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by Imre Kálmán, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin

Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto

December 27, 2024, and January 3 & 4, 2025

“Let’s just thank the Lord in heaven for sending us the waltz!”

Toronto Operetta Theatre’s latest production of Countess Maritza (Gräfin Mariza) is a cause for celebration. This is the third TOT production I’ve seen of Imre Kálmán’s operetta Countess Maritza and each has demonstrated that this is one of the greatest of all operettas. Between January 2022 and the present Kálmán’s operettas saw productions from Oslo to Trieste to Novosibirsk. Yet, TOT’s 100th anniversary production of Maritza is one of only two Kálmáns staged in North America since 2022 and the only production of Maritza. This is difficult to fathom since Maritza, unlike so many modern musicals, is packed with one memorable tune after another. For this production TOT has assembled a powerhouse cast making this musically and dramatically one of its finest productions.

For those unfamiliar with the story, I will simply include my account of from my 2004 review: “Maritza, a wealthy land-owner, is constantly besieged with proposals of marriage by impoverished noblemen. Knowing that all they are interested in is her money, she has become wary of all men and announces her engagement to the fictitious Baron Koloman Zsupán (a character from Johann Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron). To Maritza’s surprise and consternation, a lovelorn baron of that very name turns up to claim Maritza as his fiancée. Meanwhile, Maritza is falling in love with one of her staff, the bailiff Bela Törek, who is in reality Count Tassilo, an impoverished nobleman who has taken on the work to pay off his father’s debts and amass enough money for a dowry for his sister Lisa. The barriers of wealth and class are compounded by suspicions on each side as to the real intentions of the other, giving the work a complex psychological dimension not always found in operetta. Nigel Douglas’s new English version is especially good at finding witty equivalents for the lyrics”.

A strong theme in Maritza is the fine line between reality and make-believe. The fact that a fictional character has a real-life counterpart is just one instance. Both Maritza and Tassilo pretend – she that she is engaged, he that he is not an aristocrat. More than one scene between them, and between Lisa and Zsupán, involves the couple pretending how they would treat each other as if they were in love. Pretending being in love soon evolves into being in love for real.

In 2004 the dominant performance was that of Elizabeth Beeler as Maritza. This time it is Scott Rumble as Tassilo who shines most brightly. Rumble has an heroic, dark-hued tenor and a charismatic stage presence. It’s no surprise that he will be singing Siegmund in Die Walküre later this year. Rumble brings passion to songs like “Vienna Mine!” and “Be Mine, My Love, Be Mine” as well as a sense of fun to “When I Start Dreaming”. “Come Gypsies” requires Tassilo to dance a csárdás solo. Rumble has choreographed a demanding routine with spins, leaps and Schuhplattler slaps that few tenors could ever manage. Also, a fine actor, Rumble is one of the few opera-singers who could justly be called a triple-threat.

Lyric coloratura soprano Holly Chaplin plays Maritza. Chaplin has a large, powerful voice that only on occasion loses its roundness in its highest notes. From her first entrance with a seductive “Set the Magic Music Playing”, it’s clear that Chaplin has found the key to her character in vivacity and playfulness. Chaplin shows us how a woman who is bored with having so many suitors unaccountably finds herself attracted to someone in her own employ – a reverse of the typical male-female power relationship that makes this operetta seem so modern. One of the pleasures of Chaplin’s performance is to see how she has Maritza overcome her pride to face the facts of this situation.

As Tassilo’s sister Lisa, Patricia Wriggleworth sings with an agile soprano. Wrigglesworth and Rumble ably convey the strong sibling bond between their characters in their lovely duet “Childhood Memories”. As Baron Zsupán, Joshua Clemenger commands a light tenor and fine sense of comedy. When, we wonder, will Zsupán ever realize that Lisa is in love with him? Clemenger and Wrigglesworth make a great pair in the foxtrot “When I Start Dreaming”.

In smaller roles, Lori Mak and her strong soprano impress as Manja. The role is a clichéd gypsy fortune-teller in the original, but here director Guillermo Silva-Marin has thankfully reimagined her as a member of Maritza’s household with a gift for fortune-telling. As The pompous Prince Popolescu, Sebastien Belcourt is a master of both comic timing and clear diction. He also has a fine baritone that he only has a chance to show off in the rousing number “Corks A-Popping” (“Geiger schallen” in the original) and “Pretty Maiden from the Prairie”. As Tassilo’s aunt, Princess Bozena, Meghan Symon deftly channels the comic superciliousness of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell.

Derek Bate draws precise, enthusiastic playing from the ten-member orchestra that sound like a top-notch salon orchestra. Bate really plays up the rubato so that in a csárdás you can almost see the notes of the slow introduction tumble off a cliff into the wild rapid section that follows.

Now with five productions – 1986, 1991, 2004, 2009 and 2024 – TOT has staged Countess Maritza more often than any other opera or light opera company in North America. I feel lucky to live in a city with a company like TOT to bring us such a joyous work so often and feel sorry so few people in the rest of the continent have the chance to experience any Kálmán at all. Kálmán’s exhilarating mixture of Hungarian folk dances, waltzes, galops and foxtrots is infectious. When his music is performed as well as at this production, you can’t but leave with a smile, a lighter step and a carousel of glorious tunes playing in your mind.

Christopher Hoile

Photo: Holly Chaplin as Countess Maritza; Holly Chaplin as Countess Maritza and Scott Rumble as Tassilo; Scott Rumble as Tassilo and Patricia Wrigglesworth as Lisa. © 2024 Gary Beechey.

For tickets visit: www.torontooperetta.com.