| . | 12/10/2002
Edgar: A Puccini Rarity
By: Bruce-Michael Gelbert
In December, the Dicapo Opera Theatre offered the local premiere performances of Giacomo Puccini's little-known second opera, "Edgar." General Director Michael Capasso and Artistic Director Diane Martindale's small company deserves credit for airing this 1889 rarity and lavishing its limited resources on as persuasive a production as possible, double-cast with estimable young singers. A failure when new-but so, after all, were "Madama Butterfly" and many other now popular operas-"Edgar" does not, for all that, prove a neglected masterpiece, just awaiting rediscovery and appreciation.
An uneven work, still unlikely to enter the regular repertory despite some impressive moments, "Edgar" is set in Flanders in the 1300s. Like Wagner's Tannhäuser, Bizet's Don José, and a number of other traditional tenor heroes, Edgar vacillates between the love of a classic Madonna figure (like Elisabeth and Micaëla) and that of a Magdalene (like Venus and Carmen) and is plagued with guilt when he leans toward the latter. Although motivation is often sketchy in this heated verismo work, the two women are contrasted clearly enough. Virtuous Fidelia introduces herself singing about almond blossoms and bravely defends Edgar against slander at what purports to be his funeral. Her earthy foster sister, the gypsy Tigrana--excommunicated like Santuzza in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana," near contemporary of "Edgar"--sings a lusty love song while the villagers are at prayer and is successfully tempted, by Edgar in disguise, into denouncing him at the memorial service. Needless to say, the work judges her for her lapse, but not him for his duplicity.
"Edgar" anticipates lighter moments of "Manon Lescaut" (1893), Puccini's first success, in its more pastoral pages, but only a third act Requiem, for the chorus and Fidelia, truly dazzles. This selection so impressed legendary Maestro Arturo Toscanini that he chose to lead it to honor Puccini's memory at the composer's funeral in 1924.
On the night I attended, Drew Slatton sang the dramatic title role, substituting for the indisposed Benjamin Warshawski. Slatton had sung the premiere the previous evening and was scheduled to appear again the following day, which, in view of the role's considerable demands, cannot have been an easy or enviable task. Susan Foster was the lyrical, good as gold Fidelia, while Audrey Brutus limned a sultry, dusky-toned Tigrana. Baritone Gary Lehman contributed a polished, stoic soldier, Frank, Fidelia's brother and Tigrana's spurned suitor. Bass John Schumacher completed the cast as Fidelia and Frank's father, Gualtiero, who joins the others for a grand quintet with chorus-followed by a duel between Edgar and Frank and a communal curse on the errant lovers-to conclude Act One.
Kudos to conductor Louis Salemno, to Capasso, who devised the staging, and designers John Farrell (sets), Renata Podolec (costumes) and Susan Roth (lighting) for guiding this admirable probe of Puccini's early effort.
Dicapo's season continues with Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci," plus excerpts from other verismo operas, on February 21-23 and 28 and March 1 and 2, and Sondheim's "Passion," on April 24-27 and May 2-4.
December 6, 7, 13 and 14 at 8 pm, 8 and 15 at 4 pm
also "Pagliacci" February 21-23, 28, March 1 and 2
and "Passion" April 24-27, May 2-4
at St. Jean Baptiste Church, 184 East 76th Street
tickets $45 212/288-9438 http://www.dicapo.com
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