Opera Project Columbus Cavalleria Rusticana Rehearsal Diary Sixth Entry

I didn't drop dead last night. At least I think I didn't.

I can't take comfort in the hackneyed nonsense "Bad dress rehearsal good performance" because last night we had a very good dress rehearsal. Likewise I'm confident of stellar performances. Last night there were a lot of stops but these 'patching' sessions, while horribly nerve wracking, resulted in musical glory. The detail and love given bar to bar for this 200 plus page score can be excruciating to watch and glorious to hear.

Alessandro Siciliani, conductor of Cavalleria Rusticana this weekend. Devastating devotion

Those of us doing this work at a periphery, without the years of total absorption in music and drama, hear the clock ticking and breaks approaching and mental lists of all that will be left unattended and undone, find it easy to lose respect for the score of Cavalleria Rusticana and its drama. I doubt Mascagni himself had such painstaking musical preparation for the opera's premiere in 1890. I wonder what he thought, over the rest of his long life, when it became clear that none of his subsequent works would enjoy the success of Cavalleria, his first opera, written in his twenties. If worked all his life with the intensity, with the drama and the love I have seen over the past few weeks,  he must have been tormented by a few successes d'estimes and a few more downright flops.


I have a new respect for the work-akin to ditch digging, which I've done-involved in preparing a
performance like Opera Project Columbus will present tonight and Sunday. There are people who torment themselves out of respect for the music and the words. I don't have that talent. OPC has been privy to such dedication. You wills see and hear the results beginning tonight.

Visually, I am so proud of this company. They looked splendid. We have a lighting designer who had colored in the pictures with glory.Our thirty plus chorus still sounds like a fine eighty plus chorus. The orchestra is digging in, and singing. I am running around accomplishing little, and sucking down bite size Milky Way bars like they are Vicodin. Where are the guys for the procession? Where's the light cue? Is this the rope for the curtain? What to do about the two principals who showed up last night late and didn't give a shit? Can the people on stage remove their glasses? Can the chorus remember to get in the light?

Yes, I worked hard to establish some sort of vision for the piece. I was disappointed that musical values presented me from a lot of moves on which I had high hopes. Never mind. The point is the score and the point is the audience and both points are and will be wonderfully served.

Here's another artist whose devotion is like what I've been experiencing these past few weeks:

Opera Project Columbus Cavalleria Rusticana Rehearsal Diary Fifth Entry

Laura Pederson (Santuzza) Jesus Daniel Hernandez (Turiddu) Susan Millard Schwartz (Mama Lucia) Jamie Hartzell (Lola) Robert Kerr (Alfio)  photo: Ken Snow

Last night was our first rehearsal in the performance space, the gorgeous McCoy Performing Arts Ct., in New Albany. Watching the piano stage run through with on stage furniture,  it really happened. Oh my but our chorus sounds splendid. Santuzza marked and was more powerful than most artists at full throttle. Out tenor is a hunkmeister a l'italianita and he sounded great. Everyone was great. What a blessed production.

Chorus moves were simplified. It had been my intent to avoid choral stand up and sing at all costs. We've worked around that be harping on each chorister playing their own character. Write a back story. Who are you? Are yo married? Employed? How many children? Are you widowed? Do you screw around?  Do you love your children? Do you hate your mother? Und so weiter. That and encouraging focal points for the chorus, which inevitably keeps he audience's eyes on them.

When  I began staging opera scenes I had people running around and moving all. the. time. Now I've learned the best lesson. Less really is more. If the opera is strong the music will do most of the work.

If you keep people running around and you ignore the music you risk running over into Christopher knowing better than Mascagni/Verdi/Mozart/Puccini/Wagner/Strauss. From there its a short walk to ignoring the opera and staging what you want the piece to be, instead of what it is.

Yeah I know, you are euphoric the morning after. Tonight is the orchestra sitzprobe. We heard the orchestra last night for the first time. They rehearsed in a separate space. I looked in. It seemed like a small band but they played big. Not loud. Loud is easy. Anyone can play loud. Look up 'loud' in the dictionary and damned if you don't see my picture. This orchestra played, big and played with meaning. It's as if each played had internalized the beauty of the music and the brutality of this opera's plot.

Out conductor had a wonderful newspaper profile last Sunday. There is unending interest in him in this community, and the paper will fan these flames.

