Show Boat on Mothers' Day Weekend by Kathryn Bumpass

Be sure to see the performance of Show Boat on Mothers' Day weekend, May 10-11. This American classic musical will be performed by soloists with several area arts groups, including Opera San Luis Obispo, the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo and the choirs of Morro Bay High School and Los Osos Middle School.

A moving story based on Edna Ferber's best-selling novel, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, Show Boat explores very sensitive subjects such as race, miscegenation, infidelity and poverty through the medium of popular music. In this it stands near the head of a long line of American musicals in which the most divisive, even taboo subjects are mediated by the conventions of music from the "golden age" of American popular song.

Come and savor the hits from Show Boat like "Ol' Man River," "Only Make Believe" and "Can't help lovin' dat man". Tickets are still on sale, from $10 - $75, at Pac Slo or by calling 805-756-4849. Saturday's performance is at 7pm; Sunday's is at 2pm. NB. The start time of Sunday's show was incorrectly given as 3pm in last month's column.

THE MET LIVE IN HD

This season's "Live in HD" series closes in May with two comedies, Mozart's game of two pairs, to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, Cosi fan tutte, and Rossini's frothy La Cenerentola.

The two pairs in Cosi fan tutte, (All women do that) are the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella and two young soldiers, Guiglielmo and Ferrando. They are also paired as lovers: Fiordiligi and Guglielmo, Dorabella and Ferrando.

Another pair conspires to complicate the lovers' relationships and in the process, teach them something of reality. These are the cynical Don Alfonso, who creates a sort of laboratory test to challenge the fidelity of the young women to their respective lovers, and the maid Despina, who counsels the sisters not to believe anything said by soldiers.

To conduct this experiment Don Alfonso has the young men pretend to be called off to war, leaving their sweethearts behind. They all part, with exaggerated declarations of love and fidelity. The men then assume ridiculous disguises, which nevertheless fool the girls, and each tries to win the heart of the other's lover.

In the end there is indeed realignment. Fiordiligi finds herself genuinely attracted to Ferrando, and Dorabella to Guglielmo. When the disguises are shed, the lovers are all confused. In a superficial sense Don Alfonso has won his bet that the sisters will prove unfaithful.

But with Mozart things are rarely superficially true. Far from disparaging the young ladies, he gives them the most appealing and finely crafted music in the entire opera. Moreover, da Ponte's words and Mozart's music, especially that sung by and between Fiordiligi and Ferrando, suggests a bond of souls that far exceeds the comically exaggerated protestations of fidelity at the opera's beginning.

Herein lay Mozart's mastery and magic: his music brings several more psychological dimensions to a given passage or an entire opera than what the words alone would communicate. At times the music is even intended to contradict the words, as when Fiordiligi laments her attraction to the disguised Ferrando. Though she feels guilt, he has captured her heart.

When at last the men's deceptions are revealed, there is forgiveness, but the relationship between the original pairs of lovers is now ambiguous. Do they return to their former pairing or not? Things cannot be as they were at the beginning. Both the men and the women have been deceived and have graduated beyond the social conventions that marked their original relationships. All know the pain of this deception, but all have learned the greater wisdom of their hearts.

The Met's cast for this production includes Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard as the sisters, Matthew Polenzani and Rodion Pogossov as their fiancés, Danielle de Niese as the maid Despina, and Maurizio Muraro as the cynical Don Alfonso.

Cosi fan tutte will be shown in an encore performance Sunday, May 4 at 2pm at the Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus. Tickets are available online at Pac Slo or by calling 805-756-4849.

Rossini stands at the head of the second great age of bel canto, the early 19th century Italian opera style marked by elaborate vocal ornamentation and other devices designed to show off the prowess of Italian opera singers. His opera La Cenerentola (Cinderella) was first performed in January, 1817, just four years after the operas that brought him notoriety and instant success, the serious opera Tancredi, and his best known comedy, L'Italiana in Algeri.

Technically La Cenerentola is an opera semiseria; though it is steeped in comic opera, it has a sentimental plot and a moral, as is suggested in its subtitle, "Goodness Triumphant." Rossini's is not the most familiar version of the Cinderella story. Here we have no fairy godmother, no pumpkin coach, no mice dressed as footmen, no glass slipper.

We have what might be called the social core of the fairy tale – the haughty step-sisters, who treat Cinderella as a servant; their father, the craven Don Magnifico, who seeks to improve his finances by marrying off one of his daughters to the Prince; and Ramiro, the Prince, who seeks genuine goodness in a wife, not high status.

He is aided in this project by his servant Dandini. The servant and master exchange costumes and trade places for part of the opera, so that the Prince can see how Don Magnifico and his daughters treat those of lower social standing.

Also aiding the process is Alidoro, the Prince's teacher and mentor, who arranges for Cinderella to attend the fancy dress ball, in magnificent attire, where she will meet the Prince. Despite the scheming of her step-sisters and Don Magnifico, Cinderella actually meets the Prince and captures his heart.

In La Cenerentola you can expect to hear a lot of ornamentation – the chief hallmark of the Rossinian bel canto style  — and a great deal of rapid-fire text delivery and fast repetition of short phrases, all characteristics of Italian comic opera style. Also expect numerous examples of the "Rossini crescendo," a passage in which a short phrase is repeated several times, gradually adding numbers of instruments and/or voices and building up in volume to a loud climax.   

Two bel canto super stars will sing the lead roles in the Met's production: Joyce DiDonato as Cinderella and Juan Diego Florez as Prince Ramiro. The Met's live broadcast starts at 9:55am Saturday, May 10, at the PAC. Tickets are available online at Pac Slo or by telephone at 805-756-4849.