Intermezzo offers unusual double bill

Janáček’s Diary sees first staged performance in Boston

Boston , MA --Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series begins its fifth year with a double bill of two one-act operas. The program opens with Leoš Janáček’s tragic and poignant The Diary of One Who Vanished for tenor, mezzo and piano in its first staged performances in the Boston area. The work is paired with Thomas Pasatieri’s comic farce Signor Deluso.  Both operas will be performed in the round and in English.

Performances are May 11 and 12, 2007 at 8 p.m. at Berklee College of Music’s David Friend Recital Hall, 921 Boylston Street , Boston . Tickets cost $25 for adults; $20 for seniors; and $15 for students.  Tickets can be reserved in advance by calling 617-899-4261 or purchased at the door.  Seating is limited.  See www.intermezzo-opera.org for more information.

Based on a series of 22 anonymous poems dating from 1916, Janáček’s Diary tells the story of a young farmer who spies a gypsy girl in the bushes.  He is torn over his attraction to her and his duty to his mother and the family farm.  The gypsy girl eventually seduces him and bears him a son.  In the end, he quietly leaves with his new family. The cast includes Brent Wilson as the young man and Emily Marvosh as the seductive gypsy.  David Paul Gibson stages the work and Matthew Larson serves as music director.

American composer Thomas Pasatieri fashioned Signor Deluso after Molière’s farce Signarella. In this comedy of errors, Célie is in love with Leon , but her father will not allow it. Deluso's wife believes he is having an affair with Célie. Deluso believes his wife is carrying on with Leon, who believes that Deluso is married to Célie. When the confusion finally reaches the boiling point, Rosine enters the fray to straighten everything out.  The cast features such notable Boston singers as Joyce Ting, Cheryl Medeiros Nancarrow, Vanessa Schukis, Daniel Benavent, John Whittlesey, and Graham Wright.  Andrew Ryker directs, and Matthew Larson is music director.

The production is also underwritten by generous grants from the Boston Cultural Council and the Hinson-Rasmussen Foundation.

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About the company - Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series was born out of a vision to produce contemporary chamber operas and bring new and exciting works to the musical life of New England. Chamber opera merges the musical and dramatic flavor of grand opera with the immediacy of art song, performed on a smaller, more intimate scale.  Intermezzo has commissioned five chamber operas and produced nearly twenty.  In 2006, their production of Britten’s Curlew River was named Best Staged Opera by the Boston Phoenix.