Sunday, October 30, 2011

There are no words - Love of the Nightgale

There are no words.

Seriously, there are no words. Just like the Thracian women repeatedly tell both Procne, and later Philomele, there are no words, to describe how a new theatrical piece invokes responses in you, and to try to describe the performance, there are no words to adequately describe what you have seen. And yet, we must. We must get out the truths of what we have seen and ensure that others want to see them also.

For those that have missed the whole "Love of the Nightingale" story and are wondering what I am talking about, OperaAustralia have just mounted the glorious Richard Mills opera, based on the story by Ovid in his Metamorphoses concerning the sisters Procne and Philomele and the Thracian king Tereus, whom Procne marries, and who then, while collecting Philomele to bring her to spend time in Thrace with her sister Procne, rapes and brutalises her.

That is the basics of the story. And, I will be honest, it does sound like a pretty grim night at the opera. Modern opera, based on a bloodthirsty tale of outrageous behaviour. And yes, it does live up to being a confronting night of theatre. Seeing someone have their tongue cut out is pretty gruesome, even if you know that it is not real. Especially when it is presented in such a way that you imagine it more than you see it.

But this is also a production with a lot of humour. I frequently was laughing out loud in the first act, which I was not expecting. Granted there was less humour in the second act, but then the plot does turn very ugly, so that was no surprise.

And, with the humour and the vivid characterisations, you did care about these characters. Most of them in fact, although I do not recommend getting to attached to lead tenor roles in this opera.

As the sisters, Emma Matthews and Anke Hoeppner have the sort of roles that singers dream about. And, fill them well they do. Emma is probably the finest singer we have in Australia at the moment, and once again, she showed us why. Her sweet coloratura filled the theatre throughout the night, with no risk of being overwhelmed, and always in control. Now, granted, this is her second time singing this role (she created the role in its first production) but this is one of those cases of a role that seem a gift to the singer. In fact, I am pretty sure that Richard Mills wrote the role around her originally. What a gift for her!

Anke was something of a surprise for me. I admit, the times before I have heard her, I have been underwhelmed. I would never have thought of her voice as beautiful. Powerful yes, but a tendency to be wayward, and harsh, not one I would rush off to hear again. As Procne, she held her own, as Philomele's older, though not wiser, sister, who marries the brutish Tereus. She left me realising that I need to reconsider her as a singer to investigate further, as she never fell into Emma's shadow, despite being on stage together for a large chunk of her role. I guess this is what happens when you only know performers from recorded performances.

As Tereus, Richard Anderson was the hulking brute he needed to be. He was the sort of man you could believe would do the things he did, if he did not get his own way. His voice was similar, powerful and intimidating, if not making beautiful sounds. This was of course, more a reflection on the music and the character he was portraying, rather than any lack on his part. He remains a singer I often wonder why he does not get better roles that show off his voice, but then maybe this is his choice too.

Elizabeth Campbell in her multiple roles, showed us why she remains one of Australia's pre-eminent oratorio singers. Her big mezzo voice was a model of clarity, making singing in English seem so easy. She was the only singer I could consistently understand, without ever needing the surtitles. Yes, she may have come across a bit less in character at times, but, with her roles I was not going to complain when every word was so clear.

David Corcoran sang with his usual ringy tenor voice. He seemed more confident than I have heard him before, but at the same time, I really do not think English is a good language for him. To my ear, he is all ping, with not enough body to his voice. This could be just me, but I like a fuller tenor voice than his. However, he was impressive as the captain of the ship that Philomele falls for, causing Tereus fits of jealousy.

Also, Taryn Fiebig sang a suitably radiant (if surprisingly vindictive) Aphrodite. Much of the blame for what happened gets sheeted home to her, yet, at best, she could only be said to be encouraging others to act out on their desires, rather than making those desires happen.

The music you ask? Well, I would probably describe it as fitting into a Britten-ish sound world. So, mostly tonal, with melody more likely to happen in snatches than full out arias. At the same time, there are exerptable solo moments of considerable beauty, and some quite powerful ensemble sections, making for a score that really demands multiple listenings to get a deeper appreciation for it. (Not to mention, the showstopping "Song of the Nightingale" at the end) It also reflects a keen ear for how to set words for voices, which considering the composer's long involvement with WA Opera, is not unsurprising.

The staging was initially annoying, till I adjusted to it. Having a series of platforms that roll around on stage to indicate different locations seems annoying at first, but it was made to work. You forgot it was just staging, and it became the locations, be they the palace at Athens, the boat, the beach or the palace in Thrace. It also enabled some quite difficult scenes of violence and outrageous behaviour to take place, without loss of believability, which was quite something.

Now, I have to say, for some, the moralising of some of the characters towards the end was annoying. For me, it was not, mainly because it fitted in with the whole Greek chorus thing that was happening. After all, ancient Greek theatre relied on the chorus to moralise, and ask the hard questions. Having said that it did go on for quite some time, to drum the point home, that we must ask questions, and we must never be afraid to speak out, lest we too lose the ability to do so.

But ultimately, the ending, with the gloriously over the top vocalise sung by Emma as the nightingale of the title was a fitting ending. It was an indication that we all had to find the way to say what we had no words for, to express the inexpressible. After all, what else is opera for?

Sunday, October 09, 2011

The Scottish Opera

Well, I finally got to see "The Scottish Opera" yesterday - you know, the one based on a play by Shakespeare that you are not allowed to say the name of, lest some of the witches' curse comes to haunt you. Live at the Sydney Opera House, with an impressive cast of singers that could do justice to Verdi's music.

