Teatro Grattacielo
2 Riverside Drive
2C
New York, NY
10023
212-595-7127
More on the Operas
L’Oracolo
A street in Chinatown, San Francisco. Chinese New Year. A cock crows
at daybreak as the night’s gamblers and revelers return home while
others go to the temple. Cim-Fen (baritone), the proprietor of an opium
den, meets Hua-Qui (mezzo-soprano), the nurse to wealthy businessman
Hu-Tsin’s (bass-baritone) little son, Hu-Ci. Cim-Fen pretends to
be interested in her, but in reality is only using her to get to Ah-Joe
(soprano), the lovely niece of Hu-Tsin. Hua-Qui leaves as the learned
doctor, Uin-Sci (bass), the oracle of the title, meets Cim-Fen, predicting
an evil end for him. Uin-Sci’s son, San-Lui (tenor), appears beneath
Ah-Joe’s window and the two sing of their love as the sun rises
and the streets begin to fill with the populace bidding each other Happy
New Year and Good Luck. A fortune-teller appears, again predicting evil
tidings for Cim-Fen.
All come out to watch the dragon procession in the brilliant sunlight
and Cim-Fen seizes this opportunity to grab the little boy, forcing him
into his cellar. As soon as they realize that Hu-Ci is missing, Cim-Fen
asks Hu-Tsin for Ah-Joe’s hand in marriage if he can find him,
but San-Lui determines that he will find Hu-Ci instead so that he and
Ah-Joe can be united. When everyone leaves, San-Lui confronts Cim-Fen
and the two fight their way into the cellar. A few moments later, San-Lui
reappears with Hu-Ci in his arms, calling out to Ah-Joe, but Cim-Fen
runs up behind him and strikes him in the head with a hatchet, then grabs
Hu-Ci again, pushes him down a manhole cover, and runs back into his
cellar. Ah-Joe appears in her doorway and finding the dying San-Lui,
loses her mind with grief. Left alone, Uin-Sci hears a distant cry and
discovers Hu-Ci in the drain and takes him back to his house. As Cim-Fen
reappears, obviously drunk, Uin-Sci strikes him with a hatchet as the
new day dawns and the cock crows.
L’Incantesimo
A medieval castle, at the foot of the Italian Alps. It is winter. Folco
(baritone) and his new wife, Giselda (soprano), have just finished dinner
as Folco nervously awaits the arrival of Rinaldo (tenor). Giselda questions
why he has sent for her former suitor. Folco informs her that Rinaldo
is bringing with him a sorcerer whom he hopes will be able to explain
what happened to him while hunting that day. Rinaldo and the sorcerer,
Salomone (bass), finally arrive and Folco explains how he had hunted
a wolf in the forest and after killing it, had looked up to see a white
deer which he also killed, but as the deer lay dying, he saw Giselda’s
face in the deer’s face, with sad eyes pleading for mercy. Salomone
advises Folco that it is pride, not love, that ties his to Giselda and
that he should return to find the deer and bring it back to the castle
as though it were his wife’s own body. Folco assures Salomone that
he does love Giselda and rushes out to find the deer.
Left alone, Rinaldo tells Giselda how he has dreamed of her presence
every night in his lonely room, as though she, herself, were there. Giselda
laughs at him, but he assures her that love can accomplish anything.
Doubting him, she says that only if he were able to change the wintry
garden outside into spring could she be his. As the scene darkens, Salomone
disappears into the background saying, “If you love, you shall
see the spring”. Folco runs in crying out Giselda’s name,
but he no longer sees her, only the dead body of the white deer lying
in her place. As the garden outside turns from winter into spring, Giselda
sings ecstatically of the beauty of spring and the miracle of love.
This year we ask the question “What’s In Your Future?”—a question posed by two one-act operas featuring an oracle, a fortune-teller, and a sorcerer: Franco Leoni’s L’Oracolo (The Oracle) and Italo Montemezzi’s L’Incantesimo (The Magic Spell).
L’Oracolo premiered on June 28, 2005 at The Royal Opera Covent Garden where Franco Leoni was a conductor. The performance starred Antonio Scotti, Vanni-Marcoux, Pauline Donalda, and Charles Diamorès, conducted by André Messager and scored a great success. Ten years later, Antonio Scotti was responsible for bringing it to The Metropolitan Opera where it opened on February 4, 1915 with Adamo Didur, Lucrezia Bori, and Luca Botta conducted by Giorgio Polacco. Scotti’s interpretation of the opium den proprietor, Cim-Fen, was so popular that L’Oracolo was performed a total of 55 times over the next 17 years culminating in Scotti’s farewell performance in 1933.
L’Incantesimo was Montemezzi’s last work and was composed in Beverly Hills where Montemezzi, unable to return home, resided during the war. The opera premiered on NBC radio on October 9, 1943, conducted by the composer and starring the brilliant young soprano Vivian Della Chiesa, to whom our performance is dedicated. The staged première took place nine years later at the Arena in Verona on August 9, 1952.
Montemezzi, back in Italy after the war, actively participated in planning the production with Carla Gavazzi, Francesco Albanese, Enzo Mascherini and Giuseppe Modesti, conducted by Francesco Molinari Pradelli, with sets by Nicola Benois, but on May 15th, only a few months before the première, he died of a heart attack.
We are extremely grateful to our Advisory Director, Carlo Todeschi in Rovereto, Italy, and especially to the Fondazione Arena di Verona and in particular Daniela Greco, in charge of their archives, for making available to us the 1952 première program, photos, and newspaper clippings which we will be reprinting in our libretto program this year. We would also like to thank Ivano Zanoli of Legnago who so graciously made available to us many historic photographs of that production from his private collection.
So, What’s In Our Future? An exciting move to Avery Fisher Hall, an all-star cast of international artists and emerging young singers, and the revival of two great one-act operas long overdue for another hearing by New York audiences. On behalf of the directors of Teatro Grattacielo, we hope it will be in your future, too!