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Gian Carlo Menotti
March 30, April 1, 3, 6, 2002Sung in English with text projected above the stage.
Dark and thrilling, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, The Consul, by Gian Carlo Menotti, takes us to an unnamed South American city and a faceless consulate. It is less a journey to a place as it is a voyage into fear, power and personal tragedy. At its debut, the opera struck audiences like a blow between the eyes, and the libretto read like a page from the newspaper. Half a century later the world is much changed, but the emotions captured in this amazing work are as real as ever. Powerful theatrical effects meld with some of Menotti's strongest and most surprising music to create an unforgettable experience.
John, a freedom fighter, must obtain a visa to flee the country after the police discover his resistance efforts. He hides out while his wife, Magda, repeatedly visits the consulate seeking a visa for her husband. There, she encounters interminable bureaucratic delays as she waits for a Consul who never appears.
This all-new Portland Opera production, created in association with L'Opera Nantes in France, features sets and costumes by European designer Walter Schwab, whose striking designs for Portland Opera's 2000 production of Otello earned critical acclaim. Set in South America during the 1970s, the industrial set design suggests a metal cage, while intense, saturated lighting blurs the boundaries between the real and the surreal.
The Consul is directed by Portland Opera's General Director Robert Bailey, and Joseph Rescigno returns to the podium after conducting a stirring Carmen in September 2000. Internationally celebrated soprano Karen Huffstodt performs with Portland Opera for the first time as Magda Sorel. Also making his debut, the critically-acclaimed and multi-talented baritone Jason Howard plays her husband John Sorel. Bass-baritone Kristopher Irmiter, praised for his powerful performance in Portland Opera's 2000 production of The Cunning Little Vixen, plays the Secret-Police Agent. Making his debut in Portland Opera's Dialogues of the Carmelites, Howard Bender plays Nika Magadoff.
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