Il Tabarro Shines In Student Opera Performance
By Kathy McCardwell

Last Thursday night senior conducting major Steven Brewer led a concert performance of Giacomo Puccini’s short operatic work Il Tabarro (The Cloak). While the performance was, in general, well-performed, certain aspects left something to be desired.
Il Tabarro, a short opera taken from Puccini’s three-opera cycle Il Trittico, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1918. The story line is typical tragic opera: Giorgetta, the young wife of bargemaster Michele, has fallen out of love with her husband and in love with Luigi, an employee of her husband.
Thursday night’s performance, presented in a concert setting, adequately expressed all the themes inherent in this short tragedy. Il Tabarro is practically the ideal opera to present in a concert, as opposed to theatrical setting; as Brewer said, “An opera as atmospheric as [Il]Tabarro really enables the listener to use their imagination to create their own images of the action … a concert production can be compared to reading a book while a fully staged production is more like seeing the movie.”
The soloists and accompanists all performed admirably, a testament to all their hard work. Particularly praiseworthy was the performance of guest artist John Tsotsoros, who sang powerfully and very expressively —his portrayal of Luigi was easily the most convincing individual performance of the evening.
Also of note was senior Scott Skiba’s solid performance of Michele; as the work progressed, Skiba seemed to get better and better, though he was once or twice drowned out by overenthusiastic accompaniment. One of the high points of the performance, then, was the Michele-Luigi duet preceding the murder of Luigi. The female lead, singer Marcy Stonikas, performed technically very well, but her interpretation seemed colder and more distant than that of Tsotsoros and Skiba.
At times, however, certain finishing touches were lacking, detracting from the performance. Several times a solo line would build tension within the music, but when the line was passed to another voice the tension was lost, leaving climaxes empty and unfulfilling. At other points, the soloist was expressively moving the line forward, but the orchestra stayed at a slightly slower tempo, causing the music to pull apart momentarily. Moments like this were few and far between, but still prevalent enough to keep the performance from being all it could have been.
Many people question the appropriateness of asking young artists to perform works that are not suited to them in developmental level. Puccini’s works are often considered quite heavy and demanding on performers, and therefore more appropriate to older, more mature performers.
This perspective, however, raises conflicting questions. After all, how are students to study the works if they cannot sing them until their voices and interpretations have matured?
“We are all here to become better musicians and artists,” senior Scott Skiba said. “While I cannot speak for all those involved, as I do not know their minds, I can speak for myself, and can say that I definitely benefited from participating in this project.”