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<b>music by Victor Davies, libretto be Eugene Benson, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin
Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto
April 29-May 3, 2015
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Lady Bracknell: “Ah! A life crowded with incident”
Toronto Operetta Theatre has given a recent Canadian work of music theatre that rare gift – a second staging. That work is <i>Earnest, The Importance of Being</i>, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde masterpiece as an operetta by composer Victor Davies and librettist Eugene Benson. The TOT-commissioned piece had <a href="perma://BLPageReference/93A386EF-E683-472F-A0DF-65C62871B51A">its successful world premiere in 2008</a>. Now that it is back the work’s virtues stand out even more clearly.
When <i>Earnest</i> first appeared, I was quite preoccupied by the question of what parts of Wilde’s original play were left in, what parts left out and what parts were wholly Davies and Benson’s invention. In seeing the operetta a second time seven years later, all those concerns seem trivial. We enjoy <i>The Chocolate Soldier</i> (1908) by Oscar Straus and <i>My Fair Lady</i> (1956) by Lerner and Loewe without mentally comparing them to their source plays <i>Arms and the Man</i> (1894) and <i>Pygmalion</i> (1913) by Shaw. So I found it this time with <i>Earnest</i>. All the major plot points are there along with a surprising amount of everyone’s favourite lines from Wilde’s original dialogue.
What I especially noticed this time was how witty Davies music is. When Jack tells Algernon that his name is not Ernest, Algernon says, “I have introduced you to every one as Ernest”. Davies and Benson expand on this by noting that Jack is Ernest everywhere thereupon taking us on a short musical tour around the world including a visit to Japan where Benson quotes “Miya sama, miya sama” from <i>The Mikado</i> (1885) by Gilbert and Sullivan. When Lady Bracknell rings the doorbell to Algernon’s flat, he remarks, “Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner”. This line gives Davies a cue to give Lady Bracknell a pseudo-Wagnerian march as entry music.
A running musical joke also has its origins in the text. When Jack hears that Gwendolen wishes only to marry a man named Ernest, he tells her that Ernest doesn’t suit him. She disagrees, “It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations”. Thereupon she unleashes a torrent of solfeggios, arpeggios, trills and other vocal fireworks all on the name “Ernest” to prove that the name does have “vibrations”. When Jack asks about the name “Jack”, she says, “It produces absolutely no vibrations” and sets about a comic version of her previous ornamentation to prove it. Later when Algernon visits Cecily, who is also intent on marrying a man named Ernest, she carries on the same way as Gwendolen had with “Ernest” and then dispiritingly with “Algernon”.
What these examples demonstrate is how Davies and Benson have successfully translated Wilde’s verbal wit into musical wit. Too many adaptations fail because the adaptors do not fully translate the source work into its new medium. Thankfully, that does not happen here and a second viewing allows one to appreciate Davies’ skill all the more.
Irrespective of musical genres, Davies and Benson’s <i>Earnest</i> must be the most unfailingly tuneful works of music theatre Canada has ever produced, with one memorable melody following another from start to finish. The main sign that the work is modern is not that Davies has forced a new musical language, but rather his wild eclecticism. Beside Wagner and Sullivan mentioned above, the score alludes to Lehár, Elgar, plainchant, and musical modes from the classic musicals of the 1950s and ‘60s to the show’s big romantic tune “I Want To Fly Away With You” which could have slipped in from any of the megamusicals of the 1980s. In a postmodern way Davies uses this host of past musical styles to lend a specific satirical form to suit Benson’s lyrics.
On of the most successful numbers in the show, at least judging from the extended applause it received, is Davies translation of the the teatime conflict between Cecily and Gwendolen to a vocal competition that sounds like what would happen if there had been two Mabels in <i>The Pirates of Penzance</i> (1879) showing off their coloratura abilities to impress a newly seen Frederick. It is both hilarious and technically difficult.
TOT has found an impressive cast. Thomas Macleay, who seems to be affecting Wilde’s long-haired look, could deliver his spoken lines more pointedly, but his mellow tenor is a pleasure to hear, especially in his big solo “How Do I Love You?” Cameron McPhail, recently seen as Don Giovanni in Against the Grain’s <i>#UncleJohn</i>, has such stage presence he seems to anchor the entire show. He is a fine actor, delivering Wilde’s witty lines with punch and possesses a large, velvety baritone that has a chance to expand to its full volume in Jack’s main solo, and the work’s most serious number, “Who Am I?”
Jean Stilwell is not a physically imposing Lady Bracknell but her low resonant voice and stern demeanour immediately command attention. Though she dried occasionally in the dialogue, she still has an impressively rich contralto. When Davies and Benson learned that Stilwell would appear in this production of <i>Earnest</i>, they wrote a long <i>scena</i> for her in Act 2, where Lady Bracknell informs Cecily in private of her past history. All of this is, of course, not in Wilde, but Davies and Benson create an amusingly plausible backstory that confirms our suspicions that a person who acquires a title is often more imperious that one who is born with one.
Michelle Garlough as Gwendolen and Charlotte Knight as Cecily both have rapid vibratos. Garlough is a fine actor and shows in her <i>hauteur</i> that Gwendolen is really just a Lady Bracknell in training. Her low mezzo does not always cut through the orchestra but in its upper register acquires a full ringing tone. Knight is charming in depicting Cecily’s willful innocence. Davies gives her ample opportunity to show off her high-flying coloratura in ornamentation that rivals that of Mozart’s Queen of the Night. These Knight tosses off with ease and grace.
Gregory Finney and Rosalind McArthur make a very amusing Reverend Chasuble and Miss Prism and their duet together “The Fathers Of The Early Church” is quite lovely. Sean Curran, who played Lane in the original production, returns in that role and has lost nothing of his humorously dry manner. Diego Catatá rounds out the cast as Merryman.
As before TOT General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin has directed and designed the piece. He gives Jack and Algernon much more boyish horseplay than I remember from before which helps look forward to the revelation at the end that they are actually brothers. Larry Beckwith, Artist Director of Toronto Masque Theatre, conducts the 10-piece TOT Orchestra with an infectious mix of enthusiasm and precision. He especially seems to enjoy highlighting Davies’s host of musical allusions.
In 2008 I hoped that TOT would brings back <i>Earnest</i> soon, and now it has, and with its justifiably proud creators present in the audience. My hope now is that <i>Earnest</i> will become part of TOT’s standard repertory and that other groups across the country will take up this lovely work, one of the most utterly delightful pieces of music theatre ever created in Canada.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Charlotte Knight and Thomas Macleay; Michell Garlough and Cameron McPhail; Jean Stilwell as Lady Bracknell. ©2015 Gary Beechey.
For tickets, visit <a href="http://www.torontooperetta.com">www.torontooperetta.com</a>.
<b>2015-04-30</b>
<b>Earnest, The Importance of Being</b>