James Gill
Pietro Mascagni’s "Cavalleria Rusticana."
The Madison Opera’s autumn production opened on Nov. 2, with the traditional double bill of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (The Clowns).
These two operas are the leading specimens of the verismo (realistic, “slice-of-life”) idiom in opera. Mascagni’s one-act was based on a story by the Sicilian writer Giovanni Verga. Leoncavallo’s opera sets his own libretto, based upon memories of an actual court case, over violence among some run-down traveling players in mainland Calabria. With parallels in rural evocations and passionately melodramatic music, there is some sense in the latter-day custom of combining them as one show.
The two are given handsome visual presentations. The costumes are lavish, the sets by Constantine Kritikos are effective, and the lighting by Connie Yun is particularly adept for Pagliacci. Kristine McIntyre’s staging, some points aside, is imaginative, again, especially in Pagliacci. (Giving the Prologue an anticipatory staging of its own was especially clever.)
The vocal cast is excellent throughout, and special praise is due to the chorus for very sturdy singing.
Two singers, veterans of earlier productions by the company, appear in both operas. I did find the tenor voice of Scott Piper a bit rough and pushed as both Turiddu (Cavalleria) and Canio (Pagliacci). Baritone Michael Mayes is vocally strong as a brutal Alfio (with just a touch of inappropriate small-town gentility), but he’s simply terrific as the malevolent Tonio.
The two female leads offer a contrast of voices. In the role of Mascagni’s Santuzza, Michelle Johnson uses her dramatic soprano to bold effect. On the other hand, Talise Trevigne brings more of a lyric style to Leoncavallo’s Nedda.
In the Cavalleria cast, Kirsten Larson seems just a trifle bland vocally, if good dramatically. But mezzo-soprano Danielle Wright gives a moving portrayal, in both modes, as Mamma Lucia. In the Pagliacci team, Robert Goderich (Beppe) and Benjamin Taylor (Silvio) give excellent service.
These two scores involve workhorse orchestral writing, but conductor Joseph Mechavich does an excellent job finding expressive nuances when he can.
These are, in sum, idiomatic productions of each opera, quite satisfying both musically and theatrically. They presage well for the two remaining productions, and quite contrasting ones, still to come: Sondheim’s A Little Night Music in February, and Dvorak’s Rusalka in April.
Meanwhile, this “Cav and Pag” combination may be seen again on Sunday, Nov. 4.
