AN OCTOROON – REVIEW OF SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Octoroon is a play by Dion Boucicault which was a hit in New York when it premiered in 1859. Chances are you have never heard of Boucicault or the play but it has earned the accolade of being one of the most popular America melodramas of the 19^th century.

The melodrama is not exactly a highly admired genre. It is sensational, provides thrilling suspense, good and evil are clearly delineated, sudden turns in the plot and coincidences are frequent and characterization is minimal. The Octoroon fits the bill. On his return from France, George has inherited a Louisiana plantation that is on the verge of bankruptcy. The evil M’Closky has come to put everything on the auction block, including the slaves.

 

The cast of An Octoroon. Photo by David Cooper.

Dora the rich heiress wants George but he is in love with Zoe but we soon find out that he cannot marry her because she is an octoroon. One-eighth of her blood carries the curse of Cain, it poisons the rest of her blood, makes her unclean and the law forbids her to marry a white person. You know whereof I speak.

Well there are a few plot twists but George gets to keep the plantation, M’Closky has his comeuppance and Zoe and George, well, they do not live happily ever after.

A few years ago playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins decided to rework The Octoroon by adding some characters and updating it, but much of the original plot and characters of the play remains. He called his play An Octoroon, i.e. he simply replaced the definite article with the indefinite.

The play begins with a character named BJJ (Andre Sills) which happen to be the initials of the Jacobs-Jenkins. He appears naked except for underwear after we are exposed to some loud and unpleasant music and talks about being a black playwright and the plight of black artists in America.

Then the Playwright appears, also naked except for a pair of shorts. He is in fact Boucicault and the two men spend an inordinate time telling each other to f…off or the presumably euphemistic form, feck.       

Sills who is black plays the black playwright BJJ, then puts on white make up and becomes the good guy George, all in white, and then changes into the bad guy M’Closky, wearing all black. He later dresses half in white and half in black with half of his face blackened and half white representing M’Closky and George simultaneously or good and evil combined.

Patrick McManus plays the white Playwright, the Indian Chief Wahnotee with gobs of red makeup on his face and the auctioneer Lafouche, Ryan Cunningham handles three roles: Assistant, Pete and Paul. The slaves Dido, Minnie and Grace are played by Lisa Berry, Kiera Sangster and Starr Domingue respectively. Diana Donnelly plays the heiress Dora and Vanessa Sears is the octoroon.

 

Ryan Cunningham as Pete, André Sills as George and Starr Domingue as Grace in An Octoroon. 

Photo by David Cooper.

Jacobs-Jenkins want us to get a good idea of the content and texture of The Octaroon but at the same time he mocks it. BJJ and the Playwright appear and analyze the action and the structure of the play. We watch parts of The Octoroon but we are reminded that this is a production of An Octoroon. Some of the acting and speaking styles are exaggerated lest we forget what play we are watching. The salty language used did not allow you to stray away from the modern version for long.  

Director Peter Hinton elicited some fine performances from Sills and McManus who had to handle three roles each. I found Berry, Sangster and Domingue much more enjoyable. Donnelly as Dora was excellent and Sears as Zoe was superb.

I cannot say that I really enjoyed the production. I appreciated the trip to the 1859 play and the attempt by Jacobs-Jenkins to bring it to us mockingly, intelligently and in a very different format albeit with much fidelity to the original. In the end it struck me as being more of an academic exercise than a good night at the theatre.

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An Octoroon  by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins continues in repertory until October 14, 2017 at the Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

ANDROCLES AND THE LION – REVIEW OF 2017 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Shaw Festival’s brochure gives us fair notice about what to expect from the production of Androcles and the Lion. The production “will be a daring theatre experiment: everyone in the room, actors, and audience, will have the chance to get involved.” 

Even “daring” and “experiment” do not quite prepare you for the extent of the interference, interpolations, violence and burlesque effects that are done to a play that Shaw wrote.

Before the house lights go down for the beginning of the performance, we see the cast on stage doing pushups, playing games and talking to members of the audience. All friendly and congenial.

The cast of Androcles and the Lion. Photo by David Cooper.

The performance begins with a Host (a very affable Shawn Wright) making some amusing remarks. He then tells us that plays used to begin with an overture at one time. Sure enough, we get the large cast marching on stage playing a variety of musical instruments and producing a cacophony that is very funny.

