MADAMA BUTTERFLY - REVIEW OF 2019 REVIVAL AT THE MET

Reviewed by James Karas

Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly premiered at the English National Opera in London in 2005 and at the Met in New York in 2006. It is still a going concern and is telecast Live in HD from the Met this season.

This is the fifth time I seen this production and I must admit that Minghella’s use of Bunraku puppetry has lost some of its appeal. The Bunraku puppets are not traditional dolls manipulated by strings but plastic devices that require a lot of puppeteers on the stage to manipulate them. The little boy in the opera, for example, requires three puppeteers to make it move around. Each handles a different part of its body and the effect is frequently interesting. The puppets are used for Cio-Cio San’s son and for her in a ballet sequence at the beginning of Act I, Scene 2.

The puppeteers are dressed in black and their faces are covered by veils. They give admirable evidence of their athleticisms and adeptness in handling the puppets.  There is a complex use of mirrors, birds in flight, stars in the sky and commotion.

This time however I wondered how much they added to the opera and if Puccini’s work needed such excessive gimmickry

 

Hui He as Cio-Cio-San and Paulo Szot as Sharpless. Photo: Richard Termine / Met Opera

Hui He does may not fit the physical description of a very young Japanese girl who falls in love with Pinkerton, a creep of an American sailor. But she has a beautiful voice that expresses Cio-Cio San’s deep emotions and we forget everything else. Her “Un bel di vedremo” where she imagines the arrival of her husband’s ship in the harbour of Nagasaki is full of passion, tenderness and heart-wrenching longing.   

Tenor Bruce Sledge sang the role of Pinkerton in the Live from the Met broadcast replacing the indisposed Andrea Carè, I am not sure if he is the ideal Pinkerton but as a last minute replacement he deserves gratitude rather than criticism.

Paulo Szot gives an exemplary performance as Sharpless, the American Consul. He is a pillar of decency and he expresses both vocally and physically his discomfort, disgust and sympathy. He is the messenger of Pinkerton’s betrayal and he knows that his news will kill Cio-Cio San. We see all of this in his sensitive facial expressions alone. Placido Domingo was scheduled to sing the role but the allegations of misconduct by numerous women have caused him to relinquish all further singing on the Met stage.

Mezzo soprano Elizabeth DeShong is a spunky, faithful and compassionate Suzuki. She has a big voice, a pleasant personality and a fine stage presence that make her a pleasure to watch.

  

Theses broadcasts need a Director for Live Cinema that people who go to the opera house are not burdened with. He is the person who decides what we see by controlling every long shot, close-up, angle and, most importantly, duration of each shot. 

Elizabeth DeShong as Suzuki.Photo: Richard Termine / Met Opera

Habib Azar was the man responsible for this broadcast. I tried hard, I really did, to ignore the travesty of his choices but could not. Near the end I tried to estimate how long he was able to keep his finger off his converter (or whatever he is using). I don’t think I saw too many if any, scenes where he did not click a change for five seconds. Some shots lasted much less than that. There are many instances that demand that we simply watch the scene and be able to see several people on stage at the same time for action and reaction. Not a chance. He just kept clicking like a child on a video game that just plays with the controls. He screwed up on several occasions including during the emotional climax of the opera when Cio-Cio San sings “Tu Tu Piccolo Iddio!” as she is about to commit suicide. Good grief!

You may have to shut your eyes on occasion to listen to the splendid music played by the Met Orchestra conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi, the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and the singers just to avoid the childish shot changes by Azar.

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Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini was shown Live in HD at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on November 9, 2019. Encores will be shown on January 25, 27, 29 & February 9, 2020. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press  www.greekpress.ca

LET’S RUN AWAY – REVIEW OF DANIEL MACIVOR’S ONE–MAN SHOW

Reviewed by James Karas

Daniel MacIvor is a man of the theatre with playwriting, acting and directing to his credit. He has also made forays into film and television and has built a strong reputation as a solo performer with a solid portfolio of works. His latest creation with director and dramaturge Daniel Brooks is Let’s Run Away which is now playing at the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre in Toronto.

MacIvor is an expert and talented solo performer. He enters the playing area nervously. Runs around the stage as if he were an amateur, very uneasy performer who is trying to get comfortable with the set and the equipment. He fools all of us as he settles into the character of Peter who will tell us his story over the next eighty minutes.

 

Daniel MacIvor. Photo: Canadian Stage

Peter starts by reading from his mother’s unpublished journal that mentions him. But wait. It is not accurate and he interjects, corrects and adds. He takes us through his confused life story from being abandoned by his mother, life in a foster home, in a motel, in a basement and other events that have shaped his bitter life.

He runs nervously and neurotically between microphones. He scolds the technician who handles the lighting and is very aware of his audience. He makes rich literary references from Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism to Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. The books are sent to him by his mother who abandoned him twice.

Peter sings, runs back and forth and has so many insecurities, anxieties and neuroses it is hard to keep up with him. His story is told in fragments with numerous diversions and distractions that I found difficult to follow. I thought that Peter’s story did not have enough for an eighty minute performance but the fact is it has too much.

MacIvor’s performance is superb but the fragmented story struck me as almost incoherent and I simply could not get into it.