I despair  of people in my own life who insist "Opera is not for me." Yes it is. Opera is for the world. It's a tough stereotype to crack, this fat people screaming nonsense. Has it ever been true? I don't think so. I've been going to the opera since 1968. Yes, there have been large people-but do we need Sutherland, Pavarotti and Horne to be skinny? I heard e'm all and will never, but never forget them. The great 'legends' really were great in person. Their voice has all the presence, power and warmth only hinted at in recording. Sutherland in Norma would knock your tits off. You can listen to the recording and marvel and the great singing, but live in the theater you'd marvel and be knocked back just by the sound.

Here's an example of fat people who never move screaming at one another: Not.

Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi in Tosca, Royal Opera, London, 1964.


Our stage manager, who has worked in the theater for 40 years said to me last night "These people are really actors who sing." That's a nice compliment. Just what an opera like Cavalleria needs. Our principals and our chorus really believe this story, and it shows to the eye and to the ear.

Cavalleria rusticana began life as a sort story by Giovanni Verga. Verga adapted his tale into a play. All of this before Mascagni wrote his opera. It is the opera that lives on today. Over 100 years ago, the play stayed in the repertoire along side the opera.

I want you to look at this face:

Eleanora Duse

Duse as Santuzza

The actress Eleanora Duse Duse (1858-1924). She was the first Santuzza-in the play. To Mascagni's public, this title meant Eleanora Duse, a great actress, not an opera singer. Many people had probably seen her in this play. If you look at  the photo on the right, don't you SEE Santuzza on her face?  That face is what Mascagni strove to capture in his music. He did, while creating a character with another  dimension, music.

Get your fannies to Cavalleria Rusticana..THE OPERA!-June 26 and June 28 McCoy Ctr., New Albany.

Opera Project Columbus: Cavalleria Rusticana Diary First Entry

Opera Project Columbus presents Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the McCoy
Center for the Arts in new Albany, June 26 and 28th .

Alessandro Siciliani conducts

Your humble servant-that would be me-directs.

Here's a welcome from the composer, Pietro Mascagni, from the his recording of the complete opera made in  1940:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience. I am Pietro Mascagni.  I would like to tell you about my Cavalleria which is now fifty years old.  As memories of it are closely linked with many gestures of appreciation, I was unable to resist the offer I received from 'His Master's Voice'  thus I decided to present the complete work, which appears for the first time in recorded form under my personal direction.  My work, brought to life by the most celebrated artists, collaborating with orchestral and choral talents unrivaled in the world today, will perpetuate my memory better than any signed portrait.  I have signed many autographs, but none with greater pleasure than this, the most vivid of them all, representing me a it does in the double role of conductor and composer.  I great you warmly before raising my baton.  


The conductor is responsible for what you hear
The director for that you see.
Ideally the two work well together.
AS and I DO

Or eventually do, as this diary please God will attest

But the drama of tale this tale of adultery and vengeance on a  Easter Sunday morning in Sicily is nothing compared to the machinations just far.

Rustic chivalry, my ass.

I have had one staging rehearsal. The cast is quite attractive, with excellent voices. I liked to going around pouting that  Opera Project Columbus should stay away from these Italian potboilers. Guess what? I love these Italian potboilers. Mascagni in Cavalleria has written not a short opera but a concentrated opera. There's not a wasted word or note. Musical scene painting begins immediately with Turiddu's arrogant and lovely off stage Siciliana..O Lola...if I ever get to heaven , and find you are not there, I would not stay.

There's Santuzza, the wronged woman, pregnant and abandoned in favor of the now married Lola.

Giovanni Verga, author of the short story, Cavalleria rusticana, upon which Mascagni based his opera

This is a piss lot earthier than Charles-Diana and Camilla. In this society, Santuzza is an outcast and Turiddu thinks he can get by on charm and sex. And he very nearly does. It's Santuzza who gives up Turiddu to a jealous husband. In the off stage knife fight, sealed not with the mafioso kiss of death but with one man biting the other on the ear, we lead to a crushing finale. A woman screams offstage, and then runs on to cry Hanno ammazzato compare Turiddu! They have killed neighbor Turiddu.

The director will underline Mascagni's music depicting the every Sunday, Easter celebrations with a sense of foreboding, that something terrible is about to happen. Nobody quite knows what. The chorus is oblivious until a splendid moment toward the end. It's clear that Alfio and Turiddu will fight til the death. Lola, who has been flippant up til this moment, is ushered off stage by a group of women. 'Comare Lola, andiamo, via di qua. Lots of E flat., The line is simple and very tragic. Neighbor Lola, let's get away from here. This while the sun shines on Easter morning.

