Reviews 2007
Reviews 2007
✭✭✭✭✩
by Christoph Willibald Gluck, directed by Marshall Pynkoski
Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto
April 28-May 5, 2007
With Opera Atelier’s production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice it seems that spring has finally arrived. The opera presents the archetypal spring myth, the triumph of love over death, in the stunningly opulent fashion we associate with this company. Anyone familiar with the myth of Orpheus from the films of Jean Cocteau or Marcel Camus may wonder what sort of triumph Orpheus achieves. In Greek myth and in these films, the story of Orpheus is a tragedy. When Orpheus’ wife Eurydice dies suddenly, he is granted permission to descend into the underworld and bring her back to life as long as he does not look into her eyes on the journey back. Of course, he does look and in the original myth loses her forever.
The 18th century, however, was not keen on unhappy endings and felt that Orpheus’ fatal look back demonstrated a love that should be rewarded not punished, and so it is in the libretto for Gluck’s opera that he revised in 1774 for his patron Marie Antoinette. The work was revolutionary in its time because the characters do not describe their emotions but express them directly as they experience them.
Colin Ainsworth gives an impassioned account of the virtuoso role of Orpheus, nailing the innumerable sky-high notes with ease. Peggy Kriha-Dye is a delicate but supple Eurydice. Jennie Such is a pleasure as the god Amour who saves the day. Since Parisian audiences wanted ballet with their opera, Gluck made sure there is almost as much dancing as singing. Jeannette Zingg has beautifully choreographed these scenes in a style that, like the music, looks forward to the 19th century. One might question some aspects of the final scenes that look like an enormous Valentine’s Day card come to life, but perhaps an over-the-top finale is exactly what Marie Antoinette would have wanted.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-04-30.
Photo: Colin Ainsworth and Peggy Kriha Dye. ©Bruce Zinger.
2007-04-30
Orphée et Eurydice