Season

OPERA IN THE HEIGHTS 2011-12 SEASON

Opera in the Heights will perform four opera greats: Gaetano Donizetti’s comic Daughter of the Regiment, Wolfgang Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Donizetti’s story of doomed royalty, Anna Bolena, and Giuseppe Verdi’s audience favorite, Il Trovatore.

In Daughter of the Regiment, the infant orphan Marie is found by a regiment of French soldiers; they decide to raise her themselves. She grows up to be a spunky, self-assured young woman who adores her “father,” Sergeant Sulplice, and the army life – the only one she has ever known.

The only demand her “fathers” insist on is that when the time comes, she must marry a soldier. Of course, she falls in love with a civilian, Tonio. Later, facts filter in about Marie’s real parents, and her life is utterly changed.

Composed while Gaetano Donizetti was living in Paris, the opera is sung in French instead of Italian. This comedy is full of surprises, laughter, some very athletic bel canto singing, and the superlative melodies of the master of song, Donizetti.

The characters of Mozart’s Così fan tutte were originally created in a 15th century story about fiancée swapping. The old cynic Don Alfonso, tired of hearing his two young friends rhapsodize about the perfection of their fiancées, is determined to crush their naiveté. He proposes a wager to test the fidelity of their young sweethearts: he bets the young ladies will be unfaithful to their beloveds – under the right circumstances – within 24 hours. The young men readily agree to the wager, confident that the idea is preposterous.

The young women are attended by the willing and vivacious servant, Despina, who is much more a woman of the world than they are. Don Alfonso enlists her help to make the plan work, and she readily agrees. The farce begins.

This was Mozart’s third and last collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, after Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. This trio of near perfect marriages of music and words are all concerned with the battle of the sexes. In the first two the women come out in a better light, but in Così fan tutte, it is the reverse. Or possibly, Don Alfonso hoped to teach the men that they should be more realistic about human nature: that women are fallible – and so are we all!

The opera, Anna Bolena, is one of three that Donizetti wrote based on English Tudor history: Roberto Devereux (the assumed lover of Elizabeth I) and Maria Stuarda (about Mary, Queen of Scots) are the other two. The main characters of these operas are referred to as the “Three Donizetti Queens.”

The story of Anne Boleyn provides us with a real life tragedy that outdoes many a fictional plot. The opera opens with Anna as the unhappy, ignored wife of Henry VIII. She knows how important it is to give Henry a male heir as soon as possible; but in the three years they have been married, she has had only one daughter (the future Elizabeth I) and several miscarriages. Soon she learns the king has transferred his affection to one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour.

In 1830 Anna Bolena was Gaetano Donizetti’s first opera to be a major hit, even though he had already written some 30-odd other operas. It succeeded with its beautifully melodious bel canto tunes, its many lovely duets, and the extraordinary sextet at the end of Act I.

Il Trovatore is a perennial audience favorite. It has a convoluted plot, as do many operas, and familiar tunes that are often used in today’s advertising world.

The Count di Luna and Manrico, the troubadour, both love Leonora. She favors Manrico with his midnight serenades. The gypsy Azucena and the di Luna family seek revenge from each other over an incident in the past, which centers on a lost baby brother of the Count. Each of these elements affects the others as the past haunts the present.

The setting is medieval Spain where jousting, dueling, gypsy camps and burning heretics at the stake are all a part of everyday life.

Verdi was in his prolific prime when he composed his gem. The music is as good as anything he (or anyone else) ever wrote. The dramatic impact of this surprising story, wedded to Verdi’s incomparable score, gives us an indelible night at the opera.