By CHRISTOPHER MOSSEY

Jay Lesenger (above, photo by Meghan Gauriloff, Chautauqua Institution) will direct and Gary Thor Wedow will conduct the Juilliard Opera Center's production of La finta giardiniera.

Why do we love people who hurt us? An answer of sorts, though out of sync with modern sensibilities, can be found in Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera, performed this month by the Juilliard Opera Center.

La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl) received its premiere in Munich two weeks before Mozart's 19th birthday in 1775. Many scholars and directors view this opera buffa as a transitional benchmark on Mozart's path to mastery of the genre. It is in La finta that we first hear lengthy, multi-textured finales that showcase the composer's burgeoning dramatic sensibilities; Mozart's facility at conveying emotion through deceivingly simple musical materials; and—despite a libretto often derided for its lack of originality—moments in which Mozart's gift for portraying humanity pierces through the thick layer of operatic convention. Director Jay Lesenger and conductor Gary Thor Wedow make their Juilliard Opera Center debuts in this production of La finta giardiniera, with three performances in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

La finta giardiniera centers around Violante, a noblewoman disguised as the titular "garden girl" under the name of Sandrina. After fleeing the cruelty of her suitor Count Belfiore, who stabbed her in a jealous rage, Violante—now healed—has been living secretly for a year amidst the lower class, drawn by an inexplicable desire to find her assailant. Others in the town believe that Violante is dead; Belfiore has fled the scene of the yet unsolved crime.

When the opera begins, Violante is in dire straights. Her employer, the lecherous mayor, Don Anchise, has been making sexual advances, inciting the jealousy of another servant. And when Violante finally encounters Belfiore, she learns that he is engaged to be married to Arminda, the mayor's haughty and perfidious niece, in the wake of whose marital ambitions treads the lovesick poet Ramiro. The opera's inexorable plod toward a happy ending develops the gradual unraveling of truth and identity, an enchantingly unrealistic vehicle for Mozart's often touching musical representations of human feeling.

The unfortunate events that befall Violante in La finta giardiniera would make it easy to brand her a hapless victim. Bad things happen to her, and impulsive flight is usually her first reaction to unsavory situations. The mayor's advances, for example, prompt Violante to attempt to leave the country estate in the very first scene of the opera. Since being wounded, Violante has not only left her hometown and her high social standing, but also attempts to run from the fate of her confusing love for a man who has hurt her. Even Violante's experience of love is passive, portrayed in a mode typical of much older operas, as if the god Amor has fixed her on an unalterable course.

But the secret of Violante's identity provides a powerful counterbalance to these ostensible weaknesses. How she reveals this secret is not always strategic, but giving the other characters even a taste of her true identity has remarkably potent effects. In Act 1, drowsy from a fainting spell and the effects of smelling salts, Violante speaks to Belfiore not as Sandrina the "garden girl," but as Violante. When she regains her senses, she reasserts that she is just a "garden girl," sending Belfiore, Arminda, and Don Anchise into confusion during the lively Act 1 finale. More intentional on Violante's part is a false revelation of her identity in Act 2, when Belfiore is questioned about his role in Violante's death. She briefly reveals that she is Violante, getting Belfiore "off the hook" of the murder charge, but takes back her statement, saying she lied just to save him. This act provides a fleeting opportunity for a newly assertive Violante to toy with Belfiore as his remorse for his past actions grows ever deeper. In the larger dramatic picture, Violante's surprise precipitates the torrents of madness that have made the Act 2 finale of La finta giardiniera famous.

These situations provide a dramatic framework upon which Mozart constructs a tender human portrait of Violante. Her Act 1 cavatina, "Geme la tortorella," spotlights her sense of longing for Belfiore, complete with textual and aural references to a turtledove—ancient symbol of fidelity—separated from her mate; muted strings and a halting opening melody suggesting the heroine's solitude. Violante's Act 2 lament-soliloquy—one of the oldest operatic conventions—lays bare the heroine's fears and emotions in an expansive scene punctuated by sudden shifts of melodic styles, harmony, and musical textures.

