A tale of 2 opera events

So, this is the story of my attendance at two opera performances, where one was in the theatre and one was the spectacular that is Opera On The Harbour. Both very different, both a bit flashy and glam, but one moved me, and one left me feeling WTAF?

First, to the special. Faust. With the David McVicar production from the Royal Opera, a much loved and praised production, that manages to include much of his usual visual language, while still remaining true to the story and libretto. Everything that is needed is there, with a few extras (I never worked out the point of the black evening gown for Mephistopheles, but it worked in context)  and the story is told in a way that leaves this archetypal morality play still relevant for today. To be sure, we do not expect supernatural intervention in our lives, but this tale of innocence lost, and of "be careful what you ask for" still rang true, helped by superlative performances.

For this was truly international A-grade house casting. First of all, the young up coming tenor that is getting everyone excited, Michael Fabiano sang the title role. As a singer that did not automatically leap to mind in this role (I expect to hear him in Italian ones), I was impressed by his versatility. His musicianship was never in doubt, but French is a language that not every opera singer can sing successfully in. The fact that after Sydney he flew to Paris to perform the role at the Bastille Opera also probably says a lot. Needless to say, if you have the chance, I strongly recommend you go hear him, he is a very impressive singer, who is going to continue to improve.

As his love interest, we had the stunning Nicole Car, who once again showed why she is now going places. (currently singing in Berlin, then off to the Royal Opera as Tatyana) Last time I heard her, I loved her voice, but was a little underwhelmed by her acting in a role where she did not fit the production. This time, she was fine. She took the star role that Marguerite is and ran with it. If her French did not always sound French, that would be my biggest criticism, which in a young singer, is nothing that time and coaching will not fix.

And then we had Teddy Tahu Rhodes stepping into the big badboy role of Mephistopheles. And loving it. I have said before, that Teddy is such a great stage animal. Once again, he got a role to sink his teeth into and have fun with. And he did. I'm finding him sounding more basslike each time I hear him, less baritonal. And I like it. Especially in this role, where the usual performers are basses with secure top notes, not baritones who can go low. And of course, the best recorded performers of it are the Russian/eastern europe basses like Cristoff and Ghiaurov, so the darkening of Teddy's sound worked well here. Although, there is no real opportunity for him to show off his chest this time...

Then, we had the smaller parts filled out by Giorgio Caoduro as Valentine, Anna Dowsley as Siebel, Richard Anderson as Wagner and Domenica Matthews as Marthe. Each of them great singers and worthy of major roles, filling out smaller roles and making them vivid and real. And each of them well loved by Australian audiences.

The result of this? A performance of Faust that will live as the one to beat in my memories. Admittedly, only my second, and the first live, but it left me moved, and aware, that even if I will never be a Faust fan, it is certainly a much stronger work dramatically and musically than I had given it credit, in the correct hands.

Which leads me to Aida, which is a whole different kettle of fish.

First of all, Aida seems a natural fit to be mounted in stadium style productions, with big choruses and lots of put everything on you have on stage scenes. It's why it remains popular at The Met for example, who can fill their stage with hundreds of big voices raised in triumph or horror, as the mood dictates. The only problem with that idea, as everyone quickly discovers when performing Aida, is that it really is about the love triangle between the leads, stuck into the situation where they are all people of influence and importance, and love and the requirements of society do not match at all. Not to mention the requirements of religion. The big scenes are the setting of the scene for the important drama, what happens to the people at the centre of it

As a result, big flashy productions of Aida tend to fall flat on their faces if you do not have four performers giving performances that make you care about them. If you are more concerned about the spectacle than the story, then your Aida ultimately becomes the the souffle that fails to rise.

Now, to be sure, there was much to love about this production. All the voices (except one) were right for the parts. Visually, it looked amazing. It was just totally schizophrenic in its imagery. Amneris's costumes looked straight out of Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra, yet Aida's looked like they belonged to the heroine of  The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I mean, I get that Aida is meant to look different to Amneris as one is Egyptian and one Ethiopian, but really??? And, that is before we start on the dancers and their outfits. Yes, let's not discuss the dancers at all, because what they had to do was mostly laughable and totally wrong in context (there was a context to them?)And their outfits belonged to the 1am show at RHI at the Sydney Mardi Gras Party.

So, yes, there was much that was quite frankly so grossly over the top, the production threatened to out camp a John Waters film. Think on that, and remember this is a serious drama about a love triangle caught up with societal pressures in a rigidly structured society. Or, it is written as such, at any rate.

