Ambitious opera company to open season five with a Montemezzi rarity
Beginning Friday night, Opera Festival of Chicago returns for its fifth season at venues across the Chicago area.
Launched in 2021 in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the ambitious young festival seeks to present rarely heard Italian operatic gems alongside more familiar Italian masterworks in fully staged productions with impressive rosters of singers. Last year saw a double-bill of two contrasted 20th-century operas—Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium (sung in Italian) and the Chicago premiere of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero. Other Chicago premieres have included Verdi’s Il Corsaro, Rossini’s L’inganno felice, and Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella cattedrale.
The theme of this season is “Love Is a Triangle.” First up is Italo Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re Friday and Sunday, May 11, at the Athenaeum Center in Lakeview.
“Focusing exclusively on Italian repertoire allows us to create a festival that is both cohesive and distinctive,” says OFC’s artistic director Franco Pomponi. “In a cultural hub like Chicago, a festival that differentiates itself—whether through a focus on underrepresented works, innovative productions, or a deep celebration of Italian repertoire and culture—can build a distinctive identity and a devoted following.”
Pomponi, a baritone who has performed professionally around the world for 30 years, decided to start Opera Festival of Chicago as a way to create his own musical opportunities and sing roles he was passionate about. In 2017, he was introduced to conductor Emanuele Andrizzi, and the two immediately hit it off. “When we met at his office, it was like reconnecting with someone I had known for years,” Pomponi recalled.
Andrizzi was considering starting a company and had laid some of the groundwork. Soon after registering the company with the city and state, they were introduced to Sasha Gerritson, who would become OFC’s general director and stage director.
“The three of us found instant creative synergy,” Pomponi said. “With the generous support of colleagues, donors, and friends—especially amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic—we launched our first season in 2021. It was a labor of love, and one rooted in a shared devotion to the Italian operatic tradition.”
Although not specified in the festival’s name, Opera Festival of Chicago focuses exclusively on Italian opera—a repertoire close to music director Andrizzi’s heart. “As an Italian, I grew up immersed in the national operatic tradition,” he said. “Opera in Italy holds a place in our culture similar to that of musical theater, pop, or country music in the United States.” It saddened him, then, to see operatic offerings shrinking in the city of Chicago, and Italian opera sidelined in particular.
“The [Italian operas] that were being performed belonged to the same familiar rotation—a handful of canonical titles that only scratch the surface of the extraordinary breadth of Italian opera,” Andrizzi said. He felt it was a missed opportunity to neglect lesser-known works “in a city as vibrant and artistically curious as Chicago.”
“I was confident [Chicago audiences] would fall in love with these lesser-known works, which are just as captivating and emotionally powerful as the ‘big ten,’ especially when produced with care, compelling casts, and imaginative direction.”
The festival’s unique and clear mission sets it apart from other small opera companies in Chicago (while also filling a lack of operatic programming in the city during the late spring and summer months)
Programming Montemezzi’s neglected masterwork, L’amore dei tre rei. (The Love of Three Kings) shows the venturesome nature of OFC.
Composed in 1913, the opera was popular early in the 20th century but eventually fell out of the repertory. When asked why he thought this was, Andrizzi responded, “L’amore dei tre re was composed during a time when Puccini was the undisputed star of Italian opera, and few other composers had the same level of access to major opera houses. Many attempted to imitate Puccini without success, while others developed distinct styles that did not always resonate with mainstream audiences. Initially, Montemezzi’s opera faced similar challenges, but it gained traction thanks to powerful performances by major artists and became part of the repertoire until after World War II.”
Nonetheless, as the 20th century wore on, Montemezzi’s opera fell by the wayside. Its descent into obscurity was exacerbated by the complexity of the score and the vocal demands on the four main characters. “I suspect that, in the latter half of the 20th century, as star singers focused on the more recognizable and less vocally taxing repertory, this opera was simply deemed too complex and risky—despite its immense artistic value,” Andrizzi continued.
When Andrizzi was first introduced to L’amore dei tre re as a doctoral student at Northwestern University, he was “immediately struck by its lush orchestration, the depth of its musical language, and the stylistic fusion that hinted at Wagner, Strauss, and Debussy [while remaining] rooted in the Italian tradition, extending the legacy of bel canto into a new, modern realm.”
The opera tells the story of a love triangle that ends in tragedy at the hands of the blind King Archibaldo, who unwittingly kills his own son, Manfredo, in an act of revenge against Manfredo’s wife, Fiora, and her lover, Avito. Bass Andrea Silvestrelli (who starred as Thomas Becket in Assassinio nella cattedrale) returns in the role of Archibaldo alongside soprano Maria Kanyova as Fiora, Pomponi as Manfredo, and tenor Andrew Morestein as Avito.
Representing more familiar fare, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci will run June 27 and June 29 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. This pillar of Italian verismo stars soprano Michelle Allie Drever as Nedda, tenor Jonathan Burton as Canio, Pomponi as Tonio, tenor Jerek Fernandez as Peppe, and baritone Jonathan Wilson as Silvio. Two vocal recitals round out the season June 5 and 14.
Leoncavallo’s much better-known Pagliacci, while written 20 years after L’amore dei tre rei, also draws musical inspiration from musical trends outside of Italy, looking to Wagner in particular. Both operas use leitmotifs and through-composition (as opposed to “closed numbers” such as standalone arias and ensembles), allowing for more continuous, psychologically driven drama.
“At the same time, they remained mindful of Italian tastes,” Andrizzi explains. “While neither opera is structured around set pieces, they still contain striking arias that serve as emotional climaxes—‘Vesti la giubba’ in Pagliacci, and ‘Italia! Italia!’ in L’amore dei tre re, for example. These moments provide a nod to tradition even as the overall flow of the music challenges and transcends it.”
The two operas also share thematic similarities, exploring intense emotional conflicts driven by love and betrayal. “The love triangle is central in each, and both works treat it with raw emotional realism—though in very different musical languages,” notes Andrizzi. “Leoncavallo’s verismo style is direct and visceral, while Montemezzi builds atmosphere through intricate orchestration and vocal writing that stretches the expressive range of his characters.”
Pomponi will sing roles in both mainstage productions, appearing as Manfredo in L’amore dei tre re and Tonio in Pagliacci. The roles differ substantially in their dramatic and vocal demands. Whereas Manfredo is a noble, altruistic warrior, Tonio spends most of the opera as a hunchbacked clown, “a broken, bitter man whose grotesque physicality and raw jealousy drive the tragedy forward,” Pomponi explains.
Vocally, Manfredo is set in a higher tessitura and requires expansive phrasing, whereas Tonio “sits lower and demands a wide palette of colors: at times lyrical, but often coarse, menacing, even darkly comical,” Pomponi says.
“Playing these two roles offers the opportunity to explore completely different psychological landscapes and vocal challenges—from the soaring earnestness of a tragic romantic hero to the snarling bitterness of a wounded outsider. Each is demanding in its own right, but in very different ways.”
Pomponi hopes the festival will continue to grow and eventually become a destination festival that attracts audiences from across the country. He believes the organization’s clear focus and willingness to take strategic risks will help them get there: “At its core, a bold, focused artistic vision gives Opera Festival of Chicago the foundation it needs to thrive for years to come.”
Opera Festival of Chicago’s production of Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre takes place 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Athenaeum Center. operafestivalchicago.org
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