On April 29, at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, the esteemed Center for Contemporary Opera, founded in 1982 by its General Director and conductor Richard Marshall, offered the professional premiere of composer Francis Thorne and poet and librettist J.D. “Sandy” McClatchy’s short, turbulent opera, after Thomas Mann’s 1929 novella, Mario and the Magician . The opera was given its world premiere by the Brooklyn College Opera Theater on March 12, 1994 and has received scant attention since, but, with Marshall presiding over singers and orchestra, it proved well worth reinvestigating.

Manipulation and repression by a powerful, Fascist government, mirrored by the relatively powerless individual; hopeless obsession and homosexual panic are the terse, violent opera’s timely concerns, which were illuminated by director Jason Jacobs, effectively guiding a strong cast. Thorne’s angular score pits McClatchy’s eloquent text’s romantic sentiments, the “passion” of “the Italian soul,” against the discordant counterpoint of a society in flux, robbed of its liberty.

In Torre di Venere, an Italian resort on the Adriatic Sea, where danger lurks just as it does in the setting of Mann’s better-known Death in Venice , two men, cherishing unattainable romantic ideals, wind up in a fatal encounter. Tenor Justin Vickers, as handsome waiter Mario, sang love songs in Italian, in vain, to sultry Silvestra (Leandra Ramm), who has captivated many another admirer, while illiterate, bullying black-shirts (led by imposing bass Eric Jordon), who think nothing of molesting a woman or drawing a pistol against a man, began brawls, saluted “Il Duce” Mussolini, and sang the Fascist anthem “Giovinezza.” Whip-wielding, hard-drinking, hunchbacked magician Cipolla (bass-baritone Richard Cassell, in a fascinating portrayal), depicted here as seedy cousin to Leoncavallo’s sad clown, Pagliaccio, paid ironic lip-service to the powers that be and demonstrated his skills by humiliating members of an adversarial audience. He caused brash Sandro (tenor Isai Jess Muñoz) to stick his tongue out farther than he thought possible and double over with stomach cramps; entranced other doubters (Larry Small, Jim Gaylord) into dancing to a jagged waltz; hypnotized the innkeeper, Signora Angiolieri, who adored Eleanora Duse (mezzo-soprano Jessica Grigg, vibrant in her rhapsody about her idol), into airing most intimate memories of? fantasies about? the legendary actress; and, finally, to sensuous, insinuating strains, enticed the alluring Mario, whom he could never hope to attract otherwise, into giving him a very public kiss. Taunted by his putative love, macho rivals and other foes, as well as by the self-destructive magician himself, Mario obliterated his “shame” by taking a gun from one of the black-shirts and killing the hapless Cipolla.

Robin Vest designed the stark, evocative settings of piazza, inn and stage, Daniel Urlie, the recent-past period costumes, and Charles Foster, the lighting.

Librettist J.D. McClatchy & composer Francis Thorne

Center for Contemporary Opera

at Kaye Playhouse, 68^th Street between Park & Lexington Avenues

April 29 & 30 Tickets $50, 40, 30 & students $20