The host then reads from Shaw’s extensive stage directions, adlibbing and engaging the audience. The lion of the play is chosen from the audience and the dialogue of the Prologue  as written by Shaw begins between the hapless Androcles (Patrick Galligan) and his obnoxious wife Megaera (Jenny L. Wright). But not for long. As Megaera complains that Androcles is selfish, never thinks of her and the like, he turns to the audience and asks “Have you ever heard that?” It gets a laugh.

The Prologue as done by Galligan and Wright is very funny with or without the interpolations and other shenanigans and the lion from the audience is highly entertaining. But the interference with the text is what Director Tim Carroll has chosen as the way he wants this production and that style continues for the rest of the performance.

But there is more. Cast members are asked to tell us what they are thinking, about incidents or stories from their lives. They do and they do it well. The stories they tell are interesting, humorous (is the timer on my oven working so that when I go home the ribs will be ready?) and informative when they read excerpts from Shaw’s lengthy Preface to the play explaining the political thrust of the piece.

Does it work?

That depends on your attitude. If you are happy with the text of the play being used like a crutch for burlesque and the creation of laughter with little reference to what the author wrote, you will enjoy this production. In the performance that I saw, most of the audience did. But if you believe that the text should be respected and serious deviations, innumerable interpolations and brutalization of the play should be reserved for, say, Monty Python then you will not be thrilled by Tim Carroll’s approach.

Jeff Irving as Ferrovius, Jay Turvey as Editor of the Gladiators and Jenny L. Wright as Menagerie Keeper.

Photo by David Cooper

The performances by the cast were excellent and they would have done justice to the play with less interference to the text by the director. Galligan is touching and funny as the Greek tailor who pulls the thorn out of the lion’s paw. Neil Barclay is hilarious as the king-size Emperor. Julia Course is a very attractive Lavinia, a devout Christian who is also a fine woman. Jeff Irving as Ferrovius is also a devout and powerful Christian who has anger management problems and is hilarious within and outside the text of the play.

Shawn Wright plays the Centurion, an ineffective martinet who gets more laughs than obedience. The ensemble with their makeshift costumes and energetic movements sometimes give the flavor of a high school production where nothing goes as planned.  That is the danger of too much interference with the text even if you get the laughs.

The parameters for infidelity to the text and the freedom that a director can take in the interpretation of a play are broad but they are not unlimited. Carroll went well beyond any limitation and showed no respect for the text. He sacrificed loyalty for the sake of laughter.   

A comment made by Richard Bentley, a classicist, about Alexander Pope’s translation is a propos: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer." Nor is Tim Carroll’s production of Androcles and the Lion a play by Bernard Shaw.

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Androcles and the Lion by Bernard Shaw continues in repertory until October 15, 2017 at the Court Hose Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

THE BREATHING HOLE - REVIEW OF STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

By James Karas

The Stratford Festival has decided to mark the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the Canadian nation by commissioning a play that covers our history, in the words of the 2017 brochure, from “First Contact to a future ravaged by climate change.” That is very ambitious and in the words of Alfred P. Doolittle, it is “the right and proper thing to do.”

The play is The Breathing Hole by Colleen Murphy and it has been given a relatively short run by the Stratford Festival (July 30 to September 22, 2017) in the small Studio Theatre. It covers some 500 years from 1534 to 2034 of history with the dominant feature being a couple of polar bears, Angu'juaq (Bruce Hunter) and Panik (Jani Lauzon).

The polar bears are very well designed large puppets reminiscent of the performances of War Horse doing some very convincing bear-like movements. One of the bears is saved while a cub by Huumittuq (Jani Lauzon), an elderly Inuit woman who raises him as her son.

  Bruce Hunter (left) as Angu'juaq and Jani Lauzon as Huumittuq. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.

The bears are smarter, better mannered, more humane, generous and sympathetic than some of the people. And they are able to understand Inuktitut. Despite contact with British explorers, they do not acquire any knowledge of English. Therein lies a problem. No, not in the bear’s failure to understand English but in their ability to comprehend Inuktitut and to act almost like human beings. It is one thing for the Inuit to worship the spirit of the polar bear, but it is quite another for the polar bear to stop mauling a man because it is asked to.

