Review: (Toronto / Opera) Madama Butterfly

l-r Patricia Racette, Ella Larivière, Elizabeth DeShong  (photo by Michael Cooper)

Straight to Hell
by Shannon Christy, Senior Contributor

Have you ever been used?  Perhaps you are a trusting person who took someone at their word and paid the price.  Maybe at this very moment you are alone in your apartment taking care of some plants you don’t even like for fear that they may die while their chief caregiver and your wife/husband/partner is away. Then maybe they don’t return. Well if you have been in that position Madama Butterfly is for you.  If you have not been in that position then Madama Butterfly serves as an excellent reason why you never want to be.

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Falstaff

l-r  Russell Braun, Gerald Finley (photo by Michael Cooper)

You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog
by Shannon Christy, Senior Contributor

According to Webster’s Dictionary an “appetizer is a small dish of food meant to stimulate your appetite”. If Falstaff is the appetizer then Toronto is in for a spectacular season at the Canadian Opera Company. Falstaff, Verdi’s last masterpiece, is a light show done with ribald humour, superb performances and amazing sets.

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Don Quichotte

Just My Imagination
by Shannon Christy

Every country has its myths.  The United States believes they are a beacon for freedom and democracy. Canada believes that it is a nice country. The French believe that people are inherently rational. Hence it is of little surprise that after having survived a crushing defeat to Prussia because of the irrational aspirations of Napoleon III, the brilliant French opera composer Jules Massenet turned Don Quichotte into an opera. Both he and Miguel Cervantes had seen their ideals bashed against reality and both looked to the errant knight and his island of dreams as a refuge and an excuse to continue. The Seattle production of Don Quichotte presented by the COC provides the music, stunning performers, and a reproduction of the original but it fails to provide the imagination to connect our flawed world to the flawed world of a France eclipsed by the pragmatic Prussians of the 19th century or a Spain of the 16th century lost to the Inquisition and awash in gold and corruption.  That is unfortunate because if there ever was a time when the island of dreams would be a pleasant respite from a cold reality that time is now.

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Roberto Devereux

(photo by Michael Cooper)

Caught in a trap
by Shannon Christy

"Hell has no fury like a woman scorned” - Virgil may have had his own twisted purposes for writing of Dido’s rage against Aeneas in the Aeneid but the idea certainly resonates with the hapless Roberto Devereux, played sublimely by Leonardo Capalbo, who is sacrificed simply because he doesn’t love the right women. Never mind that the right woman is the Queen of England and that the woman he does love is married, the basic primus of not scorning a woman remains. 

The story is set at the end of the Elizabethan age and involves Roberto Devereux, a cocky youth’s trial for treason by men who are simply jealous.  His guilt or innocence is never actually tried on stage: the central question is does Roberto love Queen Elizabeth I and the answer is a resounding no. 

This is an interesting piece because it plays with the image of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, performed magnificently by Sondra Radvanovsky, and the influence of both her parents in forming her.  For instance, on one side you have a woman who has her passions and truly cares and wants to be cared for which are traits historians used to describe her mother Anne Boleyn but on the other hand you have a woman who has successfully put a number of men she was rumoured to have had affairs with to death for treason, a trait she shared with her father who is infamous for radically getting rid of wives who failed to produce male heirs. 

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Hercules

Richard Croft, Lucy Crowe (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Suspicious Minds
by Shannon Christy

"When there is peace, the warlike man attacks himself."  
Frederick Nietzsche  

Peter Sellars has taken this idea and set it in the present day United States to present us with George Frederic Handel’s Hercules. Mr. Sellars is exposing a nerve regarding America’s troubled veterans which is made the more poignant because of another tragic shooting in Fort Hood, Texas where three soldiers were killed by a veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder this past week.

The story revolves around Hercules’, (Eric Owens), triumphant return to his wife Dejanira, (Alice Coote) with a captive princess Iole, (Lucy Crowe).  In most productions this is a simple love triangle.  However, Mr Sellars has deliberately twisted and transformed this love triangle and provided us with a fourth menacing element, the war, as an explanation of what is tearing apart this fearsome man, his loving wife, and the beautiful captive. 

