THE CONSUL
Music & libretto by
Gian Carlo Menotti
Saturday, November 8
Sunday, November 9
3:00 PM
Kopleff Recital Hall
Notes from the director
It’s that time of year again. Fall is here and Georgia State University Opera Theater is alive and well and ready to show off the talent here in the School of Music. It is always a quandary to find an opera that will give our singers perspective and insight into a new way of discovering characters. Every year, and sometimes every semester, we have a different group of singers who need to delve into their craft and find inventive ways to continue their development as singing actors.
After much searching (not to mention the fact that last year was the year of comedy), I settled on The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti. This work, according to Menotti, was not conceived as an opera, but as a “music drama.” Menotti wanted to make a work that would speak to a wider audience. The Consul had its first performance at the Schubert Theater in Philadelphia and then opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City. The topic is difficult, but one that can be found in history books and for some of us in our memories. Refugees were fleeing Europe after World War II and Menotti, being an Italian immigrant in the United States, wanted the audience toexperience and see the desperation of one family’s struggles to leave a repressive regime.
This work is an intense drama that allows the performers to find their way into their characters. Once there, they must understand the myriads of emotions and fears one experiences in this kind of life situation. This work ends in devastating tragedy and through Menotti’s genius, we can see into the mind of the heroine, Magda, as she makes her final life’s decision.
This is a hard work to perform. The music is complex, the emotions are high, and the dramatic choices are difficult. I want to thank each one of these students performing today for their exceptional hard work and willingness to do what needed to be done to make this a memorable performance. It is a powerful moment in time, and I hope you appreciate this experience.
meet the cast
SYNOPSIS...
ACT I
Scene I – John Sorel enters his apartment injured, having been shot by the police while fleeing a secret political meeting. Hi wife and her mother enter the room only to find him lying on the floor. The mother hears a sound outside, runs to the window and sees the secret police. Magda helps John to a secret hiding place. The police enter, ransack the apartment and the head of the secret police interrogates Magda and leaves. Mother watches them leave and John emerges from hiding and begins to pack, intending to slip across the border that night. He tells Magda to go the consulate of the neighboring country and ask them for a visa. He warns her not to call any of his friends. If he has a message for her, a rock will be thrown through the window and she should call Assan the glasscutter for “repairs”.
Scene II – At the consulate, Mr. Kofner tries again to provide the right documents for the Secretary. The foreign woman is called to the Secretary’s desk only speaks Italian. Mr. Kofner agrees to translate her concerns to the Secretary. The foreign woman’s daughter left three years ago but is now ill. Regardless of the seriousness of the situation, the secretary tells her to fill out an application and wait— approval may take take three or four months for a visa. Magda asks to speak to the consul but is refused. She begs the secretary to tell the consul her story, but the secretary only gives her forms to fill out. Nicholas Magadoff, the magician enters the consulate and decides to perform magic tricks to pass the time.
ACT II
Scene I – There has been no news from John and no help from the consulate in over a month. Magda’s mother tries to sing to the baby, who is sick. Magda, exhausted, falls asleep and has a nightmare in which John returns with the secretary. Magda is terrified of the secretary and begs John to send her away. He refuses, insisting she is his sister. Magda wakes. A rock is thrown through the window, “the signal”, and Magda calls Assan. The secret police agent returns, but a defiant Magda throws him out. Assan tells the women that John is still hiding in the mountains and will not cross the border until he knows that they can get out too. Magda asks Assan to tell John that everything is fine. The mother checks in on the baby and discovers he has died. She calls to Assan who blesses the child; the mother swears him to silence. Only after Assan leaves does Magda discover the truth about her baby.
Scene II – Anna Gomez, a homeless concentration camp survivor, is frustrated by the secretary. Magda arrives, frantically pushing her way in front of the magician to the secretary’s desk, but is told to sit down and wait her turn. The magician approaches the secretary and tries to impress her by describing his connections to royalty and fame. Frustrated by the secretary’s insistence on his visa, he hypnotizes everyone in the waiting room and makes them waltz. The secretary is horrified at the chaos created by the magician and asks him to leave. Magda approaches the secretary and through her despair and anguish convinces the secretary to ask the consul if he will see her. The secretary comes back with good news…the consul will see her immediately after his current meeting. Elated, Magda prepares herself and then crosses to the secretary’s desk. the secret police exits from the consul’s office. Upon seeing him, Magda faints.
