IPHIGENIA IN AULIS AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS – REVIEW OF 2024 AIX-EN-PROVENCE DOUBLE BILL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The House of Atreus has been a most generous contributor to writers and composers by providing them with fascinating subjects for works of art. Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and their children Electra, Iphigenia and Orestes are all ripe subjects for an endless number theatrical and operatic works. Christoph Willibald Gluck wrote two operas about the travails of one daughter, Iphigenia, in her youth in Aulis and twenty years later in Tauris.

The two operas were not intended to be performed as a double-bill, but the Aix-en-Provence Festival has decided to pair the two works as a sort of operatic marathon lasting five and a half hours. Yes, there is s upper break in the middle.

The drawing card for the double-bill is Dmitri Tcherniakov, the brilliant Russian director. He has given the two operas a similar production with an ant-war stance that one may want to relate to the Trojan War but in the modern-dress production, he is no doubt thinking of modern conflicts like the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The two operas are different but have much in common as well. They deal with the same main character in a life-and-death situation. At Aulis, Iphigenia has been chosen as a sacrifice to the goddess Diana for the latter to give favourable winds for Agamemnon to sail to Troy to rescue his brother’s wife Helen. Tcherniakov leaves Iphigenia’s fate somewhat ambiguous but if we find her in Tauris twenty years later, we know that she has been spared. 

Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo: © Monika Rittershaus

In the barbaric kingdom of Tauris, Iphigenia has become a priestess in a temple dedicated to Diana, the goddess for whom she was slated to be sacrifices at Aulis. When two strangers arrive at Tauris, they are ordered to be killed, or one of them at least. The candidate for sacrifice at Aulis becomes a potential executioner in Tauris. At Aulis she is given as a sacrificial victim by her father. At Tauris she is ordered to murder unknowingly her brother Orestes or his best friend Pylades. She is in danger of being killed herself. It is thus possible to view the two operas as the different sides of a coin.

For the opening scene of Iphigenia in Aulis, Tcherniakov has devised a dream sequence played during the overture. We see a frantic Agamenon (done superbly by Canadian baritone Russell Braun) in a nightmare dreaming of his daughter’s execution. He dithers between killing his innocent daughter which will follow, of course, with the killing pf countless innocent Trojans. He decides to do both, but his daughter is probably saved by the goddess Diana for whose sake she was to be sacrificed.

Both operas are dominated by American soprano Corinne Winters as Iphigenia. She has a lovely voice and sings in a measured and mellifluous way in Aulis and much more forcefully in Tauris. It is a marathon performance by any definition, and she deserves a standing ovation. French soprano Veronique Gens sings the powerful Clytemnestra with marvellous tones. Australian tenor Alasdair Kent plays and sings a clownish Achilles. 

Soprano Soula Parassidis from Vancouver, a rising star, sang the role of the goddess Diana in both operas with vocal beauty.

In addition to directing, Tcherniakov designed the sets for both operas. For Aulis, the set consists of several playing areas constructed from steel posts with highly imaginative and changing lighting by Gleb Filshitinsky. The same style is used for Tauris, but it is in post-war ruins compared to its previous condition.

Baritone Florian Sempey as Orestes and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Pylades competed in their display of manly friendship and willingness to die for one other. They displayed the same prowess vocally in their outstanding performances.

Finally let me praise, perhaps more than anyone, Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert d'Astrée. She was on her feet for the full five and a half hours but that is the least for which she deserves praise. She conducted exemplary performances of both operas in an unforgettable evening.

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Iphigenia in Aulis (Iphigenie en Aulide) and Iphigenia in Tauris (Iphigenie en Tauride) by Christoph Willibald Gluck opened on July 3 and will be performed in repertory until July 23, 2024, at the Grand Theatre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS

SAMSON – REVIEW OF 2024 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Revised by James Karas 

Go to Aix-en-Provence and see the premiere of an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Voltaire called Samson. If you were in Paris in 1733 you could have almost seen it, but the church gave a resounding NO to the production and that was the end of it. Until 2024, that is. The history of the opera is almost as interesting as its first production this year at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

A few details will have to suffice. In 1734 Voltaire approached Rameau, the greatest composer of the time, to put together an opera. He completed the libretto and Rameau composed the score by midyear. The Catholic Church ruled that an opera on a religious subject was out of the question. Voltaire kept the libretto and it’s easily available, but Rameau did not keep the score. But he did use parts of the music in other operas.

