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May 10, 2007
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To protect and sing It's one of the great roles in opera ? Canio, the sad clown in Pagliacci, an opera so popular that even Spike Jones once did a parody version. (In it, he rhymed "Pal-ya-chee" with "I love you very muchee.") And Phil Lauriat, artistic director of Granite State Opera, believes he's found the tenor to sing it: Daniel Rodriguez, New York City's famous "singing cop," who rose to prominence following 9/11. Opera fans can hear for themselves this weekend, when Granite State Opera presents a double bill of verismo action with a fully staged pairing of Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci" and its traditional counterpart, Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana." The two one-act operas, each boiling over with outsized emotions and both ending in murder (hey, it's opera!), will be staged on Thursday, May 10, at 8 p.m. at the Portsmouth Music Hall and, closer to home, on Sunday, May 13, at 2 p.m. at Concord's Capitol Center for the Arts. Rodriguez, a powerhouse tenor, wasn't even on Lauriat's radar when he was casting "Pagliacci." Lauriat had heard Rodriguez do pop songs on television's Tonight Show, but never thought of him as "an opera guy." But when Rodriguez's financ?e, Maryann Motos, scheduled an audition with Lauriat last summer, the singing cop called and asked for a slot, too. At the audition, Lauriat was astonished at the power of Rodriguez's voice, and "after they finished replacing the shattered windows in the audition space," offered him the part of Canio ? a role sung for many years by Rodriguez's mentor, superstar tenor Placido Domingo. Rodriguez might have star power, but one singer does not a cast make. For other roles, Lauriat has assembled a squad of big voices, including Arnold Rawls, Philip Lima, Noun? Karapetian, Janice Edwards and Melissa Manseau. Both operas are non-stop melodrama, meaning they're good fun and easy for beginners to follow. So if you're curious about opera and want to check out a real live production, this one's a good bet. The operas are fully staged and sung in Italian with English subtitles. Tickets cost $19 to $72; for info, call 225-1000 or visit www.granitestateopera.org. ? A new record: On Saturday, May 5, the New Hampshire Philharmonic set a new attendance record for its annual spring concert. A total of 552 people packed into Manchester's Palace Theatre to hear the musicians run through an eclectic but compelling program. The milestone prompted the Philharmonic folks to put out a press release ? not surprising, given that so much attention has been paid to the recent demise of the New Hampshire Symphony and last weekend's Opera New Hampshire cancellation, both of which also use the Palace. |
4/26/2007 21 years in the making
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