With “Suor Angelica,” Out of the Box Opera guides its audience through three different spaces within the Basilica of Saint Mary. It’s a credit to artistic director David Lefkowich for using the mood of each area to help tell the redemption story.
In the 1918 one-act opera, composer Giacomo Puccini and librettist Giovacchino Forzano construct a story highlighting Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s investigation of prayer within his narrative poem “Purgatorio,” the second part of the larger work “La Commedia” (later renamed “The Divine Comedy”).
In the poem, Dante’s version of himself — the Pilgrim — encounters all sorts of sinners at various levels of purgatory who sing hymns and pray as they hope to move out of that liminal space into heaven.
The opera centers around a formerly wealthy woman who now lives in a convent. In the face of tragedy and grief, Suor Angelica must face up to her past mistakes. Through prayer she finds spiritual reclamation.
Out of the Box Opera has found an apt partner in The Basilica of Saint Mary, a venue that helps accentuate the opera’s spiritual themes, while also adding to the story’s gravitas.
OOTB often brings opera to nontraditional spaces. The company has performed in places like Uppercut Boxing Gym in Northeast Minneapolis and the Pillsbury A-Mill. In 2022, it produced its version of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” in different spaces through the Canopy hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
This production starts in the basement. Before the show, various nuns wander about as the orchestra sets up at the front of the audience. A very loud drum followed by the sound of bells mark the start of the show, and then a group of nuns gather on the balcony behind the audience, singing “Ave Maria.” Soon, we meet Suor Angelica, played by Alexandra Loutsian. The other sisters suspect she might have a secret past.
“Suor Angelica” is a bit unusual as an opera in that there are no male performers. The cast is made up entirely of higher voices. At first, Loutsian brings a masculine energy, with her throaty lower register. Later, Loutsian reveals her range. Her voice raises to higher notes as her plight becomes more urgent and dire.
In the second scene, Angelica meets with her aunt, La Zia Principessa (played by Alice Chung) in a chapel. The chapel is the smallest of the three spaces, and on the sold-out opening night, it got pretty crowded. An usher or two — perhaps Virgil himself, Dante’s guide through Purgatory, could have helped get the crowd to move past the doors and spread out through the room.
The chapel scene has the most dramatic tension of the story, with two strong-willed women facing off in a high-stakes negotiation, with a devastating reveal at the end of the scene. As the aunt, Chung brings a searing viciousness — both vocally and with her character portrayal. Loutsian, who contains her emotions throughout the first scene and much of the second, finally erupts.
There’s a payoff that comes with the third scene, which takes place in the nave — or the central part of The Basilica. With the majestic setting and magnificent acoustics, the location adds to the climactic nature of the story and the music. Lefkowich takes advantage of the grand setting with a surround-sound approach to the voices and a bit of stage magic to make a miracle happen.
Meanwhile, music director and conductor Stephen Hargreaves guides the small orchestra into a wonderful sound that shifts from intimate to profound throughout the show.
If you go
What: “Suor Angelica” produced by Out of The Box Opera and the Basilica of Saint Mary
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Basilica of Saint Mary, 88 N 17th St., Mpls.
Tickets: $101
Capsule: This processional performance builds as it moves through different spaces of the Basilica of St. Mary.
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