In 2024 director Claus Gutz and conductor Raphael Pichon decided to adapt the libretto and hunt down Rameau’s music and in the end create a new work, a retelling of the Samson story that finds its roots in the Bible, in Voltaire and Rameau, in today’s world of war and inhumanity. It is a unique take that is difficult to pin down but full of fascination.   

Both Voltaire and Guth-Pichon set Samson in “the present” but Voltaire starts with Bacchus. Hercules. Virtue, the Followers of Virtue and Voluptuousness surrounded by Pleasures and Loves. Guth-Pichon gets rid of all of them. 

Samson, Aix-en-Provence Festival 2024 (c) Ruth Walz

The opera opens in the present with Samson’s mother, a non-singing role played by Andrea Ferreol. She is at Samson’s grave in the ruins of the temple that he brought down in the final outburst of his strength killing a countless number of people. She wants to understand what happened. She will go back in the life of her son to try and understand what has happened.

We learn that she could not bear a child, but she became pregnant and God informed her  that her son will have superhuman power. The Hebrews are the slaves of the Philistines and looking for a liberator. Samson (Jarett Ott) appears wearing white attire and not in the biblical description of covered by the skin of a lion that he killed with his bare hands.

The Philistines wear black, and the Hebrews are in white clothes but there is no pronounced dichotomy between good and evil. In fact, Samson sees the beautiful Timnah (Lea Desandre), a Philistine, falls in love with her and marries her. There is an inexplicable row during the wedding celebration and Samson reacts with horrendous violence. Timnah leaves Samson and his mother is at a loss to understand her son’s behaviour.

These are times of trouble in general and between the Hebrews and the Philistines in particular. We do not know the particulars, but we do see Samson the recluse coming back. The Philistines know his superhuman strength and send the beautiful Delilah (Jacquelyn Stucker) to seduce him and find the source of his power. As the Bible tells us and the whole world knows, Samson betrays his greatest secret and tells Delilah that his strength lies in his long hair. Delilah is paid for her treachery to her lover Judas-like with gold pieces thrown at her. Like Christ’s betrayer, she kills herself.

Samson, Aix-en-Provence Festival 2024 (c) Ruth Walz

Samson is shorn and blinded and kept like a weak slave in the temple of the Philistines. They of course celebrate their great victory, but Samson regains his strength and brings down the temple killing all the Philistine and himself.

We see his mother again on the spot where he is buried under the rubble of the temple, reemerging from the past and trying to understand her son’s behaviour in the past and in his final act.

Much of the singing of Samson falls on American baritone Jarett Ott. He goes through the emotional and vocal demands of the opera with apparent ease. Guth and Pichon do not make it easy to understand the person, despite repeated references to chapter and verse of the Book of Judges of the Old Testament. Ott sings with resonance in an admirable performance. Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker and mezzo soprano Lea Desandre sing gorgeously as the two women that attracted the Hebrew Samson to marry them. Special kudos to the Pygmalion Chorus and Orchestra under the direction of Pichon.

The production required some extraordinary sets, lighting and special effects. The brilliant Guth and Pichon are responsible for the concept of the opera and the attendant musical and dramatic details. Without them nothing would have been possible. Extraordinary light and video effects by Bertrand Couderc, sets by Etienne Pluss, Costumes by Ursula Kudma, sound by Mathis Nitschke, all added to the outstanding production values.

Voltaire and Rameau may be rolling in their graves but also applauding the fertile imaginations and talents of the 21^st century creators of the premiere of their opera.
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Samson by Claus Guth and Raphael Pichon based on the lost opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau and the libretto of Voltaire continues in repertory until July 18 2024 at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS

MADAMA BUTTERFLY – REVIEW OF 2024 AIX-EN-PROVINCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas                                                            

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is in full swing (July 3 to 23, 2024) offering an eclectic selection of operas and other musical entertainments in the gorgeous weather and in the beautiful medieval city in southern France after which it is named.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is one the selections from the standard repertoire that gets an idiosyncratic production by German director Andrea Breth. Some of her choices appear inspired, others arbitrary and some simply confusing.