And what a show it is! Sometimes, it really does take seeing a staged performance to really love and understand the music of an opera. That definitely applies here. Some of the things that may seem weak in the music on CD, really come to life when you understand what is happening, and can see it played out on stage. But ultimately, it demonstrates yet again, just what a master Verdi is at writing music to for dramatic purposes. No one wrote for chorus quite like he did, though ask me how he makes it work every time, and I scratch my head, it just does. And of course, the tunes!!! He instinctively had an ear for the tuneful, but was not afraid to write ugly music when the story called for it, its just his ugly makes many other composers seem like crows next to his nightingale.

So, what was today's performance (the last) like you say? Well, funny you should ask that…

Personally, I found a lot to love, and a little to dislike.

I am going to start with the dislike first. With a caveat. I rarely ever like Peter Coleman-Wright as a singer. There is something about his voice that irritates me. I think it is something weird he is doing technically, that I can't work out, but he never sounds vocally "all there" to me. It is as if he is swallowing his vowels or something, it just never sounds as forward and as ringy as it should, especially if you are sitting towards the back of the theatre. This day, I have to say, he was worse than normal vocally. Now, don't get me wrong, as a performer, he is quite absorbing to watch, but I would never buy a CD of his, and normally would avoid going to something he is in, but this was a production I have been eagerly awaiting, so he was not stopping me.

So, as Macbeth he was the consummate performer, tearing up the scenery as required, as the ambitious scheming Macbeth whose grip on reality begins to slip as the story progresses. The scene where he sees the ghost of Banquo demonstrates just what a powerful actor he is, with a performance that would not be out of place in a performance of the play.

As his wife, Elizabeth Whitehouse was the rock that the production revolved around. Her magnificent voice shone throughout the performance, tossing off Verdi's difficult music, if not with ease, certainly with confidence and flair, showing while she may be known more for Germanic roles, she certainly can sing Verdi Spinto/dramatic roles well. This is a singer in command of a big voice, who knows how to use it to great effect. Frequently while listening to her voice, I realised I would love to hear her sing Abigaille from Nabucco, as the vocal demands seem similar when you listen to them. Having said that, early in the opera, I was worried listening to some of her high notes. They sounded wayward, not in pitch, but tonally, as if she was struggling to get them out, not singing with the ease and clarity of her lower and middle range. Thankfully this cleared up as the opera continued, which makes me suspect she was feeling less than 100% at the start, or was not warmed up fully.

But of course, any Lady Macbeth stands or falls on her Sleepwalking scene, that mad scene for dramatic voices. Verdi himself was more concerned about believability than beautiful tones in his original Lady Macbeth, and you can sort of see why, she really is not a nice character, but a manipulative, amoral cold blooded killer, who thinks nothing of goading Macbeth into other murders.While I would never call Elizabeth's voice harsh, or ugly, there were definitely times when she sounded ugly and harsh, making her beautiful voice serve the drama, demonstrating the ugliness at the heart of Lady Macbeth.

As Banquo, Daniel Sumegi was mostly what you expected. Solid voice (seemed to be less full and rich than I remembered in the lower register, but that could just have been the day) with a big dark sound that carried well. He portrayed the solid friend who becomes progressively fearful of his friend as well as he is able in the limited time he had before he succumbed to Macbeth's murderous behaviour.

The big surprise for me was Rosario La Spina as Macduff. It is not a big role, but wow, that is a real tenor!!! When someone in a small role gets such a huge applause, you know either the rest of the cast are hopeless (which they were not!!) or that the small role was ideal for the performer and they really shone. In his aria just before the sleepwalking scene, La Spina showed how to sing Verdi's passionate, heart on sleeve music, and the audience went nuts with applause. As they should.

Everyone else sang well, but few stood out, except maybe Richard Anderson, wasted as the Doctor, as indeed, he is so often, with his powerful voice reduced to being a commentator as Lady Macbeth did her sleepwalking routine. I was also very impressed with the chorus, I have not heard them sounding so good in a long time.

Now, having said all that, I do have to take my hat off to the lighting designer. Etienne Boucher (restudied for the Sydney Opera House stage by Nigel Levings) worked wonders with lighting. He made us forget that we were dealing with a unitary set, and instead see different places, be it the witches scenes, the castle, or the forest. The lighting took the scene and made you see different things. Even after the forest scene, when there was snow falling on the rebels, I was thinking how were they going to clean it up, without closing the curtain before the next scene. With the change of lighting from outside, into the nighttime castle scene for the sleepwalking, the lighting changed such that the "snow" disappeared altogether. He both picked up mood changes and environmental factors, weaving them into a cohesive whole, in a way few lighting directors seem to be able to.

As to the production generally, while I do not like as a rule unitary sets, this one was made to work. As I said, this had a lot to do with the lighting, but also by the range of places on the set, that were all utilised at different times, in different ways.

On the other hand, the costumes were less successful. I started out annoyed at the twentieth century dress styles and lack of kilts (the men all started in great coats that looked more Germanic than anything), by the end I was not really concerned about how the various people were dressed. I assumed that there was some message intended by the modern dress, but it was not clear to me. Personally, I just thought of it as someone attempting to keep something accessible by making the costumes seem like what you might see in the streets today, but at some points the clothing looked definitely early twentieth century not current, which does tend to defeat the purpose…

But ultimately, this was a fairly traditional production of a standard opera, albeit one we rarely see in Australia. It was mostly beautifully sung, and only one person sounded out of place or miscast. Many sounded like luxury casting. And really, in the end, opera is about the singing, to my mind. And in this performance, I knew I had got my money's worth, and then some, with moments of pure magic. Can we really ask for more?