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.