Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Sydney Opera House, the Royal Opera house in London….here in Dublin, we feel a million miles away from these revered centres for the performing arts. But here we are, in the heart of the city centre, putting on a new performance of one of the best operas around. Can Dublin compete with its international counterparts? Is there such a thing as an Irish opera singer? In meeting the cast for Pagliacci, it seems the answer is ‘yes’, but they are few and far between. In casting Pagliacci, Wonderland Productions have picked some of the best young talent in Ireland, but they’ve also taken on board singers from the UK and from Poland. Quite simply, there are very few opportunities for singers in Ireland, and consequently, few singers.

Tristan and Donna are Pagliacci’s chorus male and female, and have followed a similar path to their current roles. Both have studied on the DIT course in Music Performance, and both came to singing quite late in life.

Tristan had a business background, but gave it up to return to the singing he had enjoyed while in school. “I basically thought, ‘If I don’t give it a shot now I’ll never get another chance.” Similarly, Donna was halfway through a science masters when she discovered she could sing, took some classes, “and the rest is history!”

This doesn’t mean that their current position is an easy one to maintain. Both bolster their income by singing at functions and ceremonies, or hiring themselves out to choir’s across Ireland.

Donna says “Most opera singers in Ireland go abroad. In terms of female singers, I can only name one who has stayed in Ireland and done really well and made a name for herself and that’s Sandra Oman. Almost everyone has to go abroad.” But this has not stopped Wojtek Smarkala coming to Dublin to fulfil his passion for singing and performance.

He has been singing for years, and has trained from a young age. Singing has taken him travelling across Europe, first in Poland and in Germany, working for agencies that put on musicals. For him, “singing is like a drug! I love opera, I could talk about it for hours.”

Wojtek has been in Dublin for three months, and playing the part of Beppe in Pagliacci is his first major role. It seems like a long time to wait, but as he points out with a smile and a shrug, “If you love to sing, then you need to be patient. The work will find you.” He has been training with Ireland’s leading voice coach Veronica Dunne, and clearly loves his time here.

Another fine import on the cast is Rhys, originally from Wales, who is playing the part of Tonio. Like Tristan, he came to singing later in life, when he became bored of his office job. “Voices for opera develop later in life anyway, as opposed to musical theatre where you can have a very short career. You’re past it at 22. I can thankfully continue until I’m really old and crusty!”

Like Wojtek, Rhys has also travelled around for his art, studying in Manchester and in Glasgow. However, this doesn’t bother him too much. “When I wake up in the morning, all I have to think is ‘Is there any other job in the world I’d rather be doing?’ And the answer is always ‘no.’ 99% of the days are really good.”

So it seems, that despite the lack of operatic opportunity in Ireland, our cast are simply delighted to be here. Hopefully, this performance of Pagliacci will encourage a new wave of interest in Opera in Ireland, and more roles for the hard-working cast.

Back to Wonderland’s Pagliacci Production Details 

Read an Introduction to Pagliacci

Pagliacci was first performed to critical acclaim in 1892 in Milan, and has continued to thrill and impress audiences for more than a century.  According to Opera America, it continues to be one of the most popular and widely performed opera of all time. Indeed, a good indication of its success can be garnered from the fact that Pagliacci’s most popular aria Vesti la Giubba became the first recording to sell a million copies in the States.

Described as “the apogee of verisimo”, Pagliacci was written by its composer in an attempt to bring a realism of emotion to opera. Never before had opera-going audiences witnessed such intensity, even if today the characters fulfil many clichés.

Its creation was somewhat controversial, as it’s composer, Leoncavallo had a plagiarism lawsuit brought against him, after it was noticed it bore a resemblance to an 1887 play of Catulle Mendès entitled, La Femme de Tabarin.  Leoncavallo was living in Paris at the time of its premiere, and it is likely that he saw the play. However, Leoncavallo maintained that the opera was actually based on a real event he witnessed as a child in Calabria, when his nurse took him to see a carnival in the town and a murder occurred. He also claimed that his father, who was a judge, had led the criminal investigation, and that he had documents supporting these claims. None of this evidence has ever appeared. Today most critics agree that the libretto was inspired by the French play and by the earlier success of Mascagni’s short opera Cavalleria Rusticana.