If The Breathing Hole is about the creation of Canada, there is almost nothing about its history as a colony that evolved as a nation. It starts with a group of Inuit in 1534 when the bear is saved by Huumittuq when some of the original inhabitants of what was to become Canada were happy, hungry, struggling, arguing and dancing to 1550 when the bear is grown up and things are changing.

From there we move to 1845 and meet members of the disastrous Franklin expedition. Randy Hughson plays the ineffectual, almost buffoonish Sir John Franklin leading a crew of ridiculous men. They speak with horrible accents and are totally unconvincing or annoying. The lowlight is an attempt at crude humour by the Inuit and the British bragging about the dimension of their genitals. Some of the dialogue is not only inept it is endlessly irritating.

From the scene in 1847 when we see the remnants of the Franklin expedition near its demise we jump to 2028 when the pristine Arctic of the previous scenes becomes a place for ecotourism. The ice has melted, there is drilling for oil and the Inuit and the non-natives are collaborating in the exploitation of land and people for money.

The final scene takes place on a cruise ship on New Year’s Eve where people are dressed and acting stupidly but there is a very dramatic if improbable final tableau.

Director Reneltta Arluk seems to prefer overacting to subtle performances and the actors fulfilled her instructions by jumping, screaming and being ridiculous or annoying in far too many instances. There was no consistency in the casting of the Inuit characters and the result was rather bizarre. Ujarneq Fleischer played the hunter Avinngaq. He is from Greenland and he had considerable difficulty with enunciating his lines. Lauzon was very affecting as the outsider in the Inuit community.

 

Members of the company in The Breathing Hole. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann. 

The set by Daniela Massellis emphasized the stark whiteness of the ice and snow of the north and was quite effective.

There is no doubt that an immense amount of work has gone into the creation and production of The Breathing Hole. In addition to the usual artistic crew, there were Inuit dramaturgy and Cultural consultation, Inuktitut consultation and translation (the play is partly bilingual), Inuit props, costume and makeup consultants and a significant number of artists who participated in the development of the play. Not to mention that no fewer than eight doctors were consulted.

Unfortunately effort does not equal result. Murphy has tackled a grand theme at the right time. A part of the Inuit story is brought on stage including an indigenous director and a number of indigenous actors. All of it highly laudable. Unfortunately, the final result falls short of expectation.

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The Breathing Hole by Colleen Murphy continues in repertory until September 22, 2017 at the Studio Theatre. 34 George Street, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT – REVIEW OF 2017 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Near the end of the first act of The Madwoman of Chaillot, a character called The ragman tells us that the world has been invaded by evil people. The world and people are no longer beautiful and everything is run by pimps, the butcher, the grocer, the garage man, all are controlled by pimps. The moral degradation of the world is complete.

Jean Giraudoux wrote his allegorical drama during World War II and he tried to illustrate the condition of France in a play with more than fifty characters covering the gamut of the social ladder. At one extreme are the capitalists, ruthless, exploitive, wealthy, greedy and evil. At the other end are the workers, the street people and the entertainers - the victims of the capitalists. . In the middle we have four ladies, the madwomen, who appear a bit looney but who have the drive and imagination to stand up to the capitalists. Will they be able to save civilization as we know it?

 

 Members of the company in The Madwoman of Chaillot. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann. 

Donna Feore directs the very large cast in the theatre-in-the-round Tom Patterson with considerable effectiveness albeit a bit sluggishly in the first act.

In the first act, The President (Ben Carlson), The Baron (David Collins), The Prospector (Wayne Best) and The Broker (Rylan Wilkie) plan to create a corporation, take people’s money, manipulate the stock market and make untold amounts of money. As they make their plans in an outdoor café in the Chaillot area of Paris, they are accosted by a large number of “ordinary” people including a singer (Mike Nadajewsky), a policeman (Tim Campbell), a shoelace peddler (Qasim Khan) and others. The capitalists treat everyone with contempt.

An imposing lady named Comtesse Aurélie, The Madwoman of Chaillot, appears and she shows neither fear nor respect for the crude capitalists.

