SAUL – REVIEW OF 2025 GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Composing and having an opera produced in the 18^th century was a complex business unless you stuck to Greek mythology. There are some fantastic stories in the Old Testament, but you could only write holy oratorios if you wanted your work produced. Things were improving at the time, but it was still risky. 

George Frideric Handel called Saul a dramatic oratorio, a stunning work based on the Book of Samuel about King Saul (Christopher Purves) and his son Jonathan. The latter had a close and dedicated friend, David. You may know very little about the first two, but you have met the statue of David many times and you know who he is: he killed the giant Philistine Goliath with his sling shot against all odds.

There is a story there but don’t call it an opera. Handel called it an Oratorio and added “or Sacred Drama.” That’s on the safe side of the law. He also called it “An Epinicion” a nice Greek word meaning “Song of Triumph” and further explained that it was about the victory over Goliath and the Philistines. Maybe you can produce this without the permission of the Bishop of London?

The Glyndebourne Festival has produced a magnificent and entertaining Saul. The opera has some stunning choral pieces and is visually fabulous and a pleasure to watch. It opens with an “epinicion” sung by the Chorus of Israelites praising the Lord and David who destroyed Goliath with a slingshot. We see a huge head of his victim on the stage which is rolled over and we witness the eye that David hit.

That is not the main story of Saul but the relationship between Saul’s son Jonathan and the low-born David is. Jonathan and David are friends who swear eternal fealty to each other, They are FRIENDS. Saul, with hair down to his buttocks, becomes jealous of the praise that David gets and decides that he hates him. Really hates him and orders Jonathan to snuff him. 

Scene from Saul at Glyndebourne Festiva. Photo: ASH

Saul has some gorgeous choruses, but we do not go to the opera to hear religious choruses. Director Barrie Koskie and his crew make sure of that with a large and splendid chorus lined up on the stage amid beautiful flower arrangements. They do more than sing. They move their hands and arms, make wild gestures and engage in physical acts that are entertaining. Saul pushes people to the floor and garners laughs. Saul is slightly deranged, and he is a comic figure who runs around the stage like a lunatic, and he is more of a clown than a king. That is how you change an oratorio into an opera or at least an entertainment.

Saul’s daughter Michal (soprano Soraya Mafi) falls in love with David, and she jumps up and down, giggling and the audience loves her. Her sister Merab (Sarah Brady) rejects David because he is not of royal blood, and she gets our contempt and no laughs.

The opera turns somber and serious in the second half leading to the glorious Dead March in the third act. It is a startling contrast that turns the oratorio into an opera as if that mattered.

Countertenor Iestyn Davies sings David with his gorgeous voice and stage presence. Tenor Linard Vrielink sings the part of Jonathan, David’s troubled friend who is ordered by his father to kill David. The plot and the biblical story of the succession to the throne and the establishment of the House of David are neatly solved: Jonathan and Saul are killed in war.

Unstinting praise must be meted out to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Glyndebourne Chorus conducted by Jonathan Cohen. They have, as I said, some stunning pieces to perform and sing and they perform gorgeously. There are splendid dance routines choreographed by Otto Pichler.

Saul by any name is a grand piece of theatre and Glyndbourne brings out its best.
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Saul  by George Frideric Handel will be performed on various dates until July 24, 2025, at the Glyndebourne Festival, East Sussex, England. www.glyndebourne.com

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

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE – REVIEW OF 2025 TRANSMISSION LIVE IN HD FROM THE MET

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Met Live in HD has wrapped up the current season with a resounding revival of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville directed by Bartlett Sher. It was originally directed by Sher in November 2006 and it holds its own almost twenty years later.

There are many reasons for the opera’s popularity but this is not the place to examine that. Our concern is Sher’s production, the cast and production values of the streaming that we could see in a Cineplex theatre.

Sher is a man of the theatre and he focuses on the theatrical aspect of the opera. We have an amorous Count Almaviva disguised as a soldier wooing the lovely Rosina. She lives with Doctor Bartolo, an old, dictatorial curmudgeon who wants to marry her. Of course, we have the cunning and scheming Figaro who will make sure that does not happen and the Count gets the girl as they say. 

