OperaSLO's 26th anniversary season continues with a salon series featuring world-class artists performing in some of SLO county's most elegant homes and wineries. Inspired by 19th century European salons, singers and other musicians are featured at intimate gatherings where conversation, ideas and music flow freely.
Each recital is unique and offers a memorable experience. Operatic music is coupled with the ability to interact with performers and fellow music lovers. Hors d'oeuvres and wines are served during intermissions and post-concert receptions.
Following the highly successful inaugural salon at the Madonna Inn, baritone Igor Vieira and soprano Elisabeth Russ will perform Sunday, April 15, 2-4pm at Wind Dance, the Avila Valley Estates home of Michael and Shirley Ritter. Their program, entitled "Lovers, Scoundrels, and a Little Bit of Villainy," includes famous arias and duets from Don Pasquale, Hamlet, I Pagliacci, Magic Flute, Romeo and Juliette, The Marriage of Figaro, and other selections.
Subsequent salons will feature mezzo-soprano Jacalyn Kreitzer on Sunday, May 6, 5-7pm, and Richard Sheldon and his principal quartet of the internationally acclaimed Gilbert and Sullivan ensemble Opera a la Carte, Saturday, June 30, 6-8pm. Ms. Kreitzer will perform at Villa Filaree, The Varian Ranch home of Dennis and Sharon Harris Schneider; Opera a la Carte will present its Gilbert and Sullivan Extravaganza at Tolosa Winery.
Tickets are $75 per person, per recital. Tickets for the three salons can be purchased for $200, a savings of $25. For information call 805.541.5369 or visit OperaSLO. Seating for these events is limited. Driving directions will be provided with tickets.
The MET Live in HD
In April the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" will close out this year's season with two popular operas about fallen women, Massenet's Manon and Verdi's La Traviata.
Manon
Manon is based on a racy novel, Manon Lescaut, by the 18th century writer Abbe Provost. The character Manon is a pleasure-seeking woman with a reputation as a courtesan. One of her lovers runs up debts he cannot pay to satisfy her continuing need for fashionable clothes, jewelry, and glamorous entertainment. She leaves him for a rich man, but returns to him later. Eventually Manon is arrested for loose morals in a raid on a gambling house; she is sentenced to deportation to Louisiana.
According to operatic legend, the novel is autobiographical. Provost did fall in love with Lecki Eckhardt, who, like Manon, was a pleasure-seeking woman and had a bad reputation. Provost ran up debts he could not pay to satisfy her. He fled Paris and lived in exile for several years, to avoid his debts. Later he was jailed in London for attempted fraud.
Recent research by Vivienne Mylne casts doubt on the legend; she argues that Provost wrote the novel before his affair with Eckhardt. In any event, the novel and the Provost's real-life experiences are remarkably similar.
In Massenet's opera, the character Manon exudes a kind of sexual charisma — she attracts men just by being herself. Mylne considers her a female "counterpart to Don Juan." She seeks pleasure in life above all else and has a deep-seated aversion to dull domesticity, which the hero Des Grieux offers her. She thus abandons him for wealthier men. She emerges as a complex personality, struggling against her genuine love for Des Grieux and her compulsive pursuit of pleasure. She is a temptress, but with an aura of innocence — she does not seduce men with cynicism or even intention.
Remarkably, this sensational and ultimately tragic opera was performed at the Opera-Comique theater. In Paris of the time, though, "comique" did not mean "funny." The genre "opera-comique" arose in the 18th century, and the term was applied to musical works with sentimental plots, some elements of humor and simple songs in popular style. Of special importance, they also had spoken dialog. Thereafter any French opera with spoken dialog had to be performed at the Opera-Comique.
La Traviata
Verdi's La Traviata is also based on a novel about a fallen woman, and this time the novel is definitely autobiographical. Alexandre Dumas, fils, had an affair with Alphonsine (Marie) Duplessis, which he recorded with particular pathos in La dame aux camelias (The Lady of the Camilias). Much of the novel was cut for the libretto, as was necessary, but the main stages in the affair are retained. Nevertheless there are substantial differences between the woman of Dumas's novel, Marguerite, and Verdi's heroine, Violetta.
The story of Marguerite is told by her lover Armand, as related by the unnamed but omniscient author. Thus what we know about her is filtered through the eyes of two men. Violetta, by contrast, is a true heroine, who stands as an independent individual and whose personality is directly communicated to the audience.
Violetta is a famous Parisian courtesan, sought by many men, but sick with tuberculosis. Alfredo Germont is especially captivated by her and pledges his love. Violetta cannot imagine real love, only the pleasures of the moment, but Alfredo's love is so genuine that she gives him her heart. His father subsequently appears and insists that Violetta leave Alfredo, whose affair is bringing scandal on the family. In the central duet of the opera, Violetta first resists the elder Germont, then agonizingly capitulates. Unaware of her sacrifice, Alfredo, broken-hearted and bitter, goes away. All three are reunited at Violetta's bedside, Germont having revealed to Alfredo the true reason for her abandonment. As Violetta draws her left breath, she falls into Alfredo's arms.
La dame aux camelias was published in 1848 and became a best seller. Dumas made a play of it, which was first performed in 1852, when Verdi was in Paris. He may well have been attracted to the story by its similarities to the life of Giuseppina Strepponi, with whom he had fallen in love by 1847. Giuseppina had had three illegitimate children but refused to name the father, who was a married man, and whom she did not wish to expose to scandal. Her nobility of spirit in this regard must have touched Verdi deeply, and it is widely assumed that she must have been the model for Violetta of the opera.
Verdi and Strepponi lived together for several years and eventually married in 1859. Strepponi regarded Verdi as her "savior," was passionately devoted to him for nearly 50 years, and absolutely faithful until her death. Her many impassioned letters to Verdi over the years reveal her sense of guilt about her past and her devotion to, but also anxieties about, Verdi.
As the psychologist and Verdi scholar, Gerald Mendelsohn has observed, "It was not, nor could it be, an uncomplicated, untroubled love." That love, however, gave special intensity to Verdi's most nearly autobiographical opera.
The regard in which Verdi held Strepponi is revealed in an oft-quoted excerpt from a letter of 1852:
"In my house there lives a lady, free, independent, a lover like myself of solitude, possessing a fortune that shelters her from all need. Neither I nor she owes to anyone at all an account of our actions . . . . in my house she is entitled to as much respect as myself – more even; and no one is allowed to forget that on any account. And finally she has every right, both on account of her conduct and her character, to the consideration she never fails to show to others."
