"You're doing what?" That was most people's (including my wife) response when I explained what I was doing for our annual musical night. "Can't we do a 'normal' show?" was the second most common response.
As I explained to students who were considering auditioning, producing operas and operettas was common, on Broadway, in the later 19th & early 20th centuries.
After the civil war, people were hungry for any form of entertainment that could make them forget the horrors of the Civil War. And, Broadway was happy to answer with simple shows with lots of slapstick, funny songs and silly plots.
But, it wasn't long before people grew tired of the same no-plot, silly shows and wanted something different - so they began to stay away in droves. Since there were no composers doing anything new or different, producers turned to Europe and began importing operas and operettas. But, unlike what might be produced in an opera house, they used Broadway actors and singers that made the productions more accesible to the 'average' theater goer.
1875's "Trial by Jury" was the first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration and, along with their other shows, would heavily influence 'Musical Comedies' for the next 50 years. Any 'Musical Comedy' written since then has operetta in its DNA. Gilbert & Sullivan's shows were so popular then and today that in 2023, more than 5,000 productions of Gilbert & Sullivan shows were produced in the United States alone.
"Gianni Schicchi" (1918) is a different story. From the late 19th century until the early 20th, Puccini and other 'Verismo' ('realism') composers began writing operas that dealt with everyday, real life, situations (usually tragic). Besides writing more realistic plot they would also expect their opera singers to incorporate moments of more reaiistic, sometimes not pretty sounding voices. This type of opera was in opposition to previous operas that had fantastical plots and expected the beautiful voices and arias to be the main draw.
These verismo style operas were also brought to Broadway and became a big influence on many theater composers which began the Golden Age of Musical Theater (Rodgers & Hammerstein and others) and continues on until today. The musicals that came from this influence became known as 'Musical Theater' as opposed to 'Musical Comedy". Of course, today, the two types blur together when we think musical theater but most lie a little on one side or the other.
"Schicchi", joins our banquet tonight because it was Puccini's only comic opera. He wrote it as part of a 'triptych' (something made or composed in three sections) that included two very dramatic and depressing one-act operas. He expected it to be performed third (probably because he didn't want the audience to go home and slit their wrists) and it soon became one of his most popular works. You will hear melodies and soaring music (like many 'serious operas') that is a trademark of Puccini but you will also hear the 'realism' that was a trademark of 'verismo operas' but, in this case, done in a comic way.
These students have done a tremendous amount of work to bring these four shows to you. It began by having to cast 11 leads, 13 supporting roles and 4 featured roles (5 if you count the corpse) and a chorus. No one musical would have such a cast and these students, faculty and alumni have filled the roles beautifully. The time it takes to build and paint four sets, the crew needed to move them and the extra work that some took on to do two roles is a testament to the type of dedicated students we all want.
We hope you enjoyed this Virtual PLAYBILL and, if you want to be kept informed about future events and what's going on, please go to the following link:
www.fcfinearts.com/subscribe
Thank you for coming and enjoy the show(s)!
Tim Moore
Director of Vocal Studies & Theater