Thankfully, the music making was mostly of a high standard. As Amneris, Jacqui Dark was pretty much the star of the show. Her character is traditionally the villain of this piece and she got to be that writ large. Always bringing a strong performance to her characters, here she revelled in playing the spoiler. Her voice is also well suited to the role, so she got to prowl the stage belting out her music with abandon, and generally acting the maneater, with her eye on someone else's man.

As the man in question,  Arnold Rawls brought a remarkably fresh voiced tenor to the role, singing the opening aria which trips up many, with ease. To some, he me have failed to lack the daring do needed to be convincing as the man who risks throwing everything away for love, but to me, he was more the man paralysed by love's demands, than the do-er many assumed this role must be. He certainly sang the role comfortably, with more enthusiasm than many. His was a performance that left you thinking you would not mind hearing him again.

As the title role though, we had a singer who quite frankly did not cut it. Sure, she had all the notes, and she has a reputation as a spinto soprano, but that is where the good things ended. I couldn't help thinking at times, that her staging was very clearly designed around the other cast Aida (Latonia Moore) who has the voice to make you forget anything except what she is telling you. Daria Masiero does not. What Moore could convince with the power and beauty of her voice, Masiero would do and come across as looking stagy and tired, producing a "please like me" response, that REALLY grated on me. If your heroine who is going to die at the end, cannot make you want her to live, you have failed. And, that was the biggest problem for me in a problematic production. The Nile Scene where you see Aida being torn between her love for her man, and her desire to be back in her homeland, which can be a lesson in how to sing beautiful high notes softly, became an "oh my god just get over it" trial, as well. We felt nothing for her as a character, and the sounds she was producing, were frankly not that pretty either. Certainly the worst sound I have heard from an Aida (six staged performances, 2 of them video)

For the most part, the other performers were all quite acceptable, singing what really are roles that are cyphers, rather than flesh and blood characters, although the Ramfis of Conal Coad will remain with me, purely for the camp factor. Him walking up the stage with his cape could teach Joan Crawford how to go OTT for pure campery.

However, I have to admit, knowing Aida, I still have no idea what killed them in this production. There was no attempt to try to confine them, or to place them in some sort of lower location to suggest they were trapped. Rather they were stuck alone on the middle of that huge stage. Death by excess fresh air perhaps? Certainly not the suffocation they were singing about. It was also telling that I was eager for them to get it over and just die at the end. This was not a production to leave you sobbing at the end (which it should), rather, most of us left laughing. Which, considering this is a tragic love story, is probably all you really need to know.

Adés' The Tempest

Well, that was a ride and a half.

Seriously, this is one of those operas that takes you, immerses you in its world, and when you come out to the day to day world, you are left thinking, can I go back? That world is much more vital and alive. Not that I would mind you, its just that this is the power of this work, the music, the staging and the performers come together in a complete whole that leaves the natural world seem dull in comparison. Then again, this does seem appropriate for a story with such fantastical elements in it. A storm that is conjured up to wreck a boat and shipwreck the Neapolitan Court on the very island that the man who was deposed by them lives with his daughter? From round one, the story asks you to suspend disbelief. And that does not let up until the end. The fact that we do, says all you need to know about this production. It really does work from go to wow, leaving you feeling you have seen Something Special.

But why? Well, I suspect the music has a lot to do with it. Thomas Adés's music is every thing you could hope for. It ranges from the ferocious for the storm at the start, to just plain gorgeous when the lovers unit, with lyrical, singable lines throughout, unless you are of course Ariel, but more about that later. The music also totally reflects the characters too. The young lovers get beautiful long lines to convey their feelings, Prospero and the other leading court figures tend to be exclamatory, as people used to getting their own way. The chorus tend to spend their time setting mood, not getting big sings, but singing snippets of text that convey how they are feeling.

Oh yes, the text. This was the only weak point in the whole show. Seriously, so many freaking rhyming couplets? Was that REALLY necessary? I mean, I get that having a libretto in verse would make setting it easier for some composers, bringing out an innate music to the language. And, that, Adés has achieved in spades, but, do we really need the continuous rhymes? I suspect if I was not paying attention to them with the subtitles, I would not have noticed, but with some characters it was needed (e.g. Ariel), while others it was not.

Speaking of which, the performers. Really, there were no week links here. (as you would hope with The Met) If all operas were as well cast as this was, I would be a very happy boy. But they are not, so I am going to single out a handful.

