Il cappello di paglia di Firenze is a farce by Nino Rota, probably better known as a composer of film music particularly associated with Fellini.  It’s playing right now at UoT Opera in a production directed by Jennifer Tarver.  It’s an ambitious show.  There’s a clever two level set, designed by Michelle Tracey,; indoors on an upper level and outdoors at stage level, and clearly a lot of thought and work has gone into both sets and costumes.  The direction and choreography (Anna Theodosakis) is involved and makes use of the full space of the MacMillan Theatre with comings and goings all over the place energetically executed by quite a large cast.It’s a very silly plot.  A Parisian bourgeois, on his wedding day, loses control of his horse which eats an expensive straw hat belonging to a married woman while she is “dallying in the bushes” with a officer.  They show up at his house threatening vengeance unless he replaces the hat.  Various antics ensue as he pursues a suitable hat pursued in turn by his dyspeptic father in law, bride and all the wedding guests.  All the usual farce elements are present; mistaken identity, people in the wrong bed,  people hiding in closets etc etc.  The challenge is to keep it sufficiently fast paced that it stays funny rather than becoming silly to the point of boredom.  This production manages that very well and if it’s not the greatest opera UoT Opera have ever attempted it’s one of their more successful productions.

It’s a large cast, thus suitable for a student show, and some characters have plenty to do but only one, the bride Elena, gets anything that could be called an aria.  Actually she gets a couple which allows Teresa Tucci to demonstrate a voice capable of both considerable lyricism and very decent coloratura.  Cameron Mazzi as the bridegroom Fadinard has lots to do in both singing and acting departments and does both very well.  The most broadly comic character is lena’s grumpy father Nonancourt who is played by James Coole-Stevenson who does a very good job, for a young guy, of portraying a crotchety old one.

Chihiro Yasufuku and George Theodorakopoulos make an attractive and lively pair of lovers with another good performance from Dante Mullin-Santone as the murderous cuckolded husband.  There are some good cameos from the supporting cast.  I particularly enjoyed Lissy Meyerowitz as the Baroness who mistakes Fadinard for a virtuoso violinist.  It’s hard, Elena, apart to sinlge out vocal performances as it’s very much an ensemble piece to which all the soloists and a very good chorus contribute.  Russell Braun conducts and keeps thing moving at farce pace while getting the sort of full blown sound from the orchestra that Rota’s music calls for.

It’s a fun show.  There are three more performances.  Last night’s cast go again on Saturday evening while the alternate cast plays tonight and Sunday afternoon.

Photo credits: Richard and Hugh Lu