The problem with the first act is the large number of people who come on and off the stage. It is difficult to maintain the pace and focus until near the end when The Ragman appears and he dominates the last part of the act. Here Scott Wentworth gives a fine performance as he describes the moral swamp that the world has become. He has another superb scene in the second act when he “defends” the immorality that has befallen the world.         

 

From left: David Collins as The Baron, Wayne Best as The Prospector, Ben Carlson as The President and 

Rylan Wilkie as The Broker in The Madwoman of Chaillot. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.

The second act is more tightly constructed as the capitalists get their comeuppance. The play has four madwomen and there is a marvelous scene as we get to know the somewhat looney ladies who are somewhat detached from reality but have not left it by any means. Seana McKenna plays the main role and gives her usually superb performance. Her Madwoman has some loose screws but she knows precisely what she wants to achieve and that is to save civilization. She achieves a combination of flightiness, and purpose that is quite a thrill to watch.

Constance, The Madwoman of Passy (Kim Horseman) imagines she has a dog with her. She veers between out and out delusional and pleasantly enjoying the illusion of having a dog without losing complete touch with reality.   Yanna McIntosh is tough and assertive as The Madwoman of Concorde but she is in the same zone that is between suffering from delusion and enjoying an illusion. As is the virgin Gabrielle, The Madwoman of Saint-Sulpice played by Marion Adler.

The set by Teresa Przybylski consists of tables and chairs indicative of an outdoor café for the first act and a grab-bag of furniture for the basement room of the second act. Quite fine especially within the limitations of the theatre-in-the-round.

In addition to the outstanding McKenna, Feore has assembled some of Stratford’s finest for the production. Ben Carlson as the President and his capitalist cronies make a frightful quartet of money grubbers that Giraudoux holds up to ridicule and contempt.

If I were forced to give the production an overall grade I would give it a B.

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The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux continues in repertory until September 24, 2017 at the Tom Patterson Theatre, 111 Lakeside Drive Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

BAKKHAI - REVIEW OF 2017 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Stratford Festival is once again visiting Ancient Greek drama with a stunning production of Bakkhai by Euripides at the Tom Patterson Theatre. It uses Anne Carson’s translation and adaptation and she prefers to transliterate the title of the great play her way instead of the more traditional Bacchae.

No doubt you are keeping track of the Festival’s production of Greek drama and recall that the Bacchae was produced there in 1993 in a redoubtable staging by David William with Colm Feore, Ted Dykstra and Barbara Bryne. Otherwise the Festival seems to go into allergic reaction at the thought of producing classical drama but there are exceptions and that is another issue.

 

From left: Gordon S. Miller as Pentheus, Laura Condlln as a member of the Bakkhai, Mac Fyfe as Dionysos 

and Brad Hodder as Guard in Bakkhai. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Jillian Keiley directs the current production with intelligence, knowledge and an intuitive feel for Greek drama. She makes brilliant use of the Chorus and has some marvellous staging effects to give us an outstanding Bakkhai.

From the little that we know or can infer from Ancient Greek tragedy, the productions were more operatic than straight plays. The productions had music and the Chorus sang or chanted some of the poetry written for it especially the choral odes. How do you handle the issue today? If the leader of the Chorus speaks the lines, then the poetry allotted to the Chorus become prosaic. If they all speak together, it may be difficult to understand them or, worse, they sound ridiculous.

Keiley has found a splendid compromise. The Chorus (the Bacchae or devotees of Dionysos a.k.a. Bacchus) speak, sing, chant and dance to music composed by Veda Hille. Hille’s music plays a key role in the success of the production. In its lyricism and punctuated sections, it fits the poetry and the mood of the play. The choral odes are no longer impediments to the action but become integrated into the drama. A major achievement.

The Bakkhai is about the arrival of a new religion in Thebes which Pentheus, its king, and the women of the city reject. Dionysos whose mother Semele was a Theban and Zeus was his father comes disguised as a mortal to wreak revenge on the people of his native city. Mac Fyfe’s Dionysos is petulant, arrogant, effeminate, vengeful and with has a huge chip on his shoulder.

The youthful Pentheus, his cousin, rejects the new religion. Wearing a suit, Gordon S. Miller as Pentheus is arrogant, puritanical, ill-tempered, violent and a law-and-order ruler. He has a lot in common with Dionysos even though they are on opposite sides of the religious issue. Dionysos has the upper hand, of course, because he is a god and he will wreak unbelievable vengeance on the Thebans. 