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Let’s Run Away  by Daniel MacIvor (writer and performer) and Daniel Brooks (dramaturge and director) in a production by reWork Productions, presented by Canadian Stage runs until November 17, 2019 at the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre, 26 Berkeley Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

LINDA VISTA – REVIEW OF TRACY LETTS’ PLAY IN NEW YORK

James Karas

Linda Vista is a neighbourhood in San Diego, California and it is also the title of a new play by Tracy Letts. I will not deal with the neighborhood but will say some very nice things about a funny, dramatic and well-acted play.

Dick Wheeler (Ian Barford), the central character, at age 50 repairs old cameras in a dinky shop and is not a happy man. He was a photographer for a Chicago newspaper but now he is in the midst of a messy divorce and he does not get along with his teenage son and considers himself a loser.

In his search for companionship, he gets involved with two women and both relationships are disastrous for which he is responsible. He may have learned something and there is some hope about his attempt at a third relationship but that is left up in the air at the end of the play.

 Cora Vander Broek, Ian Braford, Chantal Thuy in Linda Vista. 

Photo: Joan Marcus

Barford gives a bravura performance. He dominates the action and he delivers Letts’ many zingers, his dramatic scenes and emotional outburst superbly. Barford can modulate his voice, show body language and reaction to other actors brilliantly and almost make the show.

His first relationship is with Jules (Cora Vander Broek), an attractive, sympathetic woman with a problem past. She falls in love with Wheeler but he is incapable of solidifying the relationship and puts an end to it. The two engage in quite explicit if simulated sex and nudity but manage to be funny much of the time. Jules’ instinctive empathy and understanding of Wheeler are not enough to get through to his feeling of inferiority. Marvelous work by Broek.

Wheler gets involved with Minnie (Chantal Thuy), a young, abused, pregnant Vietnamese woman who has been thrown out by her boyfriend. She eventually dumps him and his dramatic begging for her to stay has no effect on her. Thuy’s character is somewhat mysterious, perhaps because of her awful past but the actress does excellent work.

The connecting scenes and much comedy is supplied by Wheeler’s long-time friend Paul (Jim True-Frost) his wife Margaret (Sally Murphy) and his boss Michael (Troy West). His co-worker Anita (Caroline Neff) plays a more significant role at the end of the play. All do fine jobs in their roles. 

From left: Jim True-Frost, Cora Vander Broek, Ian Barford and Sally Murphy. 

Photo: Joan Marcus 

Letts touches on politics, sexual harassment and current events. There are intelligent comments about the definition of photography and the distraught Wheeler talks and argues vehemently about his former profession. He can be passionate, argumentative and extremely unpleasant.

The play takes place in Wheeler’s apartment which has a kitchen, a bedroom and an exit door. We also go to a karaoke bar, a gym and a couple of other less-well-defined venues. Set designer Todd Rosenthal creates a revolving set with four playing areas that can be quickly changed when we are watching another section.

Linda Vista is directed ably by Dexter Bullard and provides a very thoughtful and highly entertaining night at the theatre.

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Linda Vista by Tracy Letts  in a Second Stage Theater in association with Center Theatre Group continues until November 10, 2019 at the Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W 44th St, New York, NY 10036

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press www.greekpress.ca

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2019 REVIVAL BY OPERA ATELIER

Reviewed by James Karas

Opera Atelier has revived its stunning 2004 production of Don Giovanni for its current season at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. It is a success story from every angle and it earns our (usual) bow to Marshall Pynkoski and Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg for their contribution to civilized life in Toronto.

Director Pynkoski and Choreographer Zingg have chosen to use a production style that bestows beauty and grace to the opera. They use a modified commedia dell’arte, stylized acting and ballet is used judiciously and splendidly.

In the opening scene when the Commendatore  (Gustav Andreassen) appears to defend his daughter against Don Giovanni (Douglas Williams) he is accompanied by a number of dancers who perform some acrobatic dance steps. Donna Anna (Meghan Lindsay) expresses her shock at the murder of her father by raising the back of her hand to her forehead in the stylized method of expression. This style is maintained throughout and it works by giving the opera a light touch. 

Olivier Laquerre, Douglas Williams, Mireille Asselin and Stephen Hegedus with 

Artists of Atelier Ballet and OA Chorus. Photo: Bruce Zinger 

Ms Zingg has choreographed a number of short ballet routines throughout that are attractive in themselves and at the same time give the production the lighter flavour that the modified commedia dell’arte aims for.

There are numerous fascinating points that Pynkoski adds to the production. For example, when the betrayed and abandoned Donna Elvira sings “Ah, chi mi dice mai” about wanting to kill the treacherous Don Giovanni and tear his heart out, she is brandishing a dagger and a crucifix. In other words she will mete out human punishment and divine retribution upon the traitor.

Don Giovanni breaks the resistance of the peasant girl Zerlina (Mireille Asselin) in the seduction duet of “Là ci darem la Mano” by giving her a pouch of money and she is pleased. When her angry bridegroom Masetto (Olivier Laquerre) accuses her of infidelity, her denial is upset by her dropping the coins in the pouch. Small details perhaps, that add up to a tremendous production.

The numerous small touches are accompanied by outstanding singing. The fascinating Donna Anna is sung by the gorgeously-voiced soprano Meghan Lindsay. Her stylized expression of shock and subsequent description of what happened in her room on