Opera Australia – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. February 1, 2017.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House.  Stalls (Seat P38, A$79.)

Story.  See prior posts.

Conductor – Andrea Licata.  Cavalleria Rusticana: Turiddu – Diego Torre, Santuzza – Dragana Radakovic, Alfio – Jose Carbo, Mamma Lucia – Dominica Matthews, Lola – Sian Pendry.  Pagliacci: Canio – Diego Torre, Nedda – Anna Princeva, Tonio – Jose Carbo, Silvio – Samuel Dundas, Beppe – John Longmuir.

We are in our annual trek to Australia to visit family.  For this year of the rooster the new year falls in late January, before the start of the Sydney Symphony season.  In addition to tonight’s performance, we will be seeing King Roger tomorrow evening.

 This is the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar.

A remark about our seat.  We got this discount coupon for 20% off tickets originally priced at A$99, which we are quite happy with.  During the day I got two emails saying that due to the need for that part of the theatre for filming the performance, our seats had been changed to P38 and 39; they were originally in row W.  This is quite an upgrade, full-priced tickets for our new seats were at A$260 each.  No complaints on our part, naturally.

I liked the performances.  The thing that stood out for both was how “verismo” the productions were.  We have seen this combination two or three times before, and tonight’s were the most hard-hitting.  Everyone wore their emotion on their sleeves, and you go for what you want.  The two Met productions in recent memory had better sets, and probably better singers (Marcelo Alvarez was singing the lead roles in one production, after all), but the sharp edges were smoothed out quite a bit in comparison.  Our being close to the stage, in a relatively small theatre, made the singers sound great, and the action up close and (more) personal.

The orchestra in general did a good job, the two intermezzos were beautifully played.  However, sometimes the solo passages would sound much weaker than I would like.  Crowds play a major role in both operas, and the chorus did a good job.  There were some comedic moments thrown in for good measure, such as the one where a nun grabs a gentleman.

The stories are both set in the 1980s, and the opera worked either because of it or in spite of in; I attribute it to the great singing in any case.  The sets were on the simple side, the rotating platform made scenery changes quite effortless.

Torre as Turiddu and Canio, and Carbo as Alfio and Tonio were both standouts.  Radakovich and Princeva did a splendid job as Santuzza and Nedda respectively.  With all the actions on stage, I was worried that a mishap could happen.  Credit must be given to the choreographer who managed to get everything under control.

It is also quite interesting how the stories can be made to look so different from one production to another.  In the case of Cavalleria, it began with Turiddu lying dead on the ground and then carried away by the crowd, followed by a rather long period of little “action.”  Of course the opera ended when it began, with Turiddu killed.  The other performances I saw had the killing done off stage.  In the case of Pagliacci, the play-within-the-play started normal enough, but morphed into a dream-like episode where Canio was further tormented by his jealousy.  For a short while they had a double for Nedda, which was quite clever.

There was also a conscious attempt to link the two operas together, which wasn’t really necessary.  During Cavalleria some people were putting up posters for the Pagliacci show; and during the intermezzo of Pagliacci we see Santuzza and Mamma Lucia reconciling with one another.  That gave the two ladies an excuse to join in the final curtain call, which left Pendry (as Lola) in the cold.

 From left: Alfio, Turiddu, Mamma Lucia, Lola, and Santuzza at the Cavalleria Rusticana curtain call.

 Curtain Call after Pagliacci.  From the left: Silvio, Mamma Lucia, Nedda, Santuzza, Licata (conductor), Canio, Tonio, and Beppe.  Lucia and Santuzza were from the earlier opera.

This review of the first performance is quite insightful.  I wonder if the reviewer saw the performance once, or did quite a bit of background research.  He did point out Nedda and Silvio appeared in Cavalleria with Silvio as a baker; that showed some level of familiarity with the artists.

The main orchestra seats (stalls) were quite full, which was encouraging.  I am glad we got a chance to see this.  We are staying in Darlinghurst for this trip, which made getting to the Opera House a simple trip via Sydney Trains.