MSU Operas of Consequence and Comedy - review

[Jane Zussman]

Thanks to reviewer Charlotte Orzel for the following:

Wednesday I had the opportunity to see MSU Opera Theatre and the MSU Symphony Orchestra perform two one-act operas, Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio and Puccini’s Suor Angelica. 

I was in my hump-day slump, I wasn't ready for the treat I was in for! I was truly transported and felt I had experienced another dimension, where you can "let out" your emotion and everyone in the audience would feel it together. If you caught Andrew Bocelli singing Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" at the Milan Winter Olympics, wait until you hear the incredible students at MSU perform these two operas bridging the romantic period. 

Opera's peak era, which the Kennedy Center describes "increasingly favored the imperfect over the perfect. The wild over the controlled. The heart over the head."; Suor (Sister) Angelica is about a suicidal nun, and La Cambiale di Matrimonio (The Marriage Contract) is about an eccentric father who sells his daughter to a Canadian. 

Fun fact, it takes around ten years of training to become an opera singer. Not just voice lessons, but counterpoint and music theory, history, literature and poetry, in at least four languages. The productions with the MSU Opera Theatre are double-cast, so each principal vocalist is has a leading role, and the audience can see each of the singers on multiple nights. MSU Opera alumni perform in opera houses all over the world, which makes being able to see these performances in our hometown such a unique opportunity. 

According to MSU Opera director Melanie Helton, the former head of MSU press, Gabriel Dotto, was Giacomo Puccini's publishing editor at the time Suor Angelica was produced in 1918, and was able to maintain the original score and manuscript, later cut for brevity. This production uses the original score, as Puccini had originally written it, for the first time. Quite a discovery! The set design is exquisite, the symphony is sublime. 

If you have not yet been to the Fairchild Theatre on the MSU campus or have never seen an opera, this would be a perfect reason. It is an acoustically perfect concert hall where classical musicians perform, no microphones required. And there are English subtitles. We need opera now more than ever. Opera cures the current nihilism of the outside world and reminds us what life is about. It is about sharing our love for one another. For who has a head without a heart? 

Puccini and Rossini, Operas of Consequence and Comedy

CONDUCTOR: Katherine Kilburn
STAGE DIRECTOR: Melanie Helton
SET DESIGNER: Matty Peterson
LIGHT DESIGNER: Brent Wrobel

Friday, March 27, 7 pm

Saturday, March 28, 7 pm

Sunday, March 29, 3 pm

Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium

Tickets at:

https://music.msu.edu/performances-events/featured-series/opera-theatre/

Jane Zussman

G.L.U.T. List

(Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theatre)

cell 517-930-0932

JSZu...@gmail.com

http://www.greaterlansingtheatre.net 

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