THE GYPSY BARON – REVIEW OF 2019 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

It’s the holiday season including the celebration of a new year, a new decade and a farewell to 2019. How about some light and civilized entertainment?

No, I did not mean that.

I mean something lively, indeed boisterous, civilized, with beautiful music, gorgeous melodies, a visit to another world and, of course, a happy ending. And something you may not have tried for long time. How about an operetta?

Toronto Operetta Theatre delivers a production of The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss II that meets all of the above criteria. There are some limitations to what TOT can do but more of that below. In short, this is an enjoyable production with some fine signing by the chorus, superior singing by the women in the key roles and mostly good stuff by the male singers. 

 The company of The Gypsy Baron. Photo: Gary Beechey

The operetta takes place in Hungary and Vienna sometime in the past – that is another world. Director and Designer Guillermo Silva-Main makes no effort to give us a precise date or century and we do not need it. (There is a number of historical events mentioned that will give you a more precise chronology, but get a life. This is operetta)

The plot involves Barinkay who is returning to claim his father’s estate. He meets Zsupan the crooked pig farmer who has helped himself to parts of his estate but has a pretty daughter named Arsena. Barinkay proposes to her but she rebuffs him because she has eyes only for Ottokar.

In the meantime, Arsena’s governess Mirabella finds her long-lost husband who happens to be the Royal Commissioner Carnero. Barinkay finds the beautiful gypsy girl Saffi who we think is the daughter of the lively, fortune-telling gypsy Czipra but keep an open mind. Complicated, no? Well, the men will go to war, come back heroes and Governor Homonay will drop in near the end to tie up all the plot strands and provide a happy ending for us all.

That is the plot of an operetta. I could not understand all the lyrics as the chorus was singing but they did a marvelous job. You want to hear military music, a waltz, polka, love duets and generally delightful music, Strauss never disappoints. Much of it is quite familiar even if you did not place it the other times that you heard it.

Derek Bate conducted the 12-piece orchestra lined up in front of the stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre. The limitation of the seating area and number of players of the orchestra are obvious. A decent pit and two or three dozen musicians would be preferable, of course. The real delight is how well they played and the marvelous music they gave us.

There is very little in the way of a set. A few chairs and settees, some flowers, are pretty much used for the scene in Vienna. A few platforms are all that you get in the first scenes. The costumes are from Malabar but they are more than adequate for the job. Those are the limitations that TOT has to live with.

The Gypsy Baron provides ample opportunities for comedy, dancing and fine singing. TOT does not have the wherewithal to do all of these things but it does have some excellent singers. Soprano Meghan Lindsay with her plush, mellifluous and simply lovely voice makes a splendid Saffi, the “gypsy” that Barinkay loves. She outsings everyone. 

Meghan Lindsay and Michael Barrett. Photo: Gary Beechey

Mezzo soprano Beste Kalender sings a Czipra that is full of voice and life and a delight to hear and watch. Soprano Daniela Agostino is a spunky and well-sung Arsena. Mezzo soprano Karen Bojti sang a spirited and matronly Mirabella, Arsena’s governess. 

The male singers were generally not as successful as the women. They had more limited ranges but were quite expressive. Tenor Joshua Clemenger did well singing the pig farmer Zsupan but he missed the opportunity for comic acting. Zsupan could be acted as a broadly comic character. Baritone Austin Larusson was properly wooden as the self-righteous and puritanical protector of morals, Royal Commissioner Carnero.

Tenor Michael Barrett as Barinkay has a big voice with a sturdy midrange but he did not display a huge a range. Edward Larocque as Ottokar has the same issue.

       

Guillermo Silver-Marin, the company’s General Director and the Stage Director of the production reminds us that TOT is the only professional operetta company in Canada. That’s bad enough but the fact that it is inadequately funded (to put it politely) is a disgrace.  

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The Gypsy Baron  by Johann Strauss II is being performed between December 28, 2019 and January 5, 2020 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  (416) 922-2912. www.torontooperetta.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

MADAMA BUTTERFLY - REVIEW OF 2019 REVIVAL AT THE MET

Reviewed by James Karas

Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly premiered at the English National Opera in London in 2005 and at the Met in New York in 2006. It is still a going concern and is telecast Live in HD from the Met this season.

This is the fifth time I seen this production and I must admit that Minghella’s use of Bunraku puppetry has lost some of its appeal. The Bunraku puppets are not traditional dolls manipulated by strings but plastic devices that require a lot of puppeteers on the stage to manipulate them. The little boy in the opera, for example, requires three puppeteers to make it move around. Each handles a different part of its body and the effect is frequently interesting. The puppets are used for Cio-Cio San’s son and for her in a ballet sequence at the beginning of Act I, Scene 2.

The puppeteers are dressed in black and their faces are covered by veils. They give admirable evidence of their athleticisms and adeptness in handling the puppets.  There is a complex use of mirrors, birds in flight, stars in the sky and commotion.

This time however I wondered how much they added to the opera and if Puccini’s work needed such excessive gimmickry

 

Hui He as Cio-Cio-San and Paulo Szot as Sharpless. Photo: Richard Termine / Met Opera

Hui He does may not fit the physical description of a very young Japanese girl who falls in love with Pinkerton, a creep of an American sailor. But she has a beautiful voice that expresses Cio-Cio San’s deep emotions and we forget everything else. Her “Un bel di vedremo” where she imagines the arrival of her husband’s ship in the harbour of Nagasaki is full of passion, tenderness and heart-wrenching longing.   

