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In a faraway city named Cérulée, a 200-year-old power-hungry vampire has been unleashed and the inhabitants must quickly find a way to neutralize her powers before it’s too late—welcome to the captivating world imagined by Vivianne Delorme, an up-and-coming stage director and producer who is ready to bewitch audiences with her very first opera Sortilegio.
Original concept
Developing the project took more than 100 hours of research and discussions. During lockdown, inspired by some of her favourite fantasy novels such as Lord of the Rings, Delorme came up with the idea of writing the libretto. “Initially, I wanted to organize an opera recital for Halloween, drawing on excerpts from familiar operas that featured supernatural beings, such as Macbeth’s witches and the Queen of the Night, for example,” she said. “Then I thought it would be nice to create a story that connected each excerpt. I added layer upon layer to this idea and eventually realized that what I really wanted was to write an opera. I continued my research of existing works that are often overlooked in vocal repertoire and began writing a libretto. Later on, one sleepless night, while going down the YouTube rabbit opera hole, I was led to the enchanting music of Elizabeth Raum. Right away I knew she was the right composer for this project.”
Striking the right tone
“It was really important for me to have characters with their own personality, their own language and their own way of expression. I wanted to adopt an extremely immersive approach by creating a distinct world for these characters.” Delorme said.
Vivianne Delorme durant un atelier de mise en scène avec Carlo Saletti à la Verona Accademia per l’Opera à Vérone, italie.
Delorme had studied the drama of Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia as well as Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, vocal masterpieces that served as the main inspiration for Sortilegio, a dramatic comedy. Sortilegio co-producer Adrian Rodriguez, agrees: “When you read a text written for the stage, it is above all the dramatic situations that matter. You have to know how to lead them well, know how far you want to go with the story. It all has to be done skillfully.” Delorme adds: “I’m always putting myself in the audience’s shoes. I look forward to knowing which scenes audiences will like; the characters audiences will find amusing; which moments will leave a lasting impression on them. My goal is to create a unified work where texts and music will form one whole.”
Decisions, decisions
Giancarlo Scalia, recitative composer; Vivianne Delorme, director and librettist; Sonia Ben-Santamaria, musical director; and Adrian Rodriguez (co-producer and baritenor)
Now that the initial components of the libretto had been set, someone had to bridge the gap between the pieces Delorme had selected for the opera. Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum was exactly the person fit for the job. “Her musical language is extremely diverse, ranging from romantic to contemporary influences,” said Delorme.
Adrian Rodriguez also thinks that Raum was partly influenced by classical and baroque composers. “There are times when we hear Bach, especially with a bass continuo and many modulations that change musical colors quickly,” he said. “In some instances, we can hear counterpoint, over which rings a contemporary sounding phrase, which I love.”
Raum’s mixing of genres is what makes it work. If she had been a strictly contemporary composer, the music could have been too modern sounding in comparison to the repertoire extracts.” In Northern Lights, one of the many works by 78-year-old Raum, we hear a continuo motif mixed with melodic phrases played by the harp, whereas the flute plays a free ethereal melody in its upper register. “A great deal of snobbery hangs over contemporary composers who are inspired by tonal music,” said Delorme. “This snobbery didn’t make it easy, especially for women composers.” In addition to her classical influences, we can detect a lot of fantasy and romanticism in her orchestral compositions. “This is what made her music appealing to me; she was skilful in combining all these components.”
Elizabeth Raum, compositrice et orchestratrice
Raum composed a variety of musical numbers for this opera, from interludes and duets to dramatic scenes and finales, including an octet in the third act. “Raum’s talent and music must be praised, especially since she wrote all kinds of repertoire. We wanted to pay a tribute to her.”
Owing to the sheer number of scenes in Sortilegio, as in a Rossini and Mozart opera, Delorme reached out to composer and pianist Giancarlo Scalia to compose the recitatives. “Quick-fire and refined retorts were needed where the action was going ahead quickly,” said Delorme. “This was where Giancarlo was able to help us out, leaning on his 10+ years of experience as an opera repetiteur and composer.”
