At San Francisco Opera, more women in trouble, once again

The Reporter

Richard Bammer

21 September 21

[Excerpt]

The start of the 2018-19 season at San Francisco Opera, Matthew Shilvock’s first as general director, began on mixed notes earlier this month with Donizetti’s rarely performed “Roberto Devereux” (there might be a good reason why) and the usual pairing of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” well-known, powerful one-acts that delivered the vocal and emotional goods for which traditional opera is famous.

Of “Devereux” and “Cav” and “Pag,” respectively, the critical differences in their appeal and ultimate success were the hard-to-define qualities of just what makes one cast’s artistry, or vocal magic, if you will, more appealing than another’s. Of course, the music itself figures into the critical equation as well.

In the end, as the curtains came down on each of the three operas, director Stephen Lawless’ “Devereux,” unfolding on a partial replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, left a distinctly unsatisfying impression. However, production designer José Cura’s “Cav” and “Pag,” generally regarded as the prime examples of late-19th-century Italian verismo (realistic) opera, came off as winners worthy of plenty of post-show commentary among patrons.

[…]

The contemporary calling card for “Cav” is the three-minute, sonically lustrous Intermezzo, known to fans of Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” and Coppola’s “The Godfather, Part III” films. In both — and in Cura’s two stagings, with all the keening passion, jealousy and tragedy set in a colorful square in working-class Buenos Aires, not Sicily — the well-known music offers brief repose before violence.

But Cura also added a wonderfully sensual metaphor during the Intermezzo: dancers Alexandra FitzGibbon and Jekyns Pelaez acting out the passion of the lovers. It is a highlight of this production.

[…]

The Berkeley Daily Planet

Roy MacBean

21 September 2018

[Excerpt]

There’s a French saying, “à chacun son goût/each to his own taste.” While honoring this proverbial wisdom, I find Joshua Kosman’s review, (in the Monday, 9/10 issue of the Chronicle), of San Francisco Opera’s current duo of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci so wrong-headed that I have to register my profound disagreement. Of course, historically, there have been avid partisans and/or detractors of one or the other of this famed duo of operas. But never, I think, until Kosman, has a critic deigned to dismiss Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (“Rustic Chivalry”), as “a piece of second-rate motley, with its halting dramaturgy and dull digressions.” I simply couldn’t disagree more with this rude dismissal of an opera that, in case Kosman hasn’t noticed, never fails to move audiences, and even moves quite a few critics. 

I am defending Cavalleria Rusticana not to denigrate its time-honored program-mate, Pagliacci. I find both operas extremely moving. However, in the current San Francisco Opera double-bill, I found Cavalleria Rusticana the more gripping and persuasive opera. In the staging by director José Cura, reprised here by José Maria Condemi, both Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci are set in the Italian immigrant quarter of Buenos Aires. Cura, himself an Argentine, knows intimately the local color of La Boca, a Buenos Aires barrio settled by Italian immigrants. In staging both of the CAV/PAG duo in the same stage-set, with its central square, tavern, colorful apartments, and local church, Cura emphasizes the importance of community and family in his staging of these operas. In this he is true both to the Italian immigrant community of Buenos Aires and to the Southern Italian communities in which these operas were originally set. 

Conductor Daniele Callegari led the Opera Orchestra in both operas. Under Callegari’s baton, the Prelude to Cavalleria Rusticana was sumptuous and rich in color. At its close, we heard the offstage voice of Turiddu singing the praises of his inamorata, Lola. Then, surprisingly, the next music we hear in Jose Cura’s production is not from this opera at all. It is a brief, well-known tango song, “Caminito,” recorded by famed Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel. This song emphatically sets the scene in Argentina; and the name of the tavern we see on stage right is “Caminito Tango.” The La Boca quarter of Buenos Aires now comes alive in the main square. People come and go, greet one another, sometimes argue. A waiter sets out tables and chairs in front of the tavern. Windows open on the square, sheets are aired, one woman angrily throws a man’s shoes out of her window onto the square. A sheepish man descends to retrieve them. All this hustle and bustle occurs while a mixed chorus of men and women sing of the fragrance of orange blossoms. Many people enter the church, for it is Easter Sunday. Others drift off, leaving the square almost empty of people. Santuzza enters and encounters the tavern-owner, Mamma Lucia, who is also the mother of Santuzza’s unfaithful lover, Turiddu. 

