✭✭✭✭✭
<b>by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, directed by Marshall Pynkoski
Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto
November 1-10, 2002
</b>
"Opera Atelier Unveils a Masterpiece"
Opera Atelier's production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Médée" is a spectacular success. It feels like the culmination of everything the company has been working toward for the past 15 years. In 2000 OA's groundbreaking production of Lully's "Persée" took the company's already sumptuous productions to a new level of grandeur. Last year its production of Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" last year brought out the psychological depths of an early work to a greater extent than heretofore. Now, "Médée" combines both. The production reveals this once little-known work as not just a masterpiece of baroque opera of opera in general.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645-1704) had the misfortune to live and work in Paris at the same time as Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687). Lully owned the royal patent for opera composing and performance at the French court. Only when Lully died was Charpentier allowed to write a "tragédie lyrique" for the court.
Although "Médée" premièred in 1693, six years after Lully's death, such was the power of pro-Lully faction at court that, in spite of the approval by its dedicatee Louis XIV, they ensured the work failed. Only with the baroque revival in the late 20th century did Charpentier's music come to be regarded not merely as equal to Lully's but in many ways superior. William Christie's group Les Arts Florissant has been the most dedicated champion of Charpentier. The production of "Médée" it brought to BAM in 1994 was the work's North American première. Opera Atelier now becomes the first North American company ever to mount the work.
"Médée" is the most ambitious project OA has ever undertaken. There are ten principals, a corps de ballet of 16, a 25-member chorus and an orchestra of 33, Canada's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra augmented with members of France's Le Concert Spirituel.
The libretto to "Médée" is by Thomas Corneille (1625-1709), brother of the famous Pierre, and a well-known playwright himself. He situates the legend of Medea within a court riven with intrigue and deception. He sees Medea as a semi-divine being whose longing only to be human is thwarted by the corrupt world around her.
The action begins earlier on in the story than the familiar tragedy of Euripides. Créon wants Médée to leave Corinth but Médée has yet to discover that Jason has fallen in love with Créon's daughter Créuse. This means that the singer playing Médée has to cover an even wider emotional arc when personal deceit is later added to Créon political deceit. In the opera Médée continues to hold out hope that Jason will return to her until the climax in Act 3 when he confesses his love for Créuse. Only then does she relinquish the human side of her nature and embrace the supernatural to wreak her awful revenge. In my view this is the finest adaptation of the Medea legend in opera, including Cherubini's famous work of 1797.
American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Novacek, who made her Toronto début with OA last year as a fiery Emilia in "Poppea", is a vocally remarkable Médée. The taxing role clearly holds no terrors for her. Compared to the rest of the cast, her face shows a limited range of expression, but her beautiful rounded tone and superb line and complete mastery of the French declamatory style are more than enough to characterize this complex being. If she is not fully convincing when Médée expresses a sincere emotion, she is superb in Médée's increasingly powerful scenes of rage.
The French haute contre Cyril Auvity, much in demand in Europe, makes his North American début as Jason. He is not as vocally commanding as Novacek, but that is fitting for so wavering a character. His identifiably French timbre is ideally suited to Charpentier's sonorities. He is also a remarkably fine, very physical actor who even succeeds in making us feel some empathy for his character's weakness.
Alain Coulombe uses his smooth, rich bass to great effect as the duplicitous Créon. He makes Créon's descent into madness in Act 4 thoroughly gripping. Bass baritone Olivier Laquerre is splendid as Oronte, King of Argos, who wins on the battlefield of war only to lose the battle for Créuse's love. He sings with undeniable confidence and swagger as the victories Oronte and fully communicates the humiliation caused by Créuse's deception. As Créuse, soprano Nathalie Paulin sings as radiantly as ever, giving an appropriately brittle, flighty quality to devious princess. She makes Créuse's death in Act 5 via a poisoned gown both moving and terrifying.
Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó brings her lustrous voice to an affecting portrayal of Nérine, Médée's confidante. Curtis Sullivan is in fine form vocally and dramatically as Arcas and later as La Jalousie. Tenors Colin Ainsworth and Michiel Schrey make fine contributions as two Corinthiens and soprano Shannon Mercer is very effective as Cléone.
As usual Jeannette Zingg's choreography is highly varied within its baroque framework and always apposite to the subject matter and music. Unlike in Lully, the divertissements in "Médée" are integrated into the action of each act. Zingg makes the dancing seems like the natural culmination of the energy that has built throughout the act. She and the corps de ballet dazzle us right from the start in the fantastic celebrations of Oronte's victory. Dancer Patrick Lavoie's solos first with foils then with a pike are amazing.
Marshall Pynkoski has directed the action with a keen insight into the nature of the characters and their tragedy. The stylized gestures and blocking are still there but seem to merge with a more naturalistic style of acting. The result is a more emotional involving drama that grips you from beginning to end. Pynkoski has rightly omitted the Prologue to the opera that, as was the custom, praised Louis XIV but has nothing to do with the story.
Hervé Niquet conducts the augmented orchestra with panache. I put it down to opening night enthusiasm that the tempi for the first three acts were generally too brisk and the orchestra too loud in Act 1. Balance improved from Act 2 onward and a less breathless pace gave the reflective utterances of Acts 4 and 5 devastating impact. Throughout the orchestra creates a lush, sensuous sound, clearly reveling in Charpentier's rich harmonies.
Gerard Gauci's painted drops are as effective and Dora Rust-D'Eye's costumes as sumptuous as usual, but here Rust-D'Eye's palette is much more sombre a befits a tragedy. Médée's two significant gowns stand in brilliant contrast to the sepias and verdigris of the rest. Kevin Fraser's evocative lighting frequently makes the stage picture look like a 17th-century painting come to life.
This production is a major achievement. Opera Atelier could perform no finer service than revealing a once-obscure work for the vibrant masterpiece it is. The perfect marriage of beauty and emotion in this "Médée" leave one with a sense of wonder.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photo: Stephanie Novacek, Alain Coulombe and Artists of Atelier Ballet. ©2002 Bruce Zinger.
<b> 2002-11-07</b>
<b>Médée</b>