A few examples
Half the opera features music from historic repertoire, many of which has been reorchestrated or rearranged for Sortilegio. An example is the famous “Cold Song” aria from Purcell’s King Arthur, purposely chosen to stylistically lay out the 200 years that went by since the vampire’s crypt was sealed. “Raum created many wispy sounds and high scales for violins in the scene where Machiavella wakes up. Other works remained as is, such as the cavatina in the third act of Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka, William Phinéas’s aria, and other pieces were cut shorter, such as the trio ‘Grand Dieu! Que viens-je d’entendre?’ by Boieldieu. However, ‘Der Leiermann’ from Schubert’s Winterreise was completely rearranged as a variation on the theme. Brahms chorales were also added (they are not excerpts from any opera). In addition, I asked Raum to compose an interlude inspired by the Roi Arthus overture by Chausson. I liked the original theme. The development that followed? Not so much. The composer’s end result was something completely new, inspired by the theme,” said Delorme.
Giancarlo Scalia, compositeur des récitatifs
The young French-Dutch soprano spinto Barbara Kits—such sopranos are few and far between—will play the formidable role of Machiavella. “I had a dramatic soprano in mind—a soprano who could sing ‘Pleurez mes yeux’ from Massenet’s Cid. I found a video of Kits singing this aria on YouTube. Through mutual friends, I was able to contact Kits. That’s how the connection was made,” said Delorme.
Delorme was looking for an aria ranging from villainess to diabolical to express Machiavella’s desire for power. She ultimately stumbled upon “La canzone del fischio,” an aria originally written for Mephistopheles, a bass, in Boito’s namesake opera. “A lot of unknown operas are worth listening to, which is partly why I wanted to explore music I was not familiar with from the beginning. I had never heard of The Demon by Rubenstein or The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko. I’d like to help the public discover other works like these.”
Great ambition
Performances will take place on Oct. 28 at Salle Pierre-Mercure. To celebrate Halloween, the audience is invited to dress up in costumes for the event. Soloists will be joined by approximately 20 choristers as well as two pianists, directed by Sonia Ben Santamaria. Delorme has already started to think about what will happen next. Composer Elizabeth Raum is currently working on the orchestral scores. “The first performance will be like a preview, while we hope to present—in the future—a performance with full orchestra and chorus. It is extremely costly for opera companies to put together a new production, but perhaps they might show an interest in our opera because it has already been worked on and developed. A performance and positive audience feedback will help us,” Delorme said.
In 2011, The Metropolitan Opera produced a “baroque fantasy” entitled The Enchanted Island, drawing on a variety of baroque arias around the new libretto. Sortilegio has the same aspirations with an impassioned love letter to total art. “Sortilegio was born from a spirit hungry for creation. During the pandemic, I was home alone; and since I had little contact with my community, I used this time to ponder on what I wanted to do with my life. I started imagining the opera of my dreams. I wanted to include everything—a choir, an orchestra, a fist-and-sword battle, dances, four acts, lots of varying music styles. This is a maximalist opera that combines all art forms. It also has various locations such as a castle, a laboratory, the middle of a forest, and a large bistro, like the grand scenes in operas such as Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy. The entire concept stemmed from a desire for creativity, magic, fantasy, and collaboration. The concept is also a discussion about what is unique in performing arts as opposed to other art forms—and how we can go above and beyond. Performing arts provide each audience member with a novel experience and memories to cherish long after,” Delorme said.
About Vivianne Delorme
Vivianne Delorme
Vivianne Delorme, emerging Canadian stage director, has accumulated more than 10 years of opera, theatre and musical experience. She was invited for observerships at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto (Hansel and Gretel, 2020) and at the Metropolitan Opera of New York (La fille du Régiment, 2019). At Mediterranean Opera Studio Festival, she directed Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’elisir d‘amore; and Don Giovanni, collaborating with renowned chefs, including Leonardo Catalanotto and Kamal Khan, who identified her talent and recommended that she join the Verona Accademia per l’Opera.
Under the tutelage of renowned director Lorenzo Mariani, she obtained a master’s degree there in 2018 in opera stage directing. Dedicated, Delorme devotes herself body and soul to the development of expressive productions that bring out the deeper meaning of stories. Admiring her passion and patience, Jack Li Vigni, director of the MOSF and professor at Curtis Institute of Music, describes her as having “an iron fist in a velvet glove.”
Sortilegio
Oct. 28
Salle Pierre-MercureVivianne Delorme, concept, libretto, and staging; Elizabeth Raum and Giancarlo Scalia, composition; Sonia Ben-Santamaria, direction musicale; Fernando Maya Meneses, sets; Amber Hood, lighting. Tickets on sale at centrepierrepeladeau.tuxedobillet.com/main/sortilegio-lopera.
Translation by Dwain Richardson
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