Sunday Feature: Joel Ivany on working with Peter Sellars and Hercules

(centre) Lucy Crowe as Iole and Richard Croft as Hyllus in the Canadian Opera Company/Lyric Opera of Chicago (LOC) co-production of Hercules, 2011, LOC. Photo: Dan Rest

Sold on Sellars
by Joel Ivany
@joelivany

Stage director Joel Ivany is the founder and artistic director of Against the Grain Theatre (AtG). He was a recent finalist and prizewinner in the European Opera-Directing Prize for his concept of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi with designers Camellia Koo and Jason Hand. Recent directing credits include a new production of Verdi's Macbeth at Minnesota Opera, staging Handel’s beloved oratorio Messiah with AtG, Così fan tutte for The Banff Centre, a new production of Les contes d'Hoffmann for Edmonton Opera, revival director of Le nozze di Figaro at the Norwegian National Opera, knotty together (a new work composed by Njo Kong Kie and performed in Dublin, Ireland) and the world premiere of Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever, based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, in Victoria, BC. He has also served as associate director for Thaddeus Strassberger's acclaimed production of Nabucco at both Washington National Opera and Minnesota Opera. Mr. Ivany holds a music degree from the University of Western Ontario and an artist diploma in opera directing from the University of Toronto. Upcoming projects include directing the world premiere of East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, creating and directing Uncle John, AtG’s modern interpretation of Don Giovanni, for The Banff Centre and directing Carmen for Vancouver Opera.  

There were two directors that everyone kept talking about, and I knew that I had to work with them.  

Robert Carsen and Peter Sellars.  

As a young student just out of the University of Toronto’s Opera School, how was I going to make that happen?  They didn’t have websites and didn’t have email addresses or phone numbers (that I had). Regardless, I focused on my goal and set forth, striving to meet it along with several others. Within a few years, I had the opportunity to work with Robert Carsen in Oslo, Norway (of all places) and since, have had several occasions and in a few different countries. 

After seeing Peter Sellars’ productions of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, I knew that he was someone different.  I thought it was a huge coup when the Canadian Opera Company announced that they were bringing his production of Tristan und Isolde to Toronto.  I was fortunate enough to see it last season in Toronto and was excited to learn that he was coming back with his production of Hercules, a COC co-production with the Lyric Opera Chicago. As the schedule permitted, I was overjoyed that I could work on this fabulous show with an outstanding cast and that Peter Sellars was going to be in Toronto for the entire period of production.

Review: (Toronto) Un Ballo in Maschera

Roland Wood, Adrianne Pieczonka (photo by Michael Cooper)

What the Booing Meant

by Lucy Wells

I’ve just come from the opera and, to be honest, I’m not sure what to tell you about it. The Canadian Opera Company has just started its run of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. One of the more frequently performed works in the operatic literature, it is a showcase of beautiful music. In the hands of the COC, it features some of the finest singing and playing I’ve had the pleasure of hearing.

The cast stars American tenor Dimitri Pittas as Riccardo, Canadian soprano and COC favourite Adrianne Pieczonka as Amelia, English baritone Roland Wood as Renato, Canadian soprano and COC Ensemble Studio graduate Simone Osborne as Oscar, and Russian mezzo Elena Manistina as Ulrica. These five, as well as the other artists rounding out the cast and the chorus, sing about as well as you could ever hope for. Pittas and Pieczonka, both debuting in their roles, sing as though the music was written for them. They all do, actually; it’s difficult to single out any one artist when everyone performs so beautifully. Stephen Lord, the conductor, brings a luscious sound out of the orchestra, and paces the work naturally. Even when there were slight ensemble issues (the fun of live theatre!), the cast and orchestra came back together almost immediately; clearly, everyone is at the top of his or her game. The performance was a master class on how to perform this repertoire. On those merits alone, it is a show worth seeing.

Review: (Toronto) Così Fan Tutte

Tracy Dahl, Sir Thomas Allen (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Double Trouble
by Shannon Christy
Twitter User ID: schristy79

Mozart must have been hard to hang out with.  On one hand you have a musical genius and on the other you have a guy, who by modern standards would have had a fraternity sense of humour.  Still beyond his shenanigans and through his lighter works emerges a dark image of humanity where the illusion of individuality gives way to uniformity of human behaviour where all individuals are beholden to their base instincts.  This piece contains all of the above.

In Così Fan Tutte this notion emerges through the relationship of two couples Ferrando (Paul Appleby) and Dorabella (Wallis Giunta), and Guglielmo (Robert Gleadow) and Fiordiligi (Layla Claire).  Ferrando and Guglielmo challenge an indecent proposal from their friend Don Alfonso (Sir Thomas Allen) that all women are incapable of being faithful despite their oaths of allegiance and that given enough time and pressure all will submit to seduction.

