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October 25, 2007
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Lots to sing about If you enjoy opera, the next few weekends will bring a banquet for your ears, as two local companies perform fully staged productions in Manchester and Concord. On Sunday, Oct. 28, Opera New Hampshire will stage “Tosca,” Puccini’s classic tale of love and tragedy, at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. And on Sunday, Nov. 11, Granite State Opera will perform Donizetti’s classic tragedy “Lucia di Lammamoor” at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. (The opera will also be performed on Thursday, Nov. 9, at the Portsmouth Music Hall in Portsmouth.) Among other attractions, “Lucia” has the opera world’s most famous “woman goes mad” scene. And even if you’re not an opera fan but merely curious, there’s no better way to sample this rich blend of musical art and theatrical magic than actually getting your butt into a seat and taking in a performance. Opera, after all, was designed to be experienced live in a theater, not on a sound system in the privacy of your living room or on the radio. So take your ears and eyes on a field trip and let one of the most storied art forms work its magic on you. First up is “Tosca,” which Opera New Hampshire brings to the Palace Theatre in Manchester on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 2 p.m. The Sunday matinee is part of a new way of doing business for the group, which was forced to cancel last spring’s production of “Manon Lescaut” due to financial difficulties. The hope is that Sunday afternoons will attract a wider audience. The production, by the touring Teatro Lirico D’Europa, is a traditional staging of “Tosca,” which tells the story of an opera diva in Napoleonic-era Rome. The woman tries to save her imprisoned lover by giving in to the advances of a lecherous police chief, but things go awry and, true to opera style, much of the cast winds up dead before the final curtain falls. The performers? No one you’ve probably heard of, but the Bulgarian-based company has a reputation for putting out a well-oiled product. The cast includes former Opera Bolshoi soprano Olga Chernisheva in the title role, Bulgarian tenor Orlin Goranov as her lover, and American bass-baritone William Powers as the police chief. The production will be sung in Italian with English titles projected above the stage. Tickets cost $40 to $75; student tickets start at $10. For more info, call the Palace Theatre box office at 668-5588 or visit operanh.org. Next up is Granite State Opera’s own production of “Lucia di Lammamoor,” a wild story of forbidden love that, yes, also ends in tragedy. (Hey, what did you expect? It’s opera.) The work will be staged on Friday, Nov. 9, at 8 p.m. at the Music Hall in Portsmouth and on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m. at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. “Lucia,” likened in a Granite State Opera release to the Hatfield/McCoy feud, follows the story of the title character, a woman who loves a man who, alas, is a member of the enemy family. She is forced to marry another man, but eventually goes mad (vividly depicted both in the music and on stage) followed by the inevitable death all around. But it’s more than just a bloodbath: “Lucia” is overflowing with great music, including the famous “sextet” (six people singing at once) that’s an icon of opera to the world at large, once even being used prominently by the Three Stooges in the 1945 short “Micro-Phonies.” And never mind Moe, Larry, or Curly; for his “Lucia,” Granite State artistic director Philip Lauriat has assembled a powerhouse cast of leads, including two noted singers who’ve appeared in prior productions, rounded out by a strong cast of local vocal talent. Carrying the title role will be Metropolitan Opera soprano Barbara Kilduff, who played the Queen of the Night in an earlier Granite State Opera production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” in 2004. Her lover, Edgardo, will be sung by New York City Opera tenor Eric Fennell, who last appeared with Granite State as the Duke of Mantua in “Rigoletto” in 2005. Tickets cost $19 to $72 with group, senior, and student discounts available. For information, call the Capitol Center for the Arts at 225-1111 or visit www.granitestateopera.org. • Tooting my horn: In the “hey look at me” department, a Halloween screening of Phantom of the Opera (the silent film version from 1925) will take place at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on Wednesday, Oct.. 31, at 7 p.m. It’s a silent film, but with music by yours truly, performed live. Admission is $5 per person — hope you can make it.
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10/18/2007 Best of the 20th century? 10/112007 A side order of Bach, please
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