The Medium & Suor Angelica

by Gian Carlo Menotti, and Giacomo Puccini respectively.

University of Tennessee Opera Theatre 2023

Director James Marvel
Music Director/Conductor Kevin Class
Set Design jason Ammons
Lighting Design Sara Oldford
Costumes Patricia Rogers
Makeup Anna Campbell
Projections/Video Design Joe Payne

The action of The Medium takes place in the parlor of Madame Flora (contralto),  a sham spiritualist. Known familiarly as Baba, she deceives customers with the help of her daughter, Monica (soprano), and a mute boy, Toby. The music score is wildly addictive, containing a wide range of styles to match the underlying drama and emotion. Suor Angelica, one of three one-act operas in the musical triptych Il trittico, follows Angelica, who is relegated to a convent having had a child out of wedlock.

For The Medium, I adapted and modified the design of S Katy Tucker for her 2011 production with James Marvel for UT Opera Theatre. Her Content was incredibly fun to work with. It was stark, disjointed, and noir. My job initially was to flush out the world for this particular scenic configuration, but throughout tech it was clear we needed to add to the visual world for this particular staging.

We capitalized on the grid of this scenic configuration to highlight the cathedral structure in Suor Angelica. James and I started with our favorite photos of medieval cloisters and stained glass, and then we went to town manipulating and deconstructing them for emotional effect.

Making important use of video projection as both visual flavor and setting, Marvel called on designer Joe Payne to adapt the original video for The Medium and to create new projections for Suor Angelica. Payne’s combination of colorful stained-glass and somber cathedral gray images was stunning. – Alan Sharrod, Arts Knoxville Article Link

⬆︎ The Medium  ⬇︎ Suor Angelica 

_{Photos: Chris Frith}