The Opera: It is the 1950's and Margaret Johnson has brought her adult daughter Clara to Italy, to re-visit some of the sites that Margaret and her husband visited after the War. They meet the Naccarelli family in Florence and young Fabrizio Naccarelli is enamored with Clara. Despite Margaret's best efforts to keep them apart, the two fall in love. But Margaret remains worried because her daughter is, as she says, a "special" child and the difference in languages is perhaps keeping the fact that she is developmentally disabled from being evident. This work is based on a 1960 Elizabeth Spencer novella and the 1962 film starring Olivia de Havilland. It premiered as a Broadway Musical in 2003. Because this is essentially a Broadway musical, albeit with music that is unusual for a Broadway show, many of the principal actors had Broadway experience. Note this production is amplified (at least in parts) which I think has never been done by OTSL before.
Composer and Lyricist: Adam Guettel (Note: He is the grandson of Richard Rogers and the son of Mary Rogers who wrote Once Upon a Mattress).
Book: Craig Lucas
Principal Cast:
Katrina Galka (Clara), a lyric coloratura soprano, shines in the role of Clara. Her voice is crystal clear (and she has perfect diction). Galka's Clara is innocent but frustrated with her mother and with herself and Galka is perfectly believable in the role. We have seen Galka before, but not recently and it was a joy to listen to her.
Kate Baldwin (Margaret) was making her OTSL debut. She is perhaps best known for starring opposite Bette Midler in Hello Dolly as Irene Malloy. She is not an opera singer but her voice was strong enough to carry the role and her portrayal of Margaret was very believable. Margaret loves her daughter unconditionally and wants what is best for her but is also very protective.
Roy Hage (Fabrizio) was making his OTSL main season debut. He makes a winsome Fabrizio although his voice was not as strong as Galka's and so they did not seem evenly matched to me. Perhaps this was because the OTSL orchestra (part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra) is bigger than a Broadway orchestra, although Hage seems to be a legitimate opera singer. Galka had no problem soaring above the orchestra but Hage was sometimes lost. But his portrayal of a young man struggling to express himself in English is very believable. (Note that his songs are in Italian and are not translated, although there are supertitles in Italian.)
Paolo Szot (Papa) was making his OTSL main season debut. He had a lovely baritone voice and although he is Brazilian, not Italian, he made a believable Italian. In 2008 he won a Tony Award for best actor in a musical for playing Emile De Becque in the revival of South Pacific. It seems that he is best known for being on Broadway (most recently playing Hades in Hadestown) but he has also sung at The Met and La Scala. He made Papa by turns funny, angry and a bit sexy.
Debby Lennonn (Mama) is a local favorite, appearing in both musicals and operas at Union Avenue Opera but this is her first appearance at OTSL. (Also she is a graduate of my High School!). She sang beautifully and brought comedy to the show especially when Mama turns to the audience and says "I don't speak English but I have to tell you what is happening!")
Director: Crystal Manich
Running Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes with one 25 minute intermission
One good thing: Although the singing was beautiful the real star of this production was the 1950's costume design by Ulises Alcala. The hats! The gloves! The shoes! The dresses! All out of a technicolor 1950's movie.
One not-so-great thing: The subject matter can be difficult as the audience wonders if it is the right thing to let Clara marry Fabrizio. I kept comparing it in my mind to the movie (although in my mind Deborah Kerr played Margaret when in reality it was Olivia de Havilland). In that screenplay the decision to allow the marriage seems reasonable because the Naccerellis are very wealthy so Clara would not have to manage anything and the alternative is eventually institutionalizing Clara. This was not made clear in this version and I think it would have helped the story if it had been included.