Members of company in Bakkhai. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Graham Abbey plays the seer Teiresias and Nigel Bennett plays Kadmos, the father of Pentheus. They represent their characters as old codgers with a bit of humour if that can be said to exist in the play. Lucy Peacock plays the role of Agave, Pentheus’s mother and what she does defies the imagination. You may not know the plot of the play and I will not spoil it for you.

Keiley uses Anne Carson’s adaptation. It is poetic and colloquial. Some of the modernisms may go too far (“he’s a shrewd manager of data.” “Call a cab.” Dionysos describes himself as a daimon and explains that “there is no word for it in English.”) The cast handled the language with ease and the performances from the Herdsam of E.B. Smith to the main characters were stellar.

The set by Shawn Kerwin consists of a raised platform in the centre of the Tom Patterson stage. There is extensive and highly effective use of lighting by Cimmeron Meyer and sound by Don Ellis.

Bakkhai was written by Euripides in 405 B.C. near the end of his life while he was living in exile in Macedonia. It is a complex play that has kept scholars and philosophers busy for more than twenty four centuries. Better still, it has kept theatre lovers fascinated since its premiere in Athens in the early hours of the morning in March 405 B.C. at a theatre and a festival named after Dionysos. It won first prize.  

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Bakkhai by Euripides in a version by Anne Carson continues until September 23, 2017 at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

PORGY AND BESS – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

Francesca Zambello, the Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival has programmed and assigned directorial duties to herself of Porgy and Bess, perhaps one of the most important American operas. She has pulled out all the stops to stage the signature production of the season and has scored a resounding success.

It is a Negro spiritual, a folk opera and original musical combination that deals with life in the lower depths, with race, poverty, murder, drugs and love being ever present. It has an outstanding score by George Gershwin to a libretto by his brother Ira Gershwin, and Dubose and Dorothy Heyward. All of them are white. 

                                                                                                                                                                    The opera is set in Catfish Row in Charleston , South Carolina where the only whites that we see are contemptuous figures in authority The opera opens in what looks like a two-story tenement house designed by Peter J. Davison with people looking from the second floor and others playing craps in

the open space below.                                                                                                                                                                    The opera, with its large cast, has its main characters but it is very much an ensemble work with particular emphasis on the orchestra. There is no attempt to sugar-coat anything and the visceral impact is overwhelming.

 

Talise Trevigne as Bess and Musa Ngqungwana as Porgy: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Porgy is a crippled beggar who drags himself across the stage supported by a crutch. His physical deformity is counterbalanced by his essential humanity and decency. South African bass Musa Ngqungwana sings with a resonance and emotional depth that surpasses the cruelty and evil that surrounds him. His love for Bess is unconditional and immeasurable right to the last chord of the opera when he manages to strike a note of faith, even optimism in a milieu that offers none. When he sings the moving “I Got Plenty of Nothin” his voice and emotion resonate through the theatre. A stupendous performance.

Bess (Talise Trevigne) is the classic victim of her station in life, her sex, her possessive lover Crown, her drug dealer Sportin’ Life and her physical attractiveness. In her own way, she is just as crippled as Porgy.   

There is no shortage of cruelty in the slum of Catfish Row. Crown is a lanky, musclebound thug. He runs away after killing someone and on his return claims Bess who has fallen in love for Porgy. She resists but he brutalizes her mercilessly. Norman Garrett plays the frightful Crown and gives a scary portrayal of the self-absorbed brute.

 Norman Garrett as Crown. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Sportin’ Life is the local drug dealer and he offers a better life to Bess presumably because he has money. He gives her drugs but she rejects his offer to go to New York. She is rejected by everyone as she knocks on their doors except for Porgy, the beggar, the cripple and another “reject.” Listen to the lyricism and passion of Porgy and Bess’s duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and you have been repaid for the price of admission many times over.  

Talise Trevigne’s Bess is attractive, compassionate, tortured and in the end selfish in her betrayal of Porgy for the drug dealer. In other words, she is human. Trevigne has a marvelously strong and dramatic voice and she displays a tremendous emotional range in her performance.