Director Atom Egoyan has taken a slight spin away from the original fatalism versus individual freedom interpretation of Cosi Fan Tutte (everyone does things that way regardless of their will), and substitutes it for a more sexual liberating one where everybody is doing it (Mozart would have been proud).  To do this he has set our protagonists in a school dedicated to the art of seduction and transformed Don Alfonso from a philosopher to a professor.  In addition, Mr. Egoyan provides a motif of several different butterflies pinned and preserved and the image of Frida Kahlo’s Two Frida’s to illustrate that love is an ephemeral emotion that can cut the heart with surgical precision.  It is a very impressive imagery that sears into your consciousness.

News: COC Season, 2014-15

COC General Director Alexander Neef and COC Music Director Johannes Debus. Photo: bohuang.ca

A New Season for Canadian Opera Company
by Lucy Wells

I was privileged to be at the Four Seasons Centre last night to attend the unveiling of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2014-2015 season, as discussed by COC General Director Alexander Neef and Music Director Johannes Debus.  It is being marketed as an all-Canadian season: three operas will be returning COC productions, and three are new co-productions. This Fall marks the reduction of the COC’s season from seven to six productions: two operas in the Fall, two in the Winter, and two (rather than three) in the Spring.  

Review: (Toronto) Peter Grimes

Anthony Dean Griffey (photo by Michael Cooper)

Suspicion
by Shannon Christy

Every group of people has a person who does not fit in.  Either their voice is too high, they laugh at the wrong time, or do not laugh at all, do not talk, or talk too much.  If something goes wrong they are the first one suspected.  Peter Grimes is the story about such a person who lives in a small village where his every move is cause for concern by all the good citizens.  It is a difficult and challenging opera because of the vocal range required for the select few who can sing Peter Grimes.  It is an even more challenging piece when your main singer cannot make it on opening night.  Again the COC rose to the challenge by managing to hire star Anthony Dean Griffey who provided the audience with a magnificent performance.

Peter Grimes is about a fisherman who is under suspicion in the death of an apprentice.  He is a loud boorish man with few friends and many enemies.  His sole objective is to work extremely hard so that he can earn enough money to buy his freedom and escape the prying eyes of his fellow villagers by getting a bigger and more isolated house for him and his apprentice.  Unfortunately and the suspicions of his fellow villagers are raised to a fever pitch. 

Review: (Toronto) La Bohème

(photo by Michael Cooper)

Young Love
by Shannon Christy

Remember those days when you would walk in the rain just to see a glimpse of someone you loved.  The days before you became cynical and still thought that you could make a difference.  That your ideals could change the world and that your efforts would have a lasting impact.  Well regardless of whether you remember those days fondly or not, La Bohème is the opera for you.  It is even better if you can have those memories accompanied by some outstanding vocal performances and this production of La Bohème does just that. 

La Bohème is about six young people struggling to find their way in Paris.  The four men are honing their crafts as a painter, a poet, a philosopher, and a musician and they are flat broke.  The two women are a seamstress and a grisette and they seem better off as they have discovered the material advantages their bodies can provide.  However, the women are dissatisfied with the notion of trading material goods for men with hands as cold as ice and they attempt to have the best of both worlds by falling in love with two of the young men while accepting the material gifts of their older patrons.  There is a lightness about the opera, with the exception that one character suffers from a terminal illness, and even though tempers flair, insults are hurled, and anger boils over it seems light and ephemeral just like the loves of one’s youth. 

Sunday Feature: Soprano Ileana Montalbetti on Ellen Orford, Peter Grimes and Ben Heppner

Ileana Montalbetti as Elettra in the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio performance of Idomeneo, 2010. (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Living a Dream: The Journey to Ellen Orford
by Ileana Montalbetti

Canadian soprano and Ensemble Studio graduate Ileana Montalbetti last performed with the Canadian Opera Company as The Voice of Antonia’s Mother in The Tales of Hoffmann. Her COC appearances include Clorinda (La Cenerentola), the Russian Mother/Newspaper Seller (Death in Venice), Anna Kennedy (Maria Stuarda), Mavra Kuzminichna (War and Peace), and with the Ensemble, the First Lady (The Magic Flute), Elettra (Idomeneo), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). Ms Montalbetti’s credits include Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann (Edmonton Opera); Leonore in Fidelio (Michigan Opera Theater); and the Fifth Maid in Lehnhoff’s production of Elektra and Anaï (understudy) in Moïse et Pharaon under Riccardo Muti (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma).

The journey to singing Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes has been long and winding and sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that I am now living my dream; not only to be singing this role but of being a principal artist at the largest opera company in Canada!

