It has been three years since Knoxville Opera last took its fans on a little adventure, staging Puccini’s Tosca in three non-theatrical locations in downtown Knoxville including the neo-gothic nave of Church Street United Methodist and two locations in World’s Fair Park. Despite a rainstorm in Act III and the logistics of getting from place to place while keeping everyone fed and watered, that production of Tosca delighted audiences with the experience. In my review in the Knoxville Mercury, I offered:
“The slightly dampened audience, yanked from their theater seats, deprived of translated supertitles, and forced to absorb the opera from an alternative perspective, apparently adored this Tosca. Reasons for their enthusiasm aren’t difficult to identify: a cast as vocally and dramatically exciting as any yet heard by Knoxville Opera audiences, and a performance by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra that resonated with solid artistry and consummate professionalism, despite the unusual conditions.” (Knoxville Mercury, April 2016)
Understanding the benefits of intriguing audiences with unique experiences, Knoxville Opera’s executive director Brian Salesky is again looking to a non-theatrical location for an interesting pairing: a sacred music concert in a cathedral followed by a production of Pietro Mascagni’s one-act Cavalleria rusticana appropriately on the cathedral’s front steps. The location is Knoxville’s recently opened—and architecturally inspiring—Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Northshore Drive.
Although Cavalleria rusticana is often paired in performance with another one-act, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Knoxville Opera’s musical sequence takes a different path, somewhat simulating the events, location, and timeframe of Cavallaria: the main square of a Sicilian village that fronts the steps of the local church on Easter morning.
For the “sacred” music segment in the nave of the cathedral, Salesky has drawn a program of operatic selections that have a religious context within their respective works. Among them are “La Vergine degli angeli” from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Otello, religious choruses by Rossini, and “Elevazione, Benedictus, and Gloria” from Mascagni’s Messa di Gloria.
After an intermission given over to the audience moving to a tented area fronting the front steps of the cathedral, the 75 minute Cavallaria rusticana will be performed with singers, Knoxville Opera Chorus, and orchestra.
There will be two complete performances of the concert/opera pairing: Saturday, May 4, 2019, at Noon, and Sunday, May 5, 2019, at 4:00 PM.
Tickets and Information
About Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana
Operatic realism found a place in late-19th Century Italy under the term verismo with a prime example of the same, Cavallaria rusticana. Adapted from Giovanni Verga’s short story and play by librettists Giovanni Targioni-Tozzeti and Guido Menasci, the opera was given its premiere in May 1890 at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi.
Verismo opera promises love, jealousy, and revenge, and Cavallaria delivers on that promise. There are but five roles: Turiddu (tenor), recently returned from military service; Santuzza (soprano), a peasant girl; Alfio (baritone), a carter; Lola (mezzo-soprano), loved by Turiddu, but now married to Alfio; and Lucia (contralto), Turridu’s mother.
Click here for a synopsis of Cavalleria rusticana.
About the Cast
Catherine Daniel (Santuzza) is returning to Knoxville Opera from two previous engagements: as Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and as a featured soloist in KO’s 40th Anniversary Gala Concert.
Daniel’s 2017 KO performance in Maria Stuarda marked the Canadian mezzo-soprano’s American opera company debut. In my review of that performance, I remarked:
“…With a distinctive, contrasting voice to [Rochelle] Bard’s, Daniel was simply stunning as Elizabeth. Her mezzo has an incredible range—a high-end that is incisive and clear, but with a powerful and rich low register that made possible her impressive portrayal of Elizabeth as an aging, jealous woman, lonely, yet conscious of her power and position.” (Arts Knoxville, April 2017)
This will be Daniel’s first Santuzza of her career, but it is unlikely to be her last, given her imminently flexible range.
“Santuzza was written for a soprano,” Daniel explains, “but a lot of mezzos who have an upper extension of range end up singing it.”
“It’s extremely well-written for the voice—you can just sail on high notes. What is going to be the challenge is—because it is so dramatic, so over the top—that you’re on high octane for a long period of time. Maintaining a dramatic and vocal arc throughout is a challenge. It’s a packed 75 minutes of singing. As I said, it is well-written for the voice, and enjoyable to sing, but it isn’t easy.”
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Tenor Richard Troxell (Turridu) is also returning to Knoxville Opera from previous productions, most recently Rodolfo in the February 2017 production of La Bohème. Troxell, who also appeared in the 1999 production of The Barber of Seville, has had a remarkably diverse career that has included everything from filmed opera (a 1996 production of Madame Butterfly) to the role of Borsa in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016 production of Rigoletto.
Troxell welcomes the challenges that come with Turiddu. “This is verismo opera, so it is intense and dramatic. It starts intense, it stays intense, and it ends intense. That’s the challenge. There’s just no warm-up to it.”
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Baritone Scott Bearden (Alfio) is a very familiar face and voice to the Knoxville Opera audience. Last fall, he sang the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and was previously heard as Amonasro in Aida, William Cecil in Maria Stuarda, Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, and Tonio in Pagliacci.
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Filling out the cast are two singers also familiar to Knoxville Opera audiences—mezzo-soprano Allison Deady as Lola and Elizabeth Peterson as Mamma Lucia.
Dean Anthony is the stage director. Brian Salesky conducts the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Don Townsend leads the Knoxville Opera Chorus; the cathedral’s choir is led by Glenn Kahler.
