6

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

May 21, 2010

www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

The Mafia in an opera

But not in the opera company, tenor points out

by Richard M. Berrong

Opera Cleveland opens its 20102011 season this weekend with Lucia di Lammermoor, the drama of a young woman forced by her brother to marry a man she does not love in order to advance the family's fortunes.

Based on Sir Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor, the work originally dealt with a rivalry between two 18th century Scottish clans. Realizing that such a world would be meaningless to contemporary audiences and that Donizetti's music suggests Italians rather than Scots, director Tomer Zvulun has transformed these clans into rival Italian mafia families. Think The Godfather.

Taking one of the supporting roles will be out Cleveland tenor Philippe Pierce, who has been singing with Opera Cleveland since 2006. A native of France who came to this country to attend college, Pierce so enjoyed his

first performances with the company that he now makes his home here.

Pierce praises his colleagues, exemplifying his observation that the day of the egotistical operatic diva has passed. The singers who succeed today, he notes, have both feet on the ground and support their colleagues, gay and straight, rather than trying to undermine them.

He also praises the director for working to make this production powerful theater. Motivations are explored, characters developed, tension heightened. Some of the music, mostly that for Lucia after she goes insane and shoots her imposed husband, is among the most difficult ever written for the human voice. Zvulun is not content to let the singers just "park and bark," however. There is always something going on not just for the ear, Pierce emphasized, but for the eye as well.

Pierce's own career is now focused on character parts. Having tried a few

lead roles, he found that he does not have the temperament for them. Because of his background in musical theater, he loves being able to develop a character over time, and finds he can do that more to his satisfaction in certain supporting parts. He has particularly enjoyed doing the poet Prunier in Puccini's La Rondine, where he got to be cynical, romantic, and compassionde la Force in ate in turn. The Chevalier one of the great 20th century operas, the Dialogues of the Carmelites, particularly interests him. On the lighter side, he would also enjoy performing one of the three comic ministers in Puccini's Turandot.

Readers will have a chance to catch this up and coming tenor in this original and dramatic production of Lucia di Lammermoor at 8 p.m. on May 22 or 2 p.m. on May 23 at Playhouse Square's State Theater. Tickets can be purchased online at www.playhousesquare.com or by calling 216-241-6000.

✓

Tr

Ah! solanto it noster fro

Tell them about it!

Let our advertisers

know you saw their ad in the

Gay People's Chronicle!

Phillippe Pierce

Me ween! la ma condere Ho suit