Soprano Lina Bruna Rasa became Mascagni's favorite Santuzza later in his life. She was schizophrenic, and would be signed out of an asylum to perform. Her bloodcurdling style puts the words and the tragedy first.

Oh yeah, the rehearsals. The chorus is learning lustily. Nice people singing beautifully who will become earthy peasants in a menacing, closed society. My handsome tenor poses a bit a la Jose Cura. He does not emulate that worthy to the extent of singing with his back turned, thus to display a splendid gluteus maximus (maximii?) We have a fine looking Santuzza with a big voice, a sexy Lola and a scary Alfio. Mama Lucia to me is the glue in this opera. She has the fewest line and needs to be the unifying presence of the entire piece. That's the first thing I've learned about directing Cavalleria

So, as of today, Mama Lucia's father has died, Turiddu is off singing a concert for a week, the understudy Turiddu bailed, and we are switching rehearsal pianists.
I've already staged as much a I can in a church basement. The singers walked into walls , walked into each other and walked into me, while singing passionately the while.  Yet to come are pacing out the musical bridges in something approximating theater space We are two weeks from performances.

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) wrote many more operas after Cavalleria. You never hear most of them. I've been listening to Iris. It's a Japanese setting pre-Madama Butterfly. Sensational music. Th opening chorus alone is splendid.  I asked Alessandro why this opera is never done. He pointed out some fine music and a ridiculous book. Iris jumps into a sewer and lingers there, transformed...a shitty liebestod...literally!

MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED.

NOTES ON GIANNI SCHICCHI (buy tickets!)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

OPERA PROJECT COLUMBUS PRESENTS GIANNI SCHICCHI THIS WEEKEND: 

www.operaprojectcolumbus.org


Sat 8 pm Sunday 3 pm
Jewsih Community Center of Columbus
tix at the door

NOTES ON GIANNI SCHICCHI

   

Christopher Purdy

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) spent some of his time writing the wonderful operas we love today, among them: Madama Butterfly, La boheme, Tosca and Gianni Schicchi,  and spent most of his time chasing down subjects for his next opera, arguing with librettists, placating singers, supervising rehearsals, and trying to stay clear of his bad tempered wife, Elvira.

Dante

Like Verdi before him and Mozart before him, Puccini was never satisfied until he had found a new subject for an opera. Later in his career he found three subjects. He planned an evening of three one -act operas and called the grouping Il trittico.

He completed a one act grande-guignol shocker, Il tabarro, (The Cloak) and the story of a young woman who bears a child she is forced to give up, and made to enter a convent: Suor Angelica.  Gianni Schicchi , Puccini’s only comedy,  was the only one of the three to achieve success in the composer’s life time. It was the last opera Puccini completed.

Puccini’s librettist for Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi was Giovacchino Forzano (1884-1970). Forzano had studied singing and medicine before turning to journalism. He continued his career as a stage director at La Scala and as a playwright. For Gianni Schicchi ,  the writer turned a few lines from Dante’s Divina Commedia. The story of Gianni Schicchi is expanded upon in Commentary on the Divine Comedy by an Anonymous Florentine of the 14^th century. The subject didn’t immediately interest Puccini, who thought the plot too complicated.

Here’s the deal: In 13^th century Florence, old Buoso Donati has just died. A rumor has

Giuseppe DeLuca as Figaro. He was the first Gianni Schicchi

been going around that Buoso has left his entire estate, including his house, his mule (la mula) and the mills at Signa (I mulini di Signa) to the local monks. This will never do. Buoso’s family searches frantically for the will (‘il testamento’) and find the rumors to be true. Young Rinuccio suggests calling on Gianni Schicchi, a wily soul of lower classes who is nevertheless the smartest guy in the room. The fact that Rinuccio is in love with Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta doesn’t hurt. The family is outraged. They want no part of this low rent upstart and his daughter.

Rincuccio prevails and Schicchi and Lauretta arrive. Gianni has as little use for the Donati as they for him. Nevertheless he has Buoso’s body taken out, dresses in Buoso’s clothes, summons the lawyers and dictates Buoso Donati’s new will leaving the mills at Signa, the house and the mule to…Gianni Schicchi. Lauretta and Rinuccio chirp away romantically. The relatives loot everything they can carry and Gianni Schicchi, consigned to hell by Dante, asks for our applause.