The opera has more than twenty singing roles and no faint-hearted director need apply for the job. But Zambello has directed the opera before and her panache shows. There are outstanding soloists but even more so superb ensemble singing.  

                                                                       

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus under John DeMain perform superbly.

Opera at its best.

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 Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward will be performed thirteen times between July 7 and August 21, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

OKLAHOMA! – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

One would have thought that 1943 was not a particularly auspicious year for a leap in the development of the Broadway musical. World War II was raging and there was much else to preoccupy the world. Yet with the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! an advance was made in producing integrated musicals where the songs advanced the plot and acting became more important. There was precedent for this already but Oklahoma! is a good marking point.

The Glimmerglass Festival production is unfortunately disappointing in many respects. Oklahoma! has some rousing songs, outstanding dance sequels and a good plot but all of that goes to the credit of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II who largely carry the production with some exceptions rather than the other way around.

The major exception is the performance of Jarrett Ott as Curly. He enters from the back of the theatre and sings "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' " while walking towards the stage. He has a commanding voice, an impressive presence and dominates the production like a colossus.

 Judith Skinner as Aunt Eller and Jarrett Ott as Curly in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" 

Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

The rest of the performers fall behind him at various distances. Vanessa Becerra as Laurey has a good but not particularly big voice and she is overwhelmed by Ott. To varying degrees the rest of the cast suffers the same fate. Without Ott, many would have been adequate to say the least.

There are some dramatic scenes and some comic ones with Emma Roos as the dippy Ado Annie providing some laughter.

Color-blind casting is well-established and never raises an eyebrow but in this case it did. In the first scene we see a middle-aged black woman on stage and since we are in 1906 Indian Territory, the future Oklahoma, when we see a black woman we think of a servant or worse. In this case, African-American Judith Skinner plays Aunt Eller. She does a good job but decades of not seeing a black woman of the time in a role like that struck one, quite disgracefully, as peculiar.

 

The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production of Oklahoma! Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Oklahoma! has a number of dance numbers including the extended “Dream Sequence” ballet. The choreography and the dancing left a great deal to be desired. I will leave it at that.

With songs like "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," the beautiful "People Will Say We're in Love" and the rousing "Oklahoma!" you will not be left twiddling your thumbs. But we expected more from director Molly Smith and choreographer Parker Esse who either did not have the best cast or simply did not bring out the best in what they had.

No issue with conductor James Lowe and the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus.

The set by Eugene Lee purported to present a scene or a vista of the wide-open territory. There was very little of that and the set appeared plastic and unimpressive.

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 Oklahoma!  by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) based on Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs will be performed thirteen times between July 8 and August 22, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

XERXES – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

        

James Karas

When a program for an opera gives you a diagram of who loves whom you brace yourself for a rough trip in trying to figure out the plot. When the names of four of the seven characters begin with the letter “a” you may consider yourself licked.

Fear not. This is opera seria and these people will fall in and out of love, throw in some treachery and all will live happily ever after. Well, most of them, anyway. Yes, Xerxes of Xerxes is the Persian Emperor Xerxes who got his butt kicked by the Greeks around 480 B.C. but Handel had better things to deal with in his opera.

 John Holiday in the title role of Handel's Xerxes. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

A smidgeon of plot. Xerxes was betrothed to Amastris but dumped her. Now he loves Romilda. His brother Arsamenes also loves Romilda and she loves him (but not Xerxes). Atalanta also loves Arsamenes. She wants to trick Xerxes into marrying Romilda so she can have Arsamenes. Hint: intercept a letter and spread lies, Atalanta.

Amastris pops in disguised as a man to check out the situation. Romilda’s father Arodates checks in and all is worked out in the end.

Xerxes is a static opera with no chorus, a few duets but mostly recitatives and arias sung by the characters who tend to walk on stage, do their job and go off. There is no doubt about the beauty of most of the arias as well as Handel’s music.

Conductor Tazewell Thompson and Director Nicole Paiement have assembled a fine cast for the job. Countertenor John Holiday, Jr. leads the cast as Xerxes. He was last seen at Glimmerglass in 2015 as Giulio Cesare in Cato in Utica and again displayed his exquisite and delicate voice.

