INDIANA UNIVERSITY Cast Directed by Michael Schwarzkopf February 26, 2010 February 27, 2010 Magda, Rambaldo’s mistress . Meghan Dewald Carolina Castells The Lisette, her maid . Megan Radder Jennifer Jakob Ruggero, a young man . Daniel Shirley Jonathan Matthews Prunier, a poet . Corey Bonar Matthew Wells Rambaldo, a wealthy Singing Parisian . Bill Kloppenburg Carl Kanowsky Perichaud . Will Hearn Ryan Torino Hoosiers Rambaldo’s Friends: 60th Anniversary Concert Gobin . Blake Kendall Brandon Gauby Crébillon . Nathan Brown Christopher Grundy Including a tribute to Eric Kunzel and Al Cobine Ladies of pleasure and friends of Magda: Saturday, March 27, 8 pm Yvette . Stephanie Nakagawa Loralee Culbert INDIANA UNIVERISTY AUDITORIUM Bianca . Catherine O’Rourke Johanna Moffitt Box Office: (812) 855-1103 | music.indiana.edu/events Suzy . Laura Thoreson Julia Snowden Major Domo . James Arnold James Arnold AnAmerican TO OUR PATRONS: Curtain time for IU Opera Theater is promptly at 8 p.m., by which time all opera goers should be in their seats. Latecomers will be Evening seated only on the third terrace, or at the discretion of the management. Thank you for your cooperation. Spring Ballet La Rondine will conclude at approximately 11:00 p.m. March No Cameras, Flash Equipment, or Audio Recorders 26, 27 8 pm are allowed in the auditorium March of the Musical Arts Center. 27 2 pm Serenade | Rubies | Rodeo Where the finest productions come alive! MUSICAL ARTS CENTER (MAC) Box Office: (812) 855-7433 | music.indiana.edu/ballet Five Hundred Ninety-Sixth program of the 2009-10 Season Indiana University Opera Theater presents as its 411th production La Rondine Opera in Three Acts by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Giuseppe Adami Translated and adapted from a German Libretto By Alfred M. Willner and Heinz Reichert David Effron, Conductor Vincent Liotta, Stage Director Todd Hensley, Lighting Designer Gary Thor Wedow, Chorus Master Brian Schkeeper and Ryan Tibbetts, Assisant Chorus Masters William Forrester, Set Designer Linda Pisano, Costume Designer Chris Faesi, Choreographer Stefano Sarzani, Italian Diction Coach La Rondine premièred at the Theater du Casino, Monte Carlo On March 27,1917 ___________________ Musical Arts Center Friday, February Twenty-Sixth Saturday, February Twenty-Seventh Friday, March Fifth Saturday, March Sixth Eight O’Clock music.indiana.edu Cast of Characters Magda, Rambaldo’s mistress . Carolina Castells, Meghan Dewald Lisette, her maid . Jennifer Jakob, Megan Radder Ruggero, a young man . Jonathan Matthews, Daniel Shirley Prunier, a poet . Corey Bonar, Matthew Wells Rambaldo, a wealthy Parisian . Carl Kanowsky, Bill Kloppenburg Perichaud . Will Hearn, Ryan Torino Rambaldo’s Friends: Gobin . Brandon Gauby, Blake Kendall Crébillon . Nathan Brown, Christopher Grundy Ladies of pleasure and friends of Magda: Yvette . Loralee Culbert, Stephanie Nakagawa Bianca . Johanna Moffitt, Catherine O’Rourke Suzy . Julia Snowden, Laura Thoreson Major Domo . James Arnold Ladies and Gentlmen of the World, Citizens, Students, Artists, Demi-Mondaines, and Dancers. Jennifer Albert, James Arnold, Melissa Block, Nathan Brown, Mary Cloud, Loralee Culbert, Kelly Cullinan, Brandon Gauby, Kelly Glyptis, Luis Gonzales, Christopher Grundy, Leonora Green, Ashleigh Guida, Morgan Harrington, Will Hearn, Kimberley Izz, Jermaine Jackson, Jennifer Jones, Hirotaka Kato, Blake Kendall, Benjamin Koenig, Blake Koness, Krista Laskowski, Jessica Lewis, William Lim, Johanna Moffitt, Stephanie Nakagawa, Avery Nielsen, Catherine O’Rourke, Michael Porter, Michael Powell, Evan Snipes, Julia Snowden, Marco Stefani, Laura Thoreson, Ryan Torino, Diana Valdés, Jennylynn Vidas, Laura Waters, Megan Winsted Synopsis Place: Paris and Nice, France Time: Turn of the 20th Century Act I Magda and her lover and protector, Rambaldo, are entertaining in their luxurious Paris apartment. One of their guests, the poet Prunier, sits at the piano and starts singing his latest composition. It tells the story of one Doretta, who dreams that the King looked upon her one day. However, Prunier says that the end to the song evades him. He challenges Magda to finish it, which she does to applause from the guests. Rambaldo surprises Magda with a necklace. Lisette, Magda’s impudent maid, annoys Prunier, but Magda defends her saying she is like a ray of sunshine in her life. Lisette asks Rambaldo if he will consent to see the young man who has been waiting to see him for hours. He is the son of an old friend of Rambaldo’s. Magda is reminiscing of the days when she was young and innocent and went to the Café Bullier in search of adventure and perhaps love. She still remembers the man she met there, into whose eyes she gazed but whose name she never knew and whom she has never forgotten. Ruggero, the young man, arrives just as Prunier is reading Magda’s