Work on Il trittico began around the beginning of World War I. Puccini’s recent opera The Girl of the Golden West, was written for the Metropolitan in New York. That premiere, with Caruso, Toscanini and Emmy Destinn had been a success, but as the years went by critics carped this was not Puccini at his best. World War I made a production of his newest effort, La rondine difficult. Domestic problems and supervising productions of his operas in Europe and America kept Puccini pre -occupied. Finally the Met asked him for another new opera, and wound up with three.

Florence Easton the first Lauretta

Opening night in New York, December 14, 1918, was THE musical event of the season, as The Girl had been eight years earlier. No expense was spared. The first casts included some of opera’s  greatest names: Giuseppe de Luca, Claudia Muzio, Geraldine Farrar and Luigi Montesano. British soprano Florence Easton as Lauretta made O mio babbino caro an instant hit. De Luca, adored by New Yorkers, delighted with his Gianni Schicchi. The audience laughed and applauded the wily Gianni and the horrible Donati relatives. Il tabarro and Suor Angelica were another story. Neither rose above a success d’estime. Not even Farrar, opera’s most glamorous soprano,  could save Puccini’s doomed nun. Puccini was heard to say, “La Farrar has lost her voice!” Il tabarro was thought too dark and heavy. The opening night audience, having endured two operas they didn’t like, may have lost hope until the curtain rose on the dead Buoso Donati, his awful relatives, a pair of young lovers and a smart and shifty title character.

The years have been good to Il tabarro and Suor Angelica. Gianni Schicchi was an

Geraldine Farrar the first Suor Angelca

immediate hit, needing no one’s help. O mio babbino caro was encored. De Luca was cheered to the walls.  The New York Times feared critic W.J. Henderson was polite to Farrar and Muzio and called Gianni Schicchi “one of the most delightful bits ever put on the Metropolitan stage.” Puccini, womanizer he was, was one of very few men who never cared for Geraldine Farrar,  but the success of Gianni Schicchi didn’t surprise him. He turned his attention to the Italian premier scheduled for later that December, and went to work on his opera Turandot. But that is another story. 

Gianni Schicchi Diary pt. 7

Gilda Dalla Rizza (1892-1975)

 This is Gilda Della Rizza. She was one of Puccini's favorite sopranos. Known as a great beauty, she was a celebrated Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Puccini wrote the role of Magda in La rondine for her. Puccini was more interested in the Italian opening of Il trittico than in the Metropolitan Opera performances a few weeks earlier. La Dalla Rizza was Suor Angelica and Lauretta in the Italian premiere. She it was who made Suor Angelica a hit after it died onstage in New York. She gave quite the testy interview a few weeks before her death:

 "After coming in and standing silently, Lauretta must quickly establish her character in the midst of all the confusion, with Donati's family running around. She is no coy or modest well brought up Florentine girl, but a determined young woman. Her first phrase, "Rinuccio, non lasciami", Puccini wanted fairly loud so that it would be heard distinctly over the din of the action, but not overly so. To find just the right volume caused me much worry. 'You must let them know what you want with that first sentence',  Puccini kept saying."







Let me say at the outset: It was a long night. Monday was a long night and it seemed long. We were missing a few people. We're at the point that continued runs of the show without the Maestro don't have much point. Also, I'm going back to look at the theater tonight. I hope I'll be able to picture the staging in the actual performance stage, and begin adjusting accordingly.

I knew on my first visit to the JCC that the space would be problematic for staged opera with orchestra. The pit accommodates ten, not helpful with Puccini. I sheepishly suggested using piano but reminded tartly (and appropriately) that we are trying to grow and expand the company and the audience and a piano accompanied Italian opera is not the sway to go. That's correct. Point taken.

The entire auditorium has to be used. I've staged using deliberately a smaller on stage space than I expect to have. We are on the floor at the very foot of the sage. In the two aisles, even scrounging through the audience looking for the testamento. I'm trying to avoid line-ups. Hell, the Met does line ups but I'm trying to at least do triangles with the occasional parallelogram.

Gianni wore his costume last night--snappy black number with a cap on OSU shorts. Lovely. The MAestro does't easnt him bare legged. He won't be. I still want him to wear adoavle underpants -for when the ladies strip and re dress him as Buoso,.

