The University of Iowa School of Music's “Rita” and “La colombe" at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts -- April 11 through 13.
Friday, April 11, through Sunday, April 13
Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, 1301 Fifth Street, Coralville IA
Closing the University of Iowa School of Music's 2024-25 opera season with a trio of ravishing performances April 11 through 13, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts will house a pair of obscure yet treasured pieces that have enjoyed a recent resurgence: Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita, a darkly comic look at power dynamics in relationships, and La Colombe, in which Charles Gounod’s sparkling score accompanies a farcical tale of seduction.
An opéra comique in one act, composed by Gaetano Donizetti to a French libretto by Gustave Vaëz, Rita is a domestic comedy consisting of eight musical numbers connected by spoken dialogue. The work was completed in 1841, and as it was never performed in Donizetti's lifetime, it premiered posthumously at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on May 7, 1860. At an inn belonging to Rita, the tyrannical and abusive wife of the timid Peppe, the couple finds that their lives are thrown into turmoil with the unexpected arrival of Gaspar, Rita's first husband, whom all believed to have drowned. In reality, Gaspar had run away to Canada. Believing that Rita has died in a fire, Gaspar has returned to obtain her death certificate so that he can remarry. When the two meet, Gaspar tries to run away. Peppe, however, sees this as an opportunity to free himself from Rita's slaps because Gaspar is her legitimate husband. The two men agree to a game such that whoever wins has to remain with Rita.
An opéra comique in two acts by composer Charles Gounod with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, La colombe is based on the poem "Le Faucon" by Jean de La Fontaine, itself after a tale (V,9) in The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. It premiered in a one-act version at the Theater der Stadt in Baden-Baden on August 3, 1860, and was later presented in a revised two-act version, with additional music, on June 7, 1866, by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart in Paris. In La colombe, a gifted dove belongs to Horace, who with his manservant and godson Mazet has abandoned Florentine life after failing to woo Countess Sylvie. He is still hopeful, however, and invites her to dinner. But Mazet, desperately searching the garden for something suitable to cook for dinner, discovers that all of the chickens have been eaten, Horace consequently asks Mazet to instead serve the pet dove.
With the one-act operas directed by Abbigail Cote and respectively conducted by Matthew Clarke andYifei (Joey) Sun, the University of Iowa School of Music's Rita and La Colombe will be performed at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts April 11 through 13, with performances Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $10-20, and more information and tickets are available by calling (319)335-1160 and visiting CoralvilleArts.com and Hancher.uiowa.edu.
