Opera League to host preview of Menotti's 'The Consul'

The Arizona Opera League will present the Green Valley Preview to Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "The Consul" on Friday, Jan. 8, at 2 p.m. at the Rehearsal Hall of the Pima Community Arts and Learning Center at 1250 W. Continental Road.

Victoria Kinghorn, soprano, will perform, accompanied by Samuel Kinghorn. The lecturer will be David Hemphill.

As published in the Libretto Newsletter "The Consul," Menotti's first full-length work, won the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle award in 1954.

Musician of the Year

Menotti was chosen the 1991 Musician of the Year by Musical America, inaugurating worldwide tributes to the composer in honor of his 80th birthday.

The composer also writes the text to all his operas, most often in English.

"The Consul" was inspired by the suicide of a woman on Ellis Island because she was despondent over the amount of red tape required to enter the United States.

Much of the story takes place in the consular office of an unnamed European country after WWII where several individuals and families seek visas to leave the country.

Each applicant's request is met with repeated and numbing Kafkaesque demands by the consular bureaucracy. A seemingly infinite number of documents must be made out on precise dates in precise places that are frequently inaccessible.

Information is sought that is available nowhere, and references are required that are impossible to obtain.

Among the hapless applicants is Magda Sorel, a deeply troubled young woman in her 30s.

Her child is dead, her husband has fled the country and she fives in mortal fear of the authorities.

After Magda has repeatedly requested a visa, her husband John finally returns to try to rescue her, only to be arrested, and Magda's own shocking fate is realized at the end in the intimacy of their barren and haunted apartment.

When "The Consul" was produced in Ithaca College recently, the Ithaca Journal described the opera as a "masterpiece" which "includes some of the composer's most stunning theatrical effects and most powerful music.

Passionate aria

"While much of the score is traditionally tonal, it is nonetheless punctuated by an increasing and yet extremely effective use of dissonance. The theme of the opera is underlined in one of the most poignant and evocative vocal passages in the entire work: 'Papers, papers,' a passionate aria sung in despair by Magda."

"The Consul" enjoyed its world premiere in 1950 and will see its first production by the Arizona Opera next month. It is far from the first performance of it by Maestro Revzen, however.

The Arizona Opera General and Artistic Director has a long and distinguished relationship with the piece.

He conducted it with Menotti directing for the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center in 2000 and also recorded it with the Berkshire Opera and the Camerata New York Orchestra.

The Green Valley Preview is open to the public, a $5 admission is requested. Refreshments will be served. Opening night is Friday, April 15, with performances on Saturday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. on April 17.

The Green Valley Shuttle is available on Friday and Sunday. Information and reservations through Trude Raymond, 625-3361.

Performance tickets are available at Ticket Master outlets and at the Arizona Opera box office, 293-4336.