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Berkeley Opera serves up light Italian fare with L'Eliser d'Amore: Angela Cadelago and Andy Truett
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L'Eliser d'Amore and light Italian fare served by Andy Truett and Angela Cadelago
Berkeley Opera's soprano Angela Cadelago and tenor Andy Truett served up some romantic comedy and more at Caffe Venezia, a Berkeley restaurant of folk musician Roger Feuer of Cityfolk.
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Angela performed most recently as the love interest in Tales of Hoffman at Berkeley Opera. While Natalie Dessay does a mean Olympia, (definitely worthwhile to click this link), Angela feels ingénue roles fit her better. Olympia as you probably know is the mechanical doll Hoffman sees through rose colored glasses and falls in love with.
However singing the ingenue, Angela has performed with Andy Truett of San Francisco Opera chorus in L'Eliser d'Amore at Berkeley Opera. He sang at Berkeley in a lead role which seems to be the custom, taking an SFO chorister and giving him a solo part.
Andy performed with Angela most recently at Caffe Venezia in Berkeley. The pair performed light Italian opera and mostly romantic comedic songs including some from Rigoletto where she sang Gilda in love with her humble suitor the student (the rake of a duke disguised); Andy sang the duke with Cuesta o’ Cuella, about which woman he should choose from so many at his royal party; later La Donna e’ Mobile, Verdi’s hummer with the married duke singing women act as fickle as a feather on the breeze. That’s the song that makes me want to be a tenor.
That almost reached a sing a long energy and the dinner crowd ate it up. He launched into Ole Sole Mio and surprised a few ladies seated at their tables by singing to them suddenly on bended knee. Andy gets in their faces literally. His character Nemorino from L’Eliser has acquired the elixir sold by a questionable doctor. He’s pretty drunk, Andy says. He danced around the fountain with real water flowing as did his bottle of love elixir, Andy really guzzling the magic potion as he teetered around the edge.
Andy Truett and Peter Sellars, masterminds
He is actually the mastermind behind the song selection said Angela. They closed out the evening walking slowly arm in arm and out of sight, singing Mimi’s song from La Boheme where the lovers decide to stay together through the long cold Paris winter.
I asked Andy what his favorite opera has been. He said Peter Sellars’ Dr. Atomic. Peter’s unabashed ability to cry in front of the singers made an impact on Andy. He even asked Peter how he got that way. Nothing to be afraid of was the answer, basically. The example Peter gave Andy about managing fear was about how Peter used to take in snakes from the neighbors when the neighbors gave them up as pets. Peter would put his hand in the crate and let the snakes bite him. He repeated the procedure until the snakes realized he was not a threat and no longer reacted by biting him.
Speaking of masterminds. The mastermind behind Caffe Venezia would be owner/folk musician Roger. He’s a hands on kind of restauranteur as he scurried back and forth through the swinging kitchen doors along with his scurrying waitstaff.
Roger went to school at Suny Buffalo and has had Caffe Venezia since the year I graduated from Berkeley in 1982. He performs in an acoustic trio like Crosby Stills & Nash he says, called Cityfolk. He’ll be at the American River Folk Festival in September. Says Roger as he pauses by my table briefly,
The people in this room came for this. People need music when times are tough. It’s different now from the 80s when we started.
An informal email exchange with Angela Cadelago of Berkeley Opera
Cindy, the writer: Angela, would you send me pictures or video? Actually anything you have would be fun--childhood performances, seriously. Things from Napa. When did you realize you are a singer? Do you have other creative outlets? What do you like to do in your spare time?
Meanwhile I have a background acting gig in Novato and Sacramento over the weekend. Bollywood! Food good on the set [Indian].
What did you have last night for dinner? I think I heard Andy order a steak? Greer Grimsley told me he orders proteins also--he can do the entire Ring Cycle.
Angela Cadelago:
Under the influence of my parents (music educators in Napa schools), I started piano lessons at age 4 and continued for another decade. My piano teacher, Marian Long, was probably the most dedicated, demanding, and successful private teacher in the Napa Valley. At some point, she raised her rates and my parents were going to have to decide whether they could afford for me to continue. However, it was soon discovered that Marian had some dietary restrictions, while my mother has always had a gift for grinding her own grains to bake special breads for such instances. Hence, the Bread Scholarship was created, and piano lessons continued for many years.
Piano was going to be THE instrument for me, until on a fluke, I took a voice lesson at age 15 and suddenly knew my calling; Marian Long was totally enthusiastic and supportive of this choice, and remains my “musical grandmother” to this day.
My first stage performance was singing the role of Irene Molloy in “Hello, Dolly!” during my Junior year at Vintage High School.
In my spare time….hmmmm. I rarely have any. But I am an avid runner. I ran the Napa Marathon for the first time with my Dad (Harry Cadelago, Jr.) in 2004. My Dad ran it every year with HIS father for many years.
A link to my Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/czullinger
Some photos are attached:
Hello Dolly (Vintage High School, Napa, 1994)
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Elixir (Berkeley 2008)
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My ill-fated beginning as a ballerina (Napa, ca. 1987?)
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Offerings toward the Bread Scholarship
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Napa Valley Marathon
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P.S. I ordered whole wheat vegetarian spaghetti. No Ring Cycles for me!
How cool that you are a fellow runner! I think the carbo load is still common practice. I would think the SF marathon is lots of fun – one of these years I want to make that one. The Napa one is totally gorgeous – it starts in Calistoga and you just run through wineries along Silverado Trail until you hit Vintage High in Napa. It’s mostly flat with a gradual grade here and there.
Yummy on the Indian food, and WOW on the film shooting. You’re such a rock star!
Cindy's photos from the film set at the capitol in Sacramento . . . Carter Krizman and I met during Angela's performance of Tales of Hoffman when I was fascinated by the poet's muse and guardian angel.
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Isa Magomedov and the writer during a break in filming in Novato . . .
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If you like the idea of the light hearted and intimate opera performance at a cafe, Laurie Martin at Caffe Melanio emails about opera at Caffe Melanio on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco coming up on Friday evening. She says:
Ellen and David and one of their UC Berkeley students performed a few months ago in the Caffe and it was a very special evening. We are a coffee roastery and neighborhood restaurant that strives to support the arts in our community.
David is very beloved in the neighborhood for his rare spirit, generosity and for conducting the Voices of Legacy, a group that sang African American folk music. Ellen is a joy and the founder of Open Opera - www.openopera.net. Bios for Ellen and David are on the Open Opera site.
For more info: www.BerkeleyOpera.org, www.SFOpera.com, www.CaffeMelanio.com
Photos from Caffe Venezia and My Name is Khan film set: Cindy Warner
Photos of Angela Cadelago: Angela Cadelago
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