arts & entertainment

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MOT Maestro

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

This production includes an added
dream sequence incorporating music from
Zaza, another opera by the same com-
teven Mercurio will be in familiar
poser. The segment takes audiences back
surroundings when he conducts
to the time when Canio met his wife.
Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci
Italian tenor Antonello Palombi
and closes the spring season of the
takes the role of Canio, alternating with
Michigan Opera Theatre.
American tenor John Pickle in his MOT
Mercurio, who has
debut. American soprano Jill
recorded Leoncavallo's
Gardner debuts with MOT
only successful opera, is
as Nedda. Also performing
making his 17th appear-
as part of the production is
ance conducting an opera
the Michigan Opera Theatre
for MOT and will bring
Children's Chorus (see side-
his family into the open-
bar below).
ing-night audience.
"When I do a live perfor-
The piece will have five
mance, I want it to appear
performances May 12-20.
very spontaneous so there
"I Pagliacci is one of
are risks to be taken:' says
those high-action operas
Mercurio, who once again
with a plot that moves
collaborates on a production
well:' says Mercurio, 55,
with French Jewish director
Steven Mercurio: While his
in a phone conversation
Bernard Uzan (they worked
from New York. "There's
mother brought Jewish
together in last year's
a lot of drama and high
heritage to the family, his
Rigoletto)."For a record-
father had Italian roots.
emotional content with
ing, everything has to be in
beautiful music and quite
place because it becomes a
a few arias. It's come to be a fan favorite
document that will last forever."
and a favorite of the singers."
Mercurio is very comfortable with
In the production, sung in Italian with
the Italian language. While his mother
English surtitles, art and life collide as the brought Jewish heritage to the family, his
loves and jealousies of a group of travel-
father had Italian roots.
ing players spill onto the stage. Canio, the
"I spent a year in Italy learning the
leader of the troupe, plays a pagliaccio
language because I believe if you're going
(clown) who takes the stage to make the
to conduct opera, you have to be fluent
audience laugh, but his white-faced mask
in Italian," Mercurio explains. "We didn't
cannot hide the knowledge of his wife
speak any Italian in our home when I was
Nedda's betrayal, and he vows revenge.
a child although my father knew the lan-

S

MOT Children's Chorus

E

mily Finkelstein is in harmony
with her dad when it comes to
career direction.
While Meir Finkelstein's core respon-
sibilities have to do with being cantor at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield,
Emily hopes to be an opera singer and is
getting an early start as a member of the
Michigan Opera Theatre Children's Chorus
(MOTCC).
Members of the chorus are asked to take
part in some MOT main-stage produc-
tions throughout the season — including
the upcoming I Pagliacci — and recently
participated in their own fully-staged pro-
duction of H.M.S. Pinafore.
"It feels so professional to be part of
the chorus:' says Emily, 12, who lives in
Huntington Woods and is a sixth-grader

48

May 3 ffi 2012

JN

at Norup International School in Oak Park.
"I've made lots of friends so the experi-
ence is very relaxing." She will be on stage
May 12, 16 and 19 in I Pagliacci.
Miles Eichenhorn, 12, of West
Bloomfield, is a sixth-grader at West Hills
Middle School and divides some of his
after-school activities between the chorus
and bar mitzvah preparations at Temple
Kol Ami. He hopes to become an opera or
musical theater performer.
"The chorus lets audiences see what
people of a young age can do',' Miles says.
"It's a cool experience'
Part of the choral program is vocal
training.
Gabrielle Feber, 12, has fun with the
voice exercises she has learned through
MOTCC. A resident of Huntington Woods,

Conductor Steven Mercurio doesn't
clown around; I Pagliacci marks his 17th
production with Michigan Opera Theatre.

guage conversationally."
Mercurio says his parents long won-
dered about the source of his serious
musical interests. His mom had a deli, and
his dad was an accountant.
"By the time I was 18 or 19, I wanted
music that had more levels, whether sym-
phonic or operatic:' says the conductor,
who taught himself guitar before moving
on to piano.
"My classical music training has been
from the present backward. I was interest-
ed in the avant-garde contemporary musi-
cal scene before turning back through the
works of [classical composers)."
Mercurio earned his undergraduate
degree from Boston University and his
master's from the Juilliard School.
"My degrees are in composition, which
teaches music from the inside out, what
composers do and why they do what they
do. As a conductor, I'm the composers'
advocate. Leonard Bernstein was one of
my teachers and role models. He was very
generous with his musical spirit.
"I have many friends who are compos-
ers, and I've started to conduct both my
music and theirs. I like the performance
aspect. Composing is the personal expres-
sion; conducting is the public one."
Since early work as music director of the
Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., and
principal conductor of the Opera Company
of Philadelphia, Mercurio has had varied
experiences that have included perfor-
mances with Teatro Filarmonico in Verona,
Italy; Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels,
Belgium; and Germany's Bonn Opera.

she is a sixth-grader at Cranbrook
and studies at Temple Emanu-El. With
Eichenhorn, she will be on the I Pagliacci
stage May 18 and 20.
Hoping to take up acting as a profession,
Gabrielle also has been in productions of
the Community House in Birmingham,
Stagecrafters and Ridgedale Players.
"In the chorus, we all think it's impor-
tant to make sure what we sing sounds
good coming from the stage: Gabrielle
says. "These opportunities have helped me
with memorizing."

❑

- Suzanne Chessler

Symphonic appearances have reached
from the London Philharmonic to the
Prague Philharmonia, and telecasts and
recordings have teamed him with stars
from Andrea Bocelli to Sting.
"I'm writing a symphony about dogs
and their owners;' Mercurio says. "It's a
life-affirming symphony based on a text
by Eugene O'Neill, and I hope to have pro-
jections for it.
"The idea is to let the orchestra and
community come together so that people
who aren't necessarily classical music fans
will find the symphony socially relevant.
"It's great Americana, and I think it
would be a family-friendly evening:"
Mercurio, and his family, devoted to a
poodle, includes wife Lisa, who grew up in
a Jewish home and has worked in enter-
tainment management, and teenage twins
who have had a b'nai mitzvah and recently
participated in a home seder.
"When I'm in Detroit and not rehearsing,
I like to take the family to cultural centers:'
Mercurio says. "The Detroit Institute of
Arts is fantastic. Last year, I took the kids to
the Henry Ford Museum, and this year we'll
find somewhere else." E

MOT presents / Pagliacci at the
Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway.
Show times: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May
12; Wednesday, May 16; Friday, May
18; and Saturday, May 19; and 2:30
p.m. Sunday, May 20. $29-$121.
(313) 237-7464;
www.michiganopera.org .

A scene from the MOTCC March
production of HMS Pinafore

Auditions for MOTCC are scheduled by appointment 5-8:30 p.m. Mondays, May
21 and June 4 and 11, at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway, Detroit. The
preparatory chorus is for ages 8-11, and the main chorus is for ages 10-16.
Tryouts require singing a prepared song and reciting a prepared poem. For
information and audition scheduling, contact Megan Warzecha at
mwarzecha@motopera.org .

