LES MILLES ENDORMIS - REVIEW OF 2019 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Les Mille Endormis (The Sleeping Thousand) is a one-act chamber opera by Adam Maor (music) and Yonatan Levy (libretto). Maor is Israeli, born in 1983, and Levy is Canadian, born in 1973, and Les Milles is their first foray into the creation of an opera. The work has been commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the theatres of the city of Luxemburg among others. It premiered in Aix on July 6, 2019.

The sleeping thousand of the title are Palestinian detainees of Israel who have gone on a hunger strike.  The result is a type of biblical plague. The earth will not grow food, the crops grow dead and there is a real crisis. The United Nations is considering a resolution to stop rainfall over Israel and the United States will not veto it Reality and unreality go hand in hand.

The opera is cast for four singers. The Prime Minister sung by Polish baritone Tomasz Kumiega is a classic politician beset by a problem that he is out of his depth to handle. He deteriorates in front of our eyes as he struggles with an unsolvable problem. 

                                              Festival of Aix-en-Provence 2019 © Patrick Berger / Artcompre

Nourit is the Prime Minister’s assistant, sung by Israeli soprano Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod as the good and faithful servant.

S. is the head of Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency and the man who thinks of deftly solving the problem of the hunger strikers. American bass David Salsbery Fry sings the role of S.

French baritone Benjamin Alunni takes on the roles of Minister of Agriculture, the Voice of the People, a protester and the Cantor.    

What do we do with the hunger strikers? They cannot be tried or set free or left to die or much of anything else. S. has a solution.  There is no choice but to put all of them to sleep. And we see them arrayed in the Prime Minister’s office on scaffolding all wearing orange overalls.

The plot is part biblical, part science fiction, part theatre of the absurd and with perhaps some expressionism in the heady mix.

Three years after putting the Palestinians to sleep, things seem to be better but not great. Five years later the problems are hallucinations, nightmares and inability to sleep. The Prime Minister, the main character in the opera is starting to lose it.

A Cantor enters and chants Plague of Firstborn Children, an apocalyptic description of pestilence. Jewish babies struck with epileptic fits babbling in Arabic. Blood comes out of a Jewish child’s mouth and it is attributed to tongue-biting caused by involuntary Arabic speech.

This may be satire but it is delivered by the Cantor in a somber monotone addressed directly to the audience. He is dressed in a white robe with a gold, shiny globe on his head that looks like something from a sci-fi show. What are we to make of it?

Seven years later the plague is still on. The Prime Minister has not slept for a long time and the Arabs are eating all Jews at the Khafia. The Prime Minister looks like a jackal. The thousand are not sleeping and Nourit will be sent to infiltrate the Arab world of dreams.

She does go and then Levy gives a quick and unsatisfactory end to the tale. He has only an hour and fifteen minutes and he has packed a great deal for the audience to absorb on a first hearing.  S’s last words are the ambiguous and intriguing “my whole life I have spoken only nonsense.” 

                                                Festival of Aix-en-Provence 2019 © Patrick Berger / Artcompre

Elena Schwarz conducts the United Instruments of Lucilin, a small ensemble based in Luxemburg that specializes in contemporary music.  

The opera has elements of satire, even comedy as it focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian problem. It is sung in Hebrew as the creators look at the huge problem in the Middle East.  

Levy is not afraid to satirize the Israelis for jumping to conclusions that are not warranted by the facts and for being basically ridiculous in some aspects of their treatment of Palestinians.

The music is taut, sinuous and at times somewhat monotonous. This is a highly ambitious work that tackles a major political and human tragedy from a number of angles in a very short time. Are they trying to do too much very fast? Perhaps.

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Les Milles Endormis  by Adam Maor (music) and Yonatan Levy (libretto) opened on July 6, 2019 and is being performed five times at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France. http://festival-aix.com/

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

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2019 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival does not hesitate to stage original, often brilliant, sometimes touched by genius productions of operas.  For example, Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov turned Carmen into a psychiatric therapy session. He turned Don Giovanni into a family drama that takes place entirely in the library of the Commendatore’s house. Peter Sellars took Mozart’s mostly lost Zaide and turned it into a melodramatic anti-slavery tract to compete with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. And Rigoletto found work in a circus.

