Reviews 2014
✭✭✭✭✩
by Eduard Künneke, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin
Toronto Operetta Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto
May 1-4, 2014
“TOT’s Cousin is an Absolute Delight”
On May 1, 2014, Toronto Operetta Theatre presented the Canadian premiere of Eduard Künneke’s 1921 operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda. TOT presented the work in the English translation that Gerald Frantzen and Hersh Glagov made for the Chicago Folks Operetta in 2012. The English title, The Cousin from Nowhere, is the one used when the work made its debut in London in 1923. (It premiered in the US in New York in 1923 under the title Caroline.) The production is a resounding success and demonstrates why this operetta has been receiving an increasing attention.
As an operetta written for Berlin, Künneke’s operetta naturally has a more satirical slant than its Viennese cousins, but it is also quite unusual in other ways. Structurally, Dingsda has no overture, only nine singers and no chorus. Musically, it fully embraces contemporary American and Latin American dance rhythms alongside the traditional waltzes. Sociologically, it focusses on ordinary people with no nobles or aristocrats in sight. Thematically, it presents romantic idealism not as a path but as a hindrance to true love. The convergence of these four aspects help explain why the Berliner Tagesspiegel pronounced it an Operettenmeisterwerk when the Komische Oper revived it in 2009 why the piece has been gaining steadily in popularity in recent years.
Set in Holland in the 1920s, Julia has been awaiting the return of her beloved Roderich for seven years since he left for Batavia (now known as Jakarta and the Dingsda or “wherever it is” of the title). The two youngsters – she just 11 and he 16 – pledging eternal love and faithfulness until his return. Julia is now just about to turn 18 and be free of the repressive guardianship of her aunt and uncle, when a travelling stranger appears late at night seeking food and lodging. The stranger never reveals his name but also never contradicts Julia’s growing feeling that he may be the long-lost Roderich. Complications ensue when a second stranger claiming to be Roderich arrives.
Director Guillermo Silva-Marin does not update the setting, but he does emphasize the aspect the game-playing inherent in the libretto, a factor that also makes the work seem modern. Julia and her best friend Hanna tell the stranger he has arrived at an “enchanted” spot and they, like magic spirits, will grant his every wish. Silva-Marin makes clear that this is not a romantic fantasy of Julia’s but simply a practical joke. Simultaneously, the stranger refuses to reveal his name and keeps it hidden until well into the final act. By having the stranger and Julia eye and circle each other from this point on, Silva-Marin neatly established that each of the two wonders who is larking with whom.
Künneke wrote the roles of the Stranger and Julia for fully operatic voices and these are well taken by Christopher Mayell and Lucia Cesaroni. Mayell’s pure, cultured tenor, ideal for English song, gives a beautiful account of the work’s most famous song, “Ich bin nur ein armer Wandergesell” (“I’m just a lonely, wandering man”) that ends Act 1. For any in the audience unsure about seeing a totally unknown operetta, this performance dispelled all doubts and received wildly enthusiastic applause.
Julia’s Aunt Wimpel and her Uncle Josse are sung by Elizabeth Beeler and Michael Nyby. Beeler’s soprano may not be as tight and clear as it was, but her comic timing was impeccable. Her fainting spells when confronted by the two Roderichs brought the house down. Nyby has a huge, resonant bass that he carefully reined in for the frequent ensembles in which his character takes part.
As Hanna, Charlotte Knight has a light, sparkling soprano that perfectly complemented the darkness of Cesaroni’s voice. Even more important for this character, Knight is an excellent comic actor able making us fully accept Hanna’s falling in love at first sight with the second Roderich. Egon, the nerdy young man Wimpel and Josse want Julia to marry, is well played by Stefan Fehr with his light tenor and perpetual air of consternation. Keenan Viau and Fabián Arciniegas make a fine contribution as the house’s battling butlers, and Gregory Finney as the second Roderich makes us understand how instant attraction and apparent heartlessness can coexist in the same person.
For this show, the TOT Orchestra consists of only eight players including conductor Jurgen Petrenko, who leads from the keyboard. Petrenko’s tasteful reduction of the score gives it the sound of a 1920s dance band which makes it thoroughly appropriate for Künneke’s use of contemporary dance rhythms and especially for the memorable cabaret-infused finale for Act 2 and 3, “Sieben Jahre lebt’ ich in Batavia” (“Seven years that I was in Batavia”). Petrenko’s precise rhythms and the tight playing of the band, relate Künneke’s music to that of his better-known contemporary, Kurt Weill. Petrenko also brings out Künneke’s humorous allusions to Wagner’s Siegfried that surround the Stranger’s arrival at Julia’s house and the forest murmurs that greet him upon waking the next day.
Toronto opera audiences are sparing in giving standing ovations. Therefore, it was significant when the entire house rose to its feet when the very first singers came forward for their bows. There was an overwhelming feeling of surprise and delight that the TOT had finally brought such a charming but unknown work to Toronto and that it had done so with such aplomb. Now that Toronto audiences know what a delectable treat The Cousin from Nowhere is, let’s hope that it always remains somewhere in the TOT’s standard repertoire.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review will appear in Opera News later this year.
Photos: (from top) Christopher Mayell as the Stranger and Lucia Cesaroni as Julia;. Lucia Cesaroni. ©2014 Emily Ding.
For tickets, visit www.torontooperetta.com.
2014-05-02
The Cousin from Nowhere
