✭✭✭✩✩

by Pietro Mascagni/Ruggiero Leoncavallo, directed by Andrew Sinclair

West Australian Opera, His Majesty's Theatre

Aug 19-30, 2003

In its handsome, thoughtfully directed production, West Australian Opera demonstrated why the double bill of "Cav" and "Pag" has proved such a favourite around the world.  Both operas show seething passions under constraint finally bursting out with tragic consequences.  In Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" it is the closed world of social and religious morality that restrains passion.  In Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci" it is the constraint of performers struggling to maintain character on stage while consumed with private emotion.

Set designer Shaun Gurton and costume designer Victoria Rowell have kept the action in southern Italy with its drab walls and black-clad women in headscarves, but moved the time forward from the 1890s to the 1940s.  They thus find a parallel for the verismo style of the opera in the visual style of Italian neo-realist film.  In fact, a faded poster for Visconti's film "Ossessione" (1943) is seen on a back wall during "Pagliacci".  Andrew Sinclair realistic direction is highly detailed, assigning individualized actions to the over 40-member chorus in each work to create the atmosphere of everyday village life. 

Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill, billed as the star in both works, does have a very powerful voice but waits until the famous "Vesti la giubba" in "Pag", the second opera, to unleash its full force.  His stolid, more generalized acting style sets him apart from the rest of the company and he does little to distinguish the callous philandering Turiddu of "Cav" from the insanely jealous Canio of "Pag".

The singer who garners the most audience enthusiasm is American Andrew Schroeder, the only other principal to appear in both works.  In "Cav" he is a haughty, handsome Alfio.  In "Pag" he completely transforms himself into the leering hunchbacked harlequin Tonio.  So different are his characterizations, only his bold, ringing baritone tells you it is the same singer.                  

In "Cav" Nicole Youl sings beautifully and affectingly as Santuzza.  She plays a woman who already seems to know that the fickle Turiddu who ruined her will not take her back.  Irene Waugh makes Mamma Lucia into a figure of strength first in defending Turiddu, later in accepting Santuzza.  Perthite Fiona Campbell has the moves down as Alfio's seductive wife Lola, but she will have to tame a vibrato that tends to push upper notes sharp. 

In "Pag" Elisa Wilson proves to be superb at communicating the subtext of Nedda's actions as she struggles to maintain a façade despite increasing worry that Canio will discover her secret.  She sings with great expressiveness only showing some insecurity at the top.  Tim DuFore's strong, attractive voice brings out the full sensuality of Silvio's duet with Nedda.  And Aldo Di Toro, also a fine singer, makes more of the role of Beppe than is usual showing him as a counterweight to the other, a rational man uninfected by passion.   

Vladimir Kamirski's crisp conducting tends to undercut the sentiment of the two scores.  While his pacing makes the action move swiftly, in "Cav" neither the famous Intermezzo nor the choral "Innegiamo" are as moving or powerful as they should be.  This is true of the evening in general.  Though the two works are so infused with violent emotion, the disengagement of the star tenor and the unemotional approach of the conductor prevent these one-act masterpieces from truly catching fire.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in the TheatreWorld (UK) 2003-08-28.

Photo: Nicole Youl as Santuzza and Dennis O’Neill as Turiddu.  ©2009 Opera Australia.