Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
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by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Andrew Porter
Canadian Opera Company, MacMillan Theatre, Toronto
December 16-20, 2005
"A Magical ‘Flute’ Indeed"
To celebrate its 25th anniversary the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio mounted its biggest production ever, Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. It was a respectable production, making imaginative use of a small budget, that highlighted Mozart’s music above all and served as a fine showcase for young Canadian operatic talent.
The production marked the first time the COCES has performed in the MacMillan Theatre on the University of Toronto campus, a proscenium theatre with a stage opening as wide as that of the Hummingbird Centre but seating only 815. Designer William Schmuck and lighting designer Stephen Ross worked carefully together to create the peculiarly eclectic fairy-tale world of Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto that mixes symbols of Freemasonry with Egyptian and all manner of other oriental influences. Tamino, who in the original first appears “in einem prächtigen japonischen Jagdkleide” was dressed in Persian style. The Queen of the Night wore a huge Turandot-like headdress while the Three Ladies who serve her were dressed in a modern version of 18th-century Western costume. The captive Pamina was clad in a period 18th-centruy gown while her lustful guardian Monostatos wore an Arabian costume à la Ali Baba complete with turban and slippers with upturned toes. That this mélange of styles worked so well was do to Schmuck’s use of colour-coding with the good characters in light yellows and beiges and the evil ones in dark reds and blues.
The set itself was constructed of construction materials. Plastic netting and outlined with white ducting signified various rooms in Sarastro’s palace. Its columns were made from sections of sonotubes strung together with deliberate gaps to show them lit up from within by Ross’s coloured lights, a suitable visual metaphor for Sarastro’s realm where realizing the inner light of reason is man’s highest attainment. Much as the opera itself does with folksong, Schmuck and Ross’s lively imagination transformed simple workaday materials into sublime visions.
Famed music critic Andrew Porter directed his own English translation of the German libretto. Its English is eminently singable and the dialogue cut to its essentials. Porter changes Pamina’s guard Monostatos from being black to “ugly” which thankfully gets rid of the need for blackface. Costuming this equivocal figure as a fairy-tale Arab, however, seems to substitute one racial bias for another. Porter’s direction was clear and straightforward throughout and pleasantly little old-fashioned in bringing the singers right downstage and face forward for most of the arias and ensembles.
Tenor Victor Micallef sang Tamino in a very Italianate style including throat-catching entrances more appropriate for Verdi or Puccini than Mozart. “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” was truly lovely, but nothing subsequently rose to that height. Of the cast he also seemed the least at ease on stage. This was definitely not the case with baritone Peter Barrett as Papageno. His portrait of the childlike bird-seller emerged complete and fully-fledged, so to speak, ready for any opera house in the world. His energy, self-assurance and delightful singing sustained the opera’s buoyant mood throughout.
With his lush, resonant voice former Ensemble member Alain Coulombe was as magisterial a Sarastro as one could wish. His bass plumbed the challenging depths of “In diesen heil’gen Hallen” with full security of tone. In contrast, Lawrence J. Wiliford, who played a very animated Monostatos, displayed little resonance or richness of tone even in his main aria “Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden”. Baritone Jason Nedecky as the Temple Spokesman and tenor Peter Collins as a Slave and Priest both made much more of their roles that is usual, with Collins bringing a sense of grim humour to his role as Papageno’s keeper. Their performance as the two Men in Armour was suitably imposing.
On the distaff side, Virginia Hatfield was a constant pleasure as Pamina. There is a slight metallic tinge to her soprano which she is able to tame as she did in a ravishing account of “Ach, ich fühl’s”. It’s been a while since the Ensemble has had a true coloratura soprano in its midst which made Nikki Einfeld’s presence all the more exciting. Her first aria as the Queen of the Night was not as high-powered as it could have been, but the precision and pyrotechnics of her character’s signature piece “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” brought down the house. Soprano Michèle Bogdanowicz was an ideal Papagena, perfectly matched in sound, perkiness and sense of joy with Peter Barrett’s Papageno. Sopranos Joni Henson and Melinda Delorme and mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal gave the Three Ladies nicely differentiated dramatic personalities while vocally they blended beautifully. The Three Boys (sometimes called the “Three Genii”) were delightfully played and sung by three girls, Tess Roby, Veronica Anissimova and Dina Shikhman.
COC General Director Richard Bradshaw conducted an orchestra of 44 in an account of the score that cast any pretence of authentic performance practices aside and clearly related the work forward to 19th-century German romantic opera. For anyone more familiar with Tafelmusik’s performances of the score in 2001 and 1991 for Opera Atelier, one’s ear had to adjust. There is no doubt, however, despite a fairly rocky start, that Bradshaw’s approach had the great merit of revealing just how revolutionary this well-known score can sound. It is all to the credit of the fine reputation the Canadian Opera Ensemble Studio has built up over the years that all three performances were sold out months before the opera opened.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Nikki Einfeld as the Queen of the Night. ©2005 COC.
2005-12-17
The Magic Flute