While the overwhelming bulk of the operatic repertoire is devoted to tragic heroes, heroines, and villains, Knoxville Opera took a comic detour Friday evening in its season-opener, leaving no comedy stone unturned in its performance of a delightfully twisted and imaginatively connected duo of comedy one-acts—Mozart’s singspiel The Impresario and Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. The Cleverness Award for the evening went to KO general director Brian Salesky for this light-hearted connection, a creative re-write of The Impresario libretto and lyrics in a vaudeville vein, but leaving Mozart’s music mostly intact. And, instead of an opera impresario in Salzburg, Salesky has his impresario become a similar figure for Knoxville Opera, struggling to cast a production of, yes, Gianni Schicchi. Needless to say, a wealth of local inside jokes, self-deprecating humor, and vaudeville turns, abound in Salesky’s singspiel-like creation, something that the comic parody-loving Mozart would no doubt appreciate. And, Puccini would no doubt appreciate the superb comedy and music performances of his Gianni Schicchi that followed.
Baritone Sean Anderson, a familiar face for Knoxville audiences, was the “Knoxville Opera” impresario, challenged by the appearance of an Italian tenor and “new” artistic director, Cristoforo Cannelloni (tenor Kirk Dougherty). Cannelloni is the butt of sound-alike name calling by Anderson’s character, something that humorously seemed to recall a plot line in an Astaire-Rogers musical. Salesky has changed Mozart’s two dueling sopranos into two fictional UT students vying for the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi (sopranos Brittany Robinson and Brandie Sutton). Each turned in a gorgeous take on their respective holdover Mozart arias. In the spirit of vaudeville interpolation of music numbers, Salesky also worked in the tenor/baritone duet from The Barber of Seville, “All’idea di quel metallo” with Dougherty and Anderson, and the trio from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, “Soave sia il vento” with Anderson, Sutton, and Robinson.
With Sutton’s character eventually cast as Lauretta and Robinson’s character somehow placated, our stage cast prepares for their Gianni Schicchi as the audience goes off to intermission in eager anticipation of theirs.
The quintessential operatic ensemble piece, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, based on a barely mentioned incident in Dante’s Divine Comedy, received an energetically entertaining turn in this Knoxville Opera production. The work is a feast for singers who can bring life to a character while still working as a group. But thank Zeus for distinctive costuming—one must work fast to keep the characters of the relatives of old Buoso Donati straight. Director Brian Deedrick has kept the action brisk with a lot of stage movement that ebbs and flows between bunching and separation of the distinctive personalities. This is important if for no other reason than to help the audience sift through the action. The versatile Sean Anderson (the Impresario) appears as two of the minor characters in Schicchi, the doctor and the notary; Brittany Robinson sang Nella; Kirk Dougherty, making a notable debut with KO, sang the young romantic tenor role of Rinuccio who is in love with Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi’s daughter (Brandie Sutton). Lauretta, has the oh-so beautiful plea to her father, “O mio babbino caro,” an aria that Sutton gave beautiful poignance.
Familiar faces were Andrew Wentzel as the bumbling Simone, Elizabeth Peterson as a wild-haired Zita, Perry Ward as Marco, and Daniel T. Berry as the elderly Betto, The fabulous Scott Bearden in the title role, gave his Gianni Schicchi an intriguing physical comedy mix of befuddlement and scheming, backed up with a richly distinctive vocal performance.
New to Knoxville Opera were Wayd Odle as Gherardo and Sarah-Clementine Mire as Ciesca. Derek Stull and Brad Summers appeared as the drunken witnesses, Pinellino and Guccio, respectively. Joseph Nieman sang the young boy, Gherardino. And, kudos go to Gregory Bonneville for playing the deceased Buoso Donati, who is punched, pummeled, and shoved in a box for the better part of an hour.
Salesky, conducting the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, kept the tempos brisk and everything moving.
There is one more performance of this comedy double bill on Sunday afternoon at the Tennessee Theatre—2:30 PM. Information