ACT III
Scene I – Magda is back at the consulate but still has not seen the consul. The secretary goes through Vera Boronel’s papers with her. Assan comes into the consulate to find Magda and tell her that John has heard about the death of his son and is coming home. Frantically, Magda writes out a note for Assan to give to John that she hopes will convince him not to come back. Magda leaves the consulate, and the secretary is haunted by the names and faces of all the people waiting for visas. John rushes in looking for Magda. The secret police have followed him to the consulate and arrest him. Outraged, the secretary promises to report this violation of international law to the consul. John pleads he officers to allow him to call Magda but is told he can do it from the police station. They carry him off.The secretary rushes to the telephone to call Magda herself.
Scene II – Magda enters her apartment as the phone rings. She is too late to answer it. She has decided that suicide is her only option and opens the gas vents in the stove, pulls up a chair and covers her head. She begins to see visions of John, her mother, and the visitors to the consulate who tell her that the kingdom of death has no visas. Magda tries to follow John and his mother as they appear and disappear in her vision but cannot. She dies. The phone rings.
About the composer...
Gian Carlo Menotti was was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship and never officially became an American citizen. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, he wrote his most successful works in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent. The Consul, an opera in three acts, was his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia. It premiered on Broadway two weeks later (March 15, 1950) at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City where it enjoyed a run of nearly eight months (269 performances). For The Consul, Menotti won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music and also the 1950 New York Drama Critics' Circle award for Best Musical.
meet the directors
Kathryn hartgrove
ARTISTIC & STAGE DIRECTOR
Ms. Hartgrove is an active professional stage director and recently staged Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi for FIO ITALIA and will be returning to stage Rita and Suor Angelica. She staged Il Canterina for FIO ITALIA’s online summer opera festival in 2021. Prior to COVID-19, Ms. Hartgrove staged Suor Angelica in Uberlândia at the invitation for the famed Brazilian soprano Edimar Ferredi. She was invited to create and stage opera scenes programs for Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil, the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia as part of an Artist in Residence and the Festival of International Opera of the Americas. Other engagements include Dido and Aeneas at the Festival Música das Esferas, Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo, Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna and Rita for La Musica Lirica in Italy, Pizza con Funghi by Seymour Barab with the Boston Opera Cooperative, Too Many Sopranos and Pizza con Funghi for Milwaukee Opera Theater, Die Zauberflöte for the University of Campinas, Brazil. She will stage direct a scenes program for the Universidade de Guanajuato in Mexico.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Boris Cepeda
Music Director & Conductor
Boris Cepeda is a German-Ecuadorian pianist, conductor, and educator. He relocated from Germany to Atlanta in 2023 and founded the European Piano Academy of Atlanta. This production marks his third collaboration with Georgia State University: he served as Music Director for Carmen and collaborated with the Harrower Opera Workshop in the summer of 2025. Earlier in his career he held music staff posts in German opera houses, including Theater Münster and Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, and he has taught at music conservatories and universities.
As a conductor, recent highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. As a sought-after vocal coach, he works with soloists who have performed at the Bayreuth Festival, Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera London, and Theater an der Wien.
His performance footprint spans Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, with appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Berliner Philharmonie. Atlanta is the hub for his work worldwide as a concert pianist, orchestra conductor, and vocal coach — where European tradition meets American and Latin American artistry.
Current and future projects include lecture-recitals, master classes, and workshops in the United States, South America, and Austria.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mengyao Sun
Mengyao Sun’s musical journey began at the tender age of four, when she first embraced the enchanting world of the piano. Her prodigious talent quickly became apparent as she securing the third place at the prestigious Liu Shi Kun Young Artist Piano Competition in Hong Kong by the time she was ten. This early recognition paved the way for her later career.