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García Opera Program L’ísola disabitata A Salon Opera (1831) by Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García (1775-1832) The Story The young Gernando, his wife, Costanza, and her little sister Silvia, still an infant, were sailing for the West Indies, to join Gernando’s father, who was a governor on one of the islands. When a dangerous storm developed, they disembarked on an uninhabited island, so that Costanza and Silvia could recover from the rough sea. While the women were peacefully sleeping in a secluded cave, poor Gernando and some of his men were suddenly kidnapped and captured as slaves by a group of barbarous enemy pirates. Sailors who had been watching from Gernando’s ship assumed that his wife and her sister were also kidnapped, and took off after the pirates. But having soon lost trace of the pirate ship, the sailors dejectedly resumed their interrupted voyage. Upon awakening, the unfortunate Costanza, after having searched in vain for Gernando and the ship that brought them to the island, believes that she, like Arianna, has been betrayed and abandoned by her husband. When the first pangs of her desperate sorrow give way to her natural desire to live, she turns to face the test of survival, cut off from fellow human beings. The island is abundant in herbs and fruit, so that Costanza and Silvia can sustain themselves. As time passes, Costanza instills her own concepts of horror and hatred for all men on the innocent little girl, who has never known one. After thirteen years of slavery, Gernando is liberated. His first concern is to return to the island where he unwillingly abandoned Costanza, although without much hope of finding her alive. The unexpected meeting of the two spouses is the story presented in the opera. The Performers COSTANZA, wife of Gernando Mary Mendenhall, soprano SILVIA, her younger sister Amanda Castellone, mezzo-soprano GERNANDO, consort of Costanza Ricardo Gómez, tenor ENRICO, comrade of Gernando Christopher Magiera, baritone TWO SAILORS Bradley Stephenson, Patrick Walsh Thomas Turnbull, pianist Program Notes Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García (b.1775, Seville; d. 1832, Paris) was one of the greatest tenors of all times, as well as a prolific composer, master teacher of singing and founder of a vocal dynasty. His daughters, Maria Malibran García (1808-1836) and Pauline Viardot-García (1821-1910), were two of the most important operatic figures of the nineteenth century. His son, Manuel Patricio García (1805-1906), the teacher of Jenny Lind, had a major impact in the development of vocal pedagogy through his scientific studies of the larynx and treatises on singing. Manuel Patricio's son, Gustave (1837-1925) and grandson Alberto (1875-1946), both baritones, had important careers as singers and teachers. Manuel García is best known to the modern world as the tenor for whom Rossini wrote Il barbiere di Siviglia. The music for this work alone is a testimony to García’s spectacular vocal technique. But much more evidence can be found in his own vocal compositions – the vast majority of which remain unpublished today. García wrote more than sixty works for the stage, many to his own texts. As a master voice teacher, he composed numerous vocalises and songs, as well as salon operas, for his students. These works give us today an idea of the early training that prepared singers in the nineteenth century to embark on demanding operatic careers. García’s five salon operas (I tre gobbi, Il finto sordo, Le cinesi, L'isola disabitata, Un avvertimento ai gelosi), were his last compositions (1830-31) and therefore they represent over thirty years of his experience as a virtuoso singer, composer and teacher. They were designed specifically for the vocal, musical and dramatic education of his students, whom he encouraged to perform often in public. The relatively short (one-act) operas feature a small number of singers with piano accompaniment, making them accessible for presentation in a chamber setting. The music is highly demanding, requiring a wide vocal range, with an abundance of scales, arpeggios and trills (often doubled in ensemble singing, at intervals of the third or sixth) that necessitate fine coordination, rhythmic precision and exact intonation. García strongly encouraged individuality in his students’ development, and so along with the notated challenges, students were expected to add their own embellishment, through melodic variations and improvised cadenzas. L’isola disabitata was composed in Paris, in 1831 (the year before García’s death). The text is based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), which had been set to music by several composers throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including Joseph Haydn (1779) and Giovanni Paisiello (1799). A product of the eighteenth century “Arcadian movement”, the story had considerable appeal, with a simple plot that displayed the honorable virtues of fidelity, constancy, and