Brooklyn opera aficionados gathered at the auditorium of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy, at 5902 6th Avenue, on Saturday, February 28th, for the premiere of the Regina Opera Company’s performance of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, as well as two soloist performances with a symphony.
The operatic event began with two individual soloist presentations. Anna Lien played the harp and performed George Frideric Handel’s Concerto for Harp in B-Flat Major, op. 4, no. 6, and Nathan McKinstry, who was once a member of the Regina Opera and now plays for the Met Opera Orchestra, played the trumpet for Franz Joseph Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet in E-Flat Major, Hob. VIIe/1. Scott Jackson Wiley was the conductor for both performances and the opera. After an intermission and a raffle, the main event, Suor Angelica, began.
Directed by Helen Van Tine with soprano Yeawon Jun as the titular character, Suor Angelica, the performance follows the story of Sister Angelica, a disgraced noblewoman who, to maintain her family’s integrity after bearing an illegitimate son, becomes a nun and joins a convent. After seven years without contact with her son, her aunt, the princess (Manya Gaver-Holmes), arrives. Hoping she will hear good news of her son, Sister Angelica is unaware of the heartbreaking revelation she will receive and of the tragic choice she will make upon hearing it.
A one-act opera, Suor Angelica explores themes of loss, grief, faith and forgiveness, and redemption. Although fictional, the opera is truly authentic. As we see throughout the story, the nuns are not portrayed as one-note roles but rather real characters – women who, even as they try to live holy lives, still fall to earthly temptations such as stealing pretty roses from the garden, having gluttonous desires for sweets or wanting to reconnect with a loved one.
Jun went above and beyond in her role as Sister Angelica, portraying a mother whose hope was snatched away and displaying raw emotions of grief, regret and guilt.
As Sister Angelica tragically commits a mortal sin, her impending suicide, the opera does not condemn her but rather pities her as she prays that the Blessed Virgin Mary does not see her as a sinner but instead as a mother who has suffered a devastating loss and acted upon her grief. In the end, she is forgiven and meets the Blessed Virgin and her deceased son, the one she only met once.
“It was easy for me to understand this role, as I recalled the feeling of missing my family and cats in Korea,” Jun said. “It was also hard to play this role because we can’t cry because we can’t sing well, and it was hard to find the balance between acting and singing. However, it was one of my dream roles because, as you see, it’s a sad story and Angelica is the heroine of the opera, and I’m honored to play this role.”
For more information on the Regina Opera Company, visit reginaopera.org or call (718) 259-2772.