First the singers. The big drawing card is Ermonela Jaho, the Albanian soprano with the luscious and big soprano voice. She gave her all as Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), the 15-year-old Japanese girl who falls in love with and marries B. F. Pinkerton, a swaggering and irresponsible American naval officer. Jaho manages a lovely tremolo to express tenderness and love. And oh, the longing in “Un bel di vedremo” when she imagines the return of Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour, his climb up the hill and her delirious happiness. We know that he spent one night with her and disappeared for three years, and she had his baby.

Jaho is about 50 years old, and she has been singing for more than 30 years. But she did not disappoint. From the happy child bride to the determined and faithful American wife and finally the crushed human being she played our emotional strings like a virtuoso. In the final moment of the opera when the orchestra played the last beat, Madama Butterfly’s head dropped, and she collapsed dead. The audience gasped, the lights went out and we jumped to our feet in a standing ovation.

Pinkerton is one of the most odious characters in opera and British tenor Adam Smith does a good job with his stentorian voice. But he tries too hard to reach his high notes and his voice becomes harsh and in fact cracks a couple of times. He is otherwise fine. He wears a suit in the opening scene but does put on a navy jacket in the end. The fact that he is a naval officer emphasizes his disgusting conduct and there is no reason for the singer not to appear in all his glory in that outfit.

Decency is represented by Sharpless, the American consul, sung by Belgian baritone Lionel Lhote. He must maneuver between his compatriot’s evil and the innocent Butterfly with vocal steadfastness and moral equanimity. We like what the character does and how Lhote achieves it.

Madame Butterfly, Aix-en-Provence Festival 2024 (c) Ruth Walz

Japanese mezzo soprano Mihoko Fujimura’s performance as Suzuki is praiseworthy. She is Butterfly’s maid who is not divorced from reality as Butterfly is. Admirable work by Fujimura.  Italian tenor Carlo Bosi’s looked and acted like an American real estate agent but he sang well and his characterization enhanced the role. In short, the production had a fine cast. 

Now for some unfriendly comments about Breth’s handling of the plot. Whenever Breth could choose between static and kinetic she opted for the motionless. There are opportunities for the singers to move around but Breth tries to restrict such luxuries. What she does do is have characters walk on and off the stage for no explicable reason. They slowly shuffle or are brought on by a rotating conveyor belt. I could not figure out what they were doing,

When Pinkerton’s ship arrives in the harbour, we see a man holding the small replica of a ship in his hand while the revolving conveyor belt brings him around. Other characters less obviously do the same. Are they figments of Butterfly’s imagination? Are we watching a psychodrama about her imagination? In other words what is going on?

Breth and Set Designer Raimund Orfeo Voigt want the action to take place in an enclosed area. That is an acceptable approach, but the area is separated from the audience by upright girders. These frequently block the face of the singer and that is annoying. Did no one notice this unnecessary nuisance which increases in intensity every time a performer’s face is blocked? The production gains nothing by telling us that all action takes place in an  enclosed space. All else about the set design is fine.

A final bow and standing ovation are due to the Choir and Orchestra of the Opéra national de Lyon led by the master conductor Daniele Rustioni.
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Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini continues in repertory until July 22, 2024, at the Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France  https://festival-aix.com/fr

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

DON PASQUALE – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Don Pasquale was Gaetano Donizetti’s 63^rd opera and the last time it was produced by the Canadian Opera Company was a hefty thirty years ago. It is hoped that no one has had to wait that long to see this bouquet of melodies and comic business. It is paired this year with the heavy-duty Medea by Luigi Cherubini and no one can complain about the choices.

Don Pasquale inundates us with gorgeous melodies, a funny if thin plot and the COC’s production is a delight. The plot is as old and wonderful as comedy. Don Pasquale (Misha Kirla) is usually a rich old man but in this production is the owner of a small  pensione in 1960s Rome. He wants to marry Norina (Simone Osborne), a young and pretty widow who happens to be also smart and spirited. She is in love with Ernesto (Santiago Ballerini), the nephew of Don Pasquale. We need someone to get things moving and that happens to be Dr. Malatesta (Joshua Hopkins) who arranges the marriage of his “sister” (Norina really) to Don Pasquale to be officiated by a Notary (Alex Halliday) who may be no notary at all.

All the players are in place and the plot must move to get rid of the old fool and restore the young lovers to “happily ever after” and I hope I am not disclosing too much of the plot.

