Talk about a recycler. When Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini set out to write his first opera, Il Pirata, at the age of twenty-five, he had at his disposal three basic musical components: soloists, chorus, & orchestra. What followed once he was through with the 355-page score of heart-wrenchingly Romantic music, was a practically endless array of arias, ensembles, recitatives, choruses, instrumental solos, & blocks of full-blast orchestral music, all achieved by the constant reconfiguration of those three forces at hand into every combination humanly imaginable. It created two acts of some of the most intensely passionate drama that the European tradition has ever produced. Here was one composer intent on not letting any musical possibility slip by unnoticed, any emotional extreme fall through the cracks, any aesthetic nuance remain unaddressed. Bellini was just as bent on exploring his primary artistic resources as he was on penetrating the depths of the human heart.

Those depths did not remain untouched at Cleveland’s first-ever production of the aforementioned work. In the words of Opera Circle mastermind Dorota Sobieska, “Our times, our place, our culture are notoriously superficial. Opera Circle wants to oppose this superficiality. With every next production of Bellini, Opera Circle wants to disclose deeper meanings of aesthetic experience, offer further insight into the arts, probe more complex aesthetic dilemmas...We hope to disseminate artistic unrest.”

Thus with complete & utter faith in a score composed nearly two centuries ago, Opera Circle embarked to present Il Pirata at Grace Lutheran Church on Cedar Road, the second of three such performances throughout greater Cleveland. The production featured a superb cast of soloists, led by Sobieska herself as the unfortunate Imogene. Faced with this exceptionally demanding soprano role, she once again displayed her mastery of the bel-canto style in a beautifully expressive performance. Tenor Timothy Olson from New York portrayed the dashing pirate Gualtiero down to the hilt of his sword, navigating his way through passages of high-strung vocal virtuosity with nimble grace, while baritone Christopher Hutton engaged the audience by bringing great depth to the role of the unflinching Duke Ernesto, husband to Imogene. The supporting roles of Itulbo, Adele, & Solitario were likewise rendered with uncanny accuracy by Troy Ayers, Lucia Leszczuk, & Ray Liddle respectively. Elegant costumes circled within a selected palette of red, gray, & gold, while the symbolic set elements, consisting of a marble column strewn with ivy & a vast sail suspended from the choir loft in the back of the church, invited the audience to complete the Castle of Caldora in their imagination, perhaps prompted further only by the spiritual atmosphere of Grace Lutheran itself with its gothic pillars & wooden pews.

Through the tremendous power of the music, the themes of love, rivalry, & revenge in Il Pirata acquired a universal quality that can speak across any time & place. It is interesting to note, however, that this particular opera pertains to us in yet another way. Much of the plot revolves around a troubled marriage & the breakdown of a family. So even though the work may be set in 13th century Sicily, it addresses issues to which we specifically relate as a society today. It is more than universal. It is downright contemporary.

The chamber orchestra, a troupe of veteran Opera Circle instrumentalists under the baton of Artistic Director Jacek Sobieski, the husband of Dorota, alternately provided the bold foreground of an orchestral texture such as that of the overture, with the delicate background of an accompaniment to a single singer or ensemble of soloists on stage, while allowing on occasion for an instrumental solo to surface to a level comparable to that of a miniature aria, such as the plaintive passage for English horn opening the final scene of the opera. A refreshing sparkle of artistry was added to the opening by Sabatino Verlezza of the Verlezza Dance Company. Naturally, one would be remiss not to acknowledge the chorus, since, as in any Bellini opera, it holds a very special place. In accordance with the infinite inventiveness of the composer, the chorus fulfills a fascinating myriad of roles in Il pirata, from interacting with the soloists to providing commentary on a given situation to carrying out an entire scene on its own. Musically, Bellini achieves this by shifting its function, as that of the orchestra, from foreground to background, as well as by restricting certain scenes exclusively to men’s voices or women’s voices while calling for the full apparatus in others. Throughout the opera, the chorus serves to glue the entire work together: it is a source of collective identity that provides a stark contrast when juxtaposed with the tangled trials & torments of the individual soloists. The developments of the latter, though deeply personal & extremely passionate, are ephemeral, while the contributions of the former represent a source of communal wisdom that is unshakable over centuries.

The mute role of the pensive son of Ernesto & Imogene was played by eight-year-old Julian Sobieski – son of Jacek & Dorota – while his two older sisters opted to participate from the background as members of chorus or orchestra, making the evening, among other things, a family affair, & therefore blurring yet another boundary or two. Once again, let us turn to Dorota Sobieska. “Now, how do we access this sensitive spot that allows us to build opera in the mind of every participating person? By making opera close, tangible, accessible, your own, by placing the audience & the performers together in one circle, hence Opera Circle. We are all in the midst of opera, within it, participating in a continuous process.” May that process continue. from Cool Cleveland reader Wanda Sobieska wandasobieska@yahoo.com or http://www.OperaCircle.org

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