Opera News

"Virginia Opera broke up the usual ham-and-eggs serving of short verismo operas by balancing Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with another piece all about human failing - Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins. Given how at least four of those sins figure prominently in Pagliacci, the pairing made sense. Director Keturah Stickann placed both works in the economically challenged 1930's. The characters of Anna I and Anna II from the Weill opera popped up briefly later during Pagliacci, as if they had tired of Louisiana and somehow made their way to an Italian village. A gritty scenic design by Constantine Kritikos also provided a link between the pieces, underlined, with an almost Fellini-esque flourish, by bits of clown paraphernalia added to the costumes for some figures in Seven Deadly Sins....Everyone revealed assured acting skills, nowhere more compellingly than in the "Pagliaccio e Columbina" performance, which Stickann directed in unusually dynamic fashion. The steady stream of broad, off-color humor seemed genuine for a troupe anxious to hold an audience in the provinces; little touches, such as kids sneaking backstage and being scooted out, made the staging all the more engaging. The violent flashes really were surprising, the final moments truly affecting."