 

Allegra De Vita as Arsamenes, Emily Pogorelc as Romilda and Katrina Galka as Atalanta in Handel's Xerxes. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Mezzo soprano Allegra De Vita sings the role of the faithful Arsamenes. It is a pants role, obviously, and her low notes serve her well in a fine performance. My only minor complaint is about her costume. She is a woman pretending to be a man. Her costume should not make her look like a woman. There is enough confusion in the opera.

Glimmerglass has an extensive and redoubtable Young Artists program and five of the seven singers in Xerxes are drawn from that program. The tricky and mendacious Atalanta is in the vocal chords of soprano Katrina Galka; soprano Emily Pogorelc handles the role of Romilda; mezzo soprano Abigail Dock sang Amastris, the jilted one who appears disguised as a man.

Handel does provide a comic role in Elviro sung by bass baritone Calvin Griffin who is given scope for his comic talent as well as singing. Bass Brent Michael Smith plays Ariodates, the father of Romilda who is not involved in a love affair. I name all the Young Artists in recognition of their developing talents and fine performances.

Sara Jean Tosetti has designed some lovely gowns for the ladies. The set by John Conklin consists of three raised platforms and some hanging panels in the background. Changing light effects by Robert Wierzel provide plenty of color.      

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 Xerxes by George Frideric Handel (music) and Nicolo Minato and Silvio Stampiglia (libretto), is being performed seven times between July 15 and August 18, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

THE SIEGE OF CALAIS – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival is in full swing and provides a cultural experience of the first order in a bucolic setting which might make you think of Arcadia. Where else do you find pastoral harmony and cultural pleasure? For the uninitiated, the Festival takes place on Lake Otsego a few miles from Cooperstown, N.Y. Yes, that is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is but you do not need Special Dispensation to go to both. Seeing the heroes of baseball, operas and a myriad of other cultural activities have been proven to provide have spiritual, emotional and physical benefits. Try getting that in front of a picture of Babe Ruth.

The Siege of Calais, Donizetti’s 48^th opera, was a hit in Naples when it premiered in 1836. It did okay until 1840 and then it was mothballed for a nifty 150 years. It was resuscitated by Opera Rara and was even produced on stage. The uncontrollable desire, not to say ambition, to produce the opera in the United States took a few years, until July 2017 to be precise, when the Glimmerglass Festival raised the siege and produced it.

 

The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production "The Siege of Calais." Photo: Carrington Spires/The Glimmerglass Festival

The Siege of Calais is quite a remarkable work partly for historical reasons (Donizetti trying to break into the Parisian market with a “French” opera – it did not work) and partly as an opera that deserves to be produced on its own merits. It needs some dramaturgy (it has a third act that requires surgery amounting to excision) but Francesca Zambello, the Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival and Music Director Joseph Colaneri have done the judicious editing that resulted in a brisk and fine production of the neglected work.

The siege refers to the blockade of the French port city by the English army under King Edward III in 1346 that resulted in its capitulation in about a year. As such it was an ordinary siege except for the fact that Edward agreed not to slaughter the citizens provided that six nobles agreed to be executed. That and Rodin’s famous statue of “The Burghers of Calais” has helped raise the garden-variety siege into something of mythical proportions.

Librettist Salvadore Cammarano tells the story through Eustachio, the Mayor of Calais, his son Aurelio and the burghers. Emotional punch is delivered by the fate of the people but it is enhanced by the presence of Aurelio’s wife Eleonora and his young son. When Edward demands six victims Eustachio, Aurelio and four others volunteer. The tragedy is averted by the entrance of Edward’s wife Queen Isabella. The six may be saved but the residents know that they have lost everything.

 

Aleks Romano as Aurelio, Rock Lasky as Filippo, and Leah Crocetto as Eleonora in "The Siege of Calais." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

American mezzo-soprano Aleks Romano leads the cast in the pants role of Aurelio. She sings with assurance and conviction in one of the best portrayals of a man by a woman. She has the gait, movements and mannerisms of a man. That is the least of her accomplishments because she has a firm, commanding and marvelous voice to give a memorable performance.

She is well-matched by soprano Leah Crocetto as her wife Eleonora who has a large, indeed powerful, voice such that when she belted out some phrases in the small Alice Busch Opera Theatre she sounded as if she could shatter glass.

Adrian Timpau as Eustachio has an impressive, big voice but unfortunately it displayed strength without color.

