by Kevin T McEneaney
Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Graduate Vocal Arts Program produced its annual Spring concert under the baton of James Bagwell. The program centered upon opera buffa (farce).
Amelia Goes to the Ball by Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) was his first opus of twenty-five. While this operetta set in Milan was written in Italian, most of his operas were subsequently composed in English. He wrote his own libretti for all of his works. You may have heard of Amhal and the Night Visitors (1951) and The Saint of Bleeker Street (1955).
Menotti’s light-hearted humor surrounds the two lead singers with benevolent aplomb. Soprano Gimena Sanchez Rivera as Amelia filled the house with her magnificent voice! She graduates this year and appears to have a solid roadmap ahead. Baritone Tim Widner accompanied her with marvelous tone and dignified angst; he has one more year before graduation, so we are quite likely to hear him again at Bard. Tenor Benjamin Truncale, as the younger lover, supplied both humor and voice. The ensemble chorus provided amusing support.
Director Doug Fitch delivered comic-character etching. Costume design by Maureen M. Schell provided a pleasing rainbow of colors that conveyed delightful animation. Stage Manager Hsiao-Fang Lin produced amiable pace with a substantial droll effect.
This production was both local treat and professional declaration. The audience responded with vivid acclamation. The second half of the program offered the more well-known Gianni Schicchi (1918), a late work by Giacomo Puccini. The plot is lifted from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, which began circulating secretly ten years after the Pope’s official declaration of the doctrine of hell. In Dante’s fiction, the concept of an afterlife in hell offers a playground of ambivalence, displaying great moral intensity, as real-life anecdotes ridicule fundamentalism with paradoxical humor.
The 1299 plot is centered in Florence around the death of a peasant who has risen to the middle class. Once his will (leaving all possessions to a friary) is discovered, the family plots to thwart the will that disowns all relatives. Facing destitution, they conspire to create a new will with a notary who hears dictation from a cunning, rogue lawyer, who handsomely rewards himself.
Mezzo-Soprano Sidney Cornett (a 2026 graduate) as Gianna Schicchi delivered the opportunistic result with convincing tonal nuance while impersonating the dead man, leaving the mansion and the best mule in Tuscany to himself, although allotting various farms to family members.
The short solo by the young daughter who loves a local man was a highlight of the evening: the audience erupted with long, enthusiastic applause for Gyuri Kim, who sang an ardent love song, determined to love a near-indigent peasant. Kim shaded her love with such impressive emotion that all present will still cherish that memory. (Leonor Vasconcelos will sing the role of the young daughter for the Sunday production.)
The chorus sang with probing, elevated emotion and remarkably tight harmony.
Musicians from The Orchestra Now performed with inflected, unified charm.
Both witty operettas celebrate skillful women in a male-dominated society. The amusing event offers a lingering memory to cherish!
