I happen to love adventures, and unexpected treats are always a highlight of life. However, being surprised at discovering a great evening at the Regina Opera is akin to kids from Manhattan attending an event at the Kings Theater and telling their friend’ parents, who grew up watching baseball at Ebbets Field, that they’ve “discovered” Flatbush. I’m probably the last to know.
Brooklyn’s Regina Opera company is in the middle of their 54th season. Nino Pantano has reviewed them for us in the past, but he is finally getting past the point where he can get out, so it fell to me to attend a recent performance of Cavalleria Rusticana.
In another life I worked at another Brooklyn paper, The Phoenix. I remember Nino coming by our Atlantic Avenue office telling stories about his hero, Enrico Caruso. That would be in the 1970’s. It’s a mark of pride for me that he told the same stories in my own newspaper office decades later.
Anyway, Nino reviewed Regina way back then, and looking through the Phoenix archives I found a letter from Francine Garber, the same Francine Garber that takes out ads and invited me to the show (and is now the President of Regina Opera). I’m reprinting the letter below, from the July 3, 1986 edition.
Regina Says Thanks
Thank you very much for attending a performance of Regina Opera’s recent production of “Tosca” and for writing a revew of the show for The Phoenix
Our staff is always pleased when members of the press take note of the work of a modest- size ensemble such as Regina Opera and give it recognition. The feedback you have provided helps our volunteer Staff and singers to make each production better than the last and encourages us to continue to bring music at an affordable ticket price to the Community. Since the major part of our operating budget comes from public donations and ticket sales, it is crucial that the neighborhood be aware of the frequency and quality of our performances. Reviews such as yours serve to encourage people to come and support our Company. We at Regina Opera wish you a pleasant summer and hope that you will again be in the audience when we begin our 16th season this Fall. — Francine Garber, Secretary, Regina Opera Company.
Well Francine, let me continue the tradition. I was invited to see Cavalleria Rusticana, which was performed the first two weeks of March. I arrived at the performance space, Our Lady of Perpetual Space Catholic Academy of Brooklyn, on 68th Street on the edge of Brooklyn Chinatown, a bit before three. After being recognized for entry at the front table by a man wearing a blue vest, I went through blue doors into a large, elegant auditorium with plush red seats and a large, red curtained stage with gold trimming.
My mother, who grew up in the old country, was a big fan of opera. The Texaco Metropolitan Opera was on the radio every Saturday in the house growing up. After my dad died, she volunteered at the NYC Opera and also subscribed to the Met.
I’m a big music person, but I never gave opera much mind. I thought I should go with her at least once, and so I did have my one Metropolitan Opera experience, very fancy surrounded by a lot of very sophisticated dressers, but I wasn’t taken by the whole pomp and circumstance.
So in my ignorance I wasn’t expecting much in the school auditorium. You could pick just about any seat you liked, and I sat near the orchestra. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a full orchestra. Who has a full orchestra in a school auditorium? Regina does, and they turned out to be unbelievably great. I watched them tune up, then Garber took the stage with some announcements, and finally a conductor picked up a baton and I and the rest of the not so finely dressed but highly appreciative audience paid rapt attention to the first act of the day, which was a musical performance.
They played Mozart Concerto for Oboe in C, K 314. While the full orchestra, which consisted of strings, woodwinds, timpani and all the rest made great sounds, the highlight was their oboe soloist, Ellen Gruber. To get an idea of the caliber of the musicians, I looked Ellen up online. She is a student of oboe at the Manhattan School of Music, and has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, the Symphony of Westchester, and the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. I got to hear her close-up in a high school auditorium.
The music was beautiful Mozart, written in 1777. An article I found written by a William E. Runyon, summarizes the piece as a delightful little concerto, borne in the voice of the effervescent, wry oboe.
Intermission came next, and I found my way to the basement bathroom, encountering men and women in costumes getting ready for their performance upstairs.
Then it became time for the main performance and Francine took the stage again to announce the winners of a raffle, with oddball prizes donated by local merchants, plus one crisp $50 bill.
How could one not want to donate money to this organization, which creates smiles on the faces of both the audience and the performers.
The lights darkened and the stage lit up in blue as the opening music of Rusticana began.
The whole play takes place on an Easter Sunday in Sicily, around 1890. Things begin early in the morning as a man leaves a woman’s apartment. He’s not the milkman, rather the lover of the wife of the garbage collector, who I guess picks up the garbage overnight. Did I say the wife’s name is Lola?
It’s actually more complicated than that, as the guy, whose name is Turiddu, had been going out with Lola, but when he went in the army, she married the garbage collector. So he started going out with a very nice woman named Santuzza, who lived nearby with her mother.
But Turiddu having a girlfriend made Lola jealous and so she did her husband dirty on the sly with Turiddu. Does this kind of thing sound familiar?
In any case a lot of things happen, told all in beautiful song accompanied by the beautiful orchestra, and even though the songs were sung in Italian, the words were flashed way above the stage, in a very artful way, so you could follow along even if you hadn’t read the summary printed in the program.
There is lots of ensemble performing, with the ladies of the town and the churchgoers (remember it’s Easter), but for me the best (along with the oboist in the first half) was Santuzza, who was also called Santa.
Santa was played by Lara Tillotson at the performance I saw. Remember, I don’t know much about opera, but of all the performers, her singing and acting and everything about her stood out. I looked her up online as well for this article, and she’s got an impressive website, which includes among much else, a quote from good old Nino, who was struck by her “stunning upper registers” and “burnished lows.” She has sang with the Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and the Opera in the Heights. Evidently the Regina Opera Company’s reach goes far beyond Bay Ridge.
I’m not somebody who goes to a lot of romantic movies or plays, and even less do I get that emotionally involved in drama (I’m more of a Curb Your Enthusiasm guy), but by the end of the afternoon, when the inevitable happens at the duel between the garbage man and the stupid guy, and Santa flings herself on the floor in a weeping mess, the lump in my throat grew and it took a little while before I regained my composure enough to walk back outside to my car.
I have seen all kinds of performances in my life – the Kinks, Richard Thompson, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and much more, but I have to say, believe it or not, that this day stands up against all the rest of my musical experiences.
There is more to the season, and I’ll be going back on April 7th for their 54th Anniversary Concert at 3 pm. In May they are performing Lucia Di Lammermoor on May 11,12,18 and 19th. The MOST EXPENSIVE tickets are just $25. Kids under 12 are free, and they also present completely free shows, the next one May 7 at 7 pm. It seems tickets are available at the door, as well as from the obligatory website reginaopera.org. You can call them at (718) 259-2772.
