Rossini Fest's opera stages occupied by drama, comedy

Behind the scenes at the "I Puritani" photo shoot

There's British royalty, both real and purely ceremonial, around the fringes of the operas being presented during this year's Rossini Festival.

The centerpiece, for opera fans, is Knoxville Opera's production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1835 melodrama "I Puritani," an opera set during the 1640s tumult of the English Civil Wars, the struggle over whether the king or parliament would control England.

"I Puritani" will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, April 8, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10, at the Tennessee Theatre.

An enticing side dish for opera fans, if one wants to characterize it in food terms, is the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre's production at the Bijou Theatre of Benjamin Britten's 1947 comic chamber opera "Albert Herring." Performances will be at 2:30 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, and at 7:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday April 10 and 11.

At the center of "I Puritani" is a love story with its historical context setting up the kind of circumstances on which opera thrives.

Elvira, sung by soprano Rachele Gilmore, is in love with Arturo, sung by Yeghishe Manucharyan.

The problem is that Arturo is a supporter of King Charles I, who is at odds with the parliamentarians, or Puritans, of whom Elvira's father, sung by Nelson Martinez, and her uncle, sung by Daniel Mobbs, are colonels.

Further complicating the relationship between Elvira and Arturo is the fact that he gets caught concealing Henrietta, the widow of Charles I, after Charles has been executed by the Puritans.

Gilmore, who performed a memorable mad scene in KO's production of "Lucia de Lammermoor," gets to go crazy again as Elvira in the process of trying to be with Arturo.

Asked if her experience as Lucia is any help in preparing for the role of Elvira, Gilmore said, "Lucia and Elvira are in different circumstances. This is my first time singing this role, and we have just begun rehearsals. So I don't have strong opinions yet on just how the character is going to take shape."

Best known in the opera world for her performances as Olympia in Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffman," Gilmore now has a chance to add another character to her repertoire.

Still in the early stages of her singing career, Gilmore isn't anything like what one might call a diva.

"Divas are singers who have substantial experience and have earned the right to have a major say in how their characters will be sung and performed," Gilmore said. "They bring a lot of credibility to a production."

If Gilmore doesn't consider herself a diva now, her growing reputation in the opera world indicates she is on her way to becoming one. While "I puritani" is all set to wrap one up in an emotional story, Britten's "Albert Herring" is designed to fill the hall with laughter.

Its story revolves around Lady Billows' decision to revive an old village tradition of honoring the most virtuous maiden of the village as the "Queen of the May."

Billows appoints her secretary, Florence, to find out who that would be. When Florence discovers that none of the girls qualifies she delivers one of the great lines in comic opera: "Country virgins (if there be such) think too little and see too much."

Disappointed but determined, Lady Billows and her group change their scheme to "King of the May" and choose the virginal mama's boy Albert Herring, who they consider little more than a simpleton helping out in his mother's grocery shop.

Although he's humiliated by the honor, Albert sets out to prove that he is closer to Florence's view of the village youth than the person his mother and Lady Billows think him to be.

Harold Duckett is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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