Metropolitan Opera – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. April 29, 2015.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat C120, $121.50).

Story.  Cavalleria Rusticana.  While Turiddu is off to war, his love Lola marries Alfio.  Turiddu returns and lives with Santuzza, resulting in her being rejected by the church.  When Turiddu rekindles his passion with Lola, the jealous Santuzza tells Alfio about his wife’s infidelity.  When Alfio sees Turiddu, he challenges him to a duel.  Turridu accepts and is killed. 

Story.  Pagliacci.  Canio and Nedda are leaders of a theatrical company.  The clown Tonio’s advances are rejected by Nedda, who is in love with Silvio instead.  The two’s plan to run away is overheard by Tonio, who in turns alerts Canio.  At sundown, the villagers gather to watch the performance of Columbine, played by Nedda, and her husband Pagliaccio, played by Canio.  The comedy proceeds along well until Canio snaps and kills Nedda and Silvio as he rushes to her aid.

Cavalleria Rusticana.  Conductor – Fabio Luisi; Turiddu – Marcelo Alvarez, Santuzza – Eva-Maria Westbroek, Mamma Lucia – Jane Bunnell, Alfio – George Gagnidze, Lola – Ginger Costa-Jackson. 

Pagliacci.  Conductor – Fabio Luisi; Tonio – George Gagnidze, Canio – Marcelo Alvarez, Beppe – Andrew Stenson, Nedda – Patricia Racette, Silvio – Lucas Meachem.

Both Anne and I are quite sure we have seen this combination a couple of times.  Once at the Met, and once at the NYC Opera (the latter we are a bit hazy about.)  Since I can’t find any entry in this blog, that would mean we saw it before my blogging days.  The most memorable number from Cavalleria is the intermezzo, and the one from Pagliacci is the aria “Vesti la giubba.”  I have some memories of the story (especially Pagliacci as our high school orchestra played a few excerpts.)  While none of these factors is compelling enough for us, we kept this performance because we simply ran out of exchange options, and that this is a new production.

It was a good thing we did.  We certainly enjoyed the program.  What I am most pleased is learning (or perhaps re-learning) many aspects of the operas.

Whenever there is a new production, one can always find a writeup in the Playbill.  In most instances the writers seem to make a big deal out of them.  Sometimes the enthusiasm is justified, but oftentimes not.  This production is one that doesn’t justify the level of excitement.  The good news is that they work.  The constant is provided by the walls in the background.  For Cavalleria the space is used as the courtyard outside a church, for Pagliacci it is the outdoor space where the traveling theater sits.  Pagliacci is placed in 1949, so there are electric pole and street lights, and the theater rides on a truck.  The other constant is the constant movement of chairs, variously to represent the inside of a church and seating for the show.  What I don’t understand is the circular arrangement at the beginning of Cavalleria.  It makes for an interesting sight.  So the sets work, but not spectacularly so.

People either get married or die at the end of an opera (most operas, anyway), and in this case we have deaths in both instances, and they were caused by jealousy.  The Playbill does point out the ritualistic aspects of Cavalleria compared to the more chaotic settings of a traveling troupe.  One shouldn’t read too much into this though: the two works were written independently.  It was the Met that first put them together in one evening, but I suspect it was done more for expedient reasons that for the intellectual musings that ensue.

I am quite sure I have not seen one particular opera more than the other, so it puzzles me when I discover I am much more familiar with the music in Cavalleria than I am with Pagliacci (and I was exposed to the latter while in high school.)  The Met orchestra did a great job with the music and the audience showed its appreciation, the music’s relative simplicity notwithstanding.  With Pagliacci the familiar tune has about a 25-note segment that defines the opera, and interestingly that is enough to hold the audience (well, the drama and other musical numbers help.)

The singing is fine.  We had seen Eva-Maria Westbroek before as Sieglinde in Die Walkure, and she did well. Patricia Racette as Nedda also sang well.  I thought it took a lot of courage for her to dress up as Columbine; Anne thought she pulled it off.  The singer in the role of Beppe looked Asian but has a non-Asian last name; I checked the Met website, it was indeed Stenson.  Marcelo Alvarez sang both lead roles, but I thought his voice weakened in the course of the evening.  Gagnidze also sang in both operas.  Also, at the beginning of Pagliacci Tonio stands in front of a curtain and does a rather long introduction; perhaps they should make the curtain a solid one so his voice could come across better?  As it was, he had to work very hard to get himself heard.

Overall this was a good experience, not earth-shattering, but much more enjoyable than I expected.  It also confirms that seeing something again would lead to new understanding and insight into the work, although at $100 a ticket an expensive proposition.

The New York Times review is generally positive.  The reviewer’s major complaint is the overuse of the rotating platform.  His take on the circle of chairs at the beginning of Cavalleria?  That in the small village everyone sees other people’s business.  Not bad.

We went up to Jersey City in the afternoon to pick up Reid to see a doctor; he had an overreaction to insect bites he got while we were in Turks and Caicos.  Anne and I had takeout from Five Guys before we drove into the city.  Traffic nowadays is more congested: signs of impending summer.