palm. Prunier announces that Magda’s fortune is like that of the swallow; that she will migrate far away from Paris, perhaps to find love. The conversation turns to where Ruggero shall spend his first night in Paris. The Café Bullier is chosen. All leave except for Prunier. Lisette reminds Magda that it is her day off. She goes and changes and leaves with Prunier, dressed in her mistress’s finery. Magda also reappears but is hardly recognizable. She has changed her hairstyle, and she is dressed simply as a grisette as Act I comes to an end. (Intermission of 15 minutes) Act II Act II opens at the Café Bullier. The room is crowded with artists, grisettes, demi- mondaines, and men about town. Ruggero arrives and sits alone at one of the tables, oblivious to the confusion and noise around him and quite unresponsive to the various girls who approach him. Magda comes in and is quickly surrounded by many would-be escorts. She fends them off saying she is meeting the young man sitting alone. Ruggero is delighted, and he and Magda dance. She is reminded of her adventure long ago. Prunier and Lisette arrive and Lisette thinks she recognizes her mistress but is persuaded by Prunier that she is mistaken. Rambaldo arrives. As he approaches Magda, Prunier gets both Lisette and Ruggero out of the way. Rambaldo brushes Prunier aside and asks Magda if she is coming home with him. She replies that she has found love and is not leaving with him now or at any time! In spite of the blow, he retains his dignity and leaves her sitting where he found her. Ruggero returns, and he and Magda leave the restaurant together. (Intermission of 15 minutes) Act III Act III opens in a cottage overlooking the sea near Nice, where Magda and Ruggero have been living secure in their love. Ruggero confides in Magda that he has written his parents asking permission to marry her. He says he is confident that when they know her they will embrace her as one of their own. Magda worries how to let him know the truth about her past. Lisette and Prunier arrive. It seems that, despite Prunier’s efforts to try and turn Lisette into an actress, she has failed spectacularly and now wants her old job back working for Magda. Magda takes her back. Prunier has also brought back a message from Rambaldo that he will take Magda back if she wants it. Magda refuses, and Prunier departs as Lisette resumes her former duties. Ruggero returns with a letter from his family accepting Magda. At this point, Magda tells him that she cannot deceive him and confesses her guilty past. Marriage for them, she says, is not an option, and she forces Ruggero to depart, broken-hearted, but for his own good. Magda is left alone with her decision -- looking out to sea as the curtain falls. Notes on the Opera by Amanda Sewell When the directors of the Carltheater asked Puccini in 1913 for a new opera, he agreed but asserted that this new project must be a through-composed comic opera “like [Richard Strauss’s] Rosenkavalier, but more amusing and more organic.” La Rondine emerged when Puccini settled on Alfred Maria Willner’s scenario Die Schwalbe. “It’s a light sentimental opera with touches of comedy – but it’s agreeable, limpid, easy to sing with a little waltz music and lively and fetching tunes….It’s sort of reaction against the repulsive music of today,” Puccini wrote in September of 1914. The “repulsive” music to which he referred probably included Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps, which Puccini declared to be “the work of a madman,” and Richard Strauss’s Salome, which Puccini called “the most extraordinary, terribly cacophonous thing.” Whether in reaction to Strauss’s thick orchestration, Stravinsky’s jagged rhythms, or to the weighty WWI-era operas such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Puccini composed for La Rondine what he termed “some rather pretty music … light, but as clear as spring water.” Several scenes in La Rondine evoke moments and plot devices from other operas, including Puccini’s own. La Rondine often draws comparisons to Verdi’s La traviata in its depiction of a kept woman and her lover, although the fate of Puccini’s Magda is probably less heartbreaking than that of Verdi’s Violetta. Magda’s maid Lisette dresses in her mistress’s clothing and jewelry in La Rondine, just as the maid Adele did in Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus. The lively choral tableau at the opening of La Rondine’s Act II is set in Chez Bullier instead of the Café Momus of Puccini’s La bohème. While some have criticized La Rondine for lacking the dramatic heft of operas such as La Traviata, La bohème, and Manon Lescaut, recall that Puccini aimed to write a comic opera, and thus the leading lady’s death was not a necessary plot point. In this case, Magda returns to her kept life rather than joining the ranks of Violetta, Mimì, and Manon.