Costume sketches by Nancy Leary for Sandrina (left) and the Mayor.

The ultimate resolution of Violante's inner conflict comes in her stunningly intimate Act 3 duet with Belfiore. The opening music of the duet—muted strings with a gently pulsing accompaniment—recalls the pastoral mood of Violante's "turtledove" aria, an apt backdrop to the garden in which Violante and Belfiore awake. In alternating phrases—not unlike two doves cooing—the erstwhile lovers shake off their stupor. Violante shares the truth of her identity once and for all, half-heartedly rejecting Belfiore once again, and it is here that the key and pace of the duet change, as Belfiore makes his final plea for Violante to come back. Rejection turns to flirtation as the heroine suggests that they go their separate ways. While the stage directions indicate that they exit to opposite sides of the stage, Mozart's music betrays their true feelings, combining a shift to a minor mode and punctuated downward scales suggesting the lovers' hesitation. Violante and Belfiore at last give in, as the final Allegro of the duet paints an exuberant and vocally florid expression of their refound pleasure.

Despite La finta's categorization as an opera buffa, the director Jay Lesenger sees the work more as a "comic drama," with complementary serious and comic strains to the story. Violante's misfortunes and confusion about her identity provide the most fertile ground for the presentation of serious emotion, while comic characterizations can be found in the all-knowing servant Serpetta, her adoring Nardo (a disguised servant of Violante), and Don Anchise. The noblewoman Arminda emerges as a caricature of a leading lady of opera seria—her musical voice stands on the upper end of complexity but her actions and attitudes are decidedly low brow. Mozart's ultimate fusion of comic and serious sensibility on the dramatic level—The Marriage of Figaro—was still 11 years away.

Removing a number of opera buffa shadings in Juilliard's production, Lesenger portrays Belfiore as a resolutely serious character. Relieved of some ridiculous comic posturing—most notably a pompous aria cataloguing his antecedents—Belfiore obtains a level of honesty in Lesenger's interpretation and makes it possible for the audience to feel empathy for the character whose brutal behavior sets the entire story in motion. Seeing Sandrina as Violante erases all of the peace that Belfiore had achieved through his engagement to Arminda, and leads Belfiore to the brink of a guilt-ridden madness in Act 3. Literary scholarship resonates with Lesenger's approach. In his absorbing 1992 book Mozart and the Enlightenment, Nicholas Till suggests that in the 18th century Belfiore's criminal deed may have been "seen as evidence of the possession of sincere emotion—the sign of a potentially great soul—rather than of felony," very much in the prevailing spirit of Sturm und Drang.

Mozart: La finta giardiniera Juilliard Opera Center Peter Jay Sharp Theater Wed., April 25, and Fri., April 27, 8 p.m. Sun., April 29, 2 p.m. Please see the Calendar of Events for more information.

So, why would Violante want to remain with Belfiore? In short, Violante cannot help herself. Hers is a dramatic world in which love imposes itself upon humans without explanation. That Violante neither utters any particular reasons for loving Belfiore—his looks, his lineage, his wealth—nor explicitly absolves him of his crime suggests that she has given in to the forces of love rather than acted with free will. Unlike some of the great women who populate Mozart's later operas, Violante does not return to Belfiore out of deeper human impulses such as pity or forgiveness. We accept those we love, defects and all.

The Juilliard Opera Center's production features Jeffrey Behrens (Don Anchise), Erin Morley (Violante), Tim Fallon (Belfiore), Brenda Christopher Mossey is associate director of the Juilliard Second Century Fund.Rae (Arminda), Isabel Leonard (Ramiro, April 25 and 29), Faith Sherman (Ramiro, April 27), Ariana Wyatt (Serpetta), and David McFerrin (Roberto).

Christopher Mossey is associate director of the Juilliard Second Century Fund.