At Regina Opera, audience participation
is a regular part of the performance.
"Little Italy in Manhattan is nothing," says conductor
Jose Alejandro Guzman with a laugh. "At Regina Opera, it’s
’Big Italy.’ During the famous arias, there’s no such thing as
a solo for a singer because the audience will always join in,
singing along. I just tell our singers not to worry about it,
and to go on with the show."
Those budding opera stars in Regina’s audience will surely be
in evidence at its next production, "I Pagliacci (The Clowns)"
by Ruggero Leoncavallo, being performed March 6 and 7, and March
13 and 14, at Regina Hall in Dyker Heights.
One of the most beloved Italian operas, the masterful mixture
of sex, violence and unforgettable tunes of "Pagliacci"
ushered in a new form of opera in the late 19th century, called
’verismo,’ a realistic type of storytelling heretofore unseen
onstage. (It was such a resounding success that it eclipsed all
of Leoncavallo’s work; only this opera is still heard from among
the many he composed.)
To some ears, however, "Pagliacci" is too overly melodramatic,
too much a victim of its own surface brilliance. Guzman initially
counted himself among the naysayers.
"At first, I’d thought that ’Pagliacci’ was over the top,"
he admits. "But having conducted it several times, I can
really call it a masterpiece: the drama, the music, the characterizations,
everything … it’s completely masterful in its construction.
"The orchestral intermezzo between the two acts is one of
the most beautiful in all of opera," he says. "It’s
perfectly constructed – there’s not a wasted note. Throughout
this opera, the orchestra really underpins and sets the mood
for the story, which is based on an actual incident in real life.
I’ve come to really appreciate the work so much more, and I totally
understand its popularity with audiences for over a century."
This production is in the capable hands of director Linda Lehr,
a familiar name to Regina Opera regulars.
"She’s a brilliant director who has worked with us for several
years now, but her initial stage experience was with theatre,
and she brings that experience to this opera," Guzman explains.
"There are two fight scenes in the opera: in the first act
and the big death scene at the end. Linda got an outside professional
fight choreographer to make it safe for the performers and to
enhance her basic ideas so it all looks even more real. In conjunction
with the music, they are brilliant scenes."
What is it about "Pagliacci" – whose simple story concerns
the jealous leader of a traveling circus troupe, his beautiful
wife and her lover, and the tragic end they all meet – that has
hit a chord with audiences for 100 years?
Guzman ventures an answer: "Basically, the story is very
real, very compelling. It’s based on something that people can
understand and sympathize with. It’s staged in a realistic, human
way, but with moments of comedy. And when it comes down to it,
we’ve got the voices to do justice to this music.
"I can point out things to you in the opera and say, ’It’s
overdone,’ ’It’s ridiculous,’ but once our singers open their
mouths and sing this stuff, it all goes away!" he says.
"We are very fortunate to have a combination of fine singers
and a director with a theater background who appreciates that,
although there’s a difference between staging operas and plays,
there’s also a similarity. You willfully suspend belief in the
theater, which you always need to do with opera as well."
Usually, "Pagliacci" shares a double bill with another
short work, "Cavalleria Rusticana" by Pietro Mascagni,
but Regina Opera is not following this tradition.
"We used to do it," Guzman says, "but the problem
with the second opera in our season is it has the shortest amount
of rehearsal time, not nearly as much as the first and last operas
receive. So what we like to do in between is a shorter opera,
and this opera by itself fills the bill."
"Pagliacci," Guzman believes, is the perfect introduction
to the world of opera, a work that always wins new converts.
"First, there’s a lot of great, gratuitous sex and violence,
which is always an advantage," he says. "It’s not a
long opera. Its story is believable and comprehensible. And it
has those familiar tunes – the type of thing that the listener
would say, ’Oh, I’ve heard that before.’
"It’s perfect in that respect – it’s tuneful, it’s dramatic,
it’s even comic in places, and it’s riveting theater. It really
is one of those operas where you can bring somebody for the first
time and they will thoroughly enjoy it."
Regina Opera presents "I Pagliacci"
on March 6, 7, 13 and 14 at 4 pm, at Regina Hall, on the corner
of 12th Avenue and 65th Street in Dyker Heights. Tickets are
$15; $10 students, seniors and children. For more information,
call (718) 232-3555 or visit www.reginaopera.org
on the Web.