Sneaked over to the opposition last night to see two Puccini operas done by Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival at the new opera house in Manassas. See below to hear the most famous aria from the second opera, Gianni Schicchi.

Of the two, I liked the first one the best: Il Tabarro (the cloak), a love story tragedy with a grisly ending. The set was most of the front part of a cargo ship, moored at a dock on the Seine. It was very well done, and I enjoyed all aspects of it. None of the music was familiar to me, but I could see the supertitles screen and I had read the synopsis, so I was able to follow the story well. Here’s a clip from Il Tabarro on the Castleton Festival website.

Intermission must have been a good half hour, so it had to be around 10pm before the second one started, and I’d been up since 4am. This was in the new Hylton Performing Arts Center at the Manassas campus of George Mason University, only 45 minutes’ drive from home. My first thought was that I’d got the worst seat in the house, but it was good in parts. I did have to hang onto the rail most of the way through the first opera for fear of falling four storeys into the orchestra pit. On the other hand, disregarding the altitude, nobody was closer to the action except the conductor (LM himself). I could see his score, although as my new glasses have not yet arrived, I couldn’t recognize the printing as music. My seat was a real chair, very comfortable, not bolted to the floor, and quite private, being hidden from the rest of the audience by a pillar. I guess that’s why it was box seating.

But that comfort began to be a bit of a problem about a half hour into Gianni Schicchi and I caught myself dozing off more than once. There are a lot more characters in this one, and I wasn’t able to keep them straight nor keep up with the supertitles. This is a farce about greed, performed in I suppose fifties dress, and I found it too silly. I did not sleep through that famous aria though. You can hear Kiri te Kanawa sing that on YouTube: O mio babbino caro

Before dress rehearsal at Kennedy Center Tuesday 3 May 2011, photo by Barb B:
With Barb we saw Gluck’s opera story of Iphigenia in Tauris, Washington National Opera, the wonderful soprano Patricia Racette in the title role and a baritone Placido Domingo as her brother Orestes. Here’s a link to a nice Washington Times review. Elspeth found this Washington Post review. But as is often the case, the best review is by Charles Downey on his IonArts blog.

A week later I attended the WNO dress rehearsal at the Kennedy Center of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Here’s a link to the Charles Downey review. Pasquale was James Morris, bass, and soprano Norena was Ekaterina Siurina. I very much enjoyed all five of this year’s WNO performances, and maybe this one the most.