The Operas....
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini
An Opera in four acts
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica based on Henri Murger’s novella Scenes de la vie de bohème
First performance: Turin; Teatro Regio, February 1, 1896
Performed in Italian with English supertitles above the stage
June 24, July 1, 5 & 9, 2011
June 26 & July 17, 2011
The world’s most popular opera! It’s Christmas Eve in Paris, complete with the abandoned revelry of Bohemian life. The novelist Henri Murger wrote a journal about his youth in Paris in the 1830s and from its pages comes a musical version that Puccini set to beautiful and passionate melody so eloquent in its expression of love won and lost that it hasn’t failed to inspire each succeeding generation. This is an opera to be seen again and again.
Don Pasquale
by Gaetano Donizetti
Dramma buffo in three acts
Libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and the composer after Angelo Anelli’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s Ser Marcantonio
First performance: Paris; Théâtre Italien, January 3, 1843 Sung in Italian with English supertitles above the stage
June 25, July 6, 8, 12 & 16, 2011 7:30 pm
July 3, 2011 2:00 pm
Don Pasquale is the 69th of Donizetti’s 71 operas. One of the world’s greatest operatic comedies contains a plot as old as time. The characters and their roles in the farce are clearly based on commedia dell’arte – Italian improvised comedies. Pasquale is the old bachelor who always has an eye for the young ladies; Malatesta is the Doctor whose attitude and carriage is of profound erudition – but whose wisdom is questionable; Ernesto is the young, passionate and often witless lover; and Norina is the willful, vivacious young woman caught in the center of the intrigues. Fashioned for four incredible singers / comic actors and a chorus, the story is durable and timeless, the music is charming, buoyant and as enduring as springtime itself!
Dialogues of the Carmelites
by Francis Poulenc
An opera in three acts
Libretto by the composer after a text by George Bernanos; adapted to a lyric opera with the authorization of Emmet Lavery; the drama inspired by a novel of Gertrud von le Fort and by a scenario of Rev. Father Bruckberger and Phillippe Agostini
First performance: Milan; La Scala, January 26, 1957 Sung in English with English supertitles above the stage
July 2, 13 & 15, 2011
July 10, 2011
One of the twentieth century’s most powerful, important and emotionally challenging operas, Dialogues of the Carmelites is based on a play by Georges Bernanos and was premiered at La Scala in Milan. Set against the terrifying backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story about a young woman of nobility who becomes a nun, against the wishes of her father and brother. Blanche de la Force is deeply afraid of the terror of the world in which she finds herself and joins the convent in an attempt to find refuge where she can live and work without fear. And then the Revolution begins and nothing is ever the same again. This is a story about real people but told with some abstractions that reflect the fact that often what we say to each other is not exactly what we mean. As the wheels of the Revolution turn, giants are felled and lesser people are left behind to tremble in the wake. The opera records the everyday happenings and conversations in Blanche’s life as she watches those around her deal with faith and courage and those events that lead her to her own crisis of faith versus fear. The final scene stands alone and apart as one of the most powerful moments in all musical theatre.
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