Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 11, 2008|Volume 36, Number 25

Pictured here is a scene from last year's Yale Opera production. This year, the Yale Opera will stage two works written in 1911, early in the careers of Béla Bartók and Maurice Ravel.

Yale Opera’s production rife
with deception, mystery

Yale Opera will perform two one-act operas — Maurice Ravel’s “L’heure Espagnole” and Béla Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” — on Friday, April 18, and Sunday, April 20.

The performances will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall, 470 College St. Tickets are $8 and $12; $5 for students.

Coincidentally, both operas were written in 1911, early in the careers of the composers. “L’heure Espagnole” (“The Spanish Hour”), Ravel’s first staged work, will be sung in the original French, with English surtitles. The opera takes place in the shop of a clockmaker, Torquemada, who is away for an entire day to attend to the public clocks in various parts of town. It is the one day his wife, Concepcion, can enjoy her love affairs with complete freedom. The other three characters in the opera — a poet, muleteer and banker — all get caught up in the action that ensues.

“Bluebeard’s Castle” will be sung in English. This work features only two characters onstage, Bluebeard and his wife, Judith. Upon arriving at Bluebeard’s castle after their marriage, Judith finds seven locked doors and insists they all be opened. The room behind each door is more surprising than the last, with the final room the most shocking of all.

The operas will be directed by Vera Calabria, with musical preparation by Douglas Dickson and Mikhail Hallak. Calabria has over 20 years of experience in opera and classical music. She has worked extensively with such directors as Gian Carlo Menotti, Harold Prince, Ruth Berghaus and the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, among others. She has directed numerous productions throughout the world and teaches Commedia dell’Arte in workshops at several universities.

Doris Yarick Cross is the artistic director of Yale Opera.

For further information or tickets, call (203) 432-4158 or visit www.yale.edu/music.

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