Mireille Asselin as Morgana, Wallis Giunta as Bradamante and Krešimir Špicer as Oronte. Photo: Bruce Zinger
Reviewed by James Karas
Opera Atelier’s production of Alcina
is full of magic, illusion, enchantment, transformation and love. There
is an underlying layer of danger, destruction and evil that all are combined in
George Frideric Handel’s 1735 opera.
When the curtain opens, we see an
expanse of sand dunes. As we listen to the overture, we notice a shifting of
the sand and some of the dunes are transformed into a human body. It is as if
the body had been fossilized or become sand and was struggling to escape from
its imprisonment like an unfinished sculpture embedded in a slab of marble. It
is a startling image created by a projected video and a fine metaphor for the
opera.
Alcina is a sorceress and she
rules an island where she turns discarded lovers and other people into animals
and vegetables. Think of Circe of Greek mythology who did pretty much the same
thing but her specialty was turning men into swine.
Alcina has six characters and a plot that goes something like this: Alcina has the knight
Ruggiero in her thrall on the island. Bradamante is in love with Ruggiero and
she arrives on the island with Melisso, Ruggiero’s former tutor. Their mission:
free Ruggiero and Alcina’s other captives. The means: a magic ring. Bradamante
is disguised as her brother Ricciardo and Alcina’s sister Morgana falls in love
with him/her. We are now thirty seconds into
the opera.
Backdrop to Alcina. Photo Bruce Zinger.
Morgana dumps her lover Oronte
who becomes very jealous and violent; Ruggiero is unaware of what is going on remains
in his world; more jealousy as the da
capo arias come pouring in. Are you still with me? Probably not, in which
case, listen to the arias and forget the plot twists.
Director Marshall Pynkoski does a
number of things to alleviate the creaky plot. He adds some humour and a number
of beautiful ballet sequences choreographed by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg as
well as some extraordinary video projections as mentioned at the beginning of
this review. Film Director Ben Shirinian’s video and Gerard Gauci’s sets
provide an extraordinary illustration of the text of the opera. Alcina’s
palace, a view of people who have become embedded in the landscape, the
transformation and liberation of imprisoned men, make up a stunning display of
imaginative recreation of an opera.
All of that was not quite enough
to free the opera from its complex and unsatisfactory plot but the music and arias
in the hands of an excellent cast more than made up for it.
Soprano Meghan Lindsay as Alcina
showed good voice even if her fury was not always convincing. Mezzo-soprano
Wallis Giunta sings Bradamante who is in love with Ruggiero but appears as her
own brother Ricciardo. Giunta does a splendid job as a woman playing a man who
lets her hair down to show us that she is beautiful and worthy of Ruggiero.
Mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy
handled beautifully the pants role of the hero Ruggiero who eventually comes
out of his thrall and saves the day. Alcina’s sister Morgana was sung by
soprano Mireille Asselin in a prime performance.
Bass-baritone Olivier LaQuerre
has the straight-man role of Melisso, Bradamante’s guardian. He is imposing
vocally and physically.
Tenor Krešimir Špicer plays the somewhat
buffoonish and jealous Oronte, the commander of Alcina’s troops.
The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
was conducted by David Fallis to its usual high standards.
This Alcina has enormous
production values combined with superior singing but suffers from its
unsatisfactory plot. But you can’t blame Opera Atelier for that.
_____________
Alcina by
George Frideric Handel opened on
October 23 and will run until November 1, 2014 at the Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge
Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.operaatelier.com
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