**** (out of 5)
By James Karas
Georg Frideric
Handel’s 1735 masterpiece Ariodante gets a great deal of
praise but relatively few productions. The Canadian Opera Company
remedies the latter situation for Torontonians by producing a highly
imaginative and sound production by director Richard Jones.
When the
overture begins and the stage lights go on, we see a large, ordinary table and
chairs in an ordinary room. A cleric is
admitted into the room where people are sitting around the table. He begins to
conduct what looks like a Bible class silently. He gesticulates a great deal
and points towards heaven like a zealous televangelist. The people are dressed
in modern clothes of no particular distinction but one man is wearing a kilt.
A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of
Ariodante, 2016, photo: Michael Cooper
The latter scene
is not in Handel’s opera but is an invention of Jones who gives Ariodante
a fascinating and highly original interpretation.
We will soon
discover that the cleric is Polinesso, the Duke of Albany and the man in the
kilt is the King of Scotland. In the opera Polinesso is the bad guy but in
Jones’s production he is a creep. As a cleric he is a Tartuffian fraud and as a
human being he has Trumpesque proclivities towards groping which progress into
serious sexual assault and perhaps rape. Nice guy.
The plot begins
to unfold. Ariodante is a prince in love with Ginevra the daughter of the King.
Polinesso professes love for Ginevra (she tells him to go to Hades) while
Dalinda, her servant, is madly in love with him. In order to achieve his objectives
of (a) getting rid of Ariodante, (b) marrying Ginevra and (c) grabbing the
throne of Scotland, Polinesso arranges for Dalinda to dress like Ginevra and have
Ariodante see them in Ginevra’s bedroom in a compromising position and hello
objectives. Almost.
Polinesso gives
Ginevra a potion that knocks her out (Jones’ invention). Ariodante does see
“Ginevra” being unfaithful and is so distraught he is ready to commit suicide
(and is reported dead), the King disowns Ginevra, she is beside herself with
grief …and if this sounds like something out of Shakespeare’s Much
Ado About Nothing, yes, it is. But stay tuned for the happy resolution
to all of these entanglements and be prepared for a surprise that, like the
scene with Polinesso as an evangelist, is the invention of Jones.
Jane Archibald as Ginevra (on bed) with Alice Coote as
Ariodante and Johannes Weisser
as the King of Scotland (in front row). Photo:
Michael Cooper
Handel provides
an outpouring of recitatives, arias and duets that go through a gamut of emotions.
From the expressions of blissful love and happiness of Ginevra and Ariodante,
to scenes of grief, treachery, despair, disgusting behaviour, this opera has
vocal and musical demands that demand extraordinary talents. The COC has them.
Red-haired
soprano Jane Archibald leads the cast as Ginevra. She begins by making herself
beautiful and declaring her love for Ariodante but changes her tune to rebuffing
Polinesso if gruff terms. After some blissful moments with Ariodante she is
crushed, disowned and goes mad. That is a great deal of vocal and emotional ground
to cover and Archibald is simply splendid at it.
Mezzo-soprano
Alice Coote sings Ariodante, a role initially assigned to a castrato. Ariodante
wears baggy pants and of course is anything but a feudal knight. Coote makes us
feel his happiness and his pain and we get over the incongruities of feudal
references in a modern setting.
Mezzo-soprano
Varduhi Abrahamyan excels vocally as the louse Polinesso and convinces us to
dislike him intensely. Soprano Ambur Braid displayed impressive tone and range
as the foolish Dalinda.
The opera calls
for a number of ballet sequences but the dancing in this production is
mercifully cut to a minimum. Jones does add some puppet sequences which, if I
understood them correctly, show Ariodante and Ginevra consummating their
marriage and having children. It’s done very tastefully but struck me as quite incongruous
especially considering the end of the opera as interpreted by Jones.
The set by
Designer Ultz is quite brilliant. The whole production is done on a single set
that shows a small entrance on the right leading to the large room with the
table. Ginevra’s bedroom on the right is separated by an imaginary door and it
all works superbly.
Johannes Debus,
the COC’s Music Director, conducts the COC Orchestra to the high standard that
we have come to expect.
At four hours
Ariodante approaches Wagnerian length and there were people in the audience who
would not have objected if some of the arias with the numerous repetitions were
made a bit shorter.
Near the end of
the performance when we expect the inevitable reconciliation and celebration of
the nuptials of our hero and heroine, Jones has something else up his sleeve.
A large banner
is brought on the stage with the Biblical quotation: “And the Lord God said: It
is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for
him.”
Dalinda steps
outside and is no longer part of the festivities.
Ginevra takes a
suitcase and goes out on the road trying to thumb a ride.
In a single
stroke the entire tenor of the opera is changed. Ginevra and Dalinda rebel
against the conventions stipulated by the libretto. They become free woman.
Brilliant.
____________
Ariodante by Georg Frideric
Handel is being performed seven times between October 16 and November 4, 2016
at the Four Seasons Centre for the
Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto,
Ontario. Tel: 416-363-6671. www.coc.ca
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