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Puccini Meets Wargo in Unusual J.O.T. Double Bill By BENJAMIN SOSLAND
The Music Shop,a one-act opera with music and libretto by American composer Richard Wargo, seems to invite comparisons not usually associated with the rarified world of opera. "It's very Loony Tunes," says Ned Canty, who will direct The Music Shop together with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Juilliard Opera Theater's upcoming double bill featuring graduate students from the Vocal Arts department. "Bugs Bunny would probably be the ultimate icon of this 'driving-someone-crazy' style of humor. It strikes me as a kind of Danny Kaye vehicle, and it's got the slow burn of John Cleese and Fawlty Towers. It's sort of a perfect comedy, a perfect farce in many ways," he adds.
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| Giacomo Puccini, the composer of Gianni Schicchi (Photo courtesy of Karadar) |
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Set in Russia at the turn of the last century, The Music Shop tells the story of a hapless husband (Ivan, sung by Dominic Armstrong) who has been diligently running errands for his domineering wife (portrayed by Ronnita Miller), a singer who is scheduled to perform at the wedding of a prince. After spending the better part of the day fulfilling his spousal duties—the purchases he has already made are revealed in a witty musical number called "Box Fugue"—Ivan arrives at a music shop to make his final and most important purchase: the song his wife is to sing at the wedding. The only problem is that he cannot remember exactly which song his wife said it was! He is terrified both of failing her (she bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain Wagnerian warrior who appears to Ivan in fear-induced hallucinations), and of missing his train back home. So he requests that the music shop owner (the dignified and proper Dmitri, here sung by Alexander Hajek) and the shop's extremely disgruntled employee (Masha, sung by Isabel Leonard) sing every song in the shop's inventory until Ivan recognizes the correct one. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of some of the more enduring operatic traditions will no doubt recognize many of the themes in the ensuing chaos."I've never seen an opera audience laugh so hard," says conductor Steven Osgood, recalling a 1995 production in which he was involved. "I've been dying to conduct it ever since. It has such a dramatic-musical arc. It's very lightweight and yet one of the most effective pieces of musical comedy I have ever seen." Osgood will conduct the J.O.T. production this month in the Juilliard Theater.
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| Richard Wargo is the composer of The Music Shop. |
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The challenges of the piece are not exclusively musical, however. "It is probably the most physical opera I've ever staged," says Canty. "There's a big fight scene. There is a Cossack dance." Vocal Arts faculty member Jeanne Slater will provide choreography for this production. The Music Shop is the last work in a three-opera triptych by Richard Wargo called A Chekhov Trilogy. Since its premiere at Chautauqua in 1993, The Music Shop—which was inspired by Chekhov's story "Forgot"—has garnered considerable attention for Wargo, a native of Scranton, Pa., and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. Wargo has received a number of prestigious fellowships and has been composer-in-residence at the Greater Miami Opera and the Skylight Opera Theater in Milwaukee. His output also includes the 1999 Ballymore, an adaptation of Brian Friel's play Lovers that was shaped while Wargo was on a U.S./Ireland Exchange Grant for a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan."Since The Music Shop was written as the third part of a trilogy … we've done this interesting thing," says Canty. "We've plucked two comic elements from two trios of operas. We're sort of having dessert with dessert on top." The other operatic trio to which Canty is referring is Puccini's Il Trittico—which, in addition to Gianni Schicchi, includes the short operas Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica.
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| The production will be conducted by Steven Osgood. |
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Il Trittico received its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on December 4, 1918. From the beginning, Gianni Schicchi was deemed the most pleasing of the three operas. Puccini was unable to attend the premiere, in part because of the exigencies of wartime travel, but a copy of a cable sent to him from the Met's general manager at the time, Gatti-Casazza, survives in the Met's archives:MOST HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THE COMPLETE AUTHENTIC SUCCESS OF THE TRITTICO STOP … IN SPITE OF PUBLIC NOTICE FORBIDDING ENCORES BY INSISTENCE LAURETTA'S ARIA WAS REPEATED STOP … DAILY PRESS CONFIRMS SUCCESS EXPRESSING ITSELF VERY FAVORABLY FOR SCHICCHI STOPOf course, this was good news for Puccini, who received the considerable sum of $7,000 from the Met for his efforts. Gianni Schicchi was the only one of the three operas to remain in the Met's repertoire. For many seasons, it was usually presented as a curtain-raiser to Strauss's Salome, an undeniably incongruous pairing that seems all but inconceivable today.The libretto for Schicchi is based on Canto 30 of Dante's Inferno. Written by Giovacchino Forzano (1884-1970), a stage director—he directed the premiere of Puccini's Turandot at La Scala—the opera opens as relatives have gathered to pay their respects to the recently deceased Buoso Donati, the Florentine family's rich patriarch. Despite their earnest attempts to feign inconsolable grief, the relatives are more concerned with a rumor that the old Buoso has willed his property to the local monastery instead of them. When a mad search for the will confirms their worst fears, Rinuccio, a young cousin, suggests that they enlist the help of Gianni Schicchi, recently arrived in Florence from the countryside, to help them out of their predicament. (Rinuccio's motives are not entirely selfless; he is in love with Schicchi's daughter Lauretta and hopes to receive enough from Buoso's will for a dowry.) Despite their protestations, the family finally accepts Schicchi's assistance. A poem Puccini wrote to his librettist hints at the story's outcome:
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| Ned Canty will direct the production. |
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S'apre la scena col morto in casa.Tutt'i parenti borborttan preciViene quel Gianni – tabula rasaFiorini d'oro diventan ceci.[The scene opens with a dead man in the house.All the relatives are mumbling prayersWhen in comes this Gianni —blank slateTheir gold florins become worth beans.]"Greedy relatives wanting the money of some cranky old relative is one of the 27 jokes that there are," says Canty in jest. "We've been laughing at people like this for centuries. We always love a good 'sting' movie—when, at the end, everyone's been fooled in a very specific and imaginative way."
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Puccini:Gianni Schicchi
Wargo: The Music Shop
Juilliard Opera Theater
Juilliard Theater
Wednesday, Feb. 16, and Friday, Feb. 18, 8 p.m.
Free; no tickets required.
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In addition to having a few famous arias—the beloved "O mio babbino caro" being the most well known—Gianni Schicchi is a true ensemble piece, with most characters remaining onstage during the entire opera. With its rapid-fire delivery, orchestral flexibility, deft comedic timing, and of course, Puccini's signature lyricism, the opera presents "an ideal show for students of this level," says Osgood, "because it really kind of covers all the bases." He says he is looking forward to collaborating with the students of the Juilliard Opera Theater. Canty concurs: "Because it's opera where everyone is onstage, it's very important to have a sense of ensemble. It's an opera where listening and watching, which are always important, are perhaps more important than normal. As soon as someone spaces out onstage and wonders if they left the iron on, it's all over."Benjamin Sosland is a D.M.A. candidate in voice.
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