Mala vita (Wretched Life) by Umberto Giordano L’oracolo (The Oracle) by Franco Leoni

Conductor Francesco Cilluffo; director Rodula Gaitanou

The compact Mala vita (1892) is based on a novella about Neapolitan slum-life, telling the love triangle tale of a worker suffering from tuberculosis, who vows to reform a prostitute if he is healed through prayer and his mistress who is married to a hard-drinking frequenter of the brothels.

The plot proved shocking for Italian audiences of the day in spite of receiving 24 curtain calls from the audience at its 1892 premiere. Franco Leoni’s, L’oracolo was premiered at Covent Garden in 1905, but fared better in America.

Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown just after the Boxer Rebellion, it has been described as a ‘violent and lurid affair full of greed, evil and revenge. The plot centres on a sinister opium dealer Chim-Fen and features a kidnapping and two murders, one involving an axe to the head.

The singing moves quickly from one dramatic scene to the next with no relaxation in intensity.

Friday, October 19; Thursday, October 25; Wednesday, October 31; Sunday, November 3 – all 8 p.m.

Sunday, October 28, 3 p.m.