‘THE CONSUL’
Dayton Opera offering explores immigration
The Dayton Opera’s next offering, says Patrick Reynolds, couldn’t be more timely.
“It’s about immigration and the plight of refugees, ” says Reynolds, associate conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. He will conduct Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera, “The Consul,” on Friday evening, Oct. 20 and Sunday afternoon, Oct. 22 at the Schuster Center. “What fascinates me is how real the characters are to me and how real the characters will be to other people. We know these people. We all know immigrants, they are our grandparents. And we know Florida refugees who left to avoid the recent hurricane.”
The dramatic production was first introduced on the Broadway stage in 1950. It won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the 1950 New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best Musical. The composer indicates that the story is set in a large European city in the present. Director Gary Briggle, returning to Dayton for the 14th time, says he has chosen to envision that location as Sagreb, Croatia.
About the story
The full-length English language opera tells the story of freedom fighter John Sorel, on the run from the secret police. When planning his escape, he tells his wife, Magda, to apply for a visa to leave the country.
“When you meet the five people in this waiting room, you recognize them,” says Reynolds. “They are not some esoteric characters in a Wagner opera. This couple could be our neighbors and children so we’re able to connect on a personal level.”
One of the themes of “The Consul,” he says, is the tyranny of excess bureaucracy. ” These are people who are trying to get visas who have a quest and desire for freedom and a better life but are faced with endless waiting and paperwork,” he explains. “They seem to have no identity, no power, no hope … in just the same way you might imagine refugees today feeling if they were trying to get into the United States.”
The emotional high point of the opera comes when Magda, thwarted in her quest for a visa, addresses the Consul’s indifferent secretary in “To this we’ve come,” a lament over the world’s inhumanity to the suffering. “I ask you for help, and all you give me is papers! Papers!” she sings, incensed at the request to fill out more forms.
Menotti’s inspiration
“The Consul” is said to be inspired by two true stories. One was the story of 25 Austrian refugees who fled into Hungary during World War II. Without passports neither country would let them in and they ended up bring trapped for a week on a bridge between the two countries.
Menotti wrote a screenplay based on the incident called “The Bridge” but it was never produced.
The second news story centered around a 36-year-old Polish immigrant denied entry into the United States who hung herself in the detention room on Ellis Island. She’d been denied admission after her husband testified he had divorced her on grounds of desertion. The woman, who had come to America with her daughter, said she’d received no notice of the divorce. The
husband accepted his daughter, who was admitted to the U.S., but his former wife was excluded.
Menotti changed the particulars but used the essence of the stories to dramatize the plight and frustration of immigrants. “He doesn’t tell us what country; it’s unknown,” says Reynolds. “He keeps it universal by not making it about one country. We learn about these people’s quest for freedom and what they have to do to get it. In Magda’s case, that quest has tragic consequences.”
Menotti is best known for his popular one-act opera, “Amal and the Night Visitors,” was commissioned by NBC. Broadcast live from Rockefeller Center, it was the first opera specifically composed for television in America when it was shown as the first Hallmark Hall of Fame production.
“This opera is less well known,” says Reynolds. “He’s a tuneful composer and although it deals with a human story, a human tragedy, ‘The Consul’ is not a frightening work. It’s thought-provoking and moving.”
Portraying Magda
Soprano Kara Shay Thomson, a Loveland resident who will be remembered in the leading role in the Dayton Opera’s 2013 production of “Tosca,” will portray Magda Sorel. She has also sung the part of Magda at Florida Grand Opera in Miami.
“What touches me is her belief in humanity, that good will prevail,” said Thomson, during a rehearsal break. “I believe that too. She really believes if she has enough faith the outcome will be good. I think that echoes the hopes of everyone in the audience. If you don’t have hope —hope for change, hope for love —you can’t keep going.”
The challenge of the role, said Thomson, is that she’s on stage from curtain to curtain. “I don’t know how they did that on Broadway with so many shows in a week,” she says.
“The thing about Menotti is that at times the music is like a movie score, it’s lush and dramatic. It’s very tonal and brings back themes you hear again and again.”
What she loves most about this opera, Thomson says, is that it’s an ensemble piece with no chorus. Others joining her on stage will be mezzosoprano Cindy Sadler as The Mother and baritone Tyler Alessi as John Sorel. The cast also includes mezzo-soprano Layna Chianak; bass-baritone Kenneth Shaw; tenor Robert Norman; bass-baritone Thomas Hammons and baritone Alexander Harper. Three local Dayton area artists in the production are soprano Andrea Chenoweth, soprano Minnita Daniel-Cox and mezzosoprano Ryu-Kyung Kim.
UD students will attend
Don’t be surprised to see more than 1,700 University of Dayton students in the audience at Sunday’s opera performance.
Once again the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is partnering with UD’s Arts Immersion initiative so all first-year students enrolled in a Humanities Commons course will be attending that afternoon.
To further enhance learning and to engage students, members have been incorporating aspects of the performance through the lens of their disciplines and into their courses.
“The theme this year is Hospitality and in ‘The Consul’ there is this vacuum of hospitality,” says Reynolds, an associate professor of music at the university.
The take away
In the past couple of months, Reynolds has been speaking about “The Consul” to various groups.
“I feel personally connected to this story in a way I’ve never felt with another piece,” he admits.”
There is something about the immigration story that really hits home very hard. Someone in the audience always says: ‘My grandmother’s story sounds like that’ or ‘I once went to immigration office and filled out paper work with people who didn’t speak English.’ There’s a beautiful scene like this in the opera.”
Reynolds says “The Consul” is a good opera for folks who’ve never been to an opera. “I want people who see it to take away sympathy for their neighbors and for their community’s stories,” he says.
“We all come from somewhere. These people in this opera want what all of us want —freedom and a good life. If you come away with sympathy for the character’s you’ve come away with a lot.”