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‘Cav/Pag,’ now Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, or Cav/Pag, as the double-billing is casually known, "is one of my first operas that I really got to know," enthuses director Michael Cavanagh. "I love it; it's just wonderful, so Italian, so capital-O Opera. It's great stuff, it's passionate, it's archetypal. You look up 'opera' in the dictionary and you see these two. I jumped at the chance to do it."
that’s Italian
Agony, ecstacy and
housing the operaBy Ruth O. Bingham
Special to the Star-BulletinAnd a rare chance it is: its opening tomorrow night marks its first performance at Hawaii Opera Theatre in almost 40 years.
Cav/Pag is a satisfying first experience in opera, Cavanagh says: "This is one of those operas, (for which) you needn't do any sort of homework: have a wonderful dinner, just sit in your seat and you'll smell the garlic from the first chords.
"It's opera as catharsis: they're up there wailing away about their deepest anguish or most ardent passion. How often do we throw our heads back and just let fly? And these people do it so beautifully, even in these desperate situations, that we can kind of get a vicarious cleansing out of it all."
Cavanagh has chosen "a traditional production, and yet we're trying to give it fresh and spontaneous staging. ... When you're dealing with traditional opera, you have an obligation to the originators, to the authors, to the composer and the librettist, not to twist things too far from their original intentions." (A librettist himself, Cavanagh might be expected to feel that way.)
The singers are equally passionate about their roles, whether singing them for the first or umpteenth time.
Mezzo-soprano Sharon Graham has performed the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria "all over the place, including on television live from Lincoln Center." The role defies description: "Musically, it just simply does not get any better," she said.
"What I had to do was find how far I could go, because this part is known as a voice-wrecker ... it just is so incredibly intense. And it's non-stop: when I first learned it, my coach at New York City Opera jokingly said, And now here comes the baritone, fresh from his dressing room ... here comes the tenor, fresh from his dressing room ..." and Santuzza is there all the time, with no chance to breathe or go get a drink of water.
Productions do differ, and singers sometimes end up defending a role, as Graham has on occasion. "I have been asked to have a miscarriage on stage. I refused to; I've been asked to be visibly pregnant, which I disagree with very strongly. ... Some of the things that you are asked to do, you just want to say, 'Have you ever looked at the score?'
"But this is a very traditional production. (Cavanagh and I have) talked about some things, such as the intermezzo, which I feel very strongly about, as a real cathartic point for Santuzza. She realizes that no matter what happens, she has got to go on and find a way to live, because she's a mother, which I can definitely relate to."
This production will be bass/baritone Mark S. Doss first time playing Alfio in Cavalleria and Tonio in Pagliacci, and also require a stretch.
"They're not extremely long, but they're baritone roles, for the most part, which is not necessarily the repertoire that I've been singing the most. They have quite an extended range.
"Alfio has a nice tessitura, which is kind of high and sort of stays there. That was the initial challenge: sustain the high range and then still have a voice at the end of the opera. And in Tonio, to go into such drama and then not to lose the voice. I think that's going to be a constant goal."
An imposing man, Doss, wearing a black shirt with flaming red-gold dragons, stood calmly juggling before introducing himself.
The juggling, he says, is "a good way to settle down nerves, and also a good way to memorize music sometimes: you get a part of your body going and the rhythm just sort of goes that way, so I found that's a good tool.
"If you're steady enough, you don't bobble things, and that's sort of the way tempos move. It's a good visual and an inner clock sort of thing, a metronome of sorts."
ON STAGE
What: "Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci"
Join opera and see the world! Or so it seems: opera is rarely, if ever, a local affair. Opera productions cast wide nets, gathering musicians from around the world, and working in opera often involves extensive traveling. Agony, ecstacy and
housing the operaBy Ruth O. Bingham
Special to the Star-BulletinFor Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Hawaii Opera Theatre has gathered a conductor from Vienna, a director from Canada, a mezzo-soprano from California, a bass/baritone from Chicago, a tenor from France ... a world of individuals who bring opera alive.
Canadian director Michael Cavanagh has "always been a traveling guy."
"My company is the Edmonton Opera in Alberta. I live in Toronto and I work in Alberta, which is kind of interesting ... it's about 4-1/2 hours by air.
"My life is divided in thirds that are scattered shotgun-style all over the calendar ... it's quite something. My travel agent loves me."
Life is no more settled for the singers. Bass/baritone Mark S. Doss (Alfio in Cavalleria and Tonio in Pagliacci), says, "I've been a few places ... New Zealand, Australia, Europe, mostly in Belgium, some in Italy, England, Ireland ... Toronto, New York City, San Francisco opera, San Diego, Seattle, New Orleans, Houston ..."
Family anchors Doss: "Chicago became my home, I guess, when I was in the Lyric Opera Center there. Had a son in the area. Met his mother at Lyric Opera, so that's where I'm based."
But family time is short. Juggling work and family is almost universal in opera, but tone and emphasis change when the speaker is a woman. Mezzo-soprano Sharon Graham (Santuzza in Cavalleria) lives in Merced, a quiet, rural town in California, but travels frequently to sing.
"Sometimes, I'm gone for months and months and months. My daughter travels with me most of the time, although now that she's in Kindergarten, it's more problematic.
"It's an interesting life, but it's also a life of being alone. People see the good parts, but they don't see the time when you're separated from your child and you've missed your child's first birthday, or you've missed your child's first tooth coming out, those kinds of things that are so important and that never come again.
"I call it my agony and ecstasy" life because the highs are extremely high, but the sacrifices. ... The lows are also very low. My male colleagues, they have their wives ... who bring the children, but when you're the mother, you are always the mother, no matter what.
"My daughter is my daughter, my biggest and most important production. She will be there when the applause is gone and I go home by myself."
It is the job of John Parkinson, HOT's artistic administrator, to "handle all the logistics of getting the artists from wherever they are to Honolulu for their rehearsal period, through their performances, and then make sure they have a ticket out of here.
That encompasses a lot of different details, but primarily it involves using the available resources so everyone who comes here has a pleasant, affordable stay.
Occasionally, those details become complicated. "The conductor who was originally slated for this double-bill opera had a back injury, so Andreas Mitisek, who was here conducting Marriage of Figaro stayed on, but in order for him to stay on, we needed to extend his work visa, because he's from Vienna.
"Sharon Graham is also a very last-minute replacement. I'm continually amazed by how much people are willing to step up to the plate, from all different sectors' to help out in solving those complications."
Parkinson relies on HOT general director Henry Akina and associate artistic director Beebe Freitas to find replacements: "Between the two of them, they know thousands of singers. I think they could give you the top five candidates for pretty much any role in any opera that you'd care to come across."
Convincing singers to travel to Hawaii is not difficult, as Parkinson points out, "being in Hawaii in winter being a very strong pull. ... Our host housing has a lot to do with that. Quite frankly, we wouldn't be in business if we had to provide hotels for all the artists. Margaret Armstrong, who runs (the host housing) committee, does a fabulous job."
She recruits "friends, family, the board of directors," anybody who has a spare room and the willingness to host a performer for 30 days or so," he said. "We're always in need of more housing because there are always conflicts."
In other words, you can join opera even if you can't sing, by having the opera world come to you: Parkinson encourages anyone interested in hosting opera's world travelers to call him at 596-7372.
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