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Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 28

Location:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Issue Date:
Page:
28
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

PAGE 28 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1992 Arts THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS FEATURES Maestro tenor make beautiful music together by Tom Di Nardo Daily News Classical Music Writer he collaboration of conductor liacci" Luciano Ricardo has Muti Pavarotti caused and the in "I supertenor kind Pag- of wild audience reaction usually lavished on rock acts. Tickets for three shows- -tomorrow, Saturday and Feb. 14 vanished the day they were put on sale in midDecember, for there are really two audiences for this event. First, there are those who were enthralled by the excitement of Muti's six previous concert operas using the well-rehearsed Philadelphia Orchestra instead of smaller pit orchestras and wouldn't miss his last as music director. Then there are those lured by the immense stardom of Pavarotti, whose larger-than-life persona has captured the imagination of millions who have never been to an opera house.

(He's scheduled to sing an as-yet-unnamed work with the Opera Company of Philadelphia next season.) Muti and Pavarotti have never worked together in an operatic production before. (They have collaborated in some concerts and a recording of the Verdi Requiem.) And the tenor has not sung "I Pagliacci's" Canio since his 1965 recording. It's not a large tenor role, compared to some, but he still appears to savor every note even in rehearsals last week. There wasn't a trace of clashing temperaments, with Pavarotti patient and attentive to Muti's instructions. Usually dressed in black windbreaker and scarf, the famed tenor occasionally munched snacks during choral sections, showed his wide open smile during light moments, then stood and unleashed that lustrous full voice to an appreciative orchestra and chorus.

The other singers have worked often with Muti, and the magnificent singing of all five principals the others are Daniella Dessi, Juan Pons, Ernesto Gavazzi and Paolo Coni in rehearsal portends a special event. Pons, always in suit and tie, drew applause from the musicians for his radiant Prologue, and Dessi lent a gleam to her singing. The composer, Ruggero Leoncavallo, doesn't deserve to be lost in the shuffle. "I Pagliacci" is the only one of his 15 operas that has survived; his "La Boheme" suffered in comparison to Puccini's beloved work with the same characters. Leoncavallo was in a Wagnerian phase, having completed the first part of a trilogy about the Renaissance, when he be See PAGLIACCI Page 35 MUTI AND PAVAROTTI MICHAEL DAILY NEWS Ricardo Muti and Luciano Pavarotti rehearse Sunday in Muti's office backstage at the Academy of Music The story of 'I Pagliacci' eoncavallo's "I Pagliacci" will be presented in sing concert in front of performance, the orchestra meaning without the leads sets will and costumes.

Libretti will be provided for those who want to read as well as listen. But for those unfamiliar with the opera or not fluent in Italian the following synopsis may be necessary, since there's no action to follow. Characters Luciano Pavarotti (tenor): Canio, a comic actor. Daniella Dessi (soprano): Nedda, an actor, Camjo's wife. Juan Pons (baritone): Tonio, a hunchback clown.

Ernesto Gavazzi (tenor): Beppe, an actor. Paolo Coni (baritone): Silvio, a villager. Westminster Symphonic Choir and Philadelphia Boys Choir: audience and townspeople. The opera is a play within a play, with the members of a traveling group of actors and clowns playing to an audience (sung by the chorus) in the Calabrian town of Montalto. Two choirs: After the overture, Tonio sings his Prologue, "Si puo" ered by the hunchback in front of the begs the audience to understand that portraying just characters, but people blood just like them.

The curtain opens onto the troupe's the town. A chorus of citizens welcomes nizing the familiar clown figures of the dia dell arte. Canio invites everyone to evening in "Un grande spettacolo." When Tonio tries to woo Canio's wife, rebukes and beats him, and Tonio even. Canio says he'll tolerate clowning but offstage he will not stand for any Ticketless hordes: A recording's in the works by Tom Di Nardo Daily News Classical Music Writer hose unlucky opera-goers tal gioco." Church bells call the locals away. Canio and Beppe head for the nearest tavern while Nedda muses in "Stridono lassu" about Canio's jealousy, her near-imprisonment and her dream of being free as the birds overhead.

Tonio declares his love for her, but she rejects him, eventually striking him with a whip. Again, Tonio vows revenge. Nedda's lover Silvio arrives, expressing his loneliness in "Decidi il mio destin" and urging her to run away with him in "'Tutto scordiam." Tonio sees them and spitefully brings Canio back just after Silvio escapes. Nedda refuses to admit the name of her lover to Canio, but Beppe reminds them all to get prepared for the show. Alone, while putting on his makeup, Canio sings the classic aria "Vesti la giubba" on your expressing the heartbreak masked behind his clown's MICHAEL Philadelphia Boys and Westminster (usually deliv- while her husband curtain).

He real for Canio, whose they are not from the script. He of flesh and in "No, Pagliaccio The audience entrance into but finally Canio's comme- recog- Nedda's them, Italian lover becomes the show that Nedda, who speaks her and is also Nedda, Canio line: audience, Tonio "La commedia promises to get on the stage, treachery "Un without tickets to "I Pagliacci" at the Academy of Music will have to wait about a year, but they'll eventually get to hear it on a Philips CD. Despite the problems of recording in the acoustically dead Academy, the Philips wizards worked enough electronic magic on last year's "Tosca" playing it back in an acoustically ideal Dutch church and then re-recording it to win Muti's approval. The "I Pagliacci" performances, using a forest of microphones, will be taped for the same difficult resuscitation process. It's a tough call for Muti: perhaps not exactly the sound he wanted, but close enough to retain these two important late peaks of his tenure.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's recordings have been famous since the 1920s under Leopold Stokowski. "But the competition is much greater now," said Muti at a reception last week given by the committee planning an April 22 gala concert in his honor. "You have to constantly prove how good you are. America has to think about the unification of Europe, for the future is based in mass media, in recording and home video." The irony of just having conducted an anniversary concert celebrating the Academy of Music, when the house is not equipped for audio or video recording, struck Muti emotionally. To him, a new hall to beam the Philadelphians into the global market is a matter of survival.

"It's a question of choice," Muti emphasized. "You can be provincial or international. I grew up in a provincial place, so I understand both sides. But I don't want to imagine our players watching their colleagues in Moscow, Berlin, Vienna and everywhere else every night on their televisions. It eventually will bring the level of the orchestra down.

"I may seem critical of Philadelphia, because I think we can do better, but I'm also critical of my own hometown, and of myself. People thought that because I didn't have a home in Philadelphia that I wasn't interested. "I was here from age 38 to 50 the best years as a lover and now I'm bringing back the ruins," he joked. "I told the mayor how important the arts are to the city: 'Remember that we are not clowns who entertain. We are one of the great orchestras in the world, and it is your obligation to allow us to Action his clown's face.

In Scene II, Tonio beats the drum tostart the show. Silvio plots a getaway with Nedda, who is selling tickets. The audience is unruly, and the show begins with Beppe and DAILY NEWS Nedda playing a scene in which Tonio is her lover Canio is away. The tableau gets too anger makes him deviate wildly sings that he is no longer a clown non believes they are seeing great acting, insistence on knowing the name of a confrontation. Canio stabs Silvio's name; Silvio runs to help stabbed by Canio.

To the horrified exclaims the chilling final, spoken finita" comedy is Tom DI Nardo.

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