Sher’s Figaro is fleet of foot, a master of invention and a delight to watch. Leave it to  baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky under Sher’s direction to do all of that. Rosina must be a fast and clever thinker to outsmart Bartolo for the man she loves, even if she has no idea who he is.

The set cosmists of a number of doors that represent different rooms in Bartolo’s house. This adds to the fluidity and speed of the action. Rosina can go from one space to another and we can follow the action splendidly. Sher builds on the inherent theatricality of the plot and provides laughter and enjoyment as hr takes us through the story.                                        

Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Figaro, Aigul Akhmetshina as Rosina, 

and Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva. Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

That is a good start but we will not get very far without a superb cast who can handle the theatrics and the singing as well.

Let’s start with the barber of the title, Figaro, who is a master strategist, knows everything, thinks fast and manipulates events. Andrey Zhilikhovsky has energy, exuberance and a remarkable voice. Yes, he is the man you want if you want to court a woman, Rosina, that you never met and who does not know you at all. Just listen to his opening aria, “Largo al factotum” and you know he is your man. And it so happens that the young, handsome Count Almaviva wants to go into Rosina’s house. Zhilikhovsky sings with the speed and vocal beauty that we expect of Figaro.

Count Almaviva (tenor Jack Swanson) has a supple and sweet voice, (just what an ardent lover needs) and with Figaro’s shenanigans, he will get to Rosina, give her a music lesson, and the rest is nuptial bliss.

Rosina (mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina) is a lively and lovely young lady with determination, gumption and self-assurance. She is sweet, of course, but listen to her “Une Voce poco fa” and you know who will come on top in the “who gets Rosina”  sweepstakes. 

For sheer vocal pleasure listen to bass Alexander Vinogradov’s rendition of the diabolic  “La Calumnia” which is a  text-book guide on how to defame people. The comic character is the nasty and lecherous Doctor Bartolo (bass baritone Peter Kálmán) who is putty in the hands of the Figaro-Count-Rosina trio.

Let’s give credit to the Met’s behind the scenes people. Set designer Michael Yeargan provides light, bright sets. Costume designer Catherine Zuber dresses everyone up in classic attires and revival stage director is Kathleen Smith Belcher.  The chorus director is Tilman Michael and the Met chorus does its usual superb work.

The Met orchestra is conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti with gusto and, in case I did not convey my enjoyment of the production, I will simply add I can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than at this performance of The Barber of Seville on a large screen in a Cineplex theatre.
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The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 31, 2025. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

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

SALOME - REVIEW OF 2025 BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE MET

 Reviewed by James Karas

Holy ….

I am at a loss for the next word to express the effect that the live transmission of a performance of Richard Straus’s Salome from New York’s Met Opera had on me in the Cineplex theatre where I saw it. I could invoke a deity, an animal or an imprecation or say simply that I was overwhelmed or bowled over. I was.

The production is directed by the brilliant and unorthodox Claus Guth with dramatic effects and gore that you will not forget, Guth directed Salome for the Deutsche Oper in 2016 that was very different from what he has done for the Met. I saw it and I will comment on it below.

Guth and Set Designer Etienne Pluss set the opera in the large hall of Herod’s palace. It features heavy wood paneling resembling a 19^th century mansion perhaps and the costumes are from the same era. The other set is the cistern referred to in the libretto or the dungeon of the palace which has bare concrete walls and the chained Jochanaan (John the Baptist) where most of the action takes place. There is a steep staircase leading to the dungeon.

As in the 2016 Deutsche Oper production there are seven Salomes ranging from a young girl to the grown-up Salome sung by soprano Elza van den Heever. The Met production, aside from the seven Salomes, bears little resemblance to the 2016 Berlin production.

Salome is dressed in a black dress with a white collar looking very proper and perhaps Puritan. She takes the black dress off and wears a modest white undergarment when trying to attract Jochanaan. The other six Salomes are blonde girls resembling Heever’s Salome. 

A scene from Salome at the Met. Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

But the innocent-looking Salome is obsessed with the wild, religious fanatic Jochanaan and she tries to get him to kiss her on the mouth. The holy man rejects her forcefully and she finds a way of wreaking vengeance on him and kissing him passionately.