I was raised in a wonderfully artistic household.  My mother is a trained singer and Artistic Director of Saskatoon Opera and my father is a trained actor; they now both teach in their respective fields.  Performing has always been a huge part of my life and there was always a huge emphasis on singing and opera in my home.  I never felt pressure from my parents to pursue a career in the performing arts; I just did not know that other careers were an option.  Performing and singing have been my passion from a very early age and it seems very fitting that my first principal role at the Canadian Opera Company is a role in a Britten opera.  The first award I was ever given for performing was in the under 13 Folk Song Class at the Saskatoon Music Festival.  I sang Sweet Polly Oliver, a Britten folk song, and was awarded first place.  Skip ahead a few years and in the fourth year of my undergraduate degree, at the University of Manitoba, I sang the role of Ellen in an excerpt from the opera for our opera scenes class.  I then sang the Embroidery Aria as one of my audition arias for the University of Toronto Opera Division, where I was accepted.   After completing my Opera Diploma I went on to sing in the Canadian Opera Company Chorus and the following year I was accepted in to the Ensemble Studio and now here I am singing the role surrounded by a cast of world-class singers.

Sunday Feature: First-Person - Baritone Phillip Addis on performing two roles (La Bohème)

(photo by Kristin Hoebermann)

Parallel Existence

by Phillip Addis

A rising star on the international stage, Canadian baritone Phillip Addis has performed in opera, concerts and recitals throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan. He’s been called “a star in the making” (MusicOMH) and praised for his creamy, bright, smooth voice as much as for his spell-binding, daring, yet sensitive interpretations.  He makes his Canadian Opera Company debut in the company’s production of La Bohème this October, singing the role of the musician Schaunard and the  painter Marcello.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I can only really be in one place at a time, both physically and mentally.  While I have different roles to play in life I can only really be in one of those roles in a given moment. Normally this would be true of the roles that I play on stage as well, but I have been working with a curious predicament these past few weeks in preparation for the Canadian Opera Company's production of La Bohème.  I have had the great fortune to be given two roles to prepare; that of Marcello, the painter and of Schaunard, the musician.

The Abominable Showman, September 12, 2013

Measha Brueggergosman (via measha.com)

Opera Nation

Canadian opera companies stick to crowd-pleasing Italian masterpieces to anchor their 2013-2014 seasons 

by Richard Burnett @bugsburnett

The upcoming 2013-2014 opera season across Canada continues to rely on old Italian classics by such tried-and-true composers as Guiseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. And the biggest buzz this season is L’Opéra de Montréal’s superstar production of George Gerhswin’s Porgy and Bess starring soprano Measha Brueggergosman.

Vancouver Opera's upcoming 54th season will include Giacomo Puccini's Tosca  (Oct 26 – Nov 3), Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring, co-produced with Pacific Opera Victoria (Nov 30 to Dec 8),  Mozart’s Don Giovanni (March 1-9, 2014) and – for the first time at the Vancouver Opera in 40 years – Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo (May 3-11, 2014). All performances are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Across the bay, for their 2013-2014 season, British Columbia’s Pacific Opera Victoria – who boast they are “the only major opera company in Canada to build its own sets exclusively” – will present three productions: Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi, with the Victoria Symphony and the Pacific Opera Chorus, and starring Brian Bannatyne-Scott as Falstaff (Oct 17 – 27); Ariadne auf Naxos (music by Richard Strauss and libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) runs Feb 13 – 23, 2014; and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (April 24 to May 4, 2014).

Review: (Toronto) Dialogues des Carmélites

Adrianne Pieczonka (centre) photo: Michael Cooper

Blinded by the light
by Shannon Christy

As fans of Gothic architecture know, the best-preserved cathedral in Paris is la Sainte Chapelle. This is mainly because during the Revolution it was used as a stable and the straw used to feed the horses worked as an excellent tool to preserve the interior paint. Thus in the Revolution’s attempt to discredit and destroy the past they inadvertently preserved it.

Dialogues des Carmélites is similar in its story of a Chapter of nuns located in France during the Revolution. The story’s central character, Blanche (played by Isabel Bayrakdarian) is a young woman scared of her own shadow who finds comfort in the monastic life. She then manages to ignore, or maybe overcome her fear in order to spend eternity with her fellow Carmélites.

This is a simple story with interesting, subtle twists that makes no attempts at cajoling the audience with sentimentality or explanation; as when, at one pivotal point, all of the sisters make a sudden and dreadful vow while the Second Prioress (Adrianne Pieczonka) is away.