Andre Barbe and Renaud Doucet from Montreal are credited with stage direction, dramaturgy, sets and costumes. That’s all the COC program discloses. André Barbe does costumes and set designs while Renaud Doucet does stage direction and choreography. This production does not need choreography but it does get some dramaturgy and I suppose we can guess who did it.

 

Simone Osborne as Norina and Joshua Hopkins as Dr. Malatesta. 

Poto: Michael Cooper

Don Pasquale requires a bass, a baritone, a tenor and a soprano with good voices to deliver the gorgeous melodies, obviously, but also singers with a comic sense to bring out the laughs inherent in the plot. Don Pasquale must do well vocally and comically and in Misha Kirla the COC has found an outstanding singer/actor. Kirla is a baritone in a role that is usually sung by a bass. He is a big man especially compared to Ballerini and Osborne and made them look almost tiny.  

Soprano Osborne is a small woman but proved to be spitfire on occasion but she has a relatively small voice and she was overwhelmed by the bigger-voiced men around her. At times I found her unsatisfactory but she gave a spirited performance and showed spunk.

Ballerini as Ernesto was energetic and vocally spirited as the young man who wants to save his love and defeat his uncle who has a double-barreled gun pointed at him, he wants to deprive his nephew of his love and his livelihood by throwing him out. 

Misha Kiria as Don Pasquale and Joshua Hopkins 
as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, COC 2024. Photo: Michael Cooper

Joshua Hopkins as Malatesta is an ambivalent comic character who tricks his friend Pasquale into marrying his sister (a lie) by a Notary who is not a notary. Norina knows how to make Pasquale regret he ever married her in a well done and hilarious scene.   

Barbe and Doucet, as indicated, made Pasquale the owner of a pensione and thus allowed the chorus to be used as his tenants. It also facilitated the look of the set with several floors of windows towering over the main part of  the set which contained Pasquale’s living quarters. What looked like sheets hanging on a clothesline were lowered as the backdrop for the scene in the park and then changed for the scene with Malatesta and Norine.

Don Pasquale with its reliance on the eternal comic plot of the young outwitting the old for love and security and its shameless copying of commedia dell’arte characters suffused with the splendid music of Donizetti is a sheer delight and we should not have to wait thirty years to see another production.
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Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti opened on April 26 and will be performed a total of eight times until May 14, 2024, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca.

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

MEDEA – REVIEW OF THE 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Luigi Cherubini’s Medea has finally premiered in Toronto, a handful of years since it opened in Paris in 1797. No need to get churlish about it because  it had its New York debut at the Met in 2022. In fact, what we have is a coproduction by the COC, the Met, the Greek National Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That’s quite a cast.

The COC’s Medea deserves a thunderous ovation on all counts. The cast, the direction, the orchestra and the design are probably of historic importance and a repetition of a production of this quality may not be around the corner. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait 217 years.

The opera is dominated by its central character, Medea, sung by the incomparable Sondra Radvanovsky. The soprano must handle a complex character who goes through a gamut of emotions that most of us cannot imagine. Medea was a princess and a sorceress in Colchis, a city on the east shore of the Black Sea, today’s Georgia. She betrayed her father to help the Greek hero Jason get the Golden Fleece. They married and had two children but Jason abandons her to marry Glauce, the daughter of Creon, King of Corinth.

We need to keep in mind that Medea committed gross crimes against her father and her country, became an outcast in Corinth, all to help Jason. He betrays her for another woman and Medea is in danger of losing everything, especially her two children. She still loves Jason who rejects her, she still loves her children and wants to kill them. The complexity and depth of emotions make her a woman full of pain, fury and betrayed love and she morphs into a monster. She decides to kill Glauce on her wedding day by giving her a poisoned garment and butcher her children as the ultimate revenge against Jason. She accomplishes both despite all moral standards to the contrary. Iago, Lady Macbeth, Clytemnestra and Lizzie Borden have nothing on this lady. I mention all of this because it is important to understand Medea’s character and appreciate the magnitude of Sondra Radvanovsky performance. 

Sondra Radvanovsky as Medea in Medea, The Metropolitan Opera, 2022, 

Photo: Marty Sohl

Cherubini’s opera contains all those conflicting and terrifying emotions and it is up to Radvanovsky to express them. She has the vocal power, the magnificent vocal prowess and the tonal expressiveness, beauty and fury to achieve it all. She rolls on the floor, agonizes about her decision. She pleads, indeed begs for her children, loves, cajoles but all her efforts fail. In the end, she slaughters her children in a performance that should be embedded in one’s mind indefinitely.