Tenor Bruce Sledge sang the role of Pinkerton in the Live from the Met broadcast replacing the indisposed Andrea Carè, I am not sure if he is the ideal Pinkerton but as a last minute replacement he deserves gratitude rather than criticism.

Paulo Szot gives an exemplary performance as Sharpless, the American Consul. He is a pillar of decency and he expresses both vocally and physically his discomfort, disgust and sympathy. He is the messenger of Pinkerton’s betrayal and he knows that his news will kill Cio-Cio San. We see all of this in his sensitive facial expressions alone. Placido Domingo was scheduled to sing the role but the allegations of misconduct by numerous women have caused him to relinquish all further singing on the Met stage.

Mezzo soprano Elizabeth DeShong is a spunky, faithful and compassionate Suzuki. She has a big voice, a pleasant personality and a fine stage presence that make her a pleasure to watch.

  

Theses broadcasts need a Director for Live Cinema that people who go to the opera house are not burdened with. He is the person who decides what we see by controlling every long shot, close-up, angle and, most importantly, duration of each shot. 

Elizabeth DeShong as Suzuki.Photo: Richard Termine / Met Opera

Habib Azar was the man responsible for this broadcast. I tried hard, I really did, to ignore the travesty of his choices but could not. Near the end I tried to estimate how long he was able to keep his finger off his converter (or whatever he is using). I don’t think I saw too many if any, scenes where he did not click a change for five seconds. Some shots lasted much less than that. There are many instances that demand that we simply watch the scene and be able to see several people on stage at the same time for action and reaction. Not a chance. He just kept clicking like a child on a video game that just plays with the controls. He screwed up on several occasions including during the emotional climax of the opera when Cio-Cio San sings “Tu Tu Piccolo Iddio!” as she is about to commit suicide. Good grief!

You may have to shut your eyes on occasion to listen to the splendid music played by the Met Orchestra conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi, the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and the singers just to avoid the childish shot changes by Azar.

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Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini was shown Live in HD at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on November 9, 2019. Encores will be shown on January 25, 27, 29 & February 9, 2020. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press  www.greekpress.ca

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2019 REVIVAL BY OPERA ATELIER

Reviewed by James Karas

Opera Atelier has revived its stunning 2004 production of Don Giovanni for its current season at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. It is a success story from every angle and it earns our (usual) bow to Marshall Pynkoski and Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg for their contribution to civilized life in Toronto.

Director Pynkoski and Choreographer Zingg have chosen to use a production style that bestows beauty and grace to the opera. They use a modified commedia dell’arte, stylized acting and ballet is used judiciously and splendidly.

In the opening scene when the Commendatore  (Gustav Andreassen) appears to defend his daughter against Don Giovanni (Douglas Williams) he is accompanied by a number of dancers who perform some acrobatic dance steps. Donna Anna (Meghan Lindsay) expresses her shock at the murder of her father by raising the back of her hand to her forehead in the stylized method of expression. This style is maintained throughout and it works by giving the opera a light touch. 

Olivier Laquerre, Douglas Williams, Mireille Asselin and Stephen Hegedus with 

Artists of Atelier Ballet and OA Chorus. Photo: Bruce Zinger 

Ms Zingg has choreographed a number of short ballet routines throughout that are attractive in themselves and at the same time give the production the lighter flavour that the modified commedia dell’arte aims for.

There are numerous fascinating points that Pynkoski adds to the production. For example, when the betrayed and abandoned Donna Elvira sings “Ah, chi mi dice mai” about wanting to kill the treacherous Don Giovanni and tear his heart out, she is brandishing a dagger and a crucifix. In other words she will mete out human punishment and divine retribution upon the traitor.

Don Giovanni breaks the resistance of the peasant girl Zerlina (Mireille Asselin) in the seduction duet of “Là ci darem la Mano” by giving her a pouch of money and she is pleased. When her angry bridegroom Masetto (Olivier Laquerre) accuses her of infidelity, her denial is upset by her dropping the coins in the pouch. Small details perhaps, that add up to a tremendous production.

The numerous small touches are accompanied by outstanding singing. The fascinating Donna Anna is sung by the gorgeously-voiced soprano Meghan Lindsay. Her stylized expression of shock and subsequent description of what happened in her room on that fateful night, cast doubt on her veracity. Don’t ask where her fiancé was and why is she putting him off for a year at the end? A splendidly sung and beautifully portrayed Donna Anna.

The fiancé, of course is Don Ottavio who gets some bad press sometimes, but tenor Colin Ainsworth in the role, deserves nothing but high praise. His rendition of “Il mio tesoro,” for example, is delivered with surpassing tenderness, passion, beauty and resolution. Ainsworth’s performance makes Donna Anna’s reason for rejecting Don Ottavio suspect. 

 Meghan Lindsay, Colin Ainsworth, Stephen Hegedus, Olivier Laquerre, Carla Huhtanen, 

Douglas Williams and Mireille Asselin. Photo: Bruce Zinger

If Donna Anna was ditched on the first night, Donna Elvira was abandoned on the third day and soprano Carla Huhtanen wants us to know about it with her passion and furor. Her passion tells her to forgive him but her mind tells her to flee her traitor as expressed marvelously in “Ah, fugi il traditor”   and “Mi tradì quell'alma ingrate” (that ungrateful soul betrayed me.) Dramatic, passionate and vocally fabulous.

