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TIM KROCHAK / Staff Nina Scott Stoddart stars as Lola in Maritime Concert Opera's production of Cavalleria Rusticana which plays Liverpool's Astor Theatre on Wednesday, the Lilian Piecey Hall in Halifax on Friday and Lunenburg's Pearl Theatre on Saturday. Stoddart, who also directs, is the founder of the Lunenburg opera company.

By STEPHEN PEDERSEN / Arts Reporter

Operatic mezzo-soprano Nina Scott-Stoddart brings Lola to town Nov. 19.

The character, a free-spirited femme-fatale, plays an important part in Pietro Mascagni's brilliant one-act opera, Cavalleria Rusticana.

"Lola is very cruel, but fun to play," Scott-Stoddart said in Halifax last week. "Having power over men she can be careless and cruel - she falls into the 'evil mezzo' category."

As a mezzo, Scott-Stoddart likes to play mothers and witches.

"But every once in a while, it's nice to be a bitch. You know the saying about mezzo roles: witches, bitches and britches." (Mezzos play the parts of men in so-called "trouser roles").

Cavalleria was Mascagni's first and his only successful opera - written for and winning an opera contest - and it's a humdinger of a pot-boiler, set in Sicily, portraying violence and passion among the lower orders of society.

A mafia-esque tale of jealousy and revenge, its savage realism and brutality earned it and other operas like it, the name of "verismo" opera, paralleling the naturalism literary movement of the late 19th century. It was first produced in 1890, and has seldom lacked for performance ever since.

When Scott-Stoddart moved to the South Shore from Toronto with her partner, David, two and a half years ago, she thought an opera company based in Lunenburg would work. "Opera is the most passionate art form," she said. "Anyone living in a small town recognizes the ferment underlying the situation (in Cavalleria)."

This is the situation: the wronged woman in the opera is called Santuzza. Her lover, Turiddu, took up with her after his first love, Lola, married a trucker named Alfio while Turiddu was away soldiering. But he still loves Lola, and she, loving not him but her control over him, encourages him and taunts Santuzza.

Santuzza, unmarried, pregnant and excommunicated for her sin, is desperate. She tells the unsuspecting Alfio what his wife is up to, and Alfio, enraged, bites Turiddu's ear, the traditional Sicilian challenge of a fight to the death. It all takes place at Easter with the church bells tolling and the faithful singing hymns.

Newfoundland soprano Dana Pardy will sing Santuzza, Toronto tenor Lenard Whitting will sing the role of Turridu, and baritone Jason Parkhill sings Alfio.

Maritime Concert Opera, modelled after Stuart Hamilton's Opera In Concert programs in Toronto, in which Scott-Stoddart often sang, is opera without the trimmings: no staging, no set, no costumes other than a highlight or two, and no orchestra. Accompaniment is by piano, which will be played by Tara Morton.

"Sometimes Stuart would have an orchestra, but he started out with piano," Scott-Stoddart said. "You can get more (affordable) opera out there that way. He started Opera In Concert because there was so little live opera in Toronto.

"I didn't know whether opera would fly on the South Shore. We have to balance the books. The budget is about $5,000. We get good singers locally and from Toronto, with an amateur chorus (trained and directed by Jim Aulenbach). I didn't want the ticket prices too expensive." Tickets are $15.

The South Shore evidently likes it. In only a year, Maritime Concert Opera has produced four shows: A Night At The Opera (arias and duets), A Grand Night For Song (musical theatre and opera), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (with the Halifax Baroque Ensemble) and An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan. The company broke even on ticket sales and advertising.

Cavalleria is Maritime Concert Opera's fifth show, and the first in a foreign language (Italian).

"One of my principles is to perform opera in the language in which it was written," Scott-Stoddart said. "A detailed synopsis is not enough to know what's going on. Art needs to be specific. In general, most translations are crappy.

"So we had to figure out how to do sub-titles. We are going to use power-point presentation in the form of slides, projected off to one side of the stage."

It's not the perfect solution, Scott-Stoddart admits, but it's better than nothing.

Scott-Stoddart has a music degree from York University but studied voice privately wherever she could. "I'd had a mish-mash of techniques, and then I met Dixie Neill. She and Bill Neill absolutely changed my technique for the better."

Her professional experience includes the Tafelmusik Chorus as a paid member, and work with the baroque opera company Opera Atelier, as well as Opera In Concert. She made her debut in Halifax this spring as the Duchess of Plaza Toro in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Nova Scottia's production of The Gondoliers.

"Opera makes me happy," she said. "There's nothing better in life than performing, than that connection with the audience. I absolutely love opera."

It's a love she can't keep to her self, a love she insists upon sharing with other people in the hopes that they will also enjoy it as much as she does.

The Maritime Concert Opera production of Cavalleria Rusticana will be performed in Liverpool's Astor Theatre on Wednesday, in Lilian Piercey Concert Hall in Halifax on Friday, and in the Pearl Theatre in Lunenburg on Saturday.

For information and ticket reservations, phone 634-9140 or visit www.maritimeconcertopera.com.