Italian opera premiere casts a 'Love Spell'
When Valentine's Day passes, Jonathan Eaton starts a new hunt for the next romantic opera to present with Opera Theater. After recent productions of "Porgy and Bess" and "Lost in the Stars," he's found himself with a more-obscure opera to champion.
Opera Theater will present Italo Montemezzi's "L'Incantesimo" (The Love Spell) Friday through Sunday at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. Although Opera Theater productions are usually sung in English, this opera will be performed in Italian with projected English subtitles.
The suggestion to perform "L'Incantesimo" came from Jerry Clack, a long-time Opera Theater board member and professor of classics at Duquesne University.
"Jerry has an encyclopedic knowledge of operatic music," Eaton says. "This production is actually a good example of the way opera can really respond quite a lot to its various constituencies. I knew (Montemezzi) from his one opera that is encountered from time to time, 'L'amore del tre re.' He's part of the great Italian tradition, post-Puccini."
Montemezzi wrote the one-act "L'Incantesimo" in 1943 for the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which was created for legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. NBC commissioned both symphonic and operatic works in the radio era and the early years of television. The libretto was written by Sem Benelli, who also wrote the libretto for Montemezzi's "L'amore del tre re."
The composer conducted the premiere performance, which has circulated on lp records and later on CD. The first staged performance was in 1952 in Verona, Italy. Eaton believes Opera Theater will be giving the U.S.-staged premiere, since the premiere was a radio broadcast.
Eaton says working on the opera has made clear its links to "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bela Bartok and "Pelleas and Melisande" by Claude Debussy in both musical elements and symbolist libretto.
"The Love Spell" is set in the Middle Ages on a snowy winter night. Folco, married to Giselda, invites his old friend, Rinaldo, to visit him with a sorcerer to interpret a troubling dream. Rinaldo and Giselda had been lovers before she met Folco.
Folco had dream he'd been chasing a wolf when he encountered a doe which appeared to have his wife's face. He stabbed it. The sorcerer tells Folco to go find the doe and bring it back to his castle.
After Folco leaves, Rinaldo reaffirms his love for Giselda and sings of the power of love. She resists, suggesting she'll believe in that power if winter turns to spring. When Folco returns empty handed, he sees the dead doe in place of his wife. The stage darkens and bit by bit the garden blooms, as does Giselda's old love for Rinaldo.
"We've walked into a strange, twisted and co-dependent relationship (between Folco and Giselda) which, over the course of the drama, is transformed. The woman is regenerated, her husband destroys himself and there is another man waiting to pick up the pieces for the lady. It has a happy ending in a certain way," Eaton says.
"Giselda's husband self-destructs through lack of love. It's an opera with a good message for Valentine's Day," Eaton says. "Love can bring you spring in the midst of winter and if you deny its power it can cause you to self-destruct."
Additional Information:
'L'Incantesimo' (The Love Spell)
Presented by: Opera Theater
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Admission: $60, includes wine and dessert reception
Where: Hall of Sculpture, Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland
Details: 412-456-1390