In truth, both operas are heavily influenced by ‘verismo’, and by the comedia dell’Arte style, and feature several storytelling devices that crop up time and time again throughout the history of music and theatre. This particular story features treachery and betrayal, mistaken identity and murder, thus highlighting what has made this opera so popular over time. In addition it features the concept of “the play within a play”, a dramatic trope that emphasised the importance of role-playing in society.

Leoncavallo was unable to repeat the success he had achieved with Pagliacci. He continued to write for many years, but was a victim of his own accomplishments, and quickly became bogged down in trying to better his primary effort. By the time he died in 1919, he had composed no other significant musical offerings.

There have been many notable performances of Pagliacci, including those where Pavarotti has played the role of Canio.

Back to Wonderland’s Pagliacci Production Details

Read an Interview with the Singers

John McKeown, The Daily Mail (Friday 14th March, 2008) ✮✮✮✮✮

Verdict: A spicy Italian Lunch.

Opera, however glorious, can sometimes be tiring to sit through. But writer/director Alice Coghlan has produced a trim abridgement of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, a firey tale of a troupe of clowns torn apart by adultery and murder, with only piano accompaniment, that doesn’t stint on its most famous sequences.

Of these the aria Vesti la Giubba – put on the costume – a favourite of Pavarotti’s – is probably the most well-known. Canio (Ralph Strehle) the clown has just discovered that his wife Nedda (Emer Barry) is in love with someone else. But if the show is to go on, he must tuck his shame behind a clown’s mask. With his macho possessiveness and his violent temper, Canio is really the villain, but Strehle’s flexibly muscular tenor persuades us that brute though he is, his love for Nedda is real.

What is especially good about Emer Barry is the range her versatile soprano voice encompasses. We get the girlish delight with which she taunts the hunchback Tonio (Welshman Rhys Jenkins.) He’s smitten by her charms but intent on revenge when she laughingly rejects him. And in a lively duet with lover Silvio (Simon Morgan), we get all the tremulous eagerness of growing passion.

What makes the range of voices, from Jenkins soup-plate rattling tenor to Morgan‘s impetuous baritone, particularly appealing is Alice Coghlan’s pungent translation, which releases all the tempestuousness of the story line like a controlled explosion. She takes some inventive liberties. The full-stage version requires a chorus of villagers watching the show. Their place is taken here by a bad-mannered couple sharing a mobile and excitedly wondering what’s happening on stage. This is a lively enhancement of the ‘play within a play’ aspect of the opera. This singing, chattering, commenting couple give the show a sharply contemporary feel.

Miles Lallemant provides lively piano accompaniment for this hour of unbridled passions. It’s a show that should charm opera sceptics and delight the faithful.

  Michael Moffat, The Irish Mail on Sunday (Sunday 16th March, 2008) ✮✮✮✮

Tragic tears of a clown are a sheer joy to behold.

The Wonderland company is one of the most interesting young groups working in Ireland. At last year’s Dublin Fringe Festival, they gave us a sparkling Miser by Moliere and here, led by director Alice Coghlan, they do a smashing version of Leoncavallo’s one-act opera Pagliacci.

Using imaginative direction of her seven singers, Coghlan overcomes cramped surroundings and the difficulty of sound balance in a small room. Inevitably the accompanying piano occasionally competes with the singers but, in general, the very demanding piano part was played with great sensitivity by Elaine Brennan.

The two singers who form the chorus and audience for the harliquinade play-within-a-play are seated among the general audience. They also make a nice comic bow to the behaviour of actual theatre-goers, arriving late and not switching off their mobiles.

Pagliacci is a blend of realism and theatre in which the harliquinade, with tragic consequences, mirrors the story of Canio and his unhappy wife Nedda, who has a secret lover.

Emer Barry, originally understudying the role of Nedda took over at short notice but you would never guess it. She has a beautifully controlled voice, a good dramatic sense, and her change of style to a light touch that brings out the comic possibilities in the role of Colombina in the harliquinade, is particularly good. One of the highlights is her scene with lover Silvio (Simon Morgan), who matchers her vocally and dramatically.

Rhys Jenkins, as the lascivious Tonio, has a rich baritone, and he launches the opera, moving among the audience with a powerful rendition of the prologue. One of the pleasant aspects is the strength in the minor roles with Wojciech Smarkala as Beppe. Ralph Strehle as Canio gets the opera’s big aria, Vesti la Giubba, the song of the broken-hearted husband as he dons the motley of the clown for his performance in the stage show.

Coghlan has provided a literate translation, and the diction, often poor in opera, is generally excellent. There’s no reason why problems of balance can’t be worked out as the show settles down.

