I Want My OTV

Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s opera about jealousy, betrayal and murder among a traveling troupe of Italian actors was written more than a century ago, but Houston Grand Opera brings Pagliacci kicking and screaming into the MTV era. Static backdrops give way to giant video screens. Hydraulic lifts and aluminum catwalks substitute for the classic proscenium stage. And multiscreen close-ups of clowns pulling faces nearly rival the thrill of the arias.

“In place of sets, I throw computer images on the screen,” says Marion Kessel, video director for Pagliacci. Unlike a traditional show in the Wortham Theater, HGO’s multimedia modular stage uses the same video technology you’d find at a rock concert. And get this: Instead of being tucked away in the pit, the orchestra sits on risers right in the middle of the action. Behind it are three large screens that receive crossfaded still images. And on either side of the stage, two screens are used for live-action video feeds and animation. “Opera is larger than life, and when you have 20,000 people on the hill, you’ve got to bring the spectacle to them,” Kessel says. An arts documentary filmmaker based in Houston, Kessel brings Pagliacci to the big screens with the help of 12 cameras, a video editor and several camera operators. Since the artists aren’t staged specifically with the cameras in mind, Kessel is forced to absorb every aspect of the production’s choreography, acrobatics, stunts and singing beforehand. During performances, she sits inside a truck and calls individual cameras while the engineers switch them and monitor on-screen images for sound and color quality.

A veteran of HGO’s multimedia productions of Carmen and Madame Butterfly, Kessel is quick to downplay her role on Pagliacci’s impressive creative team. Working hand in hand with stage director Michele Assaf, she and her crew manage to fabricate a level of intimacy that is vital to opera. “If you don’t have close-up cameras, you won’t get drawn into the emotion,” she says.

And whether the calendar reads 1892 or 2000, opera is still all about emotion.

Pagliacci runs from Thursday, June 1, through Sunday, June 4, at Miller Outdoor Theatre. The opera travels to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday, June 24. Sung in Italian with English subtitles. Tickets for the Miller show are free. For more information, call (713)284-8350.