Schwob Opera Theatre Presents An Opera Double Bill
Schwob Opera Theatre Presents An Opera Double Bill
Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini and The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti
Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 4:00 pm
Presented on the Springer Opera House Main Stage (Emily Woodruff Hall)
Director's Message:
The 2025 Schwob Opera Theater spring season will be a double bill of exciting lyric dramas, Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini and The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti. These two iconic operas will be performed in collaboration with the Schwob Opera Orchestra led by Professor Paul Hostetter. We are also excited to collaborate with and present our mainstage opera production for the first time at the historic state theater of Georgia, the Springer Opera House.
Our student performers will work alongside a professional team of artists to bring these operas to life for our audiences this spring. Our performances will include a pre-concert talk presented by Dr. Reba Wissner for our audience members to learn more about the history of these incredible works. Performances dates are April 12, 2025, at 7:30pm and April 13, 2025, at 4:00pm.
Production Sponsorship & Support: John & Sally Walden Endowment for Opera and G. Gunby Jordan Endowment for Operatic Activities
Content Advisory: Themes of Suicide, Abuse, & Death
Please be aware that Suor Angelica and The Medium address sensitive themes, including grief, loss, abuse, and suicide. We recognize these topics may be difficult for some audience members and encourage you to take care of your well-being while attending.
The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti (Two Acts, Sung in English)
Act I
Monica, the daughter of Madame Flora ("Baba"), and Toby, a mute boy living with them, are playing while Madame Flora is away. When she returns, she is furious that they are not ready for the seance she has planned; Monica prevents her from striking Toby. They busily prepare, and when the three guests arrive for the seance, Monica pretends to be the teenage daughter of one and the baby son of another, while Toby works the mechanical devices that control the motion of the lights and the furniture in the room. Suddenly, Madame Flora stops the seance and sends the customers away. She tells Monica she felt a spectral hand clutch her throat during the seance. She suspects Toby at first, but as Monica tries to comfort with song Flora hears a voice imitating Monica's performance at the seance.
Act II
A few days later, Monica is watching Toby perform a puppet show for her; then she dances for him. Monica realizes he is trying to tell her that he loves her; pretending to be his voice, she says it for him. She runs off as Flora reenters; the medium tries cajoling Toby into confessing that he was the one who touched her during the seance, or that he knows something about it. When he does not answer, she begins to whip him but is interrupted by the doorbell.
The three clients from the previous seance enter; Flora returns their money back and tries to convince them they have been cheated, even showing them the ruse, but they refuse to believe her. She throws them out and focuses her frustrations on Toby. Despite Monica's protests, she throws Toby out, too. Monica is locked in her room, and Flora, frightened by what she has experienced, drinks herself to sleep. Toby returns to try to rescue Monica; Flora awakes, and Toby hides from her; Flora, thinking he is the spirit she felt, shoots him.
Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini (One Act, Sung in Italian)
The opera opens with the nuns of the convent busily completing their activities in the convent. Sister Angelica has not heard from her family in seven years. She has been banished to live in a convent after having an illegitimate child, bringing shame to their noble family. Suddenly, a visitor is announced: it is Angelica’s aunt, the princess. Rejecting Angelica’s gestures of affection, she explains that when Angelica’s parents died, she was made guardian of both her and her younger sister. Angelica's sister is to be married, and the princess demands Angelica sign her share of the inheritance over to her.
Angelica works up the courage to ask about her little son. The princess coldly tells her that he died two years earlier. After delivering this devastating news, Angelica signs the document and the princess departs. Angelica grieves that her child died without her mother by her side with one of Puccini's most well-known and moving arias, “Senza mamma.” She desires to reunite with her son in heaven. She drinks the poison, then suddenly realizes that suicide is a mortal sin. Praying for forgiveness, she dies with a vision of her son greeting her in heaven alongside the Virgin Mary.