Puccini Under The Stars: Don't Miss Last Shows Of 'Suor Angelica'

MADISON, CT — This is it opera fans. The last three performances by the Madison Lyric Stage of of Puccini's Suor Angelica are slated for Sept. 17, 18 and 19.

As the final production of its 2021 mainstage season, Madison Lyric Stage, a professional theater company serving the Connecticut shoreline and the Connecticut River valley, is presenting Puccini’s beloved opera Suor Angelica for three more performances Sept. 17, 18 and 19, outdoors under a large tent on the grounds of Madison’s Deacon John Grave House.

The evening will open with Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and will be set within the confines of the “Grave House Asylum” run by the fictional Sisters of Mercy.

By pairing these operatic pieces, the performance will delve into the individual stories of two women, each thrust into the mental health system of Europe in the year 1909. The evening will explore the dire consequences these two women separately faced when they rejected the social mores of their time.

“Our opera evening champions the great music drama from two diverse master composers of the 20th century – the romantic Italian Giacomo Puccini and Arnold Schoenberg, the Viennese father of atonality – so completely different in their musical styles, yet composing during the same years,” said Marc Deaton, artistic director of Madison Lyric Stage. “By pairing these two works, and setting them within an asylum, we hope to call attention to mental health issues. Even though perceptions of mental illness were quite different at the time these pieces were composed, there are still lessons to be learned today about human cruelty, either intentional or through careless negligence.”

Puccini’s much-loved one-act opera Suor Angelica (“Sister Angelica”) is known to contain moments of harrowing drama and unequaled redemptive beauty. Sister Angelica, a Tuscan noblewoman, has been living in a convent, where she was sent by her aristocratic family for having a child without being married. For seven years, she has been waiting in vain for her family or friends to visit. Finally, Angelica’s aunt, the cruel Princess, comes to reveal the fate of the child she was forced to give away, and to ask her to sign away all rights to her inheritance. The news is unbearable to Angelica, and the story follows her emotional journey through tragic loss and redemption.

Suor Angelica makes up the second of Puccini’s set of three one-act operas called Il trittico (The Triptych), the others being Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi. Puccini, composer of La Boheme and Madame Butterfly, referred to Suor Angelica as his favorite of these three Triptych pieces.

Schoenberg’s Erwartung (“Expectation”) is a one-act monodrama that follows a lone woman through the forest in search of a lost lover. Erwartung seems to relate a dream – or probably a nightmare. The protagonist of this taut, half-hour drama is an unnamed woman, wandering under a moonlit sky, looking for a lover who might be a betrayer. Ultimately, the lover’s blood-stained body is found – but who has killed him, and for what reason, remains unclear.

Suor Angelica will be performed in Italian with English supertitles; Erwartung will be performed in English, in a translation by Marc Deaton.

Allison Waggener stars as Sister Angelica, leading an all-female cast of thirteen. Allison Lindsay stars as the Inmate in Erwartung, with Marc Deaton as the Doctor. Deaton also directs both pieces.

Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by visiting madisonlyricstage.org or by calling 203-215-6329. The Deacon John Grave House is located at 581 Boston Post Road in Madison.

Tenting for Madison Lyric Stage’s 2021 outdoor season is being supplied by Taylor Rental of Branford and Orange.

Madison Lyric Stage is supported in part by generous gifts from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Guilford Savings Bank, the Maureen E. and Peter F. Dalton Fund of The Madison Foundation, and the New Alliance Foundation, along with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Madison Lyric Stage is an award-winning, non-profit arts collective serving Connecticut. Its mission is to expand participation in the arts by presenting accessible, inclusive and affordable professional-quality opera, musical theater and drama.

For more information about Madison Lyric Stage, visit madisonlyricstage.org.