Zerlina is the peasant girl we love. Pretty, lively, smart and able to handle her man, applies to her and soprano Mireille Asselin in the role. A lovely, light soprano with a beautiful lilt, perfect for the role and a delightful performance. It’s wonderful to see her handle the hulk Masetto who is a bit of an oaf that she turns into putty. Bass-Baritone Olivier Laquerre is perfect for the role vocally and physically.

The whole enterprise is led by Douglas Williams and Stephen Hegedus, the two bass-baritones who sing Don Giovanni and Leporello. Williams looks, acts and sings the great seducer with relish and vocal brilliance. Hegedus is just as adept in his role as his cohort but sly, ambitious and resentful. But in the end they are a team. I enjoyed their ability to act and react to each other even more than their individual prowess in their roles.

The Ed Mirvish Theatre does not really have an orchestra pit but that did not seem to bother David Fallis and the magnificent Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra who gave a marvelous performance.

Gerard Gauci’s set with its neo-classical exterior with the necessary balconies and entrances is effective and easily changeable.

I have made no secret of my enjoyment of this production and like a hungry Oliver Twist (for opera that is) I can only repeat I want more and so should you.

[Travel commitments and scheduling problems prevented me from attending an earlier performance].                                                 

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Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart, presented by Opera Atelier, opened on October 31 and runs until November 9, 2019 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria Street, Toronto. www.operaatelier.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press 

RUSALKA – REVIEW OF 2019 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

James Karas

Antonin Dvořák’s Rusalka was first performed by the Canadian Opera Company in 2009, well over 100 years after its premiere in Prague. Yes, I know the COC was not around in 1901 but it was a heck of a wait. Ten years later it is back with a new staging by David McVicar and that makes for some lost time. The Met was not much better. It did not get around to producing it until 1993.

Rusalka needs a damn good Rusalka and the COC has one of the best. To put it in perspective, New York has Renee Fleming, Moscow has Anna Netrebko, Bucharest has Angela Gheorghiu and Toronto has Sondra Radvanovsky. (Yes, I know she was born in Illinois but now she is ours.)

Rusalka is a water nymph or mermaid, if you prefer, who falls in love with a mortal who happens to be a Prince. He falls in love with her too but there are some major obstacles to the union of a mortal with a mermaid. The first obstacle is her father Vodnik who is a water gnome and says NO in Czechoslovakian. The promise of love, a soul and eternal life in the hereafter, impel Rusalka to seek the help of the witch Jezibaba. She can help Rusalka switch to mortal but she will lose her voice, and if the Prince betrays her, he must die and she will be damned forever.

 Sondra Radvanovsky as Rusalka and Pavel Černoch as the Prince.

Photo: Michael Cooper

Radvanovsky dominates the performance with vocal splendour and superb acting. Rusalka goes from pleading for transformation, to the joy of love, to the rebuff by her lover, to the pangs of unrequited love, to the torment of exclusion by her family and her final tragic end. Radvanovsky handles all these convulsive changes with aplomb and at the end gets a well-deserved standing ovation.

Bass Stefan Kocan has a big, resonant voice and he sings a marvelous Vodnik. Tenor Pavel Cernoch has a fine voice with a splendid midrange but it is not a big one. To be fair he did mange some flourishes and the orchestra never drowned him out. We could always hear him but he may have suffered in comparison to the more domineering voices of Radvanovsky and soprano Keri Alkema who sang the part of the Foreign Princess. The latter had good reason to express herself as the would-be bride who did not like the Prince’s infatuation with Rusalka. Mezzo soprano Elena Manistina does a fine job as the colourful witch Jezibaba.

David McVicar does imaginative and superb work with the production. He does not wait for the overture to be over but starts with a minor tale of rejection. We then see the alluring and very active Wood Nymphs (Anna-Sophie Neher, Jamie Groote and Lauren Segal). With judicious use of dances by chorographer Andrew George and the fine cast he is able to maintain a fine pace even with the orchestral passages where there is no singing.

Keri Alkema as the Foreign Princess (background), Pavel Černoch 

and Sondra Radvanovsky. Photo: Michael Cooper

John Macfarlane’s set consists of the indication of a forest with a moon in the background and a meadow with a lake in the foreground. The lake is indicated by a hole in the floor boards with some mist emanating from it. No water on stage.  Simple and effective. The second scene shows the busy kitchen where frantic preparations are made for the wedding. A huge fireplace and carcasses are in view in a colourful array. The palace in the subsequent scene is a grand gothic hall.

Johannes Debus conducts the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus in Dvořák’s gorgeous, lush score.

This time we had to wait only ten years even if the COC had to borrow a production from the Lyric Opera of Chicago that was first seen there 2014.

By the way, it is worth mentioning that the COC’s production in 2009 was pretty speedy compared to what the redoubtable Royal Opera, Covent Garden did. It staged the opera for a first time in 2012 and set it in a brothel. You can still hear the boos.

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Rusalka by Antonin Dvořák with text by Jaroslav Kvapil is being performed seven times until October 26, 2019 on various dates at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

TURANDOT – REVIEW OF 2019 LIVE FROM THE MET PRODUCTION

James Karas

Hot on the heels of Robert Wilson’s production of Turandot for the Canadian Opera Company, Torontonians have the chance to see Zeffirelli’s granddaddy of all stagings at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Zeffiirelli directed the production back in 1987 but is has been repeatedly revived with different casts and is still going strong.