This year we are invited to a rehearsal of Tosca. To be more precise, it is a performance that pretends to be a rehearsal that becomes a concert performance that ends up as a production touched by genius or a travesty.

We all know that the first act of Tosca takes place in the grand church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome where Mario Cavaradossi is painting and hiding the escaped political prisoner Angelotti. Wrong.

                                    Aix-en-Provence Festival 2019 © Jean-Louis Fernandez

This production directed by Christophe Honoré opens in the posh apartment of a diva who is listening to Vissi d’arte on a CD and on a projection screen we see the CD spinning. She is listed as the Prima Donna (Catherine Malfitano) in the program who speaks English to her son and he replies in French. They are getting ready for a crew to film a rehearsal of Tosca.

Puccini steps in and we see the Sacristan (Leonardo Galeazzi) doing his bit at a lectern, score in hand. We will see almost all the characters grab a score and check what they are supposed to be singing. It’s all a casual rehearsal as we see the diva roaming around the numerous people who are doing their job. Tosca (Angel Blue), Cavaradossi (Joseph Calleja) and Angelotti (Simon Shibambu) are going through their roles. The nasty Scarpia (Alexey Markov) appears and proves that he can sing the role but there is no reason to get all worked up. It is just a casual rehearsal.

We get the joke and now can we get on with the performance in the second act? We are in Scarpia’s apartment in the Palazzo Farnese. There are several rooms and screens above them so we can see everything from a different angle or close up. The Prima Donna is everywhere and she will be with us almost uninterruptedly until the end of the opera. She does not sing.

Are we going to see the grotesque evil of Scarpia, hear Cavaradossi being tortured and witness Tosca kill the loathsome creep. Why bother during a rehearsal? Singers move around, they sing but not much else is required of them. We see Cavaradossi drinking and eating at the beginning of the act and lying on a bed with the Prima Donna sitting by him   while he is supposed to be tortured

                                    Aix-en-Provence Festival 2019 © Jean-Louis Fernandez

Tosca throws some ketchup on Scarpia when she is supposed to be murderously stabbing him but the whole atmosphere is laid back. Angel Blue does get to sing Vissi d’arte but why let her show off her vocal splendour? The projection screens are there so let’s show photos of other sopranos in the role. Photographs of Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Leontine Price and, you guessed it, Catherine Malfitano appear on the screen. Is there a point to this? Is Angel Blue joining the ranks of the erstwhile greats? Is she surpassing them? Is there a reason to spoil her singing by having us look at photographs of other singers?

By this time you figure it can’t possibly get worse. Wrong.

For the third act which takes place on the battlements of the Castel Sant’Angelo, the orchestra is brought on the stage leaving no room for much else. There is a miniature of the castle at the side of the stage and we get a close up of Ms Malfitano looking into it. She walks across the audience to the other side of the theater and sits on the stage. She will go and touch the conductor and walk through the orchestra during the scene and when Tosca and Cavaradossi are singing their incredibly moving duet she will be right there with them. When Tosca is supposed to be jumping off the parapet (she does not), Malfitano will be lying down on a terrace above the orchestra. 

                                         Aix-en-Provence Festival 2019 © Jean-Louis Fernandez

That is not all. The third act switches from a rehearsal to a concert performance. Cavaradossi appears in a tux and sings “E lucevan le stele” and Tosca comes out dressed to kill. She gives instructions to Cavaradossi about how to act after the fake shooting while he is standing on the side of the stage near the model castle and she is centre-stage. He is not shot and she does not jump off anything but simply raises her hand.

This is only a partial list of the unbelievable things in this production. I can add many more and express my disbelief that they actually put on a production like that. Is this what we can expect from Pierre Audi, the new Artistic Director? Or is the production touched by such genius that I missed it?

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 Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is being performed eight times between July 4 and 22, 2019 as part of the Aix-en-Provence Festival at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, 26 Rue Gaston de Saporta, Aix-en-Provence, France. festival-aix.com/fr

JAKOB LENZ - REVIEW OF 2019 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is in its 71^st season which shows admirable longevity and it has a new artistic director, Pierre Audi, which promises change and renewal. Audi has scheduled six operas for the season most of them never seen at the Festival in Aix before.