perseverance. The setting, on a desert isle, offered the sort of exoticism that had contributed to the popularity of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719). The autograph manuscripts of García’s salon operas are found in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris). The works have never been published, and there is no record of any public performances ever having taken place. The score of L’isola disabitata used for tonight’s performance was transcribed from the original manuscript by Wake Forest University Professor of Music, Teresa Radomski, during a Reynolds Research Leave. She has recently, together with her brother, Dr. James Radomski, musicologist and author of the book, Manuel García (1775-1832) - Chronicle of the Life of a bel canto Tenor at the Dawn of Romanticism, completed a critical edition of L’isola disabitata, which is being published by A-R Editions, Inc. Wake Forest University Department of Music is proud to present the world premiere of L’isola disabitata, the first of Manuel García’s salon operas to be performed in its entirety. The production is made possible through the generosity of the Wake Forest University Publication and Research Fund and the William C. Archie Fund for Faculty Excellence. Production Staff Teresa Radomski, Musical Director James Dodding, Stage Director Jason Lawson, Lighting and Technical Director Patricia Mueller, Costume Designer Jeffry Driver, Set Designer Production Crew Christal Boyd, Supertitles Catherine Keen, Lights About the Performers Amanda Castellone (SILVIA), mezzo-soprano, is a junior double major in music performance and biology, from Charleston, South Carolina. She was awarded fourth place in the Open Competition of Wake Forest’s 2005 Giles-Harris Competitions in Music and recently performed with the Wake Forest University Orchestra as a winner of the 2005 Concerto Competition. The 2003 recipient of the Bob Voss Music Award, she is a soloist in the Wake Forest University Concert Choir and played the part of the Second Witch in the WFU production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. She is an active participant in many activities on campus and is the co-president of the Equestrian Club, co-captain of the Intercollegiate Dressage Team, and a member of Phi Beta Chi Sorority. Ms. Castellone is a student of Teresa Radomski. Ricardo Gómez (GERNANDO), tenor, is proud to be a W.F.U. Alum from the class of ’86. He graduated from Wake with a B.A. in music as a voice major and also holds master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Colorado. Mr. Gómez is now the Director of Fine Arts at Forsyth Country Day School in Lewisville, a position which he has held for nearly two years. Immediately prior to this he was a musical theatre voice specialist for three years in the North Carolina School of the Arts Drama department. He has also been a member of the faculty at the University of Tulsa, the University of Connecticut, and Western Connecticut State University. Mr. Gómez has performed such roles as Carl Magnus in A Little Night Music at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Jules in Sunday in the Park with George at Theatre Factory of St. Louis, and Henri in Mata Hari at Deep Ellum Opera Theatre in Dallas, TX. Christopher Magiera (ENRICO), baritone, is a senior music major in vocal performance from Lake Forest, Illinois. He has taken part in numerous performances at Wake Forest University, including the opera Dido and Aeneas. Currently Mr. Magiera is President of the Concert Choir, with which he has also appeared as soloist. This spring he performed Bizet’s “Toreador Song” with the university orchestra as a winner of the 2005 Concerto Competition. Mr. Magiera has been active in the campus a cappella ensemble “Temporary Reprieve”, as musical director and music arranger. A student of Teresa Radomski, he also studied voice with Jason Barry-Smith at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, Australia during the 2004 spring semester. This fall Mr. Magiera plans to attend graduate school for the Master of Music degree, which he hopes will lead him to a career in vocal performance. Mary McElwee Mendenhall (COSTANZA), soprano, attended Wake Forest University where she studied under Teresa Radomski and earned a minor in music. Mrs. Mendenhall has given several voice recitals, including an alumni recital at WFU and guest recital at UNC Chapel Hill. She has been a soloist and active member of church choirs, musical theater, and community/symphony choruses over the years. Favorite musical theater roles have included Mary Jane in the WFU production of Big River, as well as the roles of Hodel (Fiddler on the Roof) and Joanna (Sweeney Todd) with the Winston-Salem Little Theater. She has most recently performed as a guest soloist in the WFU Concert Choir performance of Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. Mrs. Mendenhall is a school psychologist with the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.
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