Reviews 2006
Reviews 2006
✭✭✭✩✩
by Vincenzo Bellini, directed by James Robinson
Canadian Opera Company, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
March 30-April 16, 2006
When it was announced that Russian soprano Elena Prokina was ill and would not be able to begin rehearsals for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Norma (seen March 30), opera-goers in Toronto were delighted to learn that her replacement would be June Anderson. Indeed, Anderson’s performance alone provided the electricity the evening otherwise would have lacked.
James Robinson originally directed the production for the COC in 1998 with great success. Allen Moyer’s set highlights with admirable simplicity the cultural insensitivity of the Romans toward the Druids by backing an arc of tree stumps with walls jerrybuilt from freshly cut lumber. For this revival director François Racine, a longtime associate of Robert Lepage, took the helm to “re-imagine” the production. There was, however, nothing remotely avant-garde about the stodgy way he moved singers about in decorative groupings or how he forced them to rely on generic expressive gestures. He seemed more concerned that the tree stumps, each individually spotlit, could be seen than the singers, leaving the chorus often plunged in darkness. To make matters worse, conductor David T. Heusel took the score at such a languorous pace he generated no drama and so little forward momentum that the work frequently seemed in danger of grinding to a halt.
Given these impediments it is remarkable the cast sang as well as it did. Anderson’s voice is itself a thing of beauty with a crystalline clarity overlying depths full and rich in color. Her impeccable technique, her precision of attack, her heavenly pianissimi were spellbinding. Anderson took on the challenge of Heusel’s lugubrious pace for “Casta diva” by turning it into a demonstration of her phenomenal breath control. Throughout the evening she easily made up in vocal and emotional intensity what the conducting lacked in energy. She made Norma’s final declaration, “Son io,” truly chilling. As Adalgisa, Marianna Kulikova displayed a strong voice with an intriguing streak of bronze in its middle range, luxuriant depths and a clear top. She, too, sang beautifully though inevitably she could not match Anderson in stage presence. As Pollione, Attila Fekete deployed a firm heroic tenor that occasionally lost fullness in its upper register. Zdenek Plech lent his suitably sepulchral bass to Oroveso. Both Peter Barrett and Yannick-Muriel Noah made fine contributions as Flavio and Clotilde. More’s the pity then such singers should contend with conducting and stage direction seemingly bent on undermining their dramatic effectiveness.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Opera News 2006-06.
Photo: June Anderson and Attila Fekete. ©Michael Cooper.
2006-06-01
Norma