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by Dmitri Shostakovich, directed by Paul Curran

Canadian Opera Company, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

January 31-February 23, 2007

The Canadian Opera Company’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1934) shows how thrilling an opera can be when all elements of the production, from the music to the direction, design and lighting, come together in a unified vision, a bleak one perhaps but overwhelmingly powerful.

The plot and mood foreshadow film noir.  Katerina (Nicola Beller Carbone), the small town “Lady Macbeth” of the title, is kept virtually a prisoner by her sadistic father-in-law (a superb Timothy Noble), who regards her only as breeding material for his idiot son (Vadim Zapetchny in a fine comic turn).  It’s little wonder she falls in lust, then in love, with Sergey (Oleg Balashov), the first man to show her any tenderness.  It’s little wonder, too, given the vulgar, violent society they live in, that the couple turns to murder to prolong their relationship. 

In a cast without a weak link, Beller Carbone gives an electrifying performance both vocally and dramatically, bravely garnering sympathy for Katerina whose love seems the lone ideal in an oppressive world.  Balashov seduces us too with his bold presence and brawny voice.  The design combines gritty realism with high theatricality.  The acting is as richly detailed as in the best stage plays.  And the huge COC Orchestra under Richard Bradshaw plays with a white-hot intensity that captures all the satire and sorrow in Shostakovich’s music.        

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-02-08.

Photo: Nicola Beller Carbone. ©Michael Cooper.