Opera San Jose presents a double bill to die for

Alma Deutscher‘s upbringing was quite ordinary.

She began playing the piano at age 2, wrote an opera when she was 10, and saw the world premiere of that composition at Opera San Jose when she was 12.

You know, ordinary.

While anyone could look at Deutscher’s life and easily stamp the word “prodigy” onto her otherworldly resume, Deutscher herself doesn’t see it that way.

“I never thought it was strange in any way, and just felt that what I was doing as a child was normal,” said Deutscher, who resides in Vienna but considers San Jose a second home. “As a child, I thought it would be very strange not to be a composer and studying scores; that was the most completely normal thing in the world for me.”

Deutscher is returning to the Bay Area for Opera San Jose’s newest production, a double bill of Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” The twoi operas — which are frequently presented together as the “Cav/Pag” double bill, It’s set to run at the California Theatre Feb. 15 through March 1. The operas — which feature the post-Romantic Italian style of realism known as verismo — explore devastating and primal themes such as jealousy, infidelity and murder.

But as “normal” as it seems to her, what Deutscher is doing makes her a standout in the classical music world. Opera San Jose’s newest production presents the two operas as one-acts, with Deutscher taking the conductor’s wand for both. During the run, she’ll celebrating her 21st birthday.

Each opera has its iconic numbers; While Pagliacci’s torment is revealed in the ultimate show-must-go-on number “Vesti la Giubba” (Put on the Costume), one of the notable tunes in “Cavalleria rusticana” that isn’t an aria, but the short, widely-known interlude “Intermezzo.”

“Pagliacci” stars tenor Ben Gulley as Canio, the tragic, murderous clown, and soprano Mikayla Sager as Canio’s unfaithful wife Nedda. “Cavalleria Rusticana” features soprano Maria Natale, a company artist-in-residence, as the passionate peasant girl Santuzza, and tenor Christopher Oglesby as her ethically compromised lover Turiddu. Baritone Kidon Choi, a Opera San Jose favorite, is featured in both productions.

Opera San Jose’s General Director and CEO Shawna Lucey, who is directing both of these pieces, brings a wide range of experience to the production, having directed both works multiple times in other parts of the country. What Lucey has come to love about them is how they are informed by the gritty and realistic “verismo” style of opera, which she states is “the most truthful kind of music making.”

In approaching how to tackle this kind of opera, Deutscher has proven to be Lucey’s perfect partner to bring out the raw passions of each story.

“She brings a kind of charisma to the way that she conducts and is so deep inside of it that you feel like you go through the looking glass,” Lucey said. “I know the singers are really loving working with her, and our orchestra is going to have a wonderful time. She’s a dancer herself, and so the way she conducts is very beautiful and very physical, which is so right for this repertoire.”

For Deutscher, who’s also a vocalist, composer and pianist, conducting is one of music’s most challenging tasks.

“Especially in these types of operas, the music and drama are so intertwined, every note has a meaning for the drama, and that timing is so important for the dramatic flow,” Deutscher said. “All of us artists want to make every note special, and we want to bring out the most we can of every note.”

The collaboration between Deutscher and Lucey is special in another way. All-female conductor/director teams are still a rarity in the opera world, with male musicians, directors  and composers still dominating the genre. Deutscher recalls reading books about Mozart’s older sister Maria Anna, herself a prodigy, who was also a composer but was forced to stop due to societal norms in the 1700s. Deutscher also references early-19th-century composer and pianist Fanny Mendelssohn, who was forced to pass off her work as the music of her brother.

For her part, Deutscher doesn’t take for granted what it means to be born in the early 2000s.

“I think times are changing and female composers are being played more,” Deutscher said. “It’s still taking some time, but I hope times are changing for the better, and I’m very lucky I was born when I was.”

While both women are bringing forth a dynamic that is still too rare in the opera world, Lucey is thrilled to continue working to shift the paradigm. For starters, she is bullish on audiences falling in love with both of these pieces.

“If you like HBO-level dramas, this is for you,” Lucey said. “Because this is such compelling drama, once the curtain rises, it just grabs you by the throat.”

David John Chávez is a former chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2022-23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.

‘CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA AND PAGLIACCI’

Presented by Opera San Jose

When: Feb. 15-March 1

Where: The California Theatre, 345 S. 1st St., San Jose

Tickets: $56.50-$221.50; operasj.org