Photo from The Light at the Piazza by Eric Woolsey
For its 51st season, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) returns to its long-standing summer home at the Loretto-Hilton Theatre on the Webster University campus, where it has captivated audiences since 1976. While the company has plans to relocate to a new venue in Clayton in the near future, patrons can still savor Webster’s lush gardens and the exceptional intimacy of the current space. Featuring a grand three-quarter thrust stage, the theatre ensures superb sightlines for the supertitles from every single seat. This staging element proves essential for OTSL’s luminous new production of The Light in the Piazza, where characters seamlessly trade lyrics in both English and Italian, allowing the audience to grasp the intense emotional currents even across a language barrier. This linguistic divide is even exploited for brilliant comedic effect, notably during the chaotic Act II ensemble number “Aiutami,” when an Italian character breaks the fourth wall to directly explain to the audience that the word translates to a frantic cry for “HELP!”
This sweeping operetta—adapted from Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 novella—premiered in 2003 and made its celebrated Broadway debut in 2005, following a modestly successful 1962 film adaptation. Set in the mid-1950s, about a decade removed from the wreckage of World War II, the narrative charts the unexpected collision of two families with vastly different cultural values. The inciting spark is entirely accidental: a sudden gust of wind, a runaway hat, and a meet-cute between two fiercely passionate but naive young people.
Margaret Johnson (Kate Baldwin), a somewhat jaded middle-aged American woman struggling to recreate the magic of her own Italian honeymoon, is caught in the middle of this whirlwind romance. Her estranged husband, Roy (Michael James Reed), is a tobacco company executive who is far too busy for a vacation and can’t really be bothered with the details—that is, until his daughter dares to contradict him. That daughter, Clara (Katrina Galka), is beautiful, curious, and full of life, yet she feels even more lost and confused than the average American tourist in Italy. It’s later revealed that Clara lives with an intellectual disability due to a childhood accident. Margaret is fiercely devoted to her daughter and believes she has her best interests at heart when she opposes her budding romance with Fabrizio Naccarelli (Roy Hage), the youngest son of a local tie salesman. In time, however, Margaret comes to realize that her daughter understands the human heart and soul better than anyone else in the family; Clara has a genuine shot at true happiness, one that Margaret herself never had.
From my professional perspective as a special education teacher, the story’s depiction of intellectual disability isn’t entirely realistic. The accident that caused Clara’s traumatic brain injury (TBI) happened when she was 12. Clara shows no physical signs of developmental delays, so the audience must suspend their disbelief and imagine that her cognitive development was simply arrested at that age. In reality, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) often present complex, long-lasting side effects that extend far beyond memory and learning ability, impacting mood regulation and motor skills. It is worth noting, however, that the original novella was penned in the 1950s, an era with few representations of intellectual disability in popular literature (outside of tragic figures like Lennie in Of Mice and Men). Given that historical context, it is incredibly refreshing to see a character with an intellectual disability who is treated with dignity and given true personal agency. In fact, Clara’s earnest desire for real experience and independence is the engine that drives the story’s central conflict.
Margaret, the true protagonist, is written with masterful complexity—a deeply caring mother walking the tightrope between a natural impulse to protect her child and the terrifying necessity of letting her make her own choices. It is one of the most tender mother-daughter relationships captured on stage, elevated here by virtuosic vocal performances from Baldwin and Galka. Their intricate bond is beautifully anchored to their Italian journey in the song “The Beauty Is,” where Margaret revisits the emotional trauma of Clara’s injury and compares her own paralyzing anxiety to a tragic figure from classical art:
“I reach / Like these paintings in the old tradition / There’s a figure reaching out in them like so / And to me it is the most familiar tableau / I know / So much wanting something / So much reaching for it / So much wishing just to have one moment back / So much being patient / So much blind acceptance / I know / No, I don’t know.”
Compared to the guarded, emotionally repressed Johnsons, the Naccarellis arrive as a carnival of colorful emotion. Fabrizio’s sleazy yet undeniably stylish brother, Giuseppe (Joel Clemens), and his long-suffering wife, Franca (Kelly Guerra), provide a delicious layer of domestic drama and sharp comic relief. The gorgeous Franca, soured by Giuseppe’s shameless womanizing, proves to be exactly the kind of straight-talking sister-in-law that Clara needs in her corner. Meanwhile, Signor Naccarelli (Paulo Szot) is a dapper, cigarette-smoking, cappuccino-drinking patriarch who smoothly schools his son in the art of romance, operating on the firm belief that business and pleasure go hand in hand. The Naccarelli family sings mainly in Italian—aside from a stellar comic aside by the Signora (Debbie Lennon)—and their gorgeous phrasing offers the next best thing to an Italian vacation for us cash-strapped yanks.
For those looking to experience this rich theatrical tapestry themselves, the Opera Theatre STL summer festival runs until June 28. The company uses a repertory system, premiering one new show each week for the first four weeks of the season. Following The Light in the Piazza and the previous week’s opening of The Pirates of Penzance, André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire will premiere this Sunday, June 7, followed by Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet on Saturday, June 13. In a wonderful tradition, all attendees are invited to join the opening night celebration for each new production, where the cast is toasted with champagne, giving theatergoers a chance to chat with the performers and have their beautifully detailed program books autographed.
Performances take place Wednesday through Sunday at 7:30 PM, with a Saturday matinee at 12:30 PM. Ticket prices vary by section and start at $30 ($25 for matinees). The company also offers generous educator discounts, making it a perfect outing for the teachers in your life. Free parking is readily available in the garage on Garden Avenue, offering a seamless arrival to the theater. The administrative team at Opera Theatre STL is exceptionally responsive and professional; any inquiries regarding your visit can be directed to boxoffice@opera-stl.org, or you can secure your reservations directly by visiting the OTSL Tickets and Pricing Page. | Rob Von Nordheim