Metro (Thursday 13th March, 2008) ✮✮✮✮

Given that Pagliacci could well be considered one of the most well-known operas – its most popular aria Vesti la Giubba, became the first ever recording to sell over a million copies in America – it would seem that Bewleys along with Wonderland Productions, are intent on opening up the genre to the masses.

There is something both exclusive and embracing about opera, exclusive in that it is generally in a foreign language, yet embracing in that, no matter what your linguistic skills, once performed few could fail to understand the emotion. The language problem is removed here to some extent, as the majority of this production is in English, although how much clearer that makes it is debatable; there is something disconcerting about a single syllable lasting more than 30 seconds. And the emotion is crystal sharp, almost cutting in some places, particularly during the heart stopping Vesti la Giubba.

The plot is your typical mix of betrayal, jealousy and murder – in fact writer Ruggero Leoncavallo faced plagiarism charges after its release due to its similarity to another work. Canio, played superbly by Ralph Strehle, is the head of a troupe of clowns and suspects his wife and fellow performer, Nedda, is cheating on him.

Emer Barry’s Nedda is wonderfully cheeky and playful and her lover Silvio, played by Simon Morgan, is perfectly devoted and lovelorn. Rhys Jenkins plays Tonio, the fool, whose interaction with the audience which includes singing to and sitting with them, brings a fun element although at points verges on the pantomime. There are two ‘audience members’ who are seated with us civilians who shout and whoop at appropriate moments that are a far more welcome quirk.

The Dubliner (Tuesday 4th March, 2008)

Get thee to Bewleys.
A star is born… in Bewleys.

This afternoon Emer Barry, took to the stage of Bewleys café theatre for the first preview of Pagliacci, or the Clowns, a marvellous new opera. Barry excelled in the role, and is likely to – deserves to, anyway – receive rave reviews for her performance. But she is not the only reason to see this quirky production.

The whole show – the first time that an opera has been produced on the tiny Grafton Street stage – is another triumph for young English director Alice Coghlan, whose production of Moliere’s Miser was one of the highlights of the Fringe Festival last year.

Funny, poignant and beautifully sung, Pagliacci is going to be a hit.
And tomorrow’s performance is already sold out.

Back to Pagliacci Production Details                      Read More Wonderland Reviews

The Opera Pagliacci by R. Leoncavallo is sung in a new English translation by Director Alice Coghlan. Pagliacci is one of the world’s best loved operas, and is inspired by a murder the composer witnessed as a boy in Calabria – when his wet nurse took him out to see the carnival players.

Over lunch at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre audiences discover what happens behind the merry scenes of their Italian commedia dell’Arte. Dainty Nedda holds a romantic tryst with an Irish usher, whilst the buffoon Tonio spies from the stalls. The hunchback reports back to her old husband Canio – leaving the heartbroken clown, to sing the great tenor aria ‘Vesti la Giubba’. For show time is here and he must play cuckold to her Colombina. Or else sink his knife into her fetid blood…

What the Critics Say

“a triumph…funny, poignant and beautifully sung. Pagliacci is going to be a hit.”  – The Dubliner

 

“a show that should charm opera sceptics and delight the faithful…releases all the tempestuousness of the story like a controlled tragi-comic explosion” –  Daily Mail ✮✮✮✮✮

 

“A lunchtime treat …this inventive production has style and verve” –  Sunday Business Post ✮✮✮

Read Full Reviews

Read an Interview with the Singers

Read an Introduction to Pagliacci

Credits

From Wonderland Productions Ltd.
Starring:
Rhys Jenkins, Simon Morgan, Joan O’Malley, Wojciech Smarkala & Ralph Strehle.
Featuring:
Emer Barry, Tristan Caldwell, Simon Machale, Cormac Ό Corcoráin, Donna Gallagher, Colm Lalor & Anne Marie Sheridan

The Production Team
Director/Translator: Alice Coghlan
Repiteur/Accompanist: Elaine Brennan
Design: Alice Butler
Lighting Design: Sophy Bradshaw Power
Dramaturgy: Irene Dei
Producer: Robert Bradish
Associate Producer: Emer Mullarkey
Production Manager: Martin Wunderlich
Assistant Directors: Sheila O’Reilly & Orna Joyce
Stage Management: Sophie Flynn & Fiona Keller
Photography & Poster/Flyer Design: mongoliandesign.com