Ah, the Maestro. He spent 20 minutes on one word. The young woman was far more patient that I ever would have been. She probably realized that in this seemingly endless coaching, the character emerged-with the turn of one word. Likewise a number of our signers were getting pissy. This was a micro-rehearsal by a native  Italian speaker who has known Puccini's operas since he was ten. I thought one of the guys was going to deck him. The stops were quite long. But even the feistiest fella, after a few repeats began to show the character in his face. I saw people become Betto, Simone, Zita, Lauretta und so weiter .

Our Spinelocchio hadn't been doing much. The Maestro took hold of him like a hungry puppy. AH! I want you to do this bolongnese! He demonstrated a whistle-y diction and our Spino mastered it-and a tall young man became a grimy, elderly doctor.

So yes, it was long, hot and maybe annoying. You won't gt this kind of detailed rehearsal many places. You;'ll be thrown on and told to get the hell off. I learned how important the language is, how crucial it is to investigate alternate meanings (sub- text). I know enough to establish characterizations and give moves, blocking. The Maestro knows how to get those characters to live.

I'll try to bring a muffin basket. Let's all drink extra coffee, take an extra potty break or two and gear up for the final run of rehearsals. Deliziosa. 

Gianni Schicchi Diary pt. 3

 Opera Project Columbus
Gianni Schicchi
June 15 and 16
see opera project columbus dot com 

We had a three day weekend. A surfeit of Reese's cups had me bound up and crabby, but I was rejuvenated
by the time rehearsal rolled around last night. We were at St. Marks church in the choir room, very nice with rather skimpy air conditioning. Oh, well. Beggars can't be choosers.

 I needed an emotional pick up today and speaking of Puccini:



 Moffo. What a beauty. A diva of my youth. She died in 2006 after a number of bad years career wise. When it as beautiful it was very beautiful.

 There's another opera production in business locally. That's a good thing. My old mentor Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Co.of  Boston wasn't the least bothered by neighboring college productions and a week long visit from the Met. "The more opera, the better." I agree but I haven't Sarah's gifts.


Rehearsing with many cast

Sarah Caldwell

members missing is  a challenge. Not so much for me but for the people on the stage. Remember once the show goes up I revert to my favorite position, hoping our hosts in the Jewish Center won't mind my putting my feet up.

Elvira Puccini

No notary and no Gubbio yet. Meaning it was quite tricky to stage mini processional on to the stage for Gianni/Buoso to dictate his will.  I and another fellow participated with our Pinellocchio, God bless him who comes a distance and never misses rehearsal. Still, we were crowded. I have them working in a (I hope please God) smaller space that we'll have deliberately. (You'd rather have too much booze than too little at Grampie's wake). Spinelloccio can only come late and since he's in part one only and we're working on part two.....well, I'm going to have to continue to adjust. god is good. So is zoloft..
Back to the other opera in town. Several of my key people are involved. What can I do? I'm the last one who would tell them to give up a paying gig.

Our baritone sings well and has the rare gift of singing with enough joy to enchant any audience. Many of the other singers are well prepared and fun. Some need work. I've been asked to save time in staging rehearsals for some  music touch ups. Withal, we've staged the whole thing, now its fine tuning, a few changes and eventually complete runs. Since there's so much physical action I need the singers to develop  muscle memory so their singing is not affected. I have asked for a brief meeting in the venue with as many as can attend.Even if a few show up, if they see the actual space it may offer better perspective.

Puccini by Mary-Jane Philips Matz

And how many directors do YOU know who send out a prop list for spoons, forks, dishes, a night cap and long johns? Take THAT Franco Zeffirelli!

I've been re- reading Mary Jane Philips- Matz's biography of Puccini. Her Verdi bio is the book of choice. No one in recent times has better documented this great composer. Puccini is a more friendly read and less scholarly. Matz makes good use of several very elderly people she met years ago who knew the composer. I wanted to interview her and mailed and e mailed and called and a week later read her obituary in the New York Times. She was pushing ninety. No one who loves Verdi or Puccini should miss her books. 

Puccini loved fast cars, women and hunting. He was quite the ladies man. His first serious girlfriend was the wife of another man. She and Puccini had a child together-scandalo!-and composer rued the day he took up with Elvira. Batshit crazy the lady was.

Hmmm. Maybe I can turn Ciesca or Nella into Elvira Gemignani Puccini. Scary!