Magical Sunset

Today was the first day that I had driven alone to Nottingham to visit the theatre, since January 27th last year. I had tickets for Opera North's double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Rachmaninov's Aleko. The operas deal with the notion of honour killing and female fidelity.

The music was eminently listenable and the singing glorious. But passion and drama were lacking. The male leads gave me no impression of machismo which I expected, particularly in the Cavalleria. After all, the intermezzo from Cavalleria was used in Godfather III. And the opera is supposed to embody verismo, which drives the concept of the mafioso. There was a lot of waiting around for the music and singing straight out at the auditorium, not what I'd expect of Opera North. I expected action throughout the piece. The players are actors as well as singers. 
Turiddu the lover of Lola and the seducer of Santuzza meets a grisly Sicilian end when he is shot in the back of the head while sitting in Alfio's car.

The principal characters were introduced again in Aleko which was intended to be played in a time setting twenty years afterwards. Alfio returns as Aleko, an outsider who joins a band of gypsies. Lola, Santuzza and Mamma Lucia appeared in the chorus upbraiding Aleko for his murderous intentions. Aleko falls in love with Zemfira whose mother deserted her and her father after two days when she met another gypsy band. But her father did not take revenge. After all, he said, how could he chastise a young girl for following her heart.

Zemfira tires of Aleko who is rather older than her and strikes up a relationship with a young man, played by the excellent tenor who had sung Turiddu. Incensed by his betrayal, as he sees it, he shoots both the lover and Zemfira. Finally, Zemfira's father expels Alfio from the group. They cannot support a murderer.

It occurred to me that the lack of drama might perhaps be accounted for by the need to get the entire chorus on stage so that there was little room to move. Also, the director was relatively inexperienced.

Enjoy this exquisite sunset which I saw from the tram park and ride at Clifton South.