Virginia Opera Presents Cavalleria Rusticana

For the final performances of its 2006-2007 season in March and April, Virginia Opera brings audiences to Old World Sicily with the double-bill production commonly known as "Cav / Pag," featuring two of Italian opera's most beloved one-act tragedies - Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci.

Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, the title of which translates to "rustic chivalry," reveals with heart-rending music the tragic events that occur after the soldier Turiddu returns home from a military tour, only to discover that his fiancée has married another. Familiar to many is Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, in which betrayal leads to bloody revenge as Canio, playing the role of the clown Pagliacci in a story-within-a-story, is faced with the task of bringing his audience to laughter, even though the fresh discovery of his wife's callous infidelity tears at his soul.

Gustavo López Manzitti, leading tenor at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, makes his Virginia Opera debut in the leading roles of Turiddu in Cavalleria and Canio in Pagliacci. Another world-class talent making her company debut is mezzo-soprano Jane Dutton, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera who will sing the leading role of Santuzza in Cavalleria.

Returning for Pagliacci is nationally-acclaimed former Virginia Opera young artist Cristina Nassif (Carmen, 2006; La Traviata, 2005) in the soprano role of Nedda. Also making returns are French-Canadian mezzo-soprano Geneviève Després (The Marriage of Figaro, 2006; La Traviata, 2005) as Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria and handsome baritone Michael Todd Simpson (The Marriage of Figaro, 2006) as Silvio in Pagliacci. Mr. Simpson is also scheduled to appear next season in the title role of Virginia Opera's first Russian opera, Eugene Onegin.

Returning British stage director Lorna Haywood (The Marriage of Figaro, 2006) will unite the two stories by having them take place in the same village, just one year apart, with a large chorus helping to paint the vivid background of Sicilian life in the 1940s.

"The pairing of these operas is apt," says Ms. Haywood. "The action of both takes place in Southern Italy on important Feast Days: Cavalleria Rusticana occurs on Easter Sunday, while I Pagliacci is set in August, on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Infidelity, passion and murder are common to both plots.
"I decided to set both operas in the same small Sicilian village during the 1940s - an uncertain and dangerous time during Mussolini's tenure as dictator of Italy. By then the country's economy was destroyed, the people impoverished, downtrodden and war-weary. They tried desperately to cling to the old ways; their ancient codes of honor and their religious traditions in which the Feast Days were an important and stabilizing influence in their lives."

Virginia Opera Artistic Director Peter Mark, who will conduct all performances, says, "Opera's most famous twins - 'Cav' and 'Pag' - are not only thrilling dramas based on the raw passions of ordinary people, but soaring and searing musical icons of realistic human situations and struggles, immediately recognizable to anyone who hears and sees them for the first time. Having been annually on the operatic 'Hit Parade' for over 100 years since their creation, we are proud to present them together again here in Virginia." The double-bill was staged just once before at Virginia Opera, in 1988.

The production opens at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk on March 9, with additional performances March 11, 14, 16 and 18. Performances continue at the Landmark Theater in Richmond, Va. on March 23 and 25, followed by final performances March 30 and April 1 at George Mason University's Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Va.

Both operas will be sung in Italian with Digitext SuperTitles projected above the stage. -- www.vaopera.org