Hometown opera

Though my Blogger profile is vague, I teach at Marygrove College in Detroit. I mention it now because there is a specific story to tell. I was at the college this afternoon for a performance of a new chamber opera Pat and Emilia. The libretto is by Marty Gervais and the music by Jeff Smallman (I hadn't heard of them either). It is a chamber opera because there are only two singers and the orchestra is violin, cello, clarinet, and piano. The two characters are real people: Pat Sturn, a photographer in Windsor, Ontario and Emilia Cundari, a singer from Windsor who had graduated from Marygrove College. When Emilia was just starting her career, Pat took some publicity photos and then followed the career of the hometown girl. Emilia made it big in opera in New York, then across Europe. After 17 years she became tired of living out of a suitcase and yearned for home. She moved back to Windsor with her Italian husband, had a son, and got a job teaching voice at Marygrove College. The son still lives in the area, though does not work in music. He was not able to attend the performance.

The opera takes place on Pat's 100th birthday. In the first act, the singer portraying Pat pages through a scrapbook as the one portraying Emilia, who is a faculty member of the college and thus Emilia's successor, sings a variety of opera arias that the real diva had sung. In the second act Pat reminisces, including becoming annoyed with Emilia for having a career and giving it up.

As the second act was winding down I thought the connection between the two women was rather flimsy and there wasn't much from which to create a coherent story. There was a discussion session afterward which explained it all. The basic idea behind the opera is that women choose family or career (or both) and the choice that is right for one may not be right for another. Emilia made one choice, Pat made another.

I talked to the chairperson of the Music Dept. (essentially my boss) after the program. She graduated from Marygrove College and had taken a class or two from Emilia. During the discussion the cellist, librettist, and someone in the audience also talked of personally knowing either Pat or Emilia.