Paris, France in the late 1900s. His barge anchored along the Seine, owner Michele and his wife, Giorgetta, are having difficulties adjusting to the death of their child some months earlier. He now believes she has turned to the stevedore Luigi. Convinced the two are having an affair, Michele watches and sees Giorgetta hang a lantern on the wharf near the barge. In reality, she means for it to help her find her way back home again, but Michele interprets it as a signal for Luigi to come to her. When Luigi arrives, he encounters Michele and they fight. Luigi is killed and Michele covers him with his cloak—the tabarro which gives the opera its name.
It’s a gritty story of the eternal triangle, and in this case was perfectly matched to its location. Cleveland Public Theater has always put its resources on-stage (where they belong) so creature comforts rank rather lower on the priority list. In this case, the venue and the production made a great team. The Levin Theatre is a terrific place for small scale opera, holding approximately 100 people comfortably, allowing the audience to be up close and personal to the singers.
Opera Per Tutti, which specializes in smaller intimate productions proved to be the perfect partner for CPT and it is to be hoped this will be a long, happy—and successful—relationship. Three of the regions finest singers starred as the ill-fated trio: soprano (and founder of Opera Per Tutti) Andrea Anelli as Giorgetta, baritone Brian Keith Johnson as Michele and tenor Timothy Culver as Luigi. The secondary trio consisted of mezzo-soprano Fenlon Lamb as Frugola, bass Alfred Anderson as her husband (and deckhand) Talpa, while the other deckhand was tenor Norris Kelly as Tinca. (These latter three have been principals elsewhere, on many occasions, adding yet another layer of strength to the overall production.)
Director Scott Skiba worked wonders with the small stage area, made even smaller in order to house the good-sized orchestra ably conducted by Kerry Glann. Technical director was Val Kozlenko and lighting was by Cassie Goldbach. No one is listed as chorus master, but the eleven member chorus was excellent. If I were to nit-pick anything, it could only be the small size of the surtitles and their placement at the far rear of the stage. But that’s very minor, indeed. When a production is as well-acted and well-sung as this one, the emotional content and meaning of the words is readily apparent—even more proof that bigger is not always better!
Opera Per Tutti will appear in a concert of American music on Sat 11/20 at First Baptist Church in Cleveland Heights. For details, call 440-285-1874, or visit the website at http://www.OperaPerTutti.org. Cleveland Public Theater is at http://www.CPTonline.org.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print later this year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there’s always been the writing. I can’t imagine my life without it.
And now, after more than a few requests, I’ve started a blog about writing. You can find it here.