Madison Lyric Stage Presents Puccini, Schoenberg Double-Bill

MADISON, CT — Madison Lyric Stage, a professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, will present a double bill of Puccini’s opera Suor Angelica and Schoenberg’s monodrama Erwartung for eight performances, March 26 – April 5.

Performances will be held at the historic Deacon John Grave House in Madison, which, for this production, will be transformed into the ‘Grave House Asylum’ managed by the Sisters of Mercy.
Puccini’s beloved one-act opera Suor Angelica (“Sister Angelica”) contains moments of harrowing drama and unequaled redemptive beauty.

“This unique double bill champions great music drama from two diverse master composers of the 20th century – the romantic Italian Giacomo Puccini, composer of La Boheme and Madama Butterfly, and Arnold Schoenberg, the Viennese father of atonality – so completely different in their musical styles, yet composing during the same years,” said Marc Deaton, artistic director of Madison Lyric Stage. “This production exposes the cruelty that we all have within us. It takes place in Vienna at the turn of the century in an asylum managed by the fictional Sisters of Mercy.”

Allison Waggener stars as Sister Angelica, leading an all-female cast. Marc Deaton stars in Erwartung. Deaton also directs both works.

Sister Angelica, a noblewoman, has been living in a convent, where she was sent by her aristocratic family for having a child without being married. For seven years, she has been waiting in vain for her family or friends to visit.

Finally, Angelica’s aunt, the cruel Princess, comes to reveal the fate of the child she was forced to give away, and to ask her to sign away all rights to her inheritance. Angelica, seized by a sudden frenzy, concocts a poison and seeks suicide. She implores the Virgin not to let her die in mortal sin, and then a miracle takes place.

Schoenberg’s Erwartung (“Expectation”) is a one-act monodrama that follows a lone individual through the forest in search of a lost lover. Erwartung seems to relate a dream – or probably a nightmare. The protagonist of this taut, half-hour drama is an unnamed person, wandering under a moonlit sky, looking for a lover who, it seems, is a betrayer. Eventually the lover’s blood-stained body is found – but who has killed him, and for what reason, remains unclear.
Suor Angelica will be performed in Italian with English subtitles; Erwartung will be performed in English.

Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by visiting madisonlyricstage.org or by calling 203-215-6329. The Deacon John Grave House is located at 581 Boston Post Road in Madison.
Madison Lyric Stage’s 2020 mainstage season also includes: the landmark Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band in July, and, for Halloween, the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd.

Madison Lyric Stage is offering money-saving subscriptions for its three mainstage shows: Suor Angelica and Erwartung, The Boys in the Band and Sweeney Todd. While individual tickets are priced at $50, season ticket bundles for the three performances are currently available for a limited time for $120 (a savings of $30) at madisonlyricstage.org or by calling 203-215-6329. Subscription purchasers will need to select their dates in advance, but will be able to change them.

Madison Lyric Stage is supported in part by generous gifts from Guilford Savings Bank and the Maureen E. and Peter F. Dalton Fund of The Madison Foundation, with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Madison Lyric Stage is an award-winning, non-profit arts collective serving the Connecticut shoreline. Its mission is to expand participation in the arts by presenting accessible, inclusive and affordable professional-quality opera, musical theater and drama. Past productions include: A Little Night Music, Agnes of God, Blithe Spirit, Company, Evita, Godspell, Hansel and Gretel, Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, Peter Grimes, Salome, The Glass Menagerie, The Turn of the Screw, and many others.

For more information about Madison Lyric Stage, visit madisonlyricstage.org.