One of the new productions is Jakob Lenz, a one-act chamber opera composed by Wolfgang Rihm on a libretto by Michael Fröhling which premiered in Hamburg in 1979. It has been produced in cities across Europe but it has made only a couple of tentative steps in the United States with productions at the Julliard Theater in New York and in Bloomington. I can find nothing about it being produced in Canada.

 

 Aix-en-Provence Festival 2019 © Patrick Berger / Artcompress

The opera is based on a novella by Georg Buchner, the man who provided the material for the more famous Wozzeck. It tells the story of the poet Lenz (Georg Nigl) who has serious emotional and mental issues (probably schizophrenia) not the least of which is his mourning for his love Friederike. He roams the mountains, hears voices and ends up with his friend Pastor Oberlin (Wolfgang Bankl).

The closely written and intense novella which deals largely with internal turmoil would appear to be almost impossible to transfer into a libretto but Fröhling has managed to do it. It may be worth noting that Lenz, Oberlin and Kaufman are historical figures.

Lenz stays with Oberlin for a while but his emotional turmoil, the voices that he hears and the images of Friederike that haunt him drive him back to the mountains. He hears the voices again and despairs of finding Friederike.

Their friend Kaufman (John Daszak) joins them. He is a friend of both men, but Lenz’s mental illness makes it impossible for them to deal with him and they finally put him in a straitjacket, tie him up to a bed and leave him.

The emotional and even intellectual breadth of the opera takes your breath away and the performance of Austrian baritone Nigl is simply heroic. Austrian bass-baritone Bankl as Oberlin and British Tenor John Daszak as Kaufmann give impressive performances though the demands on them are not as strenuous.

The opera has 2 sopranos (Josefin Feiler and Olga Heikkila), two altos (Camille Merckx and Beth Taylor) and two basses (Dominic Grosse and Eric Ander). They provide the eerie atmosphere and stamp the mental hell in which Lenz agonizes.

The music is modern, dissonant, sometimes jarring, sometimes cacophonous and at times harmonious. It represents the violent emotional tempests that Lenz is going through as he hears his voices, jumps into pools of water (indicated only metaphorically in this production), tries to revive a young girl who he thinks is Friderike and bears a cross in unmistakable emulation of the suffering of Jesus. It is heavy-duty stuff. 

Aix-en-Provence Festival 2019 © Patrick Berger / Artcompress

It is a dark opera done in modern dress. The stage décor by Martin Zehetgruber represents metaphorically and economically the rocky mountains, Oberlin’s residence and the more bizarre states of mind of the half-naked and Christ-like Lenz. He is seen wedged on what looks like a shelf and in positions of pain as he wrestles with his voices, God and his own dementia.

Director Andrea Breth handles the intense and overwrought material with a skillful hand as she takes us through the complexities of the plot in an hour and a quarter with no intermission. 

Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Ensemble Modern orchestra through the permutations of what sounds like a very difficult score.

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Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm is being performed three times in reprise of the 2014 Stuttgart Staatsoper production. On July 5, 8 and 12, 2019 at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. http://festival-aix.com/

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

OTELLO – REVIEW OF CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2019 PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company rounds off its current season with a grand production of Verdi’s 27^th opera Otello. The stars of the production are Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley as Iago and the COC Orchestra conducted by Johannes Debus.

David Alden’s production is quite solid but it has enough eccentric touches to send your eyebrows to the back of your head.

Otello starts as a great love story between a black general in the Venetian army and the high-born and pure Desdemona. The story and the conflict are driven by the malevolent Iago whose hatred of Otello for passing him over for promotion leads him to destroying the loving couple. 

 Tamara Wilson as Desdemona and Russell Thomas as Otello. Photo: Michael Cooper

Finley with his big, sonorous voice and commanding presence quickly establishes vocal and personal dominance. The Venetian gentlemen Roderigo (Owen McCausland) and Cassio (Andre Haji) cower under his authoritative persona. Otello, a successful general is no fool but Iago manages to find a way to drive him insane with jealousy to the point where he follows instructions on how to murder his beloved Desdemona. Finley makes every aspect of Iago clear and alive for us.

