"I Pagliacci" was six years ago with Savannah VOICE Festival!
The clown for SVF13 was "Rigoletto", a hunchbacked jester with a malicious flair no doubt honed by years in the service of a womanizing Duke.
That hunchback was played by Sherrill Milnes to great acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera in 1972, when he was 37 years old.
That's him, centered in the photo, taking his bows at the end.
It's quite possible he was in that age range, too.
As well as being occupied with my volunteer duties, I was thrilled to discover we had a live orchestra in the house!
That meant Marc Chesanow and his bass were again part of the show!
So was Richard Ochoa (violin) as well as another I knew: Xiaodi Liu (oboe), whose tall, blonde wife tipped me off to his presence.
Very nice!
Even worse: I was sitting in the very last row, without my glasses.
Would I be able to read the translated dialogue from back there?
Fortunately, I could... and did!
Ah, and what a tale of woe that befell this clown...
such a sad loss of a beloved Gilda by a father...
and all due to the twisted jester's venomous nature.
Wow.
Here's a surprise: I recognized one of the songs!!!
Gilda had been warned that the Duke was a lecherous beast, but she didn't believe that... not until she heard him boasting in "La donna รจ mobile", which basically gave him carte blanche to cheat with, and on, women before they could do so to him.
That wasn't very noble of him, was it?
There was one nice bonus, too.
The young man who had helped me and Kim the last time at this space?
He had a right nice amount of stage time!
Juan Angel Johnstone-Chavez played Count Ceprano, a young noble whose wife was one of those seduced by the jester's master, the Duke of Mantua.
Such a very nice baritone that young man has!
I'll be looking forward to more from him next season!
I guess that means this final performance of SVF13 was a success -
it left all of us wanting more!
(smile!)
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