Zeffirelli produced operas on a grand, magnificent and some would say ostentatious scale. Opera houses with a smaller budget (and that should include just about all of them) could not imagine constructing the sets, designing the costumes and hiring the chorus and extras that the Met does for this Turandot. And it can hardly hire second rate singers. 

 The final scene of Puccini's "Turandot" with Yusif Eyvazov as Calàf and 

Christine Goerke in the title role. Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Operaa

The sets, designed by Zeffirelli himself are intricate and colossal. In the opening scene we have the Mandarin (Javier Arrey) reading the law that the pure Princess Turandot will marry only the man of royal blood who can solve the three riddles that she puts to him. If he fails, he will lose his head.

Zeffirelli has massive ramparts viewable in the dark background and masses of people to hear the edict. There is commotion, hubbub, and singing, of course but this is not a simple scene to get the plot going. The mob cries for blood, the Prince of Persia is mercilessly sent to be executed and we have a scene on stage worthy of Cecil B. DeMille.

The first scene of Act II in the private apartments of ministers Ping (Alexey Lavrov), Pang (Tony Stevenson) and Pong (Eduardo Valdes) is almost domestic as they bemoan bloodshed and miss their homes in the provinces.

We then are put inside the imperial palace where we find the old Emperor on the throne and witness imperial grandeur that most emperors could only dream of, but, the Met delivers. The Emperor (Carlo Bosi) in splendid regalia is seated on a gold throne above the rest of the world. There are grand pillars, structures and stairs that fill the stage and dazzle the eye. Turandot appears wearing a huge tiara and a gown studded with jewels. Beautifully gowned ladies are beside her as are guards attired in gold standing beside and below the emperor.

The sages of China in white robes of splendour parade in front and soldiers with masks that make them look menacing are also present.

In such surrounding, singers with big voices and impeccable delivery are a sine qua non and the Met rarely fails to find them. Soprano Christine Goerke has a splendid voice that expresses Turandot’s imperiousness (and nastiness, if you look carefully) but she rises to legendary status as the icy hater of men.

Tenor Yusif Eyvazov makes a powerful and impassioned Calaf who brings the house down with his “Nessun dorma.” Eleonora Buratto as the slave girl Liu is simply splendid with her moving performance and lyrical beauty among the heroics of Calaf and Turandot. James Morris as Timur, approaching his fiftieth anniversary of singing at the Met was met with epic applause by the audience that he certainly deserves.

 A scene from Act I of Puccini's "Turandot." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted his first Puccini at the Met and the Orchestra and Chorus played outstandingly. Turandot is a truly choral opera and the Met Chorus deserves praise on the same level of recognition as the singers.

I have devoted most of my review to the grandiosity of the production because it represents a style that is from the past and a strong indicator of tastes in New York. The Met has been using it for more than 30 years and it still works. It is opera on a grand scale that may be past its apogee and unlikely to be continued very frequently. But there it is without much thought of changing it. You will recall that there was an attempt to shelve Zeffirelli’s Tosca by Luc Bondy’s staging but it was met with derision from the audience and management had e no choice but to run for cover. It was replaced by a more realistic and palatable to New Yorkers approach by David McVicar.

I have seen this production several times as well as other stagings but it still astounds me with its opulence and magnificence, which combined with the choral, orchestral and vocal splendour defines an era at the Met which may be on its way out.

Franco Zeffirelli died on June 15, 2019.

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Turandot by Giacomo Puccini was transmitted Live in HD form the Metropolitan Opera on October 12, 2019 at the Cineplex Odeon Eglinton Town Centre Cinema, Toronto and other theatres across Canada.  It will be shown again in select theatres on November 2, 4, 6 and 10, 2019. For more information: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senior Editor – Culture of The Greek Press.

TURANDOT – REVIEW OF 2019 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Turandot, Puccini’s last opera, is back at the Canadian Opera Company after an absence of fifteen years. The singing is outstanding, the orchestra superb and the new production directed by Robert Wilson is original, idiosyncratic, experimental and quite astounding.

Turandot is set in mythical China and is the story about a beautiful but unpleasant Princess Turandot who is in the habit of decapitating men who cannot solve three riddles. An unknown prince shows up at the palace in Beijing and falls in love with Turandot at first sight and so badly that he is prepared to risk his life in order to get her. His father, a blind, deposed king, is travelling with a slave girl and meets up at the palace with his son who happens to be the unknown prince. 

 A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of 

Turandot, 2019, photo: Michael Cooper

The exotic setting and the myth provide huge latitude for directors to exercise their imagination about how to present the opera. And indeed they have from Franco Zeffirelli’s over-the-top lush rendering to commedia dell’arte renderings with much in between.

Robert Wilson’s approach is to present a static, almost monochromatic production where the characters do not interact. Prince Calaf (tenor Sergey Skorokhodov), you will recall, falls in love with Turandot after a cursory look. In fact, Calaf, appearing in gray from head to toe, spends most of his time on stage looking in front of him, chin up, with no eye contact with anyone.

This holds true for most of the characters.

The libretto calls for Calaf to run up to his father King Timur (David Leigh) happy and relieved that he has finally found him. In this production, Calaf, Timur and the slave girl Liu (Joyce El-Khoury) stand like statues throughout and again do not establish any contact or interaction. This holds true for everyone except for Ping (Adrian Timpau), Pang (Julian Ahn) and Pong (Joseph Hu) who bop up and down continuously like comic characters from a silent movie. By the way, they are called Jim, Bob and Bill. They deserve praise for fine vocal and physical performances.

Puccini’s music, the chorus and the singers provide the opera with motion and thrust that transport the audience into extraordinary heights of enjoyment. The details of the plot do not bear too much analysis from Calaf’s treatment of Liu, to Turandot’s attitude to people, to her “melting” in the throes of love. All can stretch credulity beyond its limits.

 Tamara Wilson as Turandot and Sergey Skorokhodov as Calaf . Photo: Michael Cooper

Wilson I suggest treats the plot as a series of rituals that are carried by the music and singing and may not need or bear any attempt at realism. We listen to the incredibly wonderful choruses, the arias etc. and they carry us along without the necessity of looking any further. Liu is tortured and kills herself but there is nothing on stage to illustrate it. There is a change in lighting over Liu and she is “dead” even if she is still standing.

Wilson designed the production including the lighting concepts. The Chorus with their black armor and helmets look like defectors from Star Wars. The stage has no props and lighting is used judiciously and effectively. Realism is eschewed at every turn. Turandot goes across the stage and back but she seems to float along the floor. Timur with his long white beard and hair almost never moves.

The singing is excellent. Skorokhodov sings standing in one place with no movement at all except during “Nessun dorma” when he uses his hands a little. His declaration of love is ritualistic and thrilling in their own terms without romantic outpourings which in the context of the opera may be unconvincing.

Soprano Tamara Wilson is indeed the icy princess but she excels vocally. She is frosty while El-Khoury’s Liu is sympathetic and vocally splendid. She can hardly be anything else but again her outpouring of emotion is restrained to the parameters of Wilson’s view of the opera.

Conductor Carlo Rizzi and the COC Orchestra and Chorus deserve extra commendation for their outstanding performance in keeping us enthralled perhaps because of or maybe despite Wilson’s approach. A thrilling night at the opera.

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Turandot by Giacomo Puccini (completed by Franco Alfano) with libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni is being performed nine times in repertory between September

26 and October 27, 2019 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.

WERTHER – REVIEW OF 2019 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE REVIVAL

Reviewed by James Karas

Jules Massenet’s Werther was first performed, and only once, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1894. It was such a flop that it was put in deepfreeze until 1979. It has been defrosted but it has not exactly become a big hit despite some fine recording. In fact, the performance I saw on September 20, 2019 was only the 44^th at Covent Garden.

The current run is the third revival of Benoit Jacquot’s 2004 production so Werther may be picking up some speed. In tenor Juan Diego Florez as the hero and mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard as Charlotte it has huge star and vocal power to pull a lot of people to Covent Garden.

The opera has a few big arias but its plot and emotional and moral wavelengths come from a very different world. A young man looks at a young woman and falls in love with her – a love that is all-consuming, eternal, pure, immutable and God-given. That is what happens to Werther when he sees Charlotte.

 Isabel Leonard and Juan Diego Florez. ROH 2019. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Apart from the romantic stratosphere that Werther and Charlotte occupy, they also live in a society where Christian teachings and virtues are strictly obeyed. Charlotte cannot marry Werther because she vowed to her mother that she will marry Albert (baritone Jacques Imbrailo). She does. Werther is devasted (and that is putting it very mildly) and he can’t do or think of anything else except of Charlotte and suicide.

The love based on Christian theology and morality does not permit even a thought of carnal contact. In fact, that would be blasphemy, a very serious sin. Werther and Charlotte have not kissed and have not even thought or imagined erotic connection.

We have to wait for a couple of hours for them to kiss and by that time he has shot himself with Albert’s gun and is dying. But he is so slow about it that they have time to consider redemption, the purity of their love, make funeral arrangements and meet the Solitary Reaper.

Whatever the problem of accepting the world that Massenet took from Goethe’s novel, the performers draw us into it with sheer vocal beauty. Florez can climb to high Cs with a single leap but Massenet makes few such demands. But the beauty of his tone and the depth of his emotional range keeps us watching intently.

Isabel Leonard and  Jacques Imbrailo. ROH 2019. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Isabel Leonard as Charlotte, the pure, obedient and unhappily married young women does not have to do much octave-leaping but she does have to draw our sympathy as we see and hear her distress, struggle, emotional turmoil and final release. She does it beautifully.

Her young sister Sophie is sung by the rising American soprano Heather Engebretson who provides some contrast to Charlotte and does fine vocal work.

Charles Edwards’ sets do the job. We start in the yard of the Bailli (Alastair Miles) where we see light streaming through an open gate. The second scene is outside by some stairs leading to the church. We see a mostly overcast but bright sky. The third scene is in the panelled, austere house of Albert and Charlotte and the final scene takes place in a miniature room where Werther is bleeding from the gunshot wound. There are several refences to blue sky but I did not see any of that.

Jacquot takes a conservative but solid approach to the opera and the result is an excellent production. Edward Gardner conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra through Massenet’s lush music. The recordings make it reasonably available but the opera  occupies an emotional and moral universe that may not be conducive to Werther becoming a frequently staged work.

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Werther by Jules Massenet is being performed six times between September 17 and October 5, 2019 on various dates at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, England. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. greekpress.ca

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2019 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE REVIVAL

Reviewed by James Karas

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has revived for the third time director Kasper Holten’s visually stunning and vocally superb 2014 production of Don Giovanni. It features vocal splendour from bassos Erwin Schrott and Roberto Tagliavini and magnificent soprano singing from Malin Bystrom and Myrto Papatanasiu  And it has hugely imaginative designs and use of lighting.