Soprano Zoie Reams gives a distinguished performance as Neris, Medea’s maid. She is faithful to the nth degree and delivers the poisoned garment to Glauce. Her singing is deeply moving and she turns a relatively minor role into a triumph.

Soprano Jane Brugger sings the role of the hapless Glauce who is about to marry Jason. She is nervous and afraid of what Medea might do and is brutally and mercilessly killed.  She is the blameless victim of Medea’s vengeful fury and she sings her aria “O amore, vieni a me!”  (Love, come to me) with such longing and fear that leaves one deeply moved.

King Creon and the ambitious Jason who is marrying Princess Glauce for the throne are not as sympathetic as the women though one could argue that no one is as bad as Medea. Tenor Matthew Polenzani is a virile Jason who pleads for his children and tries to be conciliatory to Medea but he does not get too much sympathy. Polenzani sings superbly and his Jason is well drawn.

A scene from  Medea, 2024, Photo: Michael Cooper

Bass-baritone Alfred Walker plays the authoritative King Creon who tries to assuage Medea’s fury by promising to look after her children – and raise them in the temple. Kudos to Walker for an authoritative performance vocally and physically.  

Two more stars deserve mention and praise. The COC Orchestra under the baton of Lorenzo Passerini performed Cherubini’s complex score with exceptional ability.

David McVicar’s direction and set design deserve the ultimate accolade of the word masterpiece. The set features a huge mirror above the performers so that we see the back of the performers as well as the front. There is judicious use of projections that in the end give one an extraordinary visual effect. The full drama of the opera is displayed in an unforgettable production. It is as if we are making up for ignoring the opera for so long.

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Medea  by Luigi Cherubini (music) and Francois-Benoit Hoffman (original libretto in French) in Italian version by Carlo Zangarini will be performed six time’s on various dates until May 17, 2024, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca.

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

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

  Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company has not deprived us of extraordinary productions of Don Giovanni. In 2015 we saw Dmitri Tcherniakov’s original and masterly interpretation. This year we are treated to Kasper Holten’s 2014 coproduction of Mozart’s masterpiece for the COC and four other opera companies including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

At the Four-Season Centre the vocal fireworks start with the bass-baritones Gordon Bintner as Don Giovanni and Paolo Bordogna as Leporello. The tall, blond Bintner display braggadocio and vocal as well as physical agility to please all tastes. Bordogna is not the same size physically as Bintner but he presents a superbly sung Leporello and a fine characterization of the abused servant of the great seducer.

Soprano Mane Galoyan sings an outstanding Donna Anna. This Donna Anna is a consummate liar. She shows no anger or distress about what she and Don Giovanni did in her bedroom and then is shocked at what happened to her father without looking at him. She tells some whoppers to her fiancé Don Ottavio about how she was raped and then puts him off for a year when he wants to marry her. She has a marvellous voice, full of lyrical sweetness and Galoyan gives us a Donna Anna to remember.

Don Ottavio, the fiancé (remember) in the hands of tenor Ben Bliss has a marvelous voice, a fine performance and a sympathetic character but he does not stand a chance in the hands of the wily Donna Anna. Nice guys sometimes come last.

Gordon Bintner as Don Giovanni and Mané Galoyan 

as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, 2024, photo: Michael Cooper

Soprano Anita Hartig has a gorgeous voice and her Donna Elvira, the woman unceremoniously jilted by lecher Don Giovanni, is full of passion, anger and vocal beauty. She gets some expressive arias and my only complaint about her is that she does not display the rage that she says she feels. I have no doubt that Hartig sang as directed but I suggest that along with the passion, the regret and her continuous desire for Don Giovanni, she should be allowed to display some wrath, indeed furor, at the way she is treated.

The lovely and lovable Zerlina in the hands of mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh is a delight to the ear and the eye. Poor Masetto does not stand a chance against her wiles delivered so beautifully. A vocal and acting delight.

Bass-baritone Joel Allison plays a reasonably straight Masetto as opposed to a buffoonish or oafish one that some directors give us. He is no buffoon but he is rightly jealous when Zerlina is tempted by Don Giovanni and he is beaten by him. But Zerlina has him tied around her little finger and he is driven by love and not by foolishness. I prefer this interpretation of the role to a clownish Masetto. Excellent work by Allison.