Strauss composed powerful music and lyrics based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name and Heever has the vocal power to knock you out of your seat or glue you into it for the entire performance. Watching and listening to Heever is an unforgettable experience. Her holding up Jochanaan’s severed head beside his headless torso and kissing it passionately may be unsettling for some, but it is incredibly dramatic.

Salome’s mother Herodias is an unapologetic slut dressed in red with red hair. She stands against a wall and a man’s hands come out and gives her a glass of wine. He then reaches out and massages her chest. Mezzo soprano Michelle DeYoung gives an outstanding performance as Herodias.

Herod, Salome’s uncle and stepfather (he is Salome’s father’s half-brother who married her mother Herodias) is a debauched man who lusts after Salome. He is petrified of the prophet Jochanaan who is damning him for his incestuous sin. Again, a marvelous performance both vocally and theatrically.

Peter Mattei gives a bravura performance as Jochanaan. He is fearless in his announcement of the coming of Christ and fights off not just Salome but the world of sinners.

The famous scene of the Dance of the Seven Veils has music that Strauss composed music for especially. Salome sheds her veils and is almost or totally naked raising Herod’s hormonal levels to the bursting point. The problem here is where are you going to find a soprano who can sing the notes and have the ability and physical attributes to achieve what the opera demands or what we imagine. Guth’s solution is to put a veil on the head of the Salomes and have them take a ballet stand or position and go off the stage. A couple of them seemed able to do some ballet but it is not important. We hear the music and see Herod’s response who reluctantly accedes to Salome’s demand for the Baptist’s head.

The scene is blood-curdling as Salome takes the head and kisses it passionately as Jochanaan’s blood covers her. All seven Salomes have blood on them. It is astounding and riveting.

Naraboth (Peter Buszewski), the Syrian soldier who is in love with Salome is sung with exceptional passion. He commits suicide according to the libretto, but Guth has him stabbed by Salome as he tries to intervene in her pursuit of Jochanaan. We do not witness his death, but we are informed that he killed himself.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducted the Met Opera Orchestra with heroic vigour and effectiveness,

A few reminiscences of Guth’s 2016 production of Salome in Berlin. The opera was set in a modern fashionable men’s clothing store owned by Herod. The men wore nice suits, and the women have becoming dresses.

When the curtain went down at the end of the performance, soprano Allison Oakes who sang the title role stepped out for a bow. She was greeted with a widespread chorus of boos.

The gentleman who was sitting beside me leaned forward and put his head between his hands. The applause of the audience became polite and enthusiastic when the performers took their bows, and they applauded Oakes positively if not enthusiastically. My neighbor (unknown to me) refused to lift a finger of approval, and I finally asked him how he would rate the production on a scale of 1 to 10. He said that he wished fervently that he had missed it completely.

The audience at the Met burst into enthusiastic applause at the end and proceeded to give the production a standing ovation. The Berlin production was tame compared to the gory New York production where there was blood all over. Go figure.
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Salome by Richard Strauss was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 17, 2025. It will be shown again at select theatres on June 7, 2025. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events

Jame Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

EUGENE ONEGIN – REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company is wrapping up its current season with a production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This production was directed by Robert Carsen for the Metropolitan Opera and premiered at Lincoln Centre in 1997. In 2013 the Met replaced it with a production by Deborah Warner but the Canadian Opera Company (COC) borrowed all scenery and costumes from of the 1997 Met production  for its staging of Eugene Onegin in 2018 which it has revived for the current season. More about Carsen’s production below.

The COC production is well equipped vocally. Our attention is focused on lovely Tatyana (soprano Lauren Fagan), the impressionable young girl who falls hopelessly in love with the playboy Eugene Onegin (bass-baritone Andril Kymach). Tatyana dominates the opera vocally and emotionally as she does the audience. The famous Letter Scene covers a breadth of hope, fear, passion and doubt as Tatyana tries to write a letter to Onegin. Fagan captures and expresses Tatyana’s emotional turmoil beautifully.

Kymach as Onegin is arrogant, unsympathetic and even obnoxious especially in the treatment of his friend Lensky (tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson), His treatment of Tatyana is abominable, his action against his friend repulsive and even though singing is good, we do not like him. LeRoy Johnson sings his Farewell to Olga gorgeously.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino does superb work as Tatyana’s sister Olga. She is engaged to Lensky and flirts with Onegin at the ball precipitating the duel. But she is excellent vocally and we forgive her because of her youth.