[…] Every detail in this vividly colorful production of Cavalleria Rusticana was perfect…

Double exposure

Parterre Box

Michael Anthonio

10 September 2018

 [Excerpt]

San Francisco Opera opened their 2018-19 Season Friday with a double bill of Italian verismo operas, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, which made a welcome return to War Memorial Opera House after 15 years. 

To replace Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s staging, SF Opera brought in a new production (to SF) by superstar tenor turned director, José Cura. This presentation premiered in Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Liege) in 2012 (where Cura himself sang both Turiddu and Canio) and had traveled to Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) in 2015. Cura also designed the set for this production. The direction for this revival, however, was done by his compatriot, Jose Maria Condemi.

Cura left a detailed Director’s Note on the program, and here I quoted two paragraphs that showcased his visions for the staging.

When I was first commissioned to direct and design Cavalleria Rusticanaand Pagliacci, the idea of molding the double bill into a tribute to the Italian immigration of early 1900s Argentina quickly prevailed. The spirit of these two emblematic works of the verismo movement—both excessive and timid, light and dark, affectionate and brutal—seemed very applicable to those uprooted Italian ancestors. Thus La Boca, the Italian quarter of Buenos Aires, for all its history and picture-perfect, multicolored beauty, was the ideal setting….

The Prologue remains one of the most touching moments of this production for me, its words heard and felt only by the beggar and the paperboy. The use of these characters to narrate a united story animates an essential part of the staging: the presence of the two casts during both operas. With the choice of both operas sharing the same set, the challenge was to establish a socially structured town with its priest, mayor, bartender, barber, grocer, children, etc. So, we see Nedda and the clowns posting the company poster at the beginning of Cavalleria, we see Santuzza sporting her seven-month belly in Pagliacci, as well as Mamma Lucia still managing her tavern, assisted by her waiter, Silvio. But my favorite moment remains the ending: hearing Lucia—almost an “oracle” in her own right—shouting “La commedia è finita.”

So, in essence, Cura merged the two operas into one long story that took place in the same neighborhood and included characters from both operas. One thing for sure, he stuck to his vision, and I gave him hats off for that. The Argentine flavor was all over the stage, even before the operas started, as he prefaced Cavalleria rusticana’s Preludio with snippet of Gardel’s “Caminito”.

[…]

Interestingly, the cast list on the program included roles for both Mascagni and Leoncavallo. In fact, Leoncavallo had a major role in this production, as the Prologue of Pagliacci was now assigned to him. In 2012, Leoncavallo was sung by separate singer, so it made some sense. However, in this production, the same baritone who did Tonio also acted as Leoncavallo, resulting  [sic] the distinction got lost in the process.

[…]

Yet, if you took away all these elements, this production amounted to an essentially traditional staging that would work on its own. The set was handsome looking. On the left, Mamma Lucia’s café located right behind “Caminito” sign, with Alfio and Lola’s house above it.  The church, crucial for Cavalleria, was placed in the background, and a wall of colorfully painted houses on the right. A small raised platform was placed in the center to represent a city square, where the commedia dell’arte in Pagliacci performed and the final tragedy took place.

Chivalrous Rustics & Sad Clowns Come Alive

Theatrius

Pamela Feinsilber

19 September 2018

 [Excerpt]

It’s not often that San Francisco audiences are offered the most popular “double bill” in opera: “Cavalleria Rusticana” by Pietro Mascagni and “Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncavallo. While these one-act operas are sometimes presented separately, they’ve been together since both composers (Leoncavallo wrote his libretto, as well) entered a new-talent competition in Rome in 1890. Now there’s a fine new production of “Cav/Pag,” in the aficionados’ shorthand, at San Francisco Opera.

Each tale centers on a jealous husband, an adulterous wife, and her lover—plus, in “Cavalleria,” his spurned lover. In each opera, the stories focus on—indeed, are almost limited to—the outsize emotions of the leads. But the context and center of the action is a small, tight community, the kind in which choices are limited and everyone has known everyone else for years. Instead of the traditional southern Italian town, production and set designer José Cura has set the operas around the town square of a poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires.