Opera San Luis Obispo Expands Its Outreach

By Kathryn Bumpass

Opera San Luis Obispo has announced a major expansion of its educational mission. Beginning this spring, OperaSLO will collaborate with Cal Poly's Student Opera Theater in a production of opera scenes and Puccini's Suor Angelica. OperaSLO Artistic Director Brian Asher Alhadeff, Artistic Advisor Jacalyn Kreitzer and Executive Director Sharon Dobson have proposed that the joint production become an annual event, giving young artists opportunities to perform with a professional opera company. Dobson noted that "providing educational opportunities for young people is one of our primary goals, as provided in our mission statement."

Performances this spring are scheduled for March 8, 9, and 10. The program will include songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, scenes from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. During the second half of the show, Puccini's one-act opera Suor Angelica will be performed.

Suor Angelica is the tale of a nun who has been forced into the cloister because she had had a child out of wedlock. She is wracked by grief at not being able to see her child. Angelica's aunt, The Princess, comes to the convent and demands that Angelica sign away to her younger sister her share of their parents' inheritance. The younger sister is soon to be married, and the money is needed for her dowry. When Sister Angelica asks about her child, the Princess reveals that he has died. Stricken, Angelica agrees to give up her inheritance. Soon thereafter she brews a poisonous drink and takes it. She repents having taken her own life; and in conclusion a chorus of angels appears with the Virgin Mary, who holds Angelica's son by the hand.

The MET Live in HD

By the time this issue of SLO Coast Journal comes out, yours truly will have had shoulder surgery and will likely not be ready to return to the computer keyboard for several weeks. So I thought I would preview the two January operas in the Met's "Live in HD" series. These are Handel's opera Rodelinda, to be broadcast Sunday, January 8 at 2pm and Gounod's Faust, slated for Sunday, January 15, at 2pm.

George Frederic Handel was quite the cosmopolitan composer. He was born in Germany, musically educated in both Germany and Italy (the home of opera), and later became a naturalized British citizen. Though we in the English speaking world know him primarily for his oratorios, he was a leading composer of Italian serious opera in the 1720s and 30s. Rodelinda, first performed in 1725 in London, is considered among his best operas.

Rodelinda, Queen of Lombardy, believes her husband, the King Bertarido, has been killed in battle by his rival to the throne, Grimoaldo. Grimoaldo hopes to cement his claim to the throne by marrying Rodelinda, who spurns his advances. As the story advances we learn that Bertarido is in fact not dead; he returns to reclaim his throne and his wife. Grimoaldo renounces the throne and marries the woman he really loves, and the royal couple is reunited in a particularly touching scene.

In the early 1700s the great heroes of Italian serious opera were the castrati, men with all the brilliance of the male voice, but the range of a soprano or alto. Those familiar with the film Farinelli will know something about the life of one of the greatest castrati. The practice has been outlawed for centuries, but we are left with brilliant music that begs to be performed. In the past, opera directors have chosen either to transpose the castrato parts to a man's natural range or to have women sing the parts in trouser roles. In the last two or three decades another option has emerged: the counter tenor.

The counter tenor voice covers mainly the alto range, and in the English cathedral tradition of all-male choirs, counter tenors do in fact sing the alto part. They use a special technique in male vocal production called falsetto, which gives them the extended range. In more recent times, some counter tenors have cultivated solo singing, and now provide a third option for replacing the castrato. The Met's production will use these voices for two of the parts, that of the King Bertarido and his friend and confidant Unulfo. Singing Bertarido's part will be David Daniels, whose voice Anthony Tommasini, reviewer for The New York Times, describes as "entrancing" . . . "rich, plaintive and virile."

To return to more conventional voice types, we can look forward to Renee Fleming in the title role. Of her, Tommasini says she "draws on every resource of her artistry in this portrayal: luminous sound, exquisite ornamentation, floating high notes, emotional volatility." Altogether we should see an old opera restored to life by experimentation with a new operatic voice type and the best of modern singing.

Goethe's play Faust, Part I, published in 1808, directly and indirectly gave rise to many musical settings in the 19th century, among them Gounod's opera Faust. Gounod's character, like Goethe's, is in search of lost youth and its passions and is willing to make a bargain with the devil to gain them. Through the agency of Mephistopheles (the devil), Faust is granted a vision of the innocent and lovely maid Marguerite, and she becomes the chief object of his passion. Eventually she becomes pregnant by Faust, goes insane, murders her own child, and is cast into prison. Faust attempts to free her from jail, but in a moment of clarity she refuses, accepts her punishment and repents; her repentance is accepted and voices from the heavens declare she is saved.

French grand opera of Gounod's day typically included lots of scenic spectacle, including many vivid crowd scenes and ballet, along with the usual elements of opera. Faust is no exception. In Act II we have soldiers singing a raucous drinking song, ably assisted by townspeople. Among the more spectacular scenes is the Walpurgis Night of Act V, where Faust is surrounded by dancing witches and sorcerers, as well as beautiful women.

As to vocal style, the arias in French opera often consisted of relatively simple melodies sung without elaborate decoration, though special numbers might be in the Italian bel canto style, with much coloratura. In Faust Marguerite's famous "Jewel Song" exemplifies the more elaborate style, while Faust's elegant "Salut, demeure chaste et pure" the more purely melodic.

The Met has mounted a new production of Faust featuring Jonas Kaufmann as Faust, Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite and Rene Pape as Mephistopheles. Check out more features at the Met's website, Met Opera Family.org or OperaSLO.org.

Opera Lovers Meet

Opera Lovers Meet will hold its annual holiday party on Wednesday, December 7, at 10am. Join us for the festivities and bring a friend. The group meets at the Odd Fellows Hall on Dana Street.

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