"First Impressions, Second Thoughts "
Directed by Dr. Rebecca McConnaughey
Assistant Director & Accompanist: Donna Hartleroad
March 26, 27, 1999
Neff Recital Hall, IPFW Campus
PROGRAM NOTES
Is it love at first sight? Or lust? Do we give in to our feelings or try to control them? Do we stay together and try to work it out? Or just fight and call it quits? First Impression, Second Thoughts provides an operatic commentary on these and other topics of love and betrayal. We have placed all the scenes in late 20th century settings. Cosi fan tutti moves from Naples at the end of the 18th century to Despina's beauty parlor on the Bluffton Road. Puccini's La Boheme finds itself not on Paris's West Bank in the 19th century, but in the tattered artistic chic of contemporary Brooklyn, New York.
The show opens with the first scene from Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. Miss Pinkerton (Tiffany Waldhof), a maiden lady of a certain age, comes for her weekly tea with Miss Todd (Karen Staniec), her old friend and adversary. While there, a knock on the back door opens to a whole new world of romance and intrigue for all concerned.
For Massenet's Manon, we move to Paris. Des Grieux (in our setting, the son of a wealthy French wine merchant, played by John Alley) has met and fallen in love with Manon (Jennifer Poiry), an American foreign exchange student who is in Paris for the year. They have moved in together, and Des Grieux has just written a letter to his father asking for permission to marry Manon. But Manon is confused. She loves Des Grieux dearly, but she is also wildly attracted to the new and glamorous life Paris offers her. Other men besides Des Grieux want her, and are willing to give her anything for her favors. She knows that her young lover's father disapproves of their relationship and is about to abduct his son to save him from himself. Des Grieux goes to mail his letter. Manon muses sadly on the end of their idyllic time in this beautiful apartment overlooking the rooftops of Paris. When he returns, full of his love for her, she finds herself caught between love and ambition, and their life together is torn asunder.
The Magic Flute transports us to a world out of time, a fairy tale which can be set anywhere. Papageno (Daniel Borns), an innocent with the unlikely profession of birdcatcher, has had several adventures by the time he shows up in this scene. Pamina (Mackenzie Ardhuermly), the beautiful daughter of the Queen of the Night, has been abducted by Monostatos (Chris Rasor), a biker sort who guards the borders of the kingdom of Sarastro. Monostatos clearly has designs on Pamina but she's having none of it and faints away on his sofa. After Papageno and Monostatos scare each other half to death, the birdcatcher frees Pamina from her captivity and tells her of Prince Tarmno, who has seen her portrait and fallen in love with her. Papageno laments that he does not have a girlfriend. Pamina tenderly reassures him that he, too, will soon find someone to love.
Massenet's Werther, based on the novel by Goethe, is as dark as The Magic Flute is bright. Charlotte (Holly Parks), the oldest child in her large family, has helped her father raise her brothers and sisters after their mother's early death. She promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert, a respectable businessman m the community. And she has done so, being a dutiful daughter. But she does not love him. Before she married Albert, Charlotte met Werther, a moody poet who fell deeply in love with her. Until now. she has denied her feelings for him, though she rereads all the letters Werther writes her. These letters are full of foreboding – Werther cannot get her out of his mind or heart. He says he cannot live without her. It is Christmas, and Charlotte's sister Sophie (Natalie Inskeep) comes for a visit. She is a young woman of fifteen, caught between childhood and womanhood. Sophie senses something is wrong and tries to comfort her sister. Charlotte can no longer hide her emotion and breaks down, desperate to talk to someone. But Sophie cannot really understand, and Charlotte dares not open her heart fully. Eventually, she is left alone with the flood of her own feelings and the Almighty, asking for the strength to stay true to her vows.
Cosi fan tutte finds us in a happier world. Despina (Natalie Inskeep) runs a frowsy beauty salon on Bluffton Road. Two of her regular patrons are the sisters Dorabella (Karen Staniec) and Fiordiligi (Jane Knapcyzk). Dorabella is a bit of a pushover, Fiordiligi a no-nonsense career woman. Both are engaged but their fiances are away. Two new gentlemen m town have been flirting furiously with them and Despina is trying to get them to have a little fun. The two strangers are actually the ladies' sweethearts m disguise and Despina has a bet on with her friend Don Alphonso that she can get the girls to cheat. Hence the title of the opera...Cosi fan tutte ("They're all like that")...This scene is directed by senior John Douglas Alley, a voice performance major.
La Boheme is one of the most often performed operas in the repertory. And no wonder. given its luscious tunes and romantic story. There are two pairs of lovers. Marcello (John Wiese), an avant garde and usually. out of work painter, lives with his temperamental girlfriend, Musetta (Jennifer Poiry), who sings at the cabaret club. They live in the apartment above the club and are constantly fighting. It is New York's Brooklyn and it is winter -- bleak and hopeless in its aspect. Mimi (Mackenzie Ardhuermly), who creates costumes for off-Broadway shows, comes to find her lover Rodolfo (Chris Rasor), to tell him goodbye. They had a fight the night before and he stormed out, seeking shelter at Musetta's club. Mimi is ill, dying actually, and Rodolfo cannot bear to see her suffer. Being an unpublished poet, he has no money to take care of her. The lovers meet again, and as love will have it, the heart is moved in mysterious ways.
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