Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

Though this was a revival, I hadn’t seen it before, so it was a new experience. And what an experience it was! Though I didn’t agree with everything, it was certainly not dull.

The huge structure revolved to reveal different indoor and outdoor scenes. This was used very cleverly. Cavalleria Rusticana opened at the final scene with Mamma Lucia weeping over the body of her son, Turridu, while Turridu sang his serenade to Lola off stage. The stage revolved and the action proceeded.

Verismo opera is “True to Life”. It was a genre which evolved at the end of the nineteenth century and concentrated on real drama and real people as opposed to the historical and mythological operas which had been the usual fare up till that time. These two operas epitomise this genre.

So the appearance of a pantomime Madonna, instead of a statue, in the Easter procession, pointing an accusing finger at Santuzza, I thought inappropriate. In Pagliacci it didn’t ring true to have Canio physically man-handle his wife in front of the company. He might have done that in private. And there is no way Turridu would have physically flirted with Lola in public, as happened in this production.

But there was a lot to admire. Having the characters from the Pagliacci play appear to haunt Canio in his change room was a novel move. Another interesting idea was to show Silvio giving a scarf to Nedda in Cavalleria Rusticana, and later Mamma Lucia and Santuzza reconciling during an intermezzo in Pagliacci.

But ultimately this duo relies on good singing, and that they certainly got. Recently naturalised Mexican tenor, Diego Torre, used his ringing tenor to great effect as Turridu and Canio with two passionate performances. José Carbó has a rich high baritone with power to spare, and sounded as if he was coming into the middle of his range on the alternative top Ab in the Prologue.

Serbian soprano Dragana Radokovic was a passionate Santuzza, Sian Pendry a sexy Lola and Dominica Matthews a strong Mamma Lucia. Russian soprano, Anna Princeva, sang beautifully as Nedda and worked well with Samuel Dundas as Silvio, who also sang well. It was a bonus to have John Longmuir singing beautifully as Beppe, a role usually allocated to a character tenor.

There were a few fluffs from the orchestra and some lack of coordination during the Easter Hymn, but generally Orchestra Victoria provided strong support to the singers, only occasionally overwhelming them. The chorus was strong.

There was a lot to like here.

Graham Ford

Images: Sian Pendry as Lola, Diego Torre as Turridu, Samuel Dundas as Silvio and the Opera Australia Chorus in Cavalleria Rusticanaand Anna Princeva as Nedda, Samuel Dundas as Silvio and Diego Torre as Canio in Pagliacci. Photographer: Keith Saunders