Opera fans have something to celebrate, as Virginia Opera will open its 2016-17 season the weekend of Oct. 8-9, by presenting a landmark double-bill at GMU’s Center for the Arts, with the satirical ballet, “The Seven Deadly Sins” and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s masterpiece, “Pagliacci.”
“This is something completely different and something people have likely never seen before in a unique pairing,” said Maestro Adam Turner, Virginia Opera’s principal conductor and artistic advisor. “This double bill is certainly a rarity; I can’t think of another time that ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ has ever been paired with the old standard war horse of the operatic repertory.”
It’s probably one of the shortest nights that people will have in an opera house in recent memory. “The Seven Deadly Sins,” which is performed in English, is just 35 minutes long, while “Pagliacci,” is under 80 minutes. What’s interesting is that there’s about 40 years of compositional space between them, as “Pagliacci” was written in 1892 and “The Seven Deadly Sins” in 1933—very different periods in music.
“You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck and not a huge time commitment,” Turner said. “That’s one of the primary complaints I get from people who are unwilling to try opera out for the first time. With these pieces, we’re giving you a short evening full of high drama and great music.”
Kurt Weill’s compelling “The Seven Deadly Sins” is an unsettling tale of the descent of humanity into darkness. Setting out on a journey across America to aid her poverty-stricken family, Anna—manifested as two facets of one personality, one who sings and one who dances—finds herself on a seven-year, seven-city quest where she ultimately encounters each of the seven deadly sins and falls prey to their influence.
The role of Anna I will be sung by the internationally renowned Ute Gfrerer, while ballerina Gabrielle Zucker portrays Anna II, the emotional side of her personality.
“We play two aspects of one person. I say in my opening statement, ‘She is the one with the looks, I am the realistic one; she is mad and I am straight, but there is one divided being even though you see two of us,” Gfrerer said. “At the end of the show, we come back to the house and the family is still where it was, but we are now broken. We paid a high price for the journey and the dream.”
Director Keturah Stickann makes her debut. Gfrerer noted that even if you’re not an opera lover, you will probably enjoy the music.
“The music is fantastic. The more you listen to it the more you like it,” she said. “It’s very complex and you might not get all the complexities listening to it once, but the message is timeless.”
The second half of the program is a new production of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” a classic sad clown story, where he realizes he experiences sorrow like any other man, and his fast-paced journey of jealousy and murder becomes all-consuming. Acclaimed soprano Kelly Kaduce, renowned tenor Clay Hilley, and dynamic baritone Michael Chioldi star.
“Virginia Opera is committed to bringing to the stage vibrant new repertory and productions, and this company debut of a Kurt Weill opera with a standard repertory work is the perfect match for reaching a wider audience and building interest in our art form,” said Russell P. Allen, Virginia Opera’s president and CEO.
Turner said that despite their obvious differences, the two operas pair very well. And while “Piagliacci” you can see just about anywhere, as it’s up there in the Top 10 of the greatest hits of opera, “The Seven Deadly Sins” is rarely performed in a fully staged production.
“Musically, ‘Pagliacci’ is all about the raw emotion—the emotions are out on the plate from the get-go, and feelings are very intense and there’s a lot of tension that is palpable throughout the piece,” he said. “With Weill’s piece, it’s a little more cerebral. I think it actually is a really nice appetizer to the high drama you’re going to get in that second half.”