Michael Hewitt replaced ably Harry Greenleaf as King Edward and gave a fine performance as did Helena Brown as Queen Isabella. Donizetti provides a wealth of choral music and The Glimmerglass Festival Chorus performed impressively. 

Zambello sets the production in a modern city that has been gutted by bombs. There are numerous examples of such cities in the news almost daily and the setting could not be more appropriate. Scenery Designer James Noone set consists of a revolving shattered building for most of the performance with the exception of a wall representing Calais on the outside.

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus perform under the baton of Joseph Colaneri.

Donizetti as a composer had many virtues and not a few drawbacks. The Siege of Calais is by no means one of his best operas but it deserved to be produced.

Only at Glimmerglass, eh!        

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The Siege of Calais by Gaetano Donizetti (music) and Salvadore Cammarano (libretto), is being performed eight times between July 16 and August 19, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

MEDEA – REVIEW OF KAROLOS KOUN THEATRE PRODUCTION IN THESSALONIKI

Reviewed by James Karas

The Athens-based Theatro Technis Karolos Koun has staged a striking production of Euripides’ classic tragedy for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. The production is being shown in a number of cities around Greece in addition to Epidaurus and I saw it in the open air Roman Theatro Dassous in Thessaloniki.

Marianna Calbari puts her own stamp on the play as director, dramaturge, adapter (the last two with Elena Triantafillopoulou) and actor and the end result is a riveting production. Calbari has added a subtitle calling the play Medea – The Barbarity of Love and has added text and poetry from other classical writers including Plato (Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium), Theocritus and Sappho.

Her most brilliant stroke is to us give us two Medeas. The first Medea (Maria Nafpliotou), the wife of Jason, lives in Corinth and is the character we know from Euripides. Calbari adds another Medea which she calls the Barbarian (Alexandra Kazazou) and she is the “original” woman from Colchis, the barbaric city on the      eastern shore of the Black Sea, the end of the world

The Barbarian Medea is a wildly sexual and passionate women. We see her rolling on a bed in the throes of ecstasy. This woman sacrificed everything, including her father, out of love for Jason, the hero who went to Colchis to get The Golden Fleece. The Barbarian   has magical powers and whether in Colchis or Corinth she is a woman to be reckoned with.

 

Alexandros Mylonas and Maria Nafpliotou in Madea

The Corinth Medea appears more civilized but she is a woman in agony. After all she did for Jason and the immense love and passion that she feels for him, he leaves her and the children for another woman – the innocent Glauce (Theodora Tzimou), the daughter of King Creon (Alexandros Mylonas). Jason makes a venal and cold-blooded decision in order to get the crown. He serves mealy-mouthed homilies that many husbands have used over the millennia: I still love you and I have to do this. I will give you money and look after you and the children. He goes as far as to say that he is betraying her for her own good!

Haris Fragoulis is a fine actor (and a lousy trumpet player) and his portrayal of Jason as a shallow, selfish and mercenary person is spot on. Interestingly, he considers Medea a monster and states that no Greek woman is like that. The scene between him and Medea where they hurl abuse and pleading is a point of extraordinary drama.

Medea becomes an implacable fury of hatred and vengeance leading to the inevitable destruction. Nafpliotou can display passion, hatred, grief, connivance and murderous fury with superb ability. Kazazou’s role as the alter ego of Corinth Medea is more limited but she gives a superlative performance as a woman of passion.

Calbari takes on the role of Medea’s Nurse and speaks some of Medea’s lines. She chants as well and generally gives a very dramatic performance. Mylonas as Creon in a purple robe is imperious and commanding.

   

Calbari makes judicious and intelligent use of the chorus with original music by Panagiotis Kalantzopoulos. Movement by Mariza Tsinga and chants used sparingly but very effectively are done exceptionally well avoiding the pitfalls of the use of the chorus that can mar a production.

The set designed by Constantinos Zamanis presents the central image of a large bed on a raised, revolving platform. It is an appropriate symbol of sexual desire and betrayal that starts the entire series of events from the successful theft of The Golden Fleece to the excruciating death of Glauce. The modern costumes do not detract from the drama and the large stage is used effectively.  

In short, this is a five star production starting from Calbari’s amazing dramaturgy and adaption, to her superb directing of a talented cast.