Opera buffa when a Turk goes to Italy

Most operas are lucky if they can get a half-hearted chuckle out of an audience, and it is even more impressive if a real laugh is produced. The audience for the IU Opera Theater's production of "The Turk in Italy" sounded more like the laugh track to a Friday night standup comedian than an opera.\nGioacchino Rossini's " The Turk In Italy" is an opera buffa, or a comic opera. It stands in contrast to the other operatic genre of the period, opera seria, which generally were the more stereotypical operatic plots. In opera seria, the boy and girl fall in love, sing and eventually everyone dies -- the normal operatic downer. The tradition of opera buffa is not only comedic, but also self-satirizing. One of it's common targets is opera itself. This tradition is well-played in "Turk." \nProsdocimo, the main character played by Chris Carducci, a graduate student studying voice, is a poet desperately searching for a new subject for his opera buffa. Everything he has thought of has already been done, a comment on the repetitive nature of most operas at the time. While drowning his fruitless efforts in a large bottle of wine, he stumbles upon a group of gypsies. He discovers that the beautiful fortune teller Zaida, played by Hyoonsoo Sohn, an artist diploma student, was once a slave in an Erzerum harem and fell in love with the prince, Selim. The two became engaged, but jealous rivals convinced Selim she was unfaithful, and she was forced to flee for her life. \nOf course, coincidentally, a Turkish sultan is due to arrive in Naples that very day, and, lo and behold, it turns out to be Selim. Of course, setting foot on shore, he immediately falls for a beautiful Italian woman, Donna Fiorilla, played by Marcy Richardson, a graduate student studying voice. Fiorilla is married but sees no problem with entertaining the affections of other men. This love triangle, with the added effects of a jealous husband and a jealous suitor, gives the poet more than enough material to manipulate the lovers into a wonderfully comedic plot for his opera.\nThere is always the potential for opera to be taken a little too seriously. Oftentimes, the respect for the composer and the craft are taken too far. Fortunately, this production showed no such tendency for respect whatsoever.\nIt boded well that the mixed gypsy chorus written by Rossini was played entirely by men. The beginning of the opera erased any pretense of seriousness with the comedic physical acting by the entire chorus, especially the "women," whose manipulation of pregnant bulk was surprisingly graceful.\nFiorilla's admirer, Don Narciso, played by Bryon Grohman, a doctoratal candidate studying voice, was a delight to watch, despite his brief stage time. While his character is designed to be amusing, Grohman's over-the-top affectations made the role stick out among all the chaos. \nCarducci deserves praise for his unusual role in an opera. Since it is a part that has no aria of its own, he did not have much opportunity to display his vocal skills. Though, as an actor, he was unsurpassed by the rest of the cast. Obtrusive and crafty, blunt and manipulative, Carducci captured the character of the poet perfectly.\nAt one point, the poet pronounces, "Because I am Italian, I like to do things just as they were done in days of old." This opera may date from 1814, but this production employs a decidedly modern sense of humor. The array of sword jokes, men dressed as women and women fighting like men assures "Turk" to be a delight.\nTickets are still available for next weekend's performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Musical Arts Center. Tickets are $15 to $30 for the general public, $10 to $20 for IU students with a valid student ID. For more information contact the MAC Box Office at 855-2255.