All of that cannot be said about tenor Russell Thomas’s performance as Otello. Thomas has the physical attributes of the Moor. He is noble and impressive in the beginning and when he becomes ugly in his jealousy, he is frightfully menacing. Unfortunately, he is not always up to the vocal demands of the role. What we see physically is not translated into vocal power and emotional splendour. He is not helped by Alden’s directing and there is little passion and not enough fury in his dealing with Desdemona. In the end, and this is one of Alden’s idiosyncratic stagings, he dies “upon a kiss” about ten feet away from Desdemona.

Soprano Tamara Wilson as Desdemona is good in some of the almost Wagnerian outbursts but she does not quite measure up to all the emotional expressions demanded of the role.

The production gains a great deal from the playing of the COC Orchestra. From the initial burst of music representing the storm to the final death of Otello, we are treated to magnificent playing under the baton of Johannes Debus.

Verdi provides some heroic singing for the chorus and the COC Chorus responds with a splendid performance.

The set by Jon Morrell consists of large concrete walls that could represent a fortress or a port and they serve for all the scenes of the opera with minor adjustments. The costumes suggest 19^th century attire and they are fine. 

Gerald Finley as Iago and Russell Thomas as Otello. Photo: Michael Cooper

A couple more examples of Alden’s idiosyncrasies. At one point, Otello brings an icon of the Virgin Mary on the stage and hangs it on a wall. That seems quite appropriate because we are expecting Desdemona to sing “Ave Maria.” Instead we see Cassio shooting a few darts at the Madonna and the icon is soon removed. Why the display of such sacrilege by Cassio is a mystery to me.

Otello commands Desdemona to go to bed in her white wedding nightgown. There is no bed in this production and we see Desdemona crouching on one side of the stage and Otello across at the other side. Eventually he strangles her in the centre of the stage on the floor.

Otello kills himself after realizing what Iago did to him and what he did to Desdemona. Otello usually stabs himself with a dagger and falls upon Desdemona and his last words are “a kiss…another kiss…another kiss.” In this production Otello slashes the side of his neck and falls about ten feet from Desdemona. One is grateful that he does not do the completely comic act of slashing his throat and continuing to sing but slashing the side of his neck is almost as bad and dying that far from Desdemona is pretty ridiculous.

These directorial quirks need not be more than eyebrow raisers but Alden really packs them in and I am not quite sure why. Once your eyebrows return to their natural place, some gripes aside, the production becomes thoroughly enjoyable.

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Otello by Giuseppe Verdi is being performed eight times on various dates until May 21, 2019 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

THE MERRY WIDOW – REVIEW OF TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

When April is almost ended, when the weather is getting warm and the birds are singing merrily and the flowers begin to bloom and spring is in the air and there is no construction or traffic jams in Toronto, it is time to think of the pleasures of operetta and turn your attention to the Toronto Operetta Theatre. As you approach the Jane Mallett Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts look up (at your peril) and don’t trip over or fall under the construction equipment that is actually not there.

 

Gregory Finney (Baron Mirko Zeta) with Male Ensemble 

But what is there is a production of Franz Lehar’s effervescent operetta, The Merry Widow for a paltry four performances. Yes, there were four performances.

Recent economic history, especially the less fiscally prudent countries of the European Union, have taught us that a country can tumble over into bankruptcy. That was the fate of the small but wonderful Balkan nation of Pontevedro at the beginning of the 20^th century. Without a European Central Bank or IMF, its fate seemed inevitable.

But wait. Anna Glawari has a big bundle of money and if we can only convince her to marry a Pontevedrian and her money stays in the fatherland the country will be saved. Now you know what The Merry Widow is all about.

Now for the essentials. Our merry widow, Madame Glawari has to be attractive, vivacious, well-voiced, with comic talent. How about Italian-Canadian soprano Lucia Cesaroni? Darn good choice. Lehar is generally not stingy with wonderful melodies but the merry widow is especially well served including the beautiful “Vilja” that Cesaroni executes well.