Review: (Toronto) Salome

(l-r) Hanna Schwarz and Erika Sunnegårdh (photo: Michael Cooper)

You’re my obsession
by Shannon Christy

John the Baptist (Jochanaan) always struck me as a rock star. A mysterious man who comes out of the desert and immediately picks up some followers while snubbing his nose at the authorities. Until, one day, those same authorities arrest him and he is beheaded at the behest of one of their spoiled daughters, Salome.  

This is where my imagination ends and it is what separates me from a literary giant like Oscar Wilde and a musical genius like Richard Strauss.  These two men re-envisioned the story first as Mr. Wilde’s play and then Mr. Strauss’ opera. The Canadian Opera Company, in a spring dedicated to tragedies, has revived Atom Egoyan’s 1996 production (remounted in 2002) for a tense audience eager to rediscover this beautiful work. 

Review: (Toronto) La Clemenza Di Tito

Keri Alkema and Isabel Leonard as Sesto (photo: Michael Cooper)

Light, Modern, Lovely
by Shannon Christy

What stands out about this La Clemenza Di Tito is how modern and streamlined this production makes the works of Mozart. Opera Atelier’s production in 2011 seemed like it had been under two and a half centuries of dust.  Here, Director Christopher Alden takes advantage of Mozart’s lightness to create a very modern almost minimalist piece.  The stage setting is tight while the lighting and effects complement the singers’ performance on stage: a combination of perfectly directed characters, funny details and wonderfully touching voices . Everything combines in a quick paced performance that looks natural and unforced. 

Review: (Toronto) Tristan und Isolde

Melanie Diener and Ben Heppner (photo credit: Michael Cooper)

A Brilliant Distraction
Once again the star is the orchestra
by Shannon Christy

Peter Sellars’ production of Tristan Und Isolde is a bold attempt at something new. It takes Wagner’s idea that in the future there would be other, better, devices for conveying his ideas and runs with it. 
But before delving into that, credit is needed where it is due. Toronto is a gifted city with an awesome house for opera. Conductor Johannes Debus was able to take on the Everest of Operas with very short notice to pull off a flawless performance. He kept the pace, managing to give the performers the necessary lead without allowing them to drag things down. The music was outstanding.

The voices are incredible. This is especially true for Franz-Josef Selig who plays Marke, the King of Cornwall. His laments, his pleas, his anger, are like a heavy cream for the soul. His is a voice that awakens your demons and tells them to be on guard. Both Ben Heppner (Tristan), and Melanie Diener (Isolde), are wonderful but their performances though bright are but mere shadows compared to Mr. Selig’s.

The Sunday Read: Interview with Alexander Neef, General Director of The Canadian Opera Company

Four Years and Counting
I would like them to embrace being opinionated.
by Shannon Christy
@schristy79
(photo credit: bohuang.ca)

CHARPO: In 2008 in an interview with the CBC you briefly sketched your vision for the COC and among those you included attracting new stars, creating a high quality repertoire and commissioning new operas. Four years later how do you feel about those goals?

NEEF: We have done what we wanted to do during these four years. The quality of the cast has improved and it was never only about bringing in stars but about making everything we do more consistent.  What we have focused on is bringing up the general level of the performance. I don’t want a season with two peak productions and five that are so-so.

CHARPO: So, are some people still nostalgic about Richard Bradshaw era?

NEEF: When I came here the Company had been without a General Director for a year and everybody was ready to embrace a new leadership. I have very rarely been compared to my predecessor because people knew that it was something that had come to an end.  People were ready to embrace a new story and help create that story; and rather than feeling compared I felt carried and supported.

Review: (Toronto) Die Fledermaus

Tamara Wilson (Photo: Michael Cooper)

A Party Worth the Hangover
by Shannon Christy

According to T.S. Elliott, "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." The COC’s production of Die Fledermaus takes us on a just such an exploration but it is with King Champagne, a smile and one hell of a hangover. 

To put on the world’s most popular operetta and do it in a way that still produces a genuine laugh and catchy innovations is a real accomplishment. Director Christopher Alden has done a marvelous job at bringing out the emotions from the actors and the levity from the situation. Michael Schade is captivating as Gabriel Von Eisenstein. He appears through all three acts as a rotund man-child who drives the action forward either plotting, mourning, or trying to escape the results of his actions. The other heroine is his wife Rosalinde, Tamara Wilson, whose touching aria about her recently departed husband and his empty coffee cup would be convincing if her lover Alfred, played by David Pomeroy, did not keep poking in and out of the scene. These are but two examples of an ensemble of brilliant performances whose success rest on the shoulders of their direction.