James Karas
Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street did
and still does well as a Broadway musical since it opened in 1979. But it does
just as well and perhaps better on the operatic stage. The Glimmerglass
Festival has chosen it as its “musical” for this year’s roster of productions.
It proved a wise choice in a highly praiseworthy production.
The production has the benefit of superb
singers and an accomplished orchestra but it relies on pared down sets.
Luretta Bybee as
Mrs. Lovett and Greer Grimsley in the title role of The Glimmerglass Festival's
production of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd." Photo: Karli
Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
In the opening scene, we see the cast in
their “street clothes” and they take their costumes from a clothes rack to
become the chorus of the opera. Set designer Andrew Cavanaugh Holland provides
two moveable walls which serve as the backdrop for most of the performance with
some variations for the asylum scene and the “end” of Mrs. Lovett.
Sweeney Todd is billed as a
thriller and it reaches back to Jacobean revenge tragedies where murder,
dismemberment and far more grotesque doings are the order of the day. Benjamin
Barker was a barber on Fleet Street in London but he was transported to
Australia by Judge Turpin on trumped up charges. His crime was having a pretty
and virtuous wife that the judge desired. Now he returns to London disguised as
Sweeny Todd to wreak vengeance.
He meets the inimitable Mrs. Lovett who runs
a pie shop and she knows Barker’s story. They team up to avenge Sweeney and
save his lovely daughter Johanna (Emily Pogorelc) who is the judge’s ward and on
whom the judge has lecherous designs. As a barber, Sweeney has the perfect
method of disposing of people’s souls with his sharp razor. Bodies are a bit
more cumbersome but, you see, good meat is hard to come by and Mrs. Lovett
needs a lot of it for those delicious pies.
Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley leads the cast
as the grim and murderous Sweeney in search of his wife, his daughter and
justice. He has a threatening manner and vocal power as he slashes his victims’
throats.
L to R: Emily
Pogorelc as Johanna, Harry Greenleaf as Anthony Hope, Greer Grimsley in the
title role, Peter Volpe as Judge Turpin and Bille Bruley as Beadle Bamford in
The Glimmerglass Festival's production of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney
Todd." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.
Mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee as Mrs. Lovett
makes a perfect partner for Sweeny. If he is after revenge, she is after money
and more. Bybee performs with gusto the lurid role and sells delicious pies
made with human flesh with sheer pleasure. She is just the type of woman your
mother wants you to bring home.
Bass Peter Volpe plays the despicable Judge
Turpin who wants to marry his young and beautiful ward Johanna, Sweeney’s
daughter. Volpe sings and acts well and when Turpin gets a well-deserved close
shave we are almost eager to order a meat pie from Mrs. Lovett the next day.
There are several performers from
Glimmerglass’s Young Artists Program that deserve credit for praiseworthy work.
They are tenor Christopher Bozeka as the caricature of the operatic singer
Adolfo Pirelli, tenor Nicholas Nestorak as the toady Tobias and tenor Bille
Bruley as the ass-kissing Beadle Bamford. The opera seethes with disgusting characters
but Glimmerglass is rich in having singers to do justice to the roles.
The lovely voiced soprano Emily Pogorelc
deserves special praise as Johanna Barker who, with baritone Harry Greenleaf,
another talented young artist, provided the love interest and decency in the
moral cesspool of the opera.
Director Christopher Alden had a fine cast
but limited stage props to work with. He
does a fine job with a few movable panels.
The chorus’s movements are well choreographed
and the production works well.
The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra under
John DeMain performs superbly.
_____
Sweeney
Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Hugh
Wheeler (book adapted from the play by Christopher Bond) opened on July 9 and
will be performed nine times until August 26, 2016 at the Alice Busch Opera
Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org
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