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Pietro Mascagni's 1921 Masterpiece Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NY |
Il Piccolo Marat |
Richard Crawley, tenor |
Il Presidente del Comitato: L'Orco |
Brian Jauhiainen, bass |
Mariella, his niece |
Paula Delligatti,soprano |
Il Carpentiere |
Andrew Oakden, baritone |
La Mamma |
Elizabeth Batton, mezzo-soprano |
Il Soldato |
Joshua Benaim, baritone |
Il Capitano |
Nelson Martinez, baritone |
La Spia |
Stefanos Koroneos, baritone |
Il Ladro/Il Vescovo/Una Voce lontana |
Daniel Ihn-Kyu Lee, baritone |
La Tigre/ Una voce basso |
Alfred Barclift, bass-baritone |
Il Portatore di Ordini/Il Prigioniero |
Christopher Herbert, baritone* |
Una voce tenore |
Hugo Vera, tenor |
Tickets available at the box office
or through Centercharge at 212-721-6500
Il Piccolo Marat is, in one sense, the last of Mascagni's operas. Two others, Pinotta and Nerone were based on works he had written long before and revised for production in the 1930s. But with Il Piccolo Marat we have his most mature outlook on opera as an artform, expressing the future of where he believed Italian Opera was headed. Written at a time when his own country was seething in turmoil, with political factions warring within the government and without, it was a timely work that aroused the interest of all political parties.
The story is simple. A young man poses as a zealot of the French Revolution, in a city run by "The Ogre" - when in fact the young man is an aristocrat trying to get his mother, a princess, out of prison in the city. His disguise is good enough and his actions seem brash enough to earn him the title "Little Marat." He falls in love with the Ogre's niece, Mariella, and together they plot to escape with the princess. The Ogre's hatred for the many aristocrats in his prison leads him to execute them en masse by sending them out into the Loire river in a boat built especially to fall apart at a critical moment, drowning them all. The carpenter who has unwittingly designed this horrifying craft turns to Little Marat, wanting to escape with him and Mariella. In a harrowing final scene, the Ogre is caught and bound, but loosens his bonds enough to shoot and wound Little Marat. The carpenter manages to overcome and kill the Ogre as they all escape into the sunlight on a boat heading down the river into a bright future.
Mascagni wrote this opera for huge orchestral forces. The thematic material is propulsive, almost explosive at times, but also tender and passionate at turns. The characters, while called fairy-tale names such as The Princess or The Carpenter, become a cast of "Everymen." Their struggle is not so different from those of 1920's Italy, or for that matter, 21st century United States.
You can learn more about this opera and hear selections from historic recordings of it at www.mascagni.org.