A rich widow deserves a suitor worthy of her. There is a small lineup of them in the Pontevedrian embassy in Paris but none as eligible as the attaché Count Danilo (Michael Nyby). He is a dashing and carefree playboy with no money and Nyby convinces us that he is worthy of Anna Glawari on all points but we care mostly about vocal ability and acting talent and if he saves the fatherland in the bargain, so much the better.

A foreign embassy in Paris is bound to attract a number of muckety mucks and Pontevedro’s   legation is no exception. De Rosillon (tenor Matt Chittick), de St. Brioche (tenor Joshua Clemenger), de Cascada (baritone Austin Larusson) are there fulfilling their roles. The wives are more interesting especially the vivacious Valencienne (Daniela Agostino), the wife of Baron Zeta (Gregory Finney), the Pontevedrian Ambassador no less. Valencienne is very naughty, has a fan with writing on it and is in danger of being compromised. Agostino can do all of that in the role and sing very nicely.  

 Lucia Cesaroni (Anna Glawari)

Finney’s Zeta is more of a comic role than making great vocal demands. As the ambassador he has to worry about his job, his country, his wife and all those guests that keep him comically busy. His sidekick Njegus (Sean Curran), the Secretary at the Embassy, is even funnier. Curran has natural comic talent and Director Guillermo Silva-Marin makes good use of his talents.

Silva-Marin takes liberties with the libretto bringing in Premier Doug Ford, the IMF and the like. We expect it and he delivers it.

The Merry Widow is set in the Pontevedrian Embassy, in Mme. Glawari’s residence and at Maxim’s. Silva-Marin designs the lighting and set décor admittedly with meagre resources. The Embassy has a few leather chairs and some furnishings but it looks like the fiscal crisis has already has had its effect. Anna Glawari may have struck it rich quite recently because she simply has not had time to furnish her apartment. Maxim’s has a few tables but that’s about all and you should be looking at the girls in any event.

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The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár was performed four times between April 24 and 28,  2019 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  (416) 922-2912. www.torontooperetta.com

LA BOHÈME - REVIEW OF CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company has brought back John Caird’s 2013 production of La Bohème for its spring season, together with Verdi’s Otello. It is a sound decision that was greeted enthusiastically by the audience.

The revival is served superbly by the cast. Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan has a supple voice that can express emotion and soar to the high notes with ease. The night I saw the opera (April 26), we were advised that he was singing Rodolfo under the effects of a cold. There was no evidence of any adverse consequences and his performance was topnotch. After the tomfoolery of the poor artists in the attic and the arrival of Mimi, Ayan delivers a superb “Che gelida manina” combining youthful bravado with a wonderful melody and we were hooked. 

A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of 

La Bohème, 2019, photo: Michael Cooper

American soprano Angel Blue seemed initially not to have a big enough voice for the Four Seasons Centre but that impression was quickly dispelled. She starts haltingly with “Si, Mi chiamano Mimi” and pours forth her life leading to the inevitable – love. The one, two, three punch comes with the love duet between Rodolfo and Mimi, “O soave fanciulla,” and we got our money’s worth. The rest is a bonus.

Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman manages to sound sultry as Musetta, the teaser and abuser of men who has a heart of gold. Her signature aria is her “Quando m’envo” better known as Musetta’s waltz and Chuchman brings the vocal kick and manipulative bravura worthy of the show-stopper aria.

Rodolfo’s three friends deserve special mention. American baritone Lucas Meachem as the painter Marcello was vocally the most distinguished of the trio. He showed exuberance in his acting and singing as a sympathetic friend and the hapless former lover of Musetta. American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was good as the philosopher Colline and Canadian baritone Phillip Addis as the musician Schaunard sounded as if he were not having his best day. 

Lucas Meachem as Marcello, Angel Blue as Mimì (in background), and 

Atalla Ayan as Rodolfo. Photo: Michael Cooper

David Farley’s set featured a hefty number of large canvasses in the first act. The set was turned around quickly for the scene change from the attic to a street in the Latin Quarter for the second act. The background was not well-lit nor a particularly prepossessing street scene but otherwise it was quite good. The third act scene by a tavern near the city gates at dawn looked somber. It is supposed to be snowing but, we had to settle for a few snowflakes. Clearly we have more important things to do like listening to the heart-wrenching Marcello-Mimi duet and her farewell to Rodolfo. Marvelously done.

