Opera Festival of Chicago caps fifth season with an impressive “Pagliacci”
Opera Festival of Chicago capped its fifth season with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s verismo masterpiece, Pagliacci, Friday night at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. Having opened the festival with Italo Montemezzi’s rarely heard L’amore dei tre re in May, Pagliacci represented much more familiar fare (albeit not in its typical pairing with Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana).
Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is supposedly based on a true story of a love triangle turned deadly, which Tonio relays to the audience in the Prologue. During the opening bars, Tonio, sung by baritone Franco Pomponi, made his way through the audience from the back of the hall before reaching the stage for the Prologue. Enmeshing Tonio in the audience made clear the play-within-a-play framing of the opera and emphasized how, as Tonio says, the actors have the same joys and sorrows as we all do.
Pomponi (also OFC artistic director) sang with a powerful voice full of pathos, which suited the duality of Tonio’s character as both the noble master of ceremonies over the sad drama and the limping brute within that drama. His high notes at the end of the Prologue were arresting, and his acting throughout was entirely committed.
The cast was top-notch across the board, but tenor Jonathan Burton was a revelation as Canio. Looking at his upcoming performance schedule, it seems Canio is a calling card for Burton, and it’s no wonder. He was smart in his pacing of the role, keeping a lid on things throughout most of Act 1. Then, in “Vesti la giubba,” he revealed an explosive top and rode the raw emotion to the brink without ever sounding strained. This was an ideal rendition of the famous aria.
Soprano Michelle Allie Drever was a dramatically agile Nedda, shining particularly in the second act as the commedia dell’arte character Columbina. However, her voice did not always carry sufficiently in her middle register, and the orchestra overpowered her at the beginning of “Stridono lassù.” This was partially a balance issue but also due to an over-darkening of the voice, which compromised the clarity of the text at times. That said, her upper register sparkled, and the floated high notes in her duet with Silvio were especially moving.
Baritone Jonathan Wilson made for an endearing Silvio, with a solid, even voice and good physical chemistry with Drever. Rounding out the cast was tenor Jerek Fernández as Beppe, whose nimble physicality in Act 2 was charming.
For such a relatively short opera, the chorus is on stage for a good portion of it. The OFC chorus sang with impressive vocal power and clarity, although the sopranos and altos sometimes overpowered the tenors and basses—no surprise given that there were nearly twice as many trebles as low voices. Complementing the adults was a small children’s chorus drawn from the Youth Choir at Park Ridge Community Church. They were consummate professionals and added a delightful dimension to the opera both visually and vocally.
Stage director Sasha Gerritson did an admirable job, particularly in managing the large crowd scenes, keeping the tableau visually engaging while not detracting from the main characters. The subtle shift from play-acting to reality during the play-within-the-play in Act 2 was well acted by the soloists, though the final moments where Canio stabs Nedda and Silvio didn’t quite hit the mark timing-wise or dramatically, eliciting some awkward tittering from the audience. However, the darkened freeze frame with the chorus in shock at what just transpired as Tonio sang the final line—“La commedia è finita!”—proved effective.
The visual elements of the production, with costumes by Bill Morey, scenic design by Shane Cinal, and lighting design by Mike Goebel, all worked together well in this relatively traditional staging, although transposed to the 1930s from the opera’s original setting, c. 1870. Perhaps the most impressive element to grace the stage was Nedda’s gravity-defying baroque wig as Columbina, designed by Melanie Saso.
Conductor Emanuele Andrizzi led the orchestra with finesse and power. Aside from covering Nedda on a couple of occasions, the orchestra largely balanced with the soloists and followed them perfectly throughout under Andrizzi’s baton. The Intermezzo in particular showcased the strings’ gleaming sound, while the Prologue introduzione featured a sonorous horn rendition of the “Ridi, Pagliaccio” theme.
Pagliacci will be repeated 2 p.m. Sunday. operafestivalchicago.org
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