From the April 21, 2001 Italy Daily (International Herald Tribune)

NeilI’s ‘Lady’ Puzzles
And Dazzles Palermo
English-Language Production Perplexes Opera Fans
By Elisabetta Povoledo
Special to Italy Daily

PALERMO — As the lights dimmed and the first notes sounded in the Sicilian capital’s majestic Teatro Massimo, the second largest theater in Europe when it was built 100 years ago, a perceptible ripple ran through the audience.
   Though it was no surprise to the spruced-up crowd that they were about watch the Italian premiere of Kurt Weill’s 1941 hit, "Lady in the Dark," many seemed unprepared for the drum’s first rat-a-tat-tat, which quickly blossomed into a full-score, brassy, blaring Broadway musical overture.
   The theater’s decision to stage a philologically correct version of the musical - both songs and spoken parts, of which there were many, were rigorously in English - did little to diminish the audience’s perplexity, over-titles notwithstanding. Still, it would take more than a jazz-inflected overture to faze this set of Sicilian opera aficionados, which have by now become accustomed to the often unconventional choices offered by the theater’s direction.
   Though most opera houses in Italy are dolloping massive doses of Verdi into the repertoire this year to commemorate the centenary of the composer’s death, the Massimo has limited itself to one crowd-pleaser, "Rigoletto," and the almost unknown "Masnadieri," a tragedy about sibling rivalry and betrayal. The season opened with a controversial staging of Alban Berg’s "Lulu," first performed in Paris in 1979, and "Lady in the Dark" will be followed by a ballet version of Jean Cocteau’s surrealist "Les Manes de la Tour Eiffel."
   "There is a tendency here to tackle early 20th-century operas," explained Giovanni Mazzara, the Massimo’s artistic director, "but while this is one area we are strong in, we certainly don’t ignore the traditional repertoire." Still, he admitted that in recent years the theater has opted for experimental or avant-garde directors and predicted that the staging of next December’s "Rigoletto", by Graham Vick, would be like "a punch in the stomach."
   Some traditionalists may have also felt left in the dark listening to Weill's musical fantasy about psychoanalysis, which will run until the end of April. Applause during the curtain calls was polite more than enthusiastic.
   Admittedly, the story of Liza Elliot and her attempts to overcome debilitating panic and depression by resorting to an analyst's couch might not immediately leap forth as a plausible plot line for a musical comedy. But if anyone could squeeze a laugh or a light-hearted ditty out of interior angst, it would have to be Kurt Weill, then considered one of Europe's best known composers, and his collaborators: popular dramatist Moss Hart, and legendary lyricist Ira Gershwin.
   Indeed, when the play premiered at New York's Alvin Theater in January 1941, it was an instant success, playing two seasons on Broadway and touring during its third for a total of 777 performances.
   The staging of the Palermo "Lady in the Dark," which stars soprano Raina Kabaivanska, makes frequent references to the era of the original production. The sets, by Lauro Crisman, pick up the taste in late French deco that was then popular in American interior design as well as the peculiar strain of surrealism found in some film sets, especially in Hollywood musicals, of the late 1930s and 1940s. The costumes, by Elena Cicorella, draw directly from Elsa Schiaparelli's collections of the period (during the show's original run, the costumes by Hattie Carnegie became the season's vogue).
   Ms. Kabaivanska is a plucky heroine, belting out show tunes with the same ease she has shown in interpreting the more dramatic roles for which she is famous - like Desdemona in Verdi's "Othello" or Violetta in "La Traviata." "I am in the category of singers who also act, I feel more at ease on the stage than in real life," she said, adding that she actively lobbied the theater to stage Weill's musical. "I like challenges and a role where I sing and have to speak in English was a challenge with myself," she explained. The hardest thing for the Bulgarian-born soprano was to work out a different vocal style from that used in opera.
   The stage director, Giorgio Marini, for his part was intrigued by a comedy that put together high fashion and psychoanalysis, "so antithetical to each other."A great admirer of musicals, which are growing increasingly popular in Italy, Mr. Marini embraced the chance to do something out of the ordinary within the restrictions of a publicly funded institution. "The Massimo dares to have more unconventional programming, they are unusual that way," he enthused, "but of course the theater is no different from any other large public opera house in Italy with all its organizational problems."
   The Massimo has spent the better part of the last 10 years trying to sort out its organizational problems. The theater was closed in 1974 after updated national safety regulations required thorough renovation. It remained closed for 26 years, during which more than 100 billion lire were pumped into the renovation effort, without any apparent results. After two decades of inactivity, the theater became a symbol of state waste and of corruption in public works, especially in Sicily. "It was a source of hidden wealth for many people," admitted Mr. Mazzara. However, when it reopened to the public three years ago in much better health, it became a different sort of symbol. "The Massimo is a symbol of the rebirth of Palermo," said Simona Barabesi, a spokeswoman for the theater, voicing a popular belief that recent Palermo administrations have been successful in improving the city's quality of life - at least for opera lovers.
   Not everyone at Thursday's premiere was nonplussed by the all-English version. In the audience was a group of Americans from the "Society for Modern Psychoanalysis," an international group of analysts who happened to be in Palermo for their annual meeting. Wanting to see something at the opera house, they got tickets to the show, unaware of the story. While the locals debated the appropriateness of hosting a Broadway musical in a temple to classical music, the analysts held forth on the therapist's treatment of Liza."He acted like a nut. He interpreted too much, pissed her off and so she left," said Ed Kramer, one of the psychiatrists. "He really should have been less invasive."