Wexford Festival: ‘Le Maschere’

National Opera House (O’Reilly Theatre), Wexford, 23/10/2024

 Weblink:  https://www.wexfordopera.com/programme/festival-programme/le-maschere

Orchestra and Chorus of Wexford Festival Opera; Francesco Cilluffo (conductor); Lavinia Bini (soprano); Benoit Joseph Meier (tenor); Ioana Pipelea (soprano); Gillen Munguia (tenor); Matteo Mancini (baritone); Rory Musgrave (baritone); Andrew Morstein (tenor); Peter McCamley (actor); Giorgio Caoduro (baritone); Mariano Orozco (bass-baritone).

In this first of eight reports from Wexford Festival Opera 2024 (and the first of 3 fully and professionally staged productions), I cover Mascagni’s ‘Le Maschere’ from the performance of 23rd October in the O’Reilly Theatre, the main theatre of the National Opera House.  Despite living the first 24 years of my life in Ireland, including the first 8 in Waterford City, also in the ‘sunny south-east’ (begging poetic licence), this was my first time inside the Opera House, and it is a rather nice place to be.  Very comfortable seating, excellent acoustics and a great view of the stage: what’s not to like? The opera was sung in Italian with English surtitles.

‘Le Maschere’ is a somewhat preachy opera in that it seeks, from an Italian Nationalist perspective, to persuade the audience, in a prologue and 3 acts, of the artistic value of the masked stereotypes of commedia dell’arte and their relevance to storytelling in the modern age, where the masks are less obvious but the duplicitous fakery is more real than ever.  But it is also an opera buffa in the Rossini tradition (itself influenced by commedia dell’arte), with the added element of verismo vocal characterisation.  When first produced in 1901, it failed to convince. This is where Wexford Festival Opera comes in, part of its ongoing mission being to breathe new life into forgotten operas.  On the basis of what I saw, heard and enjoyed, this production succeeds artistically (whatever about philosophically), with director/designer Stefano Ricci’s modernised mise-en-scène in an up-market Wellness Centre where pampered clients are encouraged to shed their ‘masks’ and get closer to nature (but still ultimately have to resort to subterfuge  to navigate the challenges of life).  Like ‘The Magic Flute’, there are two pairs of lovers, one of high social class (Rosaura and Florindo – Italian soprano Lavinia Bin and American tenor Andrew Morstein), the other low (Columbina and Bringhella - Romanian-Irish soprano Ioana Pipelea and Italian tenor Gillen Munguia), who collude to thwart the plans of Pantalone (Argentinian bass-baritone Mariano Orozco), Rosaura’s father, to marry her off to the decidedly dodgy Captain Spavento (Italian baritone Matteo Mancini), whose equally dodgy and sleazy paralegal assistant Arlecchino (French-Swiss tenor Benoît-Joseph Meier) is comically and easily suborned.  The stuttering Tartaglia (Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro) provides more hilarity and is on the side of the lovers.  Doctor-of-law Graziano (Irish baritone Rory Musgrave) conclusively unmasks the Captain as a fraud, leaving the way clear for the lovers.  In the Prologue, which is presented as an interrupted overture, Giocardio (English actor/musician Peter McCamley in a spoken role) introduces the commedia dell’arte tradition and its characters in Renaissance costume at the sides of the stalls before they take to the stage and musically introduce both their traditional characters and their roles in the opera, while changing into their in-role costumes. This managed to present Mascagni’s rhetoric without alienating the audience.  ‘The Theatre Within’ is the unifying theme of this year’s Festival and Mascagni’s opera unfolds as a verismo opera buffa presented within a commedia dell’arte frame. .

Vocally and dramatically, the principals were uniformly excellent, and any singling out would be on the basis of my entirely subjective enjoyment.  Within that sole context, every second of Ioana Pipelea’s Columbina was a vocal delight. The conspiratorial quartets of the 2 couples were particularly delicious, as was the unforgettably beautiful love duet of Rosaura and Florindo at the beginning of Act 2.  The chorus of clients of the Wellness Centre, all clad in white dressing gowns, produced a great ensemble sound, particularly impressive in the concluding number at the end of Act 1, but also in the preachy eulogy of the commedia dell’arte that concludes the opera.  Mascagni’s orchestration received the ultimate advocacy from the orchestral playing, which was flawless, conducted by Francesco Cilluffo . 

Visually too, there was much to admire, lit by Daniele Naldi.  The sumptuous costumes of the commedia characters at the start of the prologue were stunning (though harder for audience members closer the front of the stalls to see all of them).  Idyllic sylvan verdure adorned the interior of Wellness Centre, while a more Spartan white panel with a two-way mirror with the ‘Wellness’ logo portrayed its periphery.  The visuals of Arlecchino’s libidinous attempt to woo Columbina were a hoot.  A pre-emptive attempt by Pantalone and the Captain to have a ceremonial signing of the marriage contract in Act 2 is countered by the lovers’ plan to spike the drinks with a powder which renders the assembled company incapable.  The visual humour as this played out was hilarious, starting with jerky involuntary robotic movements by the principals sat at a long table and finishing with riotous chaos as all remove all but their underclothes and throw them at each other.  Paradoxically Tartaglia’s stammer is temporarily cured and he sings a rapid patter song.  Further hilarity in Act 3 includes a bath with an unknown man materialising out of the floor of Rosaura’s room, and the Captain, supposedly an expert swordsman, feigning courage at the prospect of being challenged to a duel, demonstrating cut, thrust and parry armed with nothing but an aerosol deodorant.  Grey-clad orderlies at the Wellness Centre turn out to be dancers and delivered some stunning choreography by Stellario di Blasi.  The appearance of an unadorned backstage is the backdrop to the final fervent hymn of praise to the commedia. 

Whilst I would confess to affording a lukewarm reception to the notion of the primacy of the commedia for the dramatic arts, I would be the last to deny that its trope of servants outwitting their masters has been a huge element of the best comic operas.  Whatever shortcomings (apart from the obvious sin of not being ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’) have condemned ‘Le Maschere’ to relative obscurity, this production overcomes them fully and affords the opera the fullest advocacy.  A memorable first visit to WFO for this reviewer, for all the right reasons.  A thumbs up from me.

Photo credit: Patricio Cassinoni