FILUMENA
Calgary Opera
Composed by John Estacio
Written by John Murrell
Starring Gaetan Laperriere, Laura Whalen and David Pomeroy
Jubilee Auditorium
February 1, 5 and 7
In his long and distinguished career, playwright John Murrell has faced many an opening night – in Calgary and Toronto, in Paris, Edinburgh and Washington, D.C. But the world premiere of Filumena, his new opera with composer John Estacio, may well be his most anticipated and publicized yet.
The media began hyping the show months ago, CBC Radio is set to broadcast it, and Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband, writer John Ralston Saul, are attending the Saturday opening, along with Premier Klein and a phalanx of opera producers and critics from Canada and the U.S.
"I really haven’t encountered anything like this, except, perhaps, when my play Farther West was first produced [at Theatre Calgary in 1982] and generated quite a stir," says a delighted Murrell. "But a new opera is such a rarity compared to any new play. And new Canadian operas on this scale just don’t really come along that often."
Filumena, co-produced by Calgary Opera and the The Banff Centre, is getting the kind of lavish treatment usually reserved for the opera classics. Mounted on a $1.2 million budget, it boasts a cast of nine and a chorus of 39, as well as 21 extras (including six children) and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. The talents amassed for it are equally impressive, from top Canadian baritone Gaetan Laperriere, to popular conductor Bramwell Tovey of the Vancouver Symphony, to Sue LePage, one of the country’s leading stage designers.
Calgary Opera and The Banff Centre are clearly confident this will be a work of wide appeal. Murrell thinks the attraction lies in the subject matter.
"This is something rare in the world of opera – a story that people can relate to, that’s about our own history."
Filumena tells the tale of Filumena (a.k.a. Florence) Lassandro, the young Italian immigrant who became the only woman ever hanged in Alberta and the last to be hanged in Canada. An accomplice of the notorious bootlegger Emilio "Emperor Pic" Picariello, who ran illegal booze through the Crowsnest Pass during the days of Prohibition, Filumena was convicted with Picariello of gunning down a policeman and was executed in 1923 at the age of 22.
Her sad, sordid story – involving revenge, murder, organized crime and even a possible illicit relationship (there’s evidence Filumena, a married woman, was sweet on Picariello’s son) – certainly cries out for dramatization. In fact, Murrell’s contemporary, Sharon Pollock, had already used it as inspiration for a play, Whiskey Six Cadenza, back in the 1980s. But Murrell has always felt it was the kind of big, elemental tragedy that grand opera is made of. So, when The Banff Centre (where he heads the Theatre Arts program) sat down with Calgary Opera to discuss possible collaborations, Murrell put the idea on the table.
John Estacio, resident composer with the opera and the CPO, loved it, and a new opera was born.
For Murrell, it’s been a dream come true. A dedicated opera buff since the age of 12, when he bought a double LP of Puccini’s Tosca "without really knowing what it was," he has often flirted with the form in his own plays, and made a few attempts at opera projects with other composers that didn’t pan out.
"This one has led a sort of charmed life since day one. It’s as if it was meant to happen."
With Estacio, Murrell appears to have found his own Puccini. "John Estacio’s music is remarkably accessible and yet quite sophisticated at the same time," he says, adding that the composer has a natural dramatic flair to his writing. "He’s also a man of the theatre, as was Puccini."
Along with opera, the show has allowed Murrell to indulge his long-held passion for the Romance languages. Since the story unfolds in an Italian immigrant community, part of his libretto is being sung in Italian. Murrell is aware that this sets up Filumena for comparisons with the masterpieces of Puccini, Verdi et al.
"To some extent, that was intentional," he says. "The most emotionally accessible operas ever written were mostly written by Italians and, after all, they did invent the art form." At the same time, he adds, Filumena is very much a Canadian opera. "Canada is largely a country of immigrants and there have always been problems with the special challenges they face. We see this as a prototypical Canadian story."
Appropriately, the production sports an all-Canadian cast, led by Gaetan Laperriere as Emperor Pic, the rum-running kingpin, and Alberta-bred soprano Laura Whalen as Filumena. David Pomeroy, a young tenor with Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company, sings the role of Stefano, Picariello’s son and Filumena’s lover. Whalen and Pomeroy, says Murrell, "are on the cusp of extraordinary careers. We’re very lucky to have them."
After its Calgary Opera debut, Filumena will be remounted this August at The Banff Centre during the Banff Arts Festival. Then, says Murrell, he and Estacio hope it will be picked up for production elsewhere in Canada and maybe even beyond. "That’s always been our intention. But right now, I just hope John and I live through the opening!" |