Schrott as Don Giovanni and Tagliavini are a well-matched pair with big, resonant voices and physical agility. They can change identities with a switch of a coat and a hat, and they give a marvellous performance as rascals, master and servant duellers, abusers and vocal marvels. 

Production photo of Don Giovanni. © 2019 ROH. Photograph by Mark Douet

Malin Bystrom has a gorgeous, big voice and her performance as Donna Anna, the putative victim of Don Giovanni is second to none. I say putative because I am convinced that she was not assaulted by Don Giovanni at all. I state this on the information gleaned from the way Holten presents the opening scene.

In the first scene she comes out of her bedroom wearing a beautiful evening gown which means she just returned from a high society event. She is trying to prevent Don Giovanni from leaving her and not the opposite. Later she tells her fiancée Don Ottavio that Don Giovanni’s identity was concealed under a cloak and therefore she could not recognize him. We know that he had no cloak in fact and was fully visible.

In the end when she tells Ottavio  that she wants to wait a year before marrying him, it is for love of Don Giovanni and not for grieving for her father for whose death she is partly responsible. A fascinating portrayal of Donna Ann.

Myrto Papatanasiu sings Donna Elvira beautifully and with wonderful expressiveness. When she expresses her love and is not angry or vengeful, she is a woman in anguish, moving, lyrical, sometimes hopeful and always vocally wonderful. I had a problem with her failure to express her anger, indeed fury, when she declares her desire to be avenged on the treacherous Don Giovanni who seduced her and then abandoned her in a matter of days.  

Tenor Daniel Behle as Ottavio is a man of promises but no achievement. He wears a tuxedo in his first appearance which may mean he and Donna Anna just returned from the fancy gig. What does he do? He goes to bed and Donna Anna lets in a lusty visitor. Behle sings the gorgeous arias of the vacuous Don Ottavio very well. 

Leon Kosavic as Masetto and Louise Alder as Zerlina. 

© 2019 ROH. Photograph by Mark Douet

The peasant couple of Zerlina (Louise Alder) and Masetto (Leon Kosavic) are a delight. She is wearing a bridal gown and tosses her flower to the guests and has no difficulty handling the oafish Masetto. She almost leaves him at the altar, comforts him after he is thrashed and always ends up on top. Lovely singing and acting. Masetto sings well but he  is dressed in a fine suit. I think he should look more rural but it is a small point.

The staging has exceptionally high production values. The set by Es Devlin consists of a cubic two-story structure with staircases in the centre. It is set on a revolving stage with moveable panels providing a great deal of flexibility.

Holten goes much further than that in his imaginative use of lighting and video projections. In the opening scene we see projected on the “house” hundreds of names. They are the women that Don Giovanni seduced around Europe. We will see the projection a few times as a reminder of Giovanni’s character.

The mostly black and white projections will be varied as when the Commendatore (Brindley Sherratt) is murdered and the set is bathed in red. There is continuous and intelligent use of various light effects and video projection that add immensely to the quality of the production. All is done without resort to melodramatics. There is not even a speaking statue of the Commendatore, only a bust which is broken to pieces and the guilt-ridden Donna Anna picks from the floor.

Hartmut Haenchen conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus for a marvellous evening at the opera.

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Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart is being performed eight times between September 16 and October 10, 2019 on various dates at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, England. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. greekpress.ca

THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES – REVIEW OF 2019 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

The Ghosts of Versailles is a big a opera by composer John Corigliano on a libretto by William M. Hoffman. It was commissioned in 1979 by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and premiered in 1991. It is a highly ambitious work with a complicated plot, a large cast and huge production demands for cast, costumes and scenery. 

It is partly based on Beaumarchais’ third Figaro play The Guilty Mother with significant additions by Hoffman. The servants Figaro and his wife Suzanna, Count Almaviva and the Countess Rosina from The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro as well as Cherubino from the latter opera appear as do a host of other characters. I count 31 roles in the program plus dancers. 

(Center) Jonathan Bryan as Beaumarchais and members of the ensemble. 

Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

The ghosts are members of the French royal family with Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI being the most important ones. Beaumarchais plays a key role because his ghost is in love with Marie Antoinette’s ghost and he has written an opera that will change history. The characters from The Marriage of Figaro mentioned above and a few others will appear in the opera. The complications and turns of events are very numerous and not very exciting to be recited in a review. Let’s just say the complicated plot adds nothing to the opera.

Let’s give credit to the creators of the production starting with Director Jay Lesenger who handles the large cast, numerous scene changes, entrances and exits with aplomb. James Noone’s sets are visually stunning. Nancy Leary’s costumes take us back to 18^th century grace and splendour that only massive wealth could have produced then and no doubt do not come cheaply today but that is irrelevant to the splendour they add to the production. No one can take issue with the production values that the Glimmerglass Festival has marshalled for this opera.

I did not like the rest of the production at all. Corigliano’s modern music sounded jarring, dissonant and frequently unpleasant. There are some arias, duets and quartets that were almost melodic but they were some distance from being completely enjoyable, I realize and admit that Mozart’s music kept playing in my head. I realize the unfairness in hearing other music instead what is played in front of me but so be it. At one point Rosina, the unhappy wife of Count Almaviva, sings an aria expressing her misery and seeking the lost years of her youth. That is similar to “Dove sono” from The Marriage of Figaro where the Countess seeks the pleasant past. Corigliano’s music sounded jarring compared to the sumptuous beauty of Mozart. Unfair comparison? Perhaps.

