Musto’s The Inspector
Sung in English with projected text
A BLO adaptation of the Wolf Trap premiere production
April 20, 22m, 25, 27, 29m, 2012 of the Citi Performing Arts CenterSM Shubert Theatre
Evening performances begin at 7:30pm. Matinees (m) begin at 3pm.
The Inspector, John Musto’s witty Italian farce, closes the 2011/2012 Season. This comic gem boasts a melodic score and features a large and talented cast of established and versatile American dramatic singers. Basing the work loosely on Gogol’s 19th-century farce, The Government Inspector, Musto once again teams up with librettist Mark Campbell to create a swaggeringly funny tale of bribery, fraud, corruption, (and a little discreet pimping) in 1930s Sicily.
| Conductor | DAVID ANGUS |
| Stage Director | LEON MAJOR |
| Set Designer | ERHARD ROM |
| Costume Designer | DAVID O. ROBERTS |
| Lighting Designer | MARK STANLEY |
| Mayor Fazzobaldi, baritone | JAKE GARDNER |
| Sarelda, mezzo-soprano | VICTORIA LIVENGOOD* |
| Beatrice, soprano | MEREDITH HANSEN |
| Tancredi, tenor | NEAL FERREIRA |
| Malacorpa, mezzo-soprano | DOROTHY BYRNE |
| Cosimo, baritone | DAVID KRAVITZ |
| Adolfo, bass | DAVID CUSHING |
| Padre Ruffiano, tenor | JULIUS AHN |
| Agrippa, soprano | MICHELLE TRAINOR |
| Bobachino, mezzo-soprano | NICOLE RODIN* |
Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra
*BLO Debut
Between 1925 and 1930, Mussolini dispatched government inspectors (or “prefetti”) to Sicily to rout out local corruption. Their methods involved brutality and torture—but the campaign eventually succeeded in ending Mafia control. In Sicily. Temporarily.
ACT I
Scene 1
It’s a tough morning for the Mayor of Santa Schifezza. The town anthem is being rehearsed in preparation for tomorrow’s Municipal Mayoral Day—a day he instituted in honor of himself—and it sounds awful. But worse, far worse, he learns that an inspector from Rome may soon be visiting his town, incognito, undermining the very way of life he has worked so hard to achieve: bribery, graft, fraud, racketeering, and, on occasion, light torture. He gathers his equally ethical Board of Directors and demands that they keep everything on the “up and up,” when Bobachina and Bobachino, twins who run the post office, run in and tell the Mayor that they’ve espied a new arrival at the inn. This stranger is tall, eloquent, elegant…and, most suspiciously…blonde. The Mayor immediately believes this man is The Inspector, and leaves for the inn, encountering his wife, Lady MacBeth…er…Sarelda, who has also heard the rumor, and his daughter Beatrice, who bemoans her dreary existence in Santa Schifezza.
Scene 2
At the hotel, Cosimo and Tancredi also bemoan their dreary existence in Santa Schifezza and the circumstances that have stranded them there, lira-less, on their way to Palermo. A knock at the door. The Mayor enters. Tension. Cosimo and Tancredi are terrified of the Mayor because they believe he’s there to arrest them for not paying rent; the Mayor is terrified of them because he believes they represent the new regime. Through a few misunderstandings, the Mayor concludes that Tancredi is, indeed, The Inspector; he offers him a tour of the town, a stay at his villa, and—in the best tradition of business incentives—stuffs his pockets with cash.
Scene 3
At Villa Corrizone, Sarelda prepares for “Inspector” Tancredi’s visit and dresses down Beatrice for not dressing up for him; Beatrice, silly thing, is more concerned about a certain dictator’s rise in Italy. Cosimo enters ahead of Tancredi and Sarelda extracts information from him, concluding mistakenly that Tancredi is not in town to rout out corruption but rather, to recruit candidates for the new regime. She fantasizes about her new life in Rome, which includes a paean to footwear. The Mayor and his Board of Directors enter with “inspector” Tancredi, flashing a new suit with a monetary lining. Beatrice, none too demurely, confronts him about the new regime in Rome. To politely shut her daughter up, Sarelda leads everyone in an inspirational anthem about the New Italy. Beatrice becomes suspicious about Tancredi and Cosimo and vows to uncover their true identities.
ACT II
Scene 1
Municipal Mayoral Day, the next morning. The Mayor and Sarelda are both now convinced that Tancredi will offer the Mayor an important post in the new regime. But, just to secure the deal, they ask Beatrice to “be friendly” to Tancredi, a notion that inexplicably offends their daughter. As the Mayor and Sarelda prepare for their last Municipal Mayoral Day, Beatrice overhears Tancredi and Cosimo making plans to run away. She threatens to expose Tancredi unless he tells her the truth about his identity. Tancredi reveals that he and Cosimo are indeed fleeing the new regime in Rome for being political dissidents—and that they were bound for Palermo to board a boat that would take them to America. Beatrice asks him to take her with them, but Tancredi refuses; then through a magical “hat-trick”, Beatrice tells her parents that Tancredi has proposed marriage and that she and Tancredi must leave for Rome that very moment to obtain his father’s permission. The Mayor and Sarelda are euphoric, believing it will secure their place in the new regime, and gladly offer their car to take them there. Before they drive away, however, Tancredi ask that Bobahina and Bobachino mail a letter he has written to his mother.
Scene 2
In the village square, after the Santa Schifezza anthem is mangled, the Mayor enters and in a speech announces he will be accepting a position in Rome and that their daughter is engaged to The Inspector. Bobachina and Bobachino run in with startling news. They have opened and read Tancredi’s letter to his mother. He is not an inspector. The whole town prepares to gang up on the two Bobs when a gunshot is heard, followed by an announcement over a loud speaker that they are all under arrest. It is then that the identity of the real Inspector is revealed, none too surprisingly.
Written by Mark Campbell, Librettist
