Il segreto di Susanna and Pagliacci – Opera Holland Park, London.
Opera Holland Park pairs Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci not with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, but with Wolf-Ferrari’s sparkling comedy, Il segreto di Susanna. It’s a pairing that works exceptionally well, Il segreto offering a spirited comic take on marital jealousy before the dark passions of Pagliacci. This production was first staged by Opera Holland Park in 2019 and proved an enormous success. Now John Wilkie returns to direct, with Clare Presland and Richard Burkhard reprising their roles as Susanna and Gil.
The secret of the title is that the newly married Susanna loves to smoke. Gil, her passionate but old-fashioned husband, sees smoking as a horrible vice, so when he catches a whiff of cigarette smoke on her, he jumps to the conclusion that she has a secret lover. He starts plotting ways to confirm his suspicions. Much of the comedy in this production comes from takis’s elegant design: the sophisticated apartment and over-the-top costumes – Gil resplendent in a large pink suit, Susanna a willowy beauty in an elegant gown.
But it’s the non-speaking role of Sante who provides the real comedy. Played by John Savournin, also from the original cast, he’s a master of physical comedy. He can raise a laugh simply from plumping cushions or self-consciously wheeling a cocktail trolley. He’s the model of the discreet majordomo, hiding Susanna’s cigarettes when Gil appears, then lighting them for her once he’s gone.
Wolf-Ferrari’s music is a joy. The work, which premiered in 1909, is a high-spirited dart through a changing world of musical styles. When Susanna plays the piano offstage, it has a sort of Mozartian delicacy, but when she tries to confess to her husband, the music becomes something far more modern and edgy. Mezzo-soprano Clare Presland sings gloriously. Her paean to smoking, O gioia la nube leggera, is particularly fabulous as is her stylised smoking. Baritone Richard Burkhard’s voice is equally glorious and although his role is a comic one, he invests the character of Gil with a surprising pathos.
Il segreto’s elegant apartment gives way in Pagliacci to a dilapidated post-war Italian town. Canio leads his dispirited troupe of commedia dell’arte players along a railway track for yet another next show. But the locals – a splendid chorus – are excited to greet them and the children range themselves along the orchestra pit to be entertained. Canio as the clown Pagliaccio, rises to the occasion and performs a comic piece alongside his wife Nedda as Colombina. In the traditional commedia drama they enact, powerful emotions are evoked.
Colombina is cheating on Pagliaccio with her secret lover, Arlecchino, having spurned the advances of Taddeo, their servant. But art mirrors life. We have already seen Tonio, the actor who plays Taddeo, force his attentions on Nedda, sourly swearing vengeance when he is rejected. He it is who hints to Canio of his wife’s infidelity with Silvio. Canio, consumed by jealousy, is determined to find the identity of the lover. In a wonderful piece of metatheatre, Canio brings all his murderous emotions to the part of Pagliaccio, with tragic consequences.
But along the way, there is some excellent comedy as the players rig up a makeshift stage and play up to their traditional roles. Director Martin Lloyd-Evans makes excellent use of the full potential of Opera Holland Park’s often tricky stage. It’s a production full of movement and life.
Leoncavallo’s score is richly suggestive. Like Wolf-Ferrari, he suggests a bygone age with the use of a minuet, a serenade and a gavotte. But as real passions erupt, so too does the music. Leading tenor, David Butt Philip, is astonishing with the sheer power, beauty and nuance of his voice. His aria Vesti la giubba as he forces himself to assume Pagliaccio’s costume is particularly moving. Alison Langer is compelling both as a singer and stage presence as Nedda/Colombina. But it is Robert Hayward who provides the truly dark notes to the production. His Tonio is commandingly sinister and it is he who gives the final bleak pronouncement, La Commedia é finita.
Conductors John Andrews and Francesco Cilluffo for Il segreto and Pagliacci respectively draw vivid performances from the City of London Sinfonia. The harp has a key place in both works, and Anneke Hodnette’s playing is exquisite. The Children’s Chorus are drawn from the Pimlico Musical Foundation.
A glorious evening of laughter and tears.
Runs until 3 August 2024
