Photos: Michael Cooper
Paula Citron
This is the age of the auteur opera director. With the endlessly
repeating standard repertoire
a fact of opera life, companies are now searching for productions that give a
fresh take on the classics. New opera, of course, is always going to be fresh. Thus, directors and their visions are what drive opera
productions these days. The COC’s winter season provides a textbook case of
what works and what doesn’t.
Canadian director Atom Egoyan has done a superb job in finding a
fascinating entree into Mozart’s Così
fan tutte. Since the heart of the opera is an experiment – Can
women be faithful to their lovers? – why not set the opera in an actual modern
day science lab with Don Alfonso as the teacher. The chorus is on stage for
most of the opera as the Don’s eager beaver students, following the main action
carrying their clipboards for note-taking. Debra Hanson’s school uniforms are delightful.
In keeping with the educational motif, fencing outfits are substituted for
soldiers' uniforms. The metaphor that anchors Egoyan’s vision is the butterfly which
clearly represents freedom. The science lab, however, is festooned with giant
pins to pierce the butterflies and render them into specimens. Hanson’s
fabulous set includes gorgeous hanging butterflies to keep the concept in front
of our eyes. The question before us is: just how much freedom is allotted to
lovers, or should they be pinned by their obligations?
Egoyan also makes prominent use of the famous painting by Frida
Kahlo – Two Fridas – that shows both the heartbreak and the warm glow of love.
Egoyan and Hanson have also added whimsy. When the fiancés are sailing away,
students provide a slow parade of ships balanced on their heads – a sop to
18th century fashion. There is also a podium whenever a character has a
great pronouncement to make. The chorus of students also helps out in the direction of the
solo singers. They hold them down, they hold them up, they help them dress,
they manage props – all in an effort to make the experiment work – all, as it
were, in the cause of science. The entire opera is filled with delicious visual
details that support the science experiment.
In the final analysis, this is a production that works, because
everything hangs together. Opera companies around the world should be lining up
to showcase this very clever and beautifully conceived Così fan tutte. Every time I attend a Johannes Debus performance, my admiration
grows. The conductor finds nuances in every crook and cranny of the score. His
tempi are always perfect, even though his slow times present challenges of
breath control to the singers. His judicious pauses are downright risky, but
also exciting. In short, he gives the listener complete satisfaction. As for
his players, the obbligato work was superb. The use of the pianoforte for the
recitatives added to the richness of the sound. The performance i attended featured the COC Ensemble singers
which provided an embarrassment of riches, giving us eight lovers instead of
four.
The first act Fiordiligi, soprano Aviva Fortunata, has a big,
soaring voice of infinite spinto coloratura possibilities. Is there a Lucia, or
even a Brunhilde in her far future? She absolutely nailed her big aria Come
Scoglio. In contrast, the second act’s Sasha Djihanian is much more of a
true lyric soprano who can pull her nuanced voice back into sotto voce with
ease. Her coloratura is not the most facile, but the musky quality of her voice
emits an exotic sound. Mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage, the Act 1 Dorabella, is blessed
with a seductive lyric voice of great clarity of tone, overlying hearty
expression. Act 2’s Danielle MacMillan has a bright sound and beautiful legato
phrasing with spinto qualities that speak to heavier roles in the future. It is
a surprisingly big voice at this early stage of a career.
The Ferrandos were two quite different tenors. Act 1’s Andrew
Haji has an expressive voice as smooth as silk, replete with Italianate sob. It
is a beautiful light sound blessed with an even legato flow. Act 2’s Owen
McCausland displayed some breathiness in his high notes, but he took great
risks in pulling his voice back. It is a strong lyric sound that commands the
ear and speaks of a deeper and darker future. The Guglielmo of baritone Cameron McPhail (Act 1) sported a
romantic sound that kept growing stronger throughout the act. It is, at the
moment, a light lyric baritone, pleasing in tone. Baritone Clarence Frazer (Act
2) is definitely on his way to the Verdi/Puccini repertoire. He has a powerful,
robust voice with a gruffness of expression so identified with that fach. He
does, however, have to make sure that what is gruff does not turn woofy and
obscure pitch.
The Don Alfonso (bass-baritone Gordon Bintner) and Despina
(soprano Claire de Sévigné) were a constant in both acts. Bintner is, of
course, too young for the role, but he has a complete mastery and ease of
stagecraft. His, like many low voices early in their career, is a sound in
progress. It is even, pleasant, and expressive, but in want of the
well-developed heartiness to come. His career should be stellar. Sévigné is a
coloratura soprano with bite. Her voice may have the quick mercury of her fach,
but nonetheless, it produces a sound that is much more than feather light, and
therefore, more interesting.
Which takes us to A
Masked Ball. Mercifully the music elementsare strong because
the production is the quintessence of Eurotrash. In the case of opera,
Eurotrash encapsulates theatrical visions that add nothing to the music because
they are lost in the creators’ own distorted assessment of their own
intellectual acumen. Eurotrash holds the audience captive as the creators
subjugate the hapless patrons with a confused parade of metaphor and symbolism.
The good thing about Eurotash is that sooner or later it will end. (It’s not
just Europe that produces artistic crimes. In Canada, I call these infuriating
productions Canajunk.)
This particular production was created for Staatsoper Unter den
Linden Berlin by the talentless team of co-directors Jossi Wieler and Sergio
Morabito. Their collaborators who executed their vision are set designer
Barbara Ehnes and costume designer Anja Rabes. All parities should be put in
chains and made to attend Così fan tutte (see above). There are two versions of A Masked Ball, one that depicts the
assassination of the Swedish King Gustav 111 at a masked ball in 1792, and one
set in pre-revolution Boston in 1690 where governor Riccardo replaces the king.
The shift to the New World was to placate the censors who deemed the king’s
murder was too close in time to 1857 when Verdi wrote the opera. Wieler and
Morabito have elected to do the Boston version, updating America to around
1960. The single set is the ballroom of the Arvedson Palace Hotel.
(The directors are being cutesy here because Arvedson is the name of the
fortuneteller in the Swedish version.) The glaring pink and white tables and
chairs look like an ice cream parlour. There are also theatre seats that don’t
face the ballroom stage, a bar in the far corner, and a balcony walkway above.
What this hotel ballroom has to do with the story is anybody’s guess. In their
program notes, the co-directors justify their vision with key words like civil
rights, youth culture, the fragility of identity and so on. None of these
ideas, however, translate to the stage.
Here is just a short litany of the horrors that Wieler and
Morabito have inflicted upon us, all of which denudes the power of Verdi’s
magnificent music. Riccardo and the men of the chorus disguise themselves for the
trip to the fortuneteller by rolling up their pant legs, taking off their
jackets, and loosening their ties. They just look plain dumb. The fortuneteller
Ulrica is inexplicably blind. While the orchestra plays the menacing music that
accompanies Amelia gathering the special herb beneath the gallows that will
make her stop loving Riccardo, the lights of the chandeliers are blazing.
Where’s the scary midnight darkness? As for the two hanging bodies in a
ballroom…And let us not forget that vegetation, aka gallows hill, is depicted
as trees and branches under glass as the ballroom pillars light up from the
inside.
Renato, the close friend who kills Riccardo, conducts his
important scenes in his pajamas and bathrobe. In fact, at one point, the entire
male chorus is in pajamas. The page Oscar has been turned into a brat who shows
up at the masked ball in the dead swan dress Icelandic
singer Björk wore to the Academy Awards in 2001. Incidentally, there
are hardly any masks at the masked ball. All in all, the costumes are a
disaster, particularly Amelia’s various pantsuits which make her look dowdy and
years older than she is supposed to be. Wieler and Morabito do have a couple of good ideas. They have
given Riccardo a silent Jackie Kennedy clone first lady, and Amelia’s and
Renato’s son is manifested by a real little boy. These silent characters are
quite effective, weaving in and out of the action, particularly when Renato
hands over his son to the conspirators, Tom and Samuel, as surety for his
commitment to the murder plot.
The cast, thankfully, is very strong. Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka’s ’s voice might be a little harsh on the high end, but she packs a
vocal wallop of passion. Her delivery is downright exciting. American tenor
Dimitri Pittas as Riccardo has an ease of high notes. He is very believable as
the dandy governor with a carefree manner. More importantly, he does negotiate
that big sing that is at the heart of Verdi. Renato is performed by talented
British baritone Roland Wood. He can certainly play with his expression, and
pump up the volume of his commanding voice when needed. Ulrica requires a big, throaty
sound and Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina was born to play the all
important hearty mezzo characters so beloved of Verdi. Her big juicy voice is
thrilling. Oscar was originally a trouser role for a coloratura soprano.
Canadian singer Simone Osborne is totally suited to the role with her sweet
sound and feathery delivery. Italian bass Giovanni Battista Parodi as
Tom, and American bass Evan Boyer as Samuel prove to be very effective
conspirators. Both are good, clear-throated singers who understand that
restraint is a stronger position than melodramatic villainy. Canadian baritone
Gregory Dahl shows off his robust sound in the small role of Silvano. Conductor Stephen Lord has proven once again that he is a great
dramatist, pulling out all the tension in Verdi’s music. His mastery of musical
accents is superb. I’m ending with some advice. Should this execrable Masked Ball where
nothing makes sense, ever come our way again, just shut your eyes and listen to
the music.
Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Canadian Opera Company, (Ensemble
Studio Performance, directed by Atom Egoyan, conducted by Johannes Debus), Four
Seasons Centre, Feb. 7, 2014. Verdi’s A Masked Ball, Canadian Opera Company, (directed by
Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito, conducted by Stephen Lord), Four Seasons
Centre, Feb. 2 to 22, 2014.
.jpg)
.jpg)
