WE were intrigued by Marilyn McCraven's glowing description of Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore's recent production of two one-act operas by Puccini, "Gianni Schicchi" and "Sister Angelica," both performed in English by local singers ("A Labor of Love," Oct. 29).
Ms. McCraven wrote that her friend, Dorothy Lofton Jones, had formed the opera company upon her retirement from the telephone company in 1991 in order to give local musicians a performance venue, bring opera to "non-traditional" audiences such as African-Americans at a reasonable cost and, in Ms. McCraven's words, "to spread the magic of opera."
So we were pleasantly surprised by the good-sized crowd that turned out for the matinee performance last Sunday at Christ Lutheran Church on South Charles Street. The audience included a mix of young and old, black and white, the merely curious and die-hard fans.
What we hadn't bargained for was what those innocent-sounding words, "the magic of opera," meant in practical terms.
The first piece, "Gianni Schicchi," was a light-hearted comedy in which a crafty old peasant outwits his snobbish, greedy neighbors and secures their inheritance for his own daughter's dowry. The peasant Gianni Schicchi was portrayed with impromptu bravura by Frank J. Hooper, a favorite of area dinner theater audiences.
But the magic of the afternoon lay in soprano Annette Houston's portrayal of Sister Angelica, a Florentine noblewoman banished to a convent to expiate her sin of bearing a child out of wedlock. As the tragedy unfolded, we noticed those around us become misty-eyed. By the time the last chords sounded, many in the audience were weeping openly. When the lights came up, their faces expressed astonishment at how deeply they had been moved.
In opera, tears are the best review. It's rare enough when a professional troupe produces such an effect; for an amateur company, it's an achievement indeed. Bravo to this fine group of performers.