A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production

 of Don Giovanni, 2024, photo: Michael Cooper

The set by Es Devlin consists of a cubic two-story structure with staircases in the center. It is set on a revolving stage with moveable panels. There are numerous projections on the plain panels including long lists of names presumably of Don Giovanni’s conquests and a rich variety of colors. The interior of the cube has staircases and displays great flexibility.

The lighting, designed by Bruno Poet and handled by John Paul Percox for the revival, and the projections designed Luka Halls, plays an important part in the production but trying to follow the changing lights and projections on the set proved overwhelming at times and I feared losing my concentration.

Kasper Holten is a brilliant opera director and the COC has very wisely brought this production to Toronto.

The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus were conducted by Johannes Debus in an extraordinary and unforgettable production.   
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Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart will be performed a total of seven times until February 24, 2024, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

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

THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

True to its tradition, the Canadian Opera Company  for its winter season offers us a well know staple and and a relatively unknown opera. Czech composer Leos Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen was last produced by the  COC more than 25 years ago and that is a long coffee break.

We are happy for the opportunity for seeing this original and difficult work again in a laudable production from the English National Opera directed by Jamie Manton and conducted for the COC by Johannes Debus.   

The Cunning Little Vixen’s cast consists of a veritable forest of animals, insects and a few people. We have the little vixen who is abducted by the Forester, mistreated by his wife, escapes, grows into a big vixen and has a brood of little vixens. We meet a stageful  of the following: a cricket, a grasshopper, a frog, a mosquito, a badger, an owl, a dozen hens, a rooster, a jay, a woodpecker and no doubt a few others.   

Humankind is represented by the Forester (Christopher Purves), his nasty Wife (mezzo-soprano Megan Latham), the Schoolteacher (tenor Wesley Harrison), the Innkeeper (tenor Adam Luther), his Wife (soprano Charlotte Siegel) the Priest (bass-baritone Giles Tomkins) and the Poacher (bass-baritone Alex Halliday). Except for Purves and Halliday, all the other singers have a role as an insect or an animal as well.

(left) Jane Archibald as the Vixen and Giles Tomkins as the Priest

 in The Cunning Little Vixen, 2024, photo: Michael Coope

The vixen of the title is sung by the luscious-voiced Jane Archibald, while her love the Fox is sung by the lovely-voiced mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska. The singers as humans or humans and animals or insects do excellent vocal work at times under some constraints with the necessary costumes. There are no slackers in the cast.  

Janacek based his libretto on the comic strip fairy tales of Rudolf Tesnohlidek which were of course in Czech. The COC production is sung in Czech with the attendant difficulty of learning a language that may be foreign to most singers. The COC to its credit decided to have it sung in Czech unlike other productions that use English translations. Bravo COC.

This is not a pleasant fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after. The vixen is mistreated by the Forester’s wife and it kills their hens. In the forest, the vixen dislodges the Badger and there is revolutionary talk that is closer to George Orwell’s Animal Farm than to the Grimm Brothers.

On the human side, the men  talk of love and marriage at the inn but director Jamie Manton has them sitting at a distance from each other facing the audience. Would it not be better if they were sitting at a table perhaps playing cards?

The Cunning Little Vixen contains some beautiful orchestral music, is an opera and has enough dance requirement to require ballet dancers. It strikes me as a work that could easily be converted into a ballet. The COC production does make an attempt at dance, especially with the gorgeous hens in their white gowns but the ballet requirements are almost totally ignored. Too bad but the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company under Johannes Debus deserve huge credit for their performances.   

The set by Tom Scutt feature some tall, moveable cabinets and unrealistic scenes. The costumes also by Scutt need to help us identify the insects and the animals and there is only so much one can do and he did a good job. He avoided the cutesy Disney look and that was fine with us.

I sat beside a young man who had purchased a ticket at a good price because he is under thirty. He told me that his favorite opera is Madama Butterly and asked me if The Cunning Little Vixen is like that. I told him it is not like that but it has a lot of different elements that made it worth seeing. I hope he agreed with me after the performance.
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The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek is being performed eight times on various dates until February 16, 2024, at the Fours Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

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