In this Sonatas & Soundscapes interview that aired Wednesday, November 5th, host Bradley Fuller is joined by Opera at USC's Ellen Schlaefer for a glimpse into Menotti's first full-length opera, anecdotes from her time working with the composer, and an overview of the students and faculty coming together to make it all happen.
TRANSCRIPT:
FULLER: Ellen, great as always to have you!
SCHLAEFER: You make me laugh and smile every day when I hear you on the radio.
FULLER: Well, the feeling is mutual. I don’t necessarily hear you when I’m on air, but when you are here in the studio, it's always a great time.
We have coming up soon at USC—Opera at USC—a production of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul. It’s maybe one of his most famous works after Amahl and the Night Visitors, and certainly part of the operatic repertory. But certainly also not an operatic warhorse like Carmen or La bohème or The Marriage of Figaro. How did you decide on The Consul as the first production of this 2025-26 year?
SCHLAEFER: Honestly, we had the singers to do it. The young people that have committed their time and energy and their talent for this particular production have been phenomenal. And you don't always have the right combination to do something like this.
I also thought it was a good piece to introduce the world to our new music director. Dr Clinton Smith has joined us, so he's conducting this year. And it's also been on my list to do before I hang up the…I guess my pencil? I don't know what directors have to hang up. [laughter]
But I had the great privilege of working with Menotti a lot in the early days of my career building. And I stage-managed this production for him at the Washington Opera (it's now called the Washington National Opera). And I actually spent about 10 years going places and working, and Menotti would be there and he’d go [imitating Menotti] “Oh my God, what are you doing here?” [laughter]
FULLER: He was an Italian citizen and described himself as an American composer but always kept his Italian citizenship.
SCHLAEFER: But I thought this would be a good piece dramatically for our students to work on. Last year was a year of comedies, and, you know, “comedy tomorrow, tragedy tonight”— isn't that what the what the song says? So it's an intense piece.
Our student orchestra is playing it beautifully. Our student singer-actors have been so committed from the very beginning. And it's a little surreal in some places. Do you know it at all?
FULLER: Why don't you share a bit of the background? No spoilers because I don't think—it isn't so well known as, say, Traviata or something.
SCHLAEFER: It’s not. It was written in 1949, and premiered in1950. It was his first full-length opera. And he actually premiered it on Broadway. It opened in one Broadway house and then moved to a bigger one, I think, a couple of weeks later, because Maestro Menotti (or we used to call him “G.C.”) wanted, you know, a more accessible place for audiences to come to.
It's a music drama, and it is set in the background of an undisclosed country in Europe. On the front page it says that it’s set now, which was 1950. So, it obviously involves a lot of displaced persons trying to find new places to live. And they go to a particular consulate and they are faced with bureaucracy. And when you think about it, every one of us has had to, at some point, navigate the world of bureaucracy and how you react to it. I’m not going to tell you what the end is.
We are setting it in the 1950s. Our set is designed by the wonderful Nate Terracio who also runs the Koger Center, so he's been busy. What else do you want to know about it? Because, gosh, I don't want to give too much away!
FULLER: Well, you've already touched on some themes. You mentioned bureaucracy, and I think it's not sharing too much to say that the stakes of this bureaucracy are just more than elevated blood pressure at the DMV, but there are some real—
SCHLAEFER: I don't know, my blood pressure can get pretty high going down to the DMV [laughter]
FULLER: So, there is this political situation you mentioned, a kind of authoritarian country. No specifics given there. But it centers on a family, and so how many roles are in the cast? You mentioned you had the right kind of students—graduate, undergrad students—for this. What roles are there that you said “Hey, I have the people for this?”
SCHLAEFER: Well there are 13 characters in this—or 14. There's a mother. Her son is named John. And John's wife Magda. And Magda is the central character of the piece. John has been involved with some people that the secret police come after. There are two sides—political tension—but it's never specified what, exactly.
So, he tells her that she needs to go to the consul—doesn't say what country or anything else like that—and get visas to leave. And they have a baby. But they are very poor, and the police come after John. But he escapes them. So, day after day, after day, Magda goes to the consulate. There she encounters other people who are waiting.
There's a man named Mr. Kofner, who I envision as sort of a retired professor type. There's a rich woman named Vera Boronel. There is a magician, and so that's the little bit where the surrealness comes in. There's a foreign woman who only speaks in Italian. A woman who clearly has survived a concentration camp. And the whole consulate is overseen by a character called the Secretary. And she is the face of the bureaucracy that they're all up against. Do I need to tell you more?
FULLER: Let’s not spoil too much, since this isn’t quite so familiar. But I would just add for listeners who are thinking about American history—this would be right when the McCarthy Era is getting rolling right around 1950, late 1940s.
SCHLAEFER: I think it was also in reaction to European scientists trying to get over into this country, and just the difficulty. I mean, think of how torn up the world was then. Borders were changing rapidly. And, you know, Gian Carlo—I feel I worked enough and drove him around enough that I can say “Gian Carlo”—you know was over here in school and just out of school when World War II broke out. So he stayed here. But his family was in Europe, in Italy. And he never became an American citizen.
But I remember I also stage managed the little snippet of the Kennedy Center Honors when he was given that Lifetime Achievement stuff. And there was a buzz a little bit going “Uh-oh, he never got…he's not an American” [laughter]
But he was an American. And the music is so passionate. People are always going to disparage. People pick. But this one, I mean, you get swept up in it. And again, I think our young orchestra plays this so very, very well. You’re not going to walk away—well, I walk away humming a tune because I've been hearing it every night. But it is something that I think needs to be seen.
I think you’ve seen our billboards, which really pop?
FULLER: Could you describe them for listeners who haven’t?
SCHLAEFER: Well, yes: they're very bright, and give the idea of a light shining on the title of it. And it could be the police interrogation light. It could just be an office light or something like that. And at the USC School of Music, Marlena Crovatt-Bagwell designed this for our billboards, our poster, things like that. The idea is that you have to look at this and then you have to wonder: what is it about?
The show itself runs about two hours, and it is fully staged, fully costumed, brilliantly illuminated by our resident lighting designer, Julie Duro, who is lighting a ballet in Tulsa this week. So she gets around. And I just think it's going to be one of those theatrical experiences. A total immersion into music and drama.
FULLER: What more could be said? Ellen, thanks so much for sharing today and all best to you and the student musicians onstage, backstage, and in the pit for Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul by Opera at USC.
SCHLAEFER: Well, thank you, and keep the music going.
More information about the peformances can be found at sc.edu/music/opera
Opera at USC is a financial supporter of South Carolina Public Radio.
