Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, An Operatic Double Bill by Opera Lyra
There is no longer any doubt that Ottawa has an opera company that it can be proud of. The traditional double bill of those two one act operas, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, opened in Southam Hall Saturday night with two almost flawless performances. Pagliacci is often presented as an opera in two acts but here two acts become two scenes of one act which did not change the nature of the performance. We saw an almost perfect rendering by the orchestra (conducted by Richard Buckley), the insightful use of the sets, exciting staging, magnificent choral work under Laurence Ewashko’s superb guidance, and singers who carried us off to other realms of reality. A truly wonderful evening.
Cavalleria Rusticana.
There is no doubt that the libretto of Cavalleria Rusticana, based on the play by 19th Century novelist and playwright Giovanni Verga who is steeped in Zola-like naturalism, becomes nonetheless the greatest of all tearjerkers, showing the wide range of esthetic contradictions that make opera such an appealing art form. Turiddu abandons his pregnant companion whom he has not yet decided to marry, and returns to his now married former wife Lola who has become his mistress once again. In the opening moments of the prologue/overture, we hear his voice off stage as he sings a passionate serenade in the middle of the night to Lola, the real love of his life and its Turiddu’s lust for Lola that gives all the energy to this work.