Bass Dimitry Ivashchenko deserves kudos for his role as Prince Gremin, a retired general who marries Tatyana on the rebound no doubt. He is a dignified gentleman who sings in moving sonority about being married to a younger woman. Ivashchenko gives a show-stopping performance.

The set and costume designs are by Michael  Levine. More about the sets in a minute but the costumes are what the Russian upper crust aspired to and what the Metropolitan Opera could afford. A lot.

Lauren Fagan as Tatyana in the Letter Scene : Photo: Michael Cooper

A few words about Carsen’s production are a propos. Carsen has opted for a minimalist production which may have its attractions but also some detractions. The opening scene takes place in the garden of the Larin estate somewhere in Russia. The libretto calls for a house with a terrace on one side, with a flower bed and shady tree nearby. There is thick foliage and a village and a church visible in the distance. In the Carsen production we have the stage floor covered with orange leaves. There are several leafless tree trunks and we see the estate owner Madame Larina (Krisztina Szabo), Tatyana’s mother, doing something with the help of Filipyevna (Emily Treigle).  

The director and set designer are not bound by what the librettist imagined but an almost bare stage may be taking it a bit far.

The leaves are partially swept away and we are transported to Tatyana’s bedroom for the Letter Scene. It is supposed to be furnished but all we get is a bed and a table on a bare stage with a view of the sky and the moon. Is that taking minimalism a bit too far?

There is a ball scene where people dance. The waltz is meant for that. The stage is cleared but only a small part of the stage is used for dancing. The square where the dancers are squeezed is so small that the dancers are given very little space in which to dance. I thought some of them had no idea how to waltz but it may have been that there was not enough space for them to move.

The revival director is Peter McLintock and the lighting designer is Christine Binder.

Speranza Scapucci conducted the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra in its marvelous performance of Tchaikovsky’s plush score in production that raises a few eyebrows in its choice of sets but that is otherwise splendid.    
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Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is being performed six times until May 24, 2025, 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 f The Greek Press

WOZZECK - REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

In 1925 Alban Berg’s first opera Wozzeck received its first performance in Berlin. It gave a solid kick in the butt to the operatic tradition of the previous several centuries. Monteverdi, Mozert, Verdi and Puccini felt the kick but they survived and are still thriving. But Wozzeck made its mark. It is an opera about the wretched of the earth, the abused and downtrodden who live in poverty and hopelessness. It is composed in atonal music and you can forget nice melodies and arias but you do get powerful music that, combined with William Kentridge’s directing and art, will give you something stunning.

Wozzeck is a soldier around 1820 according to the libretto but director William Kentridge sets the production in the 20^th century, perhaps around World War I. In the opening scene according to the libretto the soldier Wozzeck is shaving his Captain but Kentridge does away with that and we have Wozzeck wheeling in a movie projector and showing some fast clips. The Captain abusively tells him to slow down the gnarly film. We get a snapshot of the life of the pathetic Wozzeck.

It should be noted that this is not an ordinary production. William Kentridge is a brilliant artist who has become involved in theatre and opera productions of distinction, not to say genius. The current staging of Wozzeck is a co-production with The Salzburg Festival, The Metropolitan Opera and Opera Australia. It premiered at The Salzburg Festival in 2017.

The distinctive feature of this, as of all Kentridge productions, is the set. It is designed by Sabine Theunissen with generous use of video projections, especially of Kentridge’s line drawings. There are scenes that must be from World War I but one is never quite sure what is happening with the complex and changeable set.

Scene from Wozzeck. Photo: Michael Cooper

The set is a complicated and almost incomprehensible mixture of paintings, drawings and physical objects that surround the poor soldier and the people in his life. You can only pay so much attention to it impressive as it is, or you may miss parts of the opera.

Baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky plays the pathetic Wozzeck  He must deliver a man who is buffeted by misfortunes,  like King Lear, without having any social position to fight back. Superb singing and acting by Kupfer-Radecky. Wozzeck is abused and ridiculed by his Captain (excellent work by tenor Michael Shade), used by the quack Doctor (bass Anthony Robin Schneider) and gets the coup de grace of humiliation by his common law wife and mother of his child, Marie (soprano Ambur Braid in a moving and stunning performance). Marie reads the Bible looking for solace from the guilt precipitated by her infidelity. Does that provide us with a twinge of sympathy for Marie? The strutting and macho Drum Major (a fine-voiced, strutting and macho tenor Matthew Cairns) is too strong of a sexual attraction for her to resist, Bible or no Bible.

As if that were not enough or because of it, Wozzeck has some strange visions that lead us to believe that he is unhinged. His neighbor Margret (mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo) and his friend Andres (tenor Owen McCausland) are perhaps the sane people in his life but he is a pitiful creature without the standing of a tragic hero. We pity him for his simplicity and his suffering,

Kentridge’s direction, like his art, is brilliant as he combines the atonal music of Berg with the plot delineated by  the superb acting and singing into ninety minutes of astonishing opera. The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra under the baton Johannes Debus plays Berg’s music magnificently for a memorable night at the opera.
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Wozzeck by Alban Berg is being performed a total of seven  times until May 16., 2025, at the Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. West Toronto. www.coc.ca/

James karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO - REVIEW OF 2025 BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE MET

 Reviewed by James Karas

New York’s Met Opera has broadcast the 2014 production of The Marriage of Figaro to movie theatres around the world. Directed by Richard Eyre, this is an outstanding and I dare say extraordinary production of one of the best operas ever composed. Is that enough superlatives? Stay tuned.

Eyre is a consummate man of the theatre and he directs this Figaro as if it were a play at a major theatre. I have seen the production before and this time I paid more attention not just to the singers but to the person that she or he was singing to or was with. In the theatre the reaction or facial expression of the listener is of the utmost importance. It is equally importance in an opera but when you are watching and listening to the tenor or the soprano trying to reach for the stratosphere vocally, your attention to the person being addressed may waiver.

Let’s start with Eyre’s theatricality during the overture, before the plot begins to unravel. Eyre starts the action during the breathless opening music and gives us a better understanding of the plot that follows. A young, pretty and scantily dressed woman runs onto the stage and hurriedly tries to put some clothes on. We then see a young man (Count Almaviva as it turns out) putting on his robe. He is self-satisfied and happy. He just had sex with one of his servants and when he tries to seduce Suzanna, Figaro’s intended wife, we know what type of man he is. The scene is a marvelous preview of the plot. Credit is due to revival stage director Jonathon Loy. 

Olga Kulchynska as Susanna, Sun-Ly Pierce as Cherubino, and 
Federica Lombardi as Countess Almaviva. 
Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

Then, there is the scene of the Countess and Suzanna listening to the testosterone-driven  Cherubino expressing his massive sexual urges to the two ladies. We know his hormonal urges but if we watch the facial expressions of the Countess and Suzanna, we see that they are infected by his enthusiasm, or more bluntly they too are aroused.

It is worthwhile paying attention to such details as you listen to and watch the opera. I hasten to add that the luxury of seeing details like that are almost certainly not available in a huge theatre like Lincoln Centre and perhaps from many seats in  smaller venues. The live transmission and judicious handling of the camera shots makes it all possible. And it is a bonus to see the production in a movie theatre. Who can afford to go and see it in New York anyway?

Another virtue of the production is the revolving stage by Set Designer Rob Howell. It is monumental in size and resembles a medieval cathedral but you see different rooms such as the Countess’s bedroom, Figaro and Suzanna’s room and the garden. The big advantage of the revolving set is the seamless continuity between scenes. No curtain. No furniture, nothing needs to stop or delay the continuity of the plot. Howell designs the costumes for 1930’s Seville where the wealthy men wear handsome three-piece suits, the women are adorned with elegant gowns and the lower orders are attired modestly.

The Met provides some young, talented and attractive singers for most of the roles. Staring with the central role of Suzanna, we have Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska with a lovely voice and lively acting in the biggest role in the opera. Bass-baritone Michael Samuel as Figaro is the schemer-in-chief and the deliverer of some of the best melodies such as ”Se vuol ballare”  “Non piu andrai farfallone amoriso” and much more.

Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins is the suave, jealous, philandering Count Almaviva. All his sins are absolved near the end of the opera when he sings the two words “Contessa, Perdono.” With resplendent sonority and emotion, he seeks benediction from his wife which she readily grants.

The noble countess is sung by soprano Federica Lombardi who sings the gorgeous “Dove sono” and “Porgi amor” in a ravishing voice that expresses loss, longing and resolution. Mezzo-soprano Sun Ly-Pierce as the young, pursuer of sex is on the opposite side of the scale as his body and voice tremble when his being is under the influence of Eros which happens to be all the time.

Conductor Joana Mallwitz in her debut at the Met set a brisk pace and gave a wonderful performance. Yes, she is a woman conductor and I hope this is the last time I feel the necessity of mentioning the gender of the conductor.
This is an exemplary production and a display of what is being done to bring first class opera around the world.
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The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) by W A. Mozart was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on April 26, 2025. It will be shown again at select theatres on May 10, 2025. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

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

LA REINE-GARÇON – REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company and Opéra de Montréal have very commendably commissioned an opera composed by Julien Bilodeau to a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard. Both are Quebecois and the opera premiered in Montreal last year.

Opera companies commission work and that creates some excitement with the hope that a new opera will join the standard repertoire. Unfortunately, many of them are never seen again and a few may be produced again but nothing comes close to gaining a regular spot like the operas of Verdi and Puccini. One can only hope that La Reine-garçon will be seen many times in the future. 

La Reine-garçon has a delicious score that is melodic, finely-textured, diverse and simply gorgeous. The COC Orchestra under Johannes Debus gives a splendid accounting of the music.

The singing is first rate starting with Canadian soprano Kirsten MacKinnon as Christine. She has mastered the manly gait as we assume it was how the boy-queen walked and she sings with uncommon splendor. We feel her uncertainties about love and passion but we also see her succumb to lesbian attraction. MacKinnon handles Christine’s high notes with ease and the beauty of her voice is unfailing.

Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly is wise and solid as Count Karl Gustav as is bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch as Axel Oxenstierna. Tenor Isaiah Bell sings the clownish, narcissistic Johan Oxenstierna. Perhaps one too many Click, Clacks but a fine performance. Canadian Owen McCausland is the wise Descartes who delivers his wisdom in a beautiful tenor voice and gives an anatomy lesson on the brain.

Christine is pursued and propositioned by men but the only sexual contact (a passionate kiss) is with Countess Ebba Sparre (Queen Hezumuryango). And what are all those stags on stage? Do they represent Christine’s sexual dreams?

Kirsten MacKinnon as Christine in COC production.

Photo: Michael Cooper

There is an offstage singer listed in the program as Chant Kulning (Anne-Marie Beaudette) who emits a falsetto scream in the opening scene and afterwards. I could not figure what it was and guessed it might be a wolf’s cry because we were out in the snow. She returned for further screams and whatever she was supposed to be escaped me except that it was annoying.

La Reine-garçon or the boy-queen refers to Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) and had she lived in the twenty-first century she would have qualified for one or more letters of LGBTQ+. Her father raised her as if she were a boy and her gait and mannerisms were male. But he died when she was age seven and she did not gain the throne until her teens. At age 24 she abdicated, converted to Catholicism and moved to Rome where she lived until 1689.

Her life has fired up the Western imagination and she has been portrayed in films, plays and fiction. Her sexual proclivities may have gone in several directions but the interest in her lies more in her artistic interests including her patronage of musicians, artists and opera.

If she ditched the throne in exercise of her free will as advised by Descartes, well and good. But if she converted to Catholicism, does it not mean she accepted the control of the church as in what to wear, eat and think? I suppose you can do that in exercise of free will.

There are things to quibble about with the libretto but the fact remains that this is an approachable and enjoyable opera at first hearing. The rich and varied sets by Anick La Bissonniere, the brilliant lighting design by Eric Champoux and the rich projections by Alexandre Desjardin add to a marvelous production.

And top marks to director Angela Konrad for putting the whole thing together from a theatrical point of view.    
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La Reine-garçon by Julien Bilodeau (music) and Michel Marc Bouchard (libretto) continues until February 15,  2025 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West Toronto, Ont. www.coc.ca

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