Signor Fazzobaldi is the Mayor of Santa Schifezza. (loosely translated: filthy disgusting town) Lucky guy. Actually, it has turned into a pretty good gig. By the time we meet him, Fazzobaldi is pretty happy with the mix of bribery, graft, fraud and racketeering that makes up his life. He must have taken this backwater town
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The Inspector, Scene 5: Municipal Mayoral Day!
In the village square, after the Santa Schifezza anthem is mangled, the Mayor enters and announces he will be accepting a position in Rome and that their daughter is engaged to The Inspector. Bobachina and Bobachina stumble on with startling news. They have opened and read Tancredi’s letter to his mother. He is not an
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 4: Ciao Mamma, Ciao Pappa
Municipal Mayoral Day, the next morning. The Mayor and Sarelda are both now convinced that Tancredi will offer the Mayor an important post in the new regime. But, just to secure the deal, they ask Beatrice to “be friendly” to Tancredi, a notion that inexplicably offends their daughter. As the Mayor and Sarelda prepare for
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 3: Flirtation, Celebration, Suspicion
At Villa Corrizone, the Mayor’s wife Sarelda prepares for “Inspector” Tancredi’s visit and dresses down her daughter Beatrice (at left, literally trapped in Santa Schifezza) for not dressing up for him. Beatrice, silly thing, is more concerned about a certain dictator’s rise in Italy. Cosimo enters ahead of Tancredi, and Sarelda extracts information from him,
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 2: White Lies
At the hotel, Cosimo and Tancredi also bemoan their dreary existence in Santa Schifezza and the circumstances that have stranded them there, lira-less, on their way to Palermo. A knock at the door. The Mayor enters. Tension. Cosimo and Tancredi are terrified of the Mayor because they believe he’s there to arrest them for not
Read MoreThe Inspector, Scene 1: Damage Control
It’s a tough morning for the Mayor of Santa Schifezza. The town anthem is being rehearsed in preparation for tomorrow’s Municipal Mayoral Day—a day he instituted in honor of himself—and it sounds awful. But worse, far worse, he learns that an inspector from Rome may soon be visiting his town, incognito, undermining the very way
Read MoreWelcome to Santa Schifezza
*Santa Schifezza: a fictional, small town that would be near Palermo if it existed. Some parts of Sicily are known for their visual splendor, verdant vineyards on cliffs overlooking an azure Mediterranean or quaint fishing villages charmed by Greek, Roman, Moorish and/or Norman architecture. This is not one of those parts. SS is dusty. SS
Read MoreInspecting: Done, done, and done.
The Inspector workshop lasted just six days -intense, full of laughter, and infused by the good will and hard work of our cast and staff. Any just description deserves more time and space than I can afford here, already engulfed as I am by the beginning of our summer season. Let it be said that
Read MoreInspecting: The Uninspector
There’s a great opera parlor game that involves naming characters who have a great bearing on an opera plot and are referred to in the libretto but who never actually appear. We’ve gone one better – in The Inspector, it’s the title character who never shows up. No matter, for everyone onstage spends the whole
Read MoreInspecting: The Ladies
Meet the ladies of Mayor Fazzobaldi‘s family, descriptions courtesy of Mark Campbell’s libretto: Bernadetta: Mezzo-soprano. 40s–50s. Physically akin to her husband the Mayor, but taller. Pretentious, vain, and not above having a lust for power—and material gain—that is stronger than her husband’s. Beatrice: Soprano. Late 20s. Their daughter. As thin and delicate in physique as
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