First of all, there is no escaping the magisterial performance of Simon Keenleyside as Prospero. He strides the stage overseeing all the action, when he is not taking part in it. Frequently he can not be seen by the performers, but only by the audience, but he makes it work. This is a performance that would make him a star, if he was not already. The man cannot sing a note wrong in this. Then again, it was written with him in mind. It needs a singer who can act without singing, while still being able to sing up a storm on demand. The only person I have heard live I would trust in it would be Teddy Tahu Rhodes, purely because he is that sort of stage animal.

As for Ariel the spirit, well, Audrey Luna is something freaky, in a good way. The writing for the role reflects that Ariel is a creature of the air. Written for a coloratura, this role sends the singer way into the stratosphere vocally, and well beyond what would normally be considered usable. This helps to create the idea of Ariel as not of the normal world. Her line is frequently spiky, reflecting the fact that while she is controlled by Prospero, she is a character who exists beyond that also, and chafes against the restrictions, and longs to be free. It works very well.

On the other hand, Caliban, the other "other than human character" is much more earthbound. His music is more lyrical and human, yet he is clearly not. As played by Alan Oke, he is a tortured creature longing to regain his birthright, as ruler of the island. He also longs to marry Miranda, but when she rejects him near the end, saying basically "look at you, its unthinkable" we realise no one sees him as human, even if we are not sure what he is.

As the two lovers, Alek Shrader and Isabel Leonard sing beautiful music beautifully. They convincingly play the lovers who meet and fall in love after meeting. That we can believe this easily is helped by them being film star gorgeous, and with voices to match. The duet they sing just before the interval is in many ways the heart of this piece. It demonstrates the power of love to overcome all, even the power of Prospero and Ariel's magic, freeing Ferdinand from his prison.

But, ultimately, like any opera, this stands or falls on the quality of the performances. And in this case it really does stand tall. And proud. And, I loved every second.

 

 

A short Don Giovanni post....

This is not going to be long…

I was just thinking I should write about what I am looking forward to this year, when I realised that somehow, I managed to miss writing about Don Giovanni, that we saw last year…..

Oops.

So, Don G. At Sydney Opera House. With Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Don G, Conal Coad as Leporello, and the usual production that has been doing the rounds there for years. You know, with the collapsing pillars at the end and the leather shorts and the stunning bod and…..

Oh, and Jacquie Dark as Elvira.

Hang on, that's not a mezzo role?

Well, of course, Mozart wrote when the terms soprano, mezzo, etc, were not really used. He wrote for individual singers, which makes it interesting that his roles are often used to define fachs (voice types, for those who were wondering)

Jacquie is a big meaty mezzo (dramatic mezzo, okay) and her voice actually fits Donna Elvira really well. She takes the shrieking harridan and turns her into well, a rounded character, whose coloratura turns become a part of her personality, freak outs that are explaining her inner torment, rather than just exercises in vocal technique and "look at me, aren't I an amazing singer" outbursts. In short, she built her performance around what the music showed, which is how it should be, rather than the usual, somewhat understandable "park and Bark" role it often is (its bloody hard music)

Teddy as Don Giovanni? Well, I admit, I have often thought that TTR is a bit bloodless vocally. As in, its a pretty voice, but his recordings (I have rarely seen him live) seemed to be lacking a bit of commitment, or engagement with the role or something. I will never say that again!!! The man is clearly a stage animal, sinking his teeth into DG, making him a believable lecher in the first act, then turning the later parts of the opera with its supernatural elements into a mad scene. The intervention of the statue became more like the results of hallucination than supernatural events, but it made sense because of his totally committed and demented performance. All sung in his beautiful (and surprisingly expressive) voice. Did I mention he ends shirtless?

And of course, there is Conal Coad, a comic bass of many years experience and huge talent. This was the second time I saw him live last year, and each time he has brought a stunning performance, hilarious, yet also real and true to life. He really does make these roles his own, applying his beautiful rich voice to these complex roles with seeming ease, yet working them for the inherent humour. We really forget just how amazing he is most of the time, having seen him so often taking a back seat role, then, give him a moment to shine and he is still stunning. (He was amazing in Capriccio too)

Anyway, just a few thoughts, because I figured, I needed to clear the decks before I started writing about the huge amount (for me) of opera that I am going to be seeing this year. That will probably be my next post, unless I do one on Rodelinda this afternoon (not sure if we are going…)

I also did not write about Siegfried, which was fab. But, as I am seeing that this year in the flesh… That can wait..