Postwar opera at ECU

East Carolina University's School of Music will present Gian Carlo Menotti's “The Consul” at 7 p.m. today-Sunday in A.J. Fletcher Recital Hall.

“The Consul” is an opera in three acts set in an unidentified European totalitarian country. The local production will be conducted by Daniel Bara, directed by John Kramar with musical preparation by Eric Stellrecht.

Lead roles of Magda Sorel and John Sorel will be played by Michelle Ayres and Harris Ipock Saturday and Elizabeth Thompson and Nathan Walker today and Sunday.

The opera premiered March 1, 1950, in Philadelphia. A month later it was performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, where it ran for eight months.

“The Consul” received the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in Music and the 1950 New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Musical.

The Broadway production made stars of three young American opera singers too: Patricia Neway, Cornell MacNeil and Gloria Lane. MacNeil became the leading Verdi baritone of the Metropolitan Opera and Neway and Lane found permanent homes at New York City Opera. Neway eventually created the role of the Reverend Mother in “The Sound of Music” and performed at City Opera every Sunday during her “day off” from the Broadway production of “The Consul.”

By 1960, “The Consul” had made its mark as one of the most important American operas of the postwar period, a designation it continues to hold today.

Menotti was inspired by a story in the New York Times from Feb. 12, 1947, about Polish-born Magda Sorel's denial of entry into the United States. She and her family were trying to escape persecution by Communist secret police agents. So moved by Sorel's tragic life story that “To this we've come” aria in “The Consul” was written in one night. Often referred to as the “Papers” aria, the English language solo is considered by critics to be both dramatic and stirring.

In Act 1, political dissident John Sorel is fleeing the secret police. His wife and mother successfully hide him. After they leave, he decides to escape to the border while his wife, Magda, applies for a visa to leave the country.

By Act II John's child is ill and the police are interrogating Magda about his friends, but she refuses to give information. A message from John urges Madga to pursue getting the visa with greater effort.

Magda and John's son die, as does John's mother, leaving Magda full of grief by the beginning of Act III. She considers suicide to protect her husband and leaves the consulate. Just as the office closes for the day, John arrives but with the police in pursuit. John is captured and the secretary vainly attempts to call Madga. She has decided, however, to turn on the gas in the oven to kill herself.

If you Go!

What: “The Consul”

When: 7 p.m. today-Sunday

Where: A.J. Flecter Recital Hall

Cost: $15 for adults and $5 for students, $12 for seniors

Call: 328-4788