The Ghosts takes potshots at comic opera and there are few laughs in it. Beaumarchais wants to free Marie Antoinette from her present condition – remember she was beheaded and is now a ghost - change the course of history and enjoy life with her in Philadelphia – “if you can call that life!” is the last comment on the suggestion We have a sword fight only to discover you cannot stab to death someone who is already dead. 

(From left) Brian Wallin as Count Almaviva, Emily Mirsch as Florestine, 

Joanna Latini as Rosina, Kayla Siembieda as Susanna, and Ben Schaefer 

as Figaro. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

There is a great party at the Turkish embassy which goes on for too long and ceases being amusing long before it is over. Lesenger makes generous use of the aisles of the theatre and you see French royalty walking by you. At one point one of the cast mumbles the comment “is this thing still going on? It is so boring” or words to that effect.

Let’s give credit to the cast who work hard and I do not hesitate to express my adulation for their work. Of the ghosts, the main ones are Yelena Dyachek as Marie Antoinette, Jonathan Bryan as Beaumarchais, Peter Morgan as Louis XVI and Zachary Rioux as the Marquis.

The opera-within-the opera that Beaumarchais “composes” has some nineteen characters including Figaro (Ben Schaefer), Susanna (Kayla Siembieda), Rosina (Joanna Latini), Count Almaviva (Brian Wallin), Begearss (Christian Sanders), Cherubino (Katherine Maysek) Pasha (Wm. Clay Thompson) and Samira (Gretchen Krupp).

With the exception of Dyachek, the entire cast are members of the Young Artists Program.

There are aspects of The Ghosts of Versailles that people find entertaining, admirable and even wonderful. I find myself on the side of those who did not enjoy the opera at all.    

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The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano (music) and William H. Hoffman (libretto) is being performed eight times between July 13 and August 23, 2019 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

SHOW BOAT – REVIEW OF 2019 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

Show Boat is a grand musical in the old style. It has a large cast, features some marvelous dance routines, a few great songs and touches on some societal issues. It is also sentimental, sometimes corny with a few too many coincidences but in the end it leaves you highly entertained and satisfied. And that describes the Glimmerglass Festival’s gorgeously sung and beautifully designed production directed by the highly capable Francesca Zambello.

Show Boat equals the great aria “Ol’ Man River,” a personification of the grand Mississippi River that "jes' keeps rollin' along". “Ol’ Man River” equals the unequalled voice of Paul Robeson. In this production Justin Hopkins as Joe does justice to the song with his great midrange and wonderful rumbling low notes. 

Lauren Snouffer as Magnolia Hawks, Michael Adams as Gaylord Ravenal 

and members of the ensemble. Photo Credit: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

But there is more to Show Boat than one great song. Jerome Kern married Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics based on Edna Ferber’s novel and produced one of the landmarks in American musical theatre. The integration of plot and music, the subject matter which includes miscegenation and the overall quality of the show have made a milestone that is frequently revived since its premiere in 1927.

The Cotton Blossom is a floating theatre that travels along the Mississippi. The musical starts with a fistfight where the star of the show Steve (Charles H. Eaton) knocks out Pete the engineer (Maxwell Levy) for making passes at his wife Julie (Alyson Cambridge). The crux of the incident is to bring into focus one of the most disgraceful chapters in endemic American racism: the criminal prohibition of interracial marriage and sex. Julie has Negro blood and that makes her marriage to Steve a crime. Before the sheriff can arrest her, Steve cuts her hand and sucks some of her blood. Thus he can prove that he has Negro blood as well and their marriage is legal!

This is a minor but striking incident in the musical. We then get on with the main plotline which is the relationship between Magnolia (Lauren Snouffer) and the debonair gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Michael Adams). He is tall, dark and handsome, as they say, and she is blonde and pretty. He sings "Where's the Mate for Me?" and they both sing “Make Believe” and its love forever. Snouffer and Adams turn in superb performances.

They marry, have a child and do well until Ravenal returns to gambling, loses everything and disappears for a couple of decades. She hits bottom and rises to the top on Broadway and loves Ravenal forever.

Magnolia’s father, Cap’n Andy is overplayed by Lara Teeter who tries a bit too hard to be funny. His wife Parthy a.k.a. Parthenia (played by Klea Blackhurst) is a termagant and her name gives away her character. She is right about Ravenal but we prefer Andy’s judgment because we do not want to interfere with the course of love especially in a musical.

 Justin Hopkins as Joe and Lauren Snouffer as Magnolia Hawks. 

Photo Credit: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

The musical covers some 40 years from 1887 to 1927 and by the end Magnolia’s and Ravenal’s daughter Kim (Hayley Ayers) is grown up. Andy arranges for a reunion on the Cotton Blossom. Kim rushes into her father’s arms but Zambello, quite smartly, does not have Magnolia do the same. It may be a musical but reality has not been abrogated.  

Show Boat has a chorus of stevedores and working girls who perform a number of songs and brilliant dances choreographed by Eric Sean Fogel.

The sets by Peter J. Davison from the brilliantly coloured show boat to the gritty harbour to the posh hotel and Trocadero are superb.

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra is conducted by James Lowe.

The Mississippi may be eternally rolling along oblivious to the affairs of humanity but humanity, especially the audience in The Alice Busch Opera Theatre was certainly not oblivious to “Ol’ Man River” or this production of Show Boat as marked by their standing ovation.

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Show Boat by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) is being performed thirteen times between July 6 and August 24, 2019 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of  The Greek Press. www.greekpress.ca

BLUE – REVIEW OF 2019 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival is in its 45^th season on the shores of Lake Otsego and, yes, near Cooperstown. The village lays claim to fame for opera, of course, the Fenimore Art Museum, The Farmers’ Museum, and The Fly Creek Cider Mill and Orchard winery. Oh yes, there is also the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Despite the latter, people of culture and civilization still go to Cooperstown and walk up and down Main Street. Then they surreptitiously sneak away and drive along the lakeshore towards the Alice Busch Opera Theatre.  The Cooperstown Association for the Preservation of Civilization advises visitors to put on a baseball cap (preferably Blue Jays so no one will notice or care) and sneak by the village’s only traffic light and go to the Alice Busch Opera Theatre without arousing suspicion. The cap lets you enter any one of the ten thousand shops selling baseball memorabilia so you can camouflage the real purpose of your visit.

Back to civilization. This year the Festival offers six productions among other events. There is something new, Blue, something old, La Traviata, something modern, The Ghosts of Versailles, and something classic American, Show Boat. In addition to these, there is a production of Benjamin Britten’s Noah’s Flood by the Glimmerglass Youth Ensemble and a version of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. 

(From left) Mia Athey as Girlfriend 3, Brea Renetta Marshall as Girlfriend 2, Briana Hunter 

as The Mother and Ariana Wehr as Girlfriend 1. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Blue is a new opera that was commissioned by Francesca Zambello, the Festival’s Artistic and General Director. The title refers to the colour of the uniform of the New York City police. The music is by Jeanine Tesori whose first opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck premiered at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2011. The libretto by Tazewell Thompson tells the tragic story of a family living in Harlem that is also a parable of the life of blacks in America.

As becomes a story about a people as well as a family, the characters are not given names. The main characters are the Father (Kenneth Kellogg), the Mother (Briana Hunter), the Son (Aaron Crouch) and the Reverend (Gordon Hawkins). The Mother has three girlfriends and the father has three friends who also act as members of the Congregation.

We first meet the Mother who is deliriously happy about being pregnant. Her friends are more practical, perhaps cynical and advise her that the rule is “thou shall not bring black boys into the world”. The Mother’s excitement is undiminished. We meet the Father who is a rookie police officer and deeply in love with his wife and thrilled at the prospect of fatherhood.

The Mother and the Father have friends and belong to an integrated society that should reflect the America Dream. They have every right to belong and think that they belong. That notion is quickly shattered.

When the Son is 16, he rebels against the racial injustice in America that besmirches its history like a huge streak of blood on a white sheet from the arrival of the first slave in 1619 to last week’s shooting of a black man by the police. The Son engages in peaceful protests against the endemic racism around him and has a falling out with his Father. He is shot dead by a police officer.

The family and the dream of a good life are destroyed. The Father becomes bitter, hateful and thirsting for revenge. The mother is distraught and the effect of racism is brought into horrifying relief. It is a portrait of America.

After the son’s funeral, there is a dream sequence which paints a picture of what might have been if the son had not been killed.

The libretto tells a simple story, almost mundane in view of what occurs so frequently. One becomes almost anesthetized at its horror. It is a parable and not a documentary account and it is more powerful for its simplicity.

Tesori’s music is beautifully modulated and apt for the changing scenes of the opera. It opens with dark, foreboding music but we quickly get into the uplifting scenes of happiness and hope.

We experience the jarring notes of the fight between father and son; the attempt by the Reverend to preach forgiveness in the midst of anger, and desire for revenge. During the funeral scene, we hear the congregation sing airs with the cadence of Negro spirituals until the final notes of resolution in the dream sequence.

Bass Kenneth Kellogg as the Father is big physically and vocally. He has a marvelously resonant voice with some rumbling low notes. He goes from a buddy with fellow police officers, to a happy new father, to a man who is hated by his teenage son, to a vengeful man and finally to one who is reconciled through his faith. It is a tough role that Kellogg handles superbly.

 

                (From left) Kenneth Kellogg as The Father, Aaron Crouch as The Son and Briana 

Hunter as The Mother. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Briana Hunter is a young singer who as the Mother starts as an attractive, spirited and happy woman who is excited about motherhood, deeply in love with her husband and must face the reality of racist America. A well done performance by Hunter.     

Bass Gordon Hawkins played a well-sung and sympathetic Reverend giving Christian hope in a situation where there is little room for it.

The Son (Aaron Crouch) and the six singers who made up the three girlfriends, three friends of the Father and the congregation, all members of the Festival’s Young Artists Program, did fine work supporting the main characters.

The set by Donald Eastman consisted of a few pieces of furniture as required for each scene in front of a backdrop of a three-story apartment building.

Librettist Tazewell Thompson also directed the production with economy and simplicity as becomes the telling of a parable.

John DeMain conducted the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra in a fine performance of a new work.

Back to reality. The advisability of wearing a Blue Jays cap as camouflage in Cooperstown may be short-lived. There is strong evidence that the Toronto team will do in baseball what the Raptors did in basketball. In that case being seen in an American town with or without an opera festival with the cap of a Canadian team becomes highly risky.

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Blue by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Tazewell Thompson (libretto) is being performed eight times between July 14 and August 22, 2019 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. www.greekpress.ca