✭✭✭✭✩

by Marc-Antoine Charpentier / Henry Purcell, directed by Marshall Pynkoski

Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto

April 21-30, 2005

Opera Atelier’s current double-bill of two miniature masterpieces in less than two hours would be a perfect introduction to Toronto’s internationally praised baroque opera company.  Charpentier’s Actéon (1683) tells of the horrid punishment the hunter of the title (Colin Ainsworth) suffers for spying the goddess Diana (Nathalie Paulin) bathing.  Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689), one of greatest operas in English, tells how the Trojan hero Aeneas (Curtis Sullivan) came to abandon his beloved Dido, Queen of Carthage (Monica Whicher).  The libretto makes a comical Sorceress (Laura Pudwell) and her witches, not the goddess Juno, the cause.

Both operas reflects the coyly self-conscious style that first made Opera Atelier popular rather than the deeper, psychological approach of recent years.  As a result tragic figures like Actéon and Dido seem like outsiders trapped in a world of artifice.  The singers are all fine actors and have fully mastered the company’s trademark stylized gestures.  The pure-voiced Ainsworth and Paulin sing beautifully and as does Pudwell, a consummate comedienne.  Whicher’s lower notes don’t penetrate the orchestra and Sullivan’s lines seem short-breathed.  As usual the costumes are opulent and the choreography elegant.  Under David Fallis the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Choir give rich, vibrant accounts of both scores. 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-04-28.

Photo: Monica Whicher (centre) as Dido. ©Bruce Zinger.