Opera on the Air

Sunday afternoon, we attended a charming production of three short operas at U Mass, staged as live radio productions. The three operas were: Samuel Barber: A Hand of Bridge. Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti; Gian Carlo Menotti: Old Maid and the Thief; Douglas Moore: Gallantry: A Soap Opera. A Hand of Bridge, was only about ten minutes long, and only one act: Four people, two unhappily married couples (Sally and Bill; Geraldine and David) sat around a card table playing bridge. They bid until they reached a contract of 5 Hearts. As the game progressed, each character expressed inner thoughts and desires, mostly about their unhappiness. Old Maid and the Thief, is about a middle-aged woman and her maid who are unexpectedly visited by a mysterious and handsome young man, a "beggar." He is invited to come in and given food and a place to sleep. Later, a neighbor rushes in and tells the two women that a man - a notorious thief - has escaped from a nearby prison and has been seen in the neighborhood - and his description seems to fit with the "beggar" they just took in (who the women are explaining is actually a distant cousin!). This announcement sets off a train of events - the women don't want to antagoize their guest so they go overboard in giving him things - especially money, which they steal from their neighbors! I.e., the women are becoming the person they think they arw harboring - but it turns out he is not the thief after all. He is a wandering poet. But it all comes to a surprising climax. Gallantry: A Soap Opera, is a wonderful satire both on social mores of the 20th century and also radio commercials. A surgeon and a nurse get romantically involved, but the nurse is also in love with a patient the surgeon is operating on, and there are moments you are not sure what the surgeon is actually going to do with that scalpel he is holding! Meanwhile, a woman off to the side is using all her wiles selling hand soap and floor wax! It's all pretty hilarious. Ellen, Katie and I went to the opera workshop and then went to Shutesbury for the Super Bowl! We knew Savanna woud have wanted it that way. We had yummy snacks, Brendon was there, of course, and it turned out to be a pretty exciting game which went into overtime- not common in football. The game went late, and it was after midnight when we got home - well after midnight!

The mysterious "beggar" in The Old Maid and the Thief."

Selling "Billy Boy Wax" on the radio.

Surgeon, patient and Nurse.

The casts of all three plays giving a curtain call.