzza lives on to a life of regret and misery. After intermission, we open in the tawdry circus arena of I Pagliacci, the clowns. My mother used to sing On with the Motley to me as a child and we had 78 records of Gigli singing great operatic arias. I gave them away to a wretched cousin who tried to seduce me once. No great passion there I'm afraid. Just a rather unhappy man with a younger wife and two boring sons. Enough of that eh?
A novelty of this production was the appearance of Lola the betraying wife from Cav. walking across the stage carrying two old suitcases, her clothes dirty and her face battered. She had been beaten and driven from her village. It set the tone for the tragedy about to evolve.
Here the love scenes beteen Silvio and Nedda are hot, they are young good looking singers with excellent voices. Singing and making love at the same time. Not easy! The whole rehearsal was a thrill for me and took me away from the wretched world in which we are forced to live.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment