Pittsburgh Festival Opera is wrapping its summer season with Scandals and Schicchi, and its premiere last evening was received enthusiastically by a pleased and cheering crowd. It’s important to first note that only a single repetition will be given, Sunday afternoon, July 28, at 2:00 p.m., at Winchester Thurston’s Falk Auditorium, so if you wish to hear it, act quickly. And there is so much in the way of twists, turns and other fun theatrical treats in the production that seeing and hearing it is far more pleasurable than reading what one audience member may or may not be able to adequately convey.
The “Scandals” half can best be described as a comic play with incidental karaoke singing, but the characters who provide the vocals know only piano accompanied “pretty bits” of Puccini operas. The “Schicchi” half is a performance of the composer’s dark comedy, Gianni Schicchi. The latter is part of the composer’s Il trittico (“The Triptych”), three one-act operas, with Il tabarro and Suor Angelica preceding Schicchi. The triple bill received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in late 1918, and while Suor Angelica was Puccini’s personal favorite, its current popularity is somewhat eclipsed by Gianni Schicchi as an audience favorite. The opera’s shining moment is Lauretta’s “O mio babbino caro” (“Oh my dear papa”), an aria familiar to most, whether they know it or not, from interpolations of it into various movies and TV shows; even Woodstock whistles the tune in “She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown.”
“Scandals” is Jonathan Eaton’s clever collection of scenes from a number of Puccini’s operas, arranged in juxtaposition against the composer’s personal foibles, and while based on true events in the composer’s life, the characters and scenes in the play are fictionalized. Beginning at Puccini’s deathbed, the composer is surrounded by family and friends, some alive, some ghosts. Puccini anticipates nothing less than heaven – but Dante Alighieri, medieval poet and creator of the original story upon which Gianni Schicchi is based (but best remembered for the “Inferno” part of his Divina Commedia) arrives to condemn Puccini to purgatory. The composer pleads his defense by citing examples of his operatic achievements, but various infidelities and other unsavory events cue snippets from La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine, Tosca, La Fanciulla del West, Turandot and Suor Angelica. Dante has the stronger case, and Puccini, in a final plea for redemption, calls for a performance of Gianni Schicchi – the comic opera inspired by Dante himself, which (though based on underhanded greed and fraud) “pleads the case for the sanctity of young love.” And the soprano doesn’t die.
The play, employing operatic singers as the actors, packed a wallop in both comedy and song. The opera, employing much of the same cast, was equally impressive. Joel Balzun (Puccini in the play, the title character in the opera) and Christopher Curcuruto (Dante/Marco) dominated the first half of the evening, with Jennifer Noel, as Elvira, Puccini’s wife, making the most of her opportunity to sing Tosca’s best known aria, since she had no role in the opera. As the Doctor in the play and Betto di Signa in the opera, Marcus Simmons displayed a
Joel Balzun
warmly timbred, distinctively produced baritone voice, and Amanda Batista sang the best of Suzuki (with Mr. Simmons as Sharpless and Matthew Brooks as Pinkerton) in the play with a powerfully pure mezzo-soprano.
Another double-duty standout was soprano Anush Avetisyan, who as a one-time lover of Puccini, sang some of Madama Butterfly’s music in the play and the role of Lauretta in the opera. Chelsea Seener, as the ghost of a chambermaid in the play, sang bits of Mimì and Liù (from La Bohème and Turandot), and Nella
in the opera, quite beautifully. Melissa McCann, as Puccini’s step-daughter in the play, sang a bit of La Rondine in a manner that made the listener wish she had a part in the opera. Tenor Tianchi Zhang, who appeared as Rinuccio in the opera, did some of the best singing of the evening.
The large ensemble cast, some of whom appeared in only the play, the opera – or both – included Rhiannon Vaughn, Amanda Levy (an impressive interpreter of Musetta in the play), Mitch FitzDaniel, Maria Bozich, Danielle Wright, Brendan Sliger, Evangeline Sereno, Elizabeth Sywulka, Juwan Johnson, J. Patrick McGill and Benjamin Strong; all sang and acted with a general vivacity which contributed much to the fun of the production. The small orchestra gathered for the opera played well under the baton of Brent McMunn.
As a whole, Scandals and Schicchi proved to be one of the best of PFO’s offerings this summer. The repetition tomorrow afternoon closes the season, and the work is highly recommended. For tickets and more, visit Pittsburgh Festival Opera.
The Production Team for Scandals –
Director, Jonathan Eaton; Musical Director, Brent McMunn; Associate Directors, Derrick Brown and Joshua May; Pianist, Hyerim Song; Lighting Designer, Madeleine Steineck; Costume Designer, Autumn Capocci; Hair and Makeup Designer, Jina Pounds; Stage Manager, Arwen Kozak; Assistant Stage Manager, Layne Preston
For Gianni Schicchi –
Conductor, Brent McMunn; Director, Derrick R. Brown; Costume Designer, Autumn Capocci; Lighting Designer, Madeleine Steineck; Hair and Makeup Designer, Jina Pounds; Assistant Conductor, Joseph Bozich; Rehearsal Pianist, Hyerim Song; Stage Manager, Arwen Kozak; Assistant Stage Manager, Layne Preston; Orchestra Reduction, Tony Burke, Pocket Productions
Photography Credit: Victoria Bails
A Pittsburgh native, George B. Parous began his studies of music and the ‘cello in grade school before his interests turned to opera, its performers and history while in his teens. He has been acknowledged as a contributor or editor of several published works (the first being “Rosa Raisa, A Biography of a Diva,” Northeastern University Press, 2001), and is currently working on his own biography of the German-American dramatic soprano, Johanna Gadski, who sang at the Metropolitan during the “Golden Age of Opera.” A retired IT Analyst, he is an avid genealogist, and has traced his maternal line to 8th century Wessex, England. He’s been a contributor to Pittsburgh in the Round since 2014.
Categories: Archived Reviews