Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
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by Giacomo Puccini, directed by Vincent Liotta
Canadian Opera Company, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
January 20-February 4, 2001
“This West is Not So Golden”
Although Puccini considered “La Fanciulla de West” (“The Girl of the Golden West”) his finest opera, in audience popularity it comes farther down the list than the composer’s “big four”. It is not the tear-jerker that “La Bohème” and “Madama Butterfly” can be. For North Americans, the setting in the Wild West does not have the exoticism of “Butterfly” and “Turandot”. And even though the love triangle—law enforcer loves woman who loves outlaw—is the same as “Tosca”, the ending is not the tragedy one expects. In many ways the opera “Fanciulla” (1910) looks forward to is “Turandot” (1926). In both works the central conflict lies within the title character who must not only yield to her first experience of love but proclaim that her example should end a cycle of retribution in favour of mercy and redemption.
While “Turandot” is set in a fairy-tale China, “Fanciulla” takes place in specific time and place now burdened with clichés from popular culture. Productions like the one conceived by Hal Prince in 1990 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and now on display at the Hummingbird Centre, only emphasize the clichéd surface of the story through their ultra-realistic design. As the COC’s recent productions of “Butterfly” and “Turandot” have shown, a more abstract approach to Puccini allows the mythic core of the opera to have a more direct impact. One is hard pressed to see past the clutter of Eugene Lee’s sets and Vincent Liotta’s detailed, almost fussy, direction to see the heart of David Belasco’s play that attracted Puccini in the first place.
For “Fanciulla” to be effective, we must be able to see the inner turmoil of the central couple—the outlaw Dick Johnson, whose love for Minnie undermines the cynicism of his calling, and the “girl” Minnie, whose love for Dick shatters the tough exterior she has cultivated to get along in the man’s world that is the Old West. Unfortunately, none of this comes through in this production.
As Johnson, American tenor Michael Sylvester, displays his enormous, heroic voice when he chooses to unleash it, but too often one has the impression he is saving his voice between those glorious outbursts and thus undercharacterizes everything in between. His rendition of “Ch’ella mi creda libero” in Act 3 is very powerful, but his acting abilities throughout the opera seem confined to following the director’s blocking from A to B, and nothing more.
Bulgarian soprano Elena Filipova has most of Puccini’s heroines in her repertoire--Mimi, Cio-Cio San, Manon and Tosca--but Minnie, at least as portrayed at the Hummingbird Centre, seems to suit her the least. The first three are characterized by their vulnerability and Tosca’s self-confidence is sorely tested. But Minnie is completely different. She is a strong woman who lives alone by choice and has had to fend for herself in an almost entirely male environs. Her drama is how her first experience of love, and with an outlaw no less, permeates the hardened exterior she has created to survive. Despite a beautiful voice, Filipova simply doesn’t have the vocal power or stage presence to communicate this character. Throughout she seems for more like a countess exiled from a Viennese operetta than a tough gal in the Wild West. Her eyes remain so glued to the conductor she hardly seems to interact with anyone on stage. Her focus is entirely on producing a pure tone and clear diction rather than on acting.
It doesn’t help that the director, Vincent Liotta, has saddled her with a large amount of fussy stage business, some of which makes no sense. Why, when she hears that lover Johnson has been shot outside her house, is her first reaction to make the bed and clear the dishes? Minnie’s last-minute arrival on hand-car to save Dick from hanging is too much like a silent movie ending not to provoke laughter. The chief emotional interest in the opera lies in the internal conflicts of these two characters. Due to Sylvester’s stolidity and Filipova’s seeming distraction, we miss out on this emotional core entirely.
This central flaw is put into greater relief by the excellence of the acting, not to mention singing, of the entire rest of the cast. Canadian baritone John Fanning is not only in fine voice but gives a detailed characterization of Jack Rance, the sheriff whose bitterness that Minnie does not requite his love turns to disbelief and suppressed rage that his rival should also be the criminal he has been seeking.
Sandra Horst has yet again done a superb job in preparing the all-male chorus. Their unity throughout and the pianissimos they achieve in the introductory scene are something to relish. In the large array of individualized portraits of the men of the camp, Roger Honeywell, Joseph Kaiser, David Pomeroy, Stephen McClare, Andrew Tees, Leroy Villanueva and especially Alain Coulombe, as one of Johnson’s desperados, make more of their characters in a few minutes on stage than do Sylvester or Filipova in the entire evening. It is Fanning and the chorus who give life to the piece.
Purely on a musical level, conductor Richard Buckley brings out exquisite detail and magnificent sound from the COC orchestra in this score so full of tonal variety and colour. The pacing and the balance of voices and instruments is perfectly judged. In this aspect, the performance is far superior to the last appearance of this piece in 1983. But with the simpler design of Robert O’Hearn and the confident Minnie of Johanna Meier, the drama then was much more palpable. No matter how beautifully played and sung, a production of Puccini that does not engage one emotionally is untrue to the composer.
Photo: Elena Filipova, unknown singer and Michael Sylvester. ©2001 Canadian Opera Company.
2001-01-30
La Fanciulla del West