For Seattle Opera's upcoming production of Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," a circus interlude is being added that includes mimes, dance and acrobats.
"Pagliacci" reveals the pain behind the painted faces of a touring troupe of performers, who include the obsessively jealous Canio and his wife, Nedda. The new interlude is a flashback of Canio finding Nedda as a child and bringing her into the circus.
"One of the weaker points in the opera is that the prior relationship of Canio and Nedda is assumed," Williamson said. "The interlude helps you understand better their relationship and why Canio would be so hysterical and jealous."
To create the interlude, music was borrowed from another Leoncavallo opera, the rarely performed "ZazĂ ." Considerable artistic collaboration was involved. "It was Speight's [Jenkins, Seattle Opera's general director] idea, and director Bernard Uzan took it and ran with it. Phillip Kelsey found the music and we were able to sift through his findings."
Williamson asked Kelsey, Seattle Opera's assistant conductor, to arrange the interlude for a chamber orchestra rather than the full opera orchestra so it would sound as if it was coming from a small circus band.
To Williamson's ear, "Pagliacci" does not have the most brilliant orchestration and is even a bit clumsy. "I think Leoncavallo wanted that rawness. I don't think he wanted a polished orchestra with the rawness of the emotions onstage."
At the end of a rehearsal day, Williamson is exhausted by the visceral intensity of the Italian composer's music. "To do Italian music well, you have to be willing to have a certain messiness. You can't put it into a neat, tidy Wasp package. You have to be willing to throw your heart onto the stage."
Perpetually in the top 15 operas in the United States, "Pagliacci" has an iconic status that makes for a cliché just waiting to happen. "It's what I call the 'chestnut factor.' I try not to think about that, but rather to be honest to the score, the composer, the text."
Williamson's ace in the hole for avoiding the "chestnut factor" may well be a clear understanding of the score's role. "Music is the lifeblood of opera, and a good opera conductor and orchestra understand that the music heightens and elevates the drama."
The conductor also has a substantial operatic background, beginning as a solo pianist and spending 12 years as principal coach and pianist for Seattle Opera. With Jenkins and Perry Lorenzo, the company's director of education, Williamson cofounded Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program. Williamson served as the program's music director from its launch in 1998 until 2002, when his budding career as a conductor began taking him to opera houses around the country. Recently, he was appointed artistic director of Opera Cleveland.
Although Williamson was the last person to realize he was conductor material, as early as high school his calling was apparent to others. Williamson said when soprano Carol Vaness told him early in his days at Seattle Opera that he would become a conductor, he responded that he wasn't interested.
Eventually, some singer friends convinced Williamson to conduct a semi-staged opera production in Kennewick. Everything that could go wrong did, from almost no rehearsal time to a case of nerves that sent his baton flying into the orchestra. When the performance was over, Williamson was hooked.
"There was this feeling of exhilaration; this is so great. If everything could be thrown in my way and I could still pull it off, then maybe I should be doing this."
Seattle Opera's "Pagliacci" plays at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Saturday, Jan. 12, through Saturday, Jan. 26. Prices: $25-169. Tickets/information: 389-7676, www.seattleopera.org.
Freelance writer Maggie Larrick lives in the Seattle area and is a former editor of the News.
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