The dramatic soprano voice of Brishelle Jacobs (Suor Angelica) and the light, soaring tenor of Philip Solyntjes (Canio/Pagliaccio) kept interests alive in an evening of mixed productions last night at UMD.
The Marshall Performing Arts Center was the scene for two one-act operas, "Suor Angelica" by Giacomo Puccini and "I Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, both early 20th century compositions. The stated theme was "Verismo: The Truth about Opera," as both of these operas involved real humans struggling with real, powerfully emotional issues.
Unfortunately, Angelica has been forced into a nunnery for bearing an illegitimate child. Now that the child is dead, Angelica poisons herself to join her child, though only the Madonna herself can override the mortal error of suicide. There is not much action here, and only the richly layered melodies of Puccini save the opera a little bit. Jacobs, however, uses her lovely dramatic soprano with considerable skill, which matters enormously in this truly one-person opera. As she considers her child without mother (Senza Mamma), we were treated to the peak moment of the opera. Then she poisons herself and it's all over.
The sparse scenery kept attention focused on Angelica, until the very bright lights of the Madonna took her off to paradise.
On the other hand, the rollicking world of Canio the clown (Pagliaccio) is filled with tension and relief at rapidly paced intervals. The youthful soprano Nedda, (Elizabeth Steffensen) flirts with all the men on stage. She rejects the advances of her stage-hand, Tonio, and makes plans to run away with her true love, Silvio (William Lucas). Her husband, Canio, leads us through a charade to entertain the village, before he actually murders Nedda and Silvio, then declares, "La commedia e finite!" (The comedy stops here!) Verismo, indeed!
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Solyntjes had several exciting vocal moments, and his sharing of "Vesti la giubba" was filled with a true sense of pathos.
To relieve some of the tension, Amanda Speare, Thomas Rusterholz, and Ashley Klatte hinted at the melodrama in two wonderful dances, including some fancy juggling which was delightful to watch. The passionate love duet between Silvio and Nedda gave each a chance to sing from very entangled positions.
Maestro Jean R. Perrault sensitively conducted the modest pit orchestra, although the consistently dry acoustic of MPAC must be a challenge for the characters on stage. Both operas were sung in Italian, with super-titles telling the stories in English. The point of the evening seemed to be that UMD has singers at the moment, and several very strong ones. Opera is faring well in Duluth, even if some stories are much more intriguing than others.
Samuel Black is a performing pianist in Duluth and Music Director at Duluth Congregational Church.