John Caird took a conservative, traditional approach to the opera and it works superbly in the revival directed by Katherine M Carter.

Paolo Carigniani conducted the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra in a performance that got a well-deserved standing ovation. 

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La Bohème  by Giacomo Puccini with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica opened on April 17 and will be performed ten times on various dates until May 22, 2019 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel: 416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

IDOMENEO - REVIEW OF OPERA ATELIER PRODUCTION

James Karas

Torontonians have an unusual luxury this time of the year. They can see a play about the beginning of the Trojan War and an opera about events at the end of that great, mythical conflict. You remember the 1000 ships moored in the harbour of Aulis ready to rescue the gorgeous Helen, Queen of Sparta from the nefarious Trojans? Small problem: no wind to help them sail across the Aegean. Solution: sacrifice the daughter of King Agamemnon. So goes Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis as adapted by Sina Gilani as Wedding at Aulis for Soulpepper.

At the end of the war, Idomeneus, King of Crete, is returning from the war but the sea god Neptune causes a storm that threatens to swallow the king.  Solution: Idomeneus promises to sacrifice the first person he sees in Crete if his life is spared. Neptune agrees and the first person the king sees is his son. So, we start with human sacrifice of a daughter and end with the sacrifice of a son. A good plot for Mozart’s opera seria Idomeneo.   

 Measha Brueggergosman, Wallis Giunta, Meghan Lindsay and 

Colin Ainsworth. Photo Bruce Zinger

Opera Atelier holds the distinction of giving the first production of Idomeneo in North America on period instruments back in 2008. What was good then is even better now. Director Marshall Pynkoski with Set Designer Gerard Gauci and Costume Designer Marco Gianfrancesco set the opera in its 18^th century roots as a work of beauty, elegance and grace. Choreographer Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg and the Artists of Atelier Ballet add to these attributes so that the entire production, in addition to all its operatic and balletic qualities, becomes a visual delight. 

Mozart is an equal opportunity composer who provides virtual concert pieces for the main characters of the opera. The cast is exemplary starting with Opera Atelier stalwart, tenor Colin Ainsworth as the unfortunate Idomeneo. He is a haunted man who has made a terrible choice. Ainsworth has a finely tuned voice and his Idomeneo expresses vocal finesse and delivery of character as much as is permitted in opera seria.

His son Idamante, the intended sacrifice to Neptune, is sung by mezzo soprano Wallis Giunta. The role was written for a castrato but is frequently sung by a tenor. It can be done quite well by a mezzo soprano and Giunta with her lovely voice gives a marvelous performance as the prince who is loved by two women.

 

Wallis Giunta and Meghan Lindsay. Photo: Bruce Zinger

The lushly voiced and dramatic Measha Brueggergosman is back as the love-struck but ill-fated Electra. She is in love with Idamante, but he is in love with someone else. She goes from passion to being unhinged as she realizes that she is the loser of the love triangle.

Soprano Meghan Lindsay runs away with kudos for her performance as the Trojan princess Ilia. She is brought to Crete as a trophy and then falls in love with her owner. We hear her pain and her love in a vocally and theatrically superb performance.

Opera Atelier usually performs at the gorgeous Elgin Theatre but they have been squeezed out of there and sent to the Ed Mirvish Theatre up the street. It is not made for opera and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra was hemmed in around the stage looking a bit uncomfortable. That appearance was not reflected in their playing under the baton of David Fallis.

Idomeneo is based on a less than satisfactory libretto by a cleric named Giovanni Battista Varesco and its form of opera seria does not help it. But despite those shortcomings, Opera Atelier has managed one more time to give us a production that is a feast for the eyes, a banquet for the ears and ambrosia for the soul. A highly civilized evening at the opera. 

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Idomeneo by W. A. Mozart, presented by Opera Atelier, is being presented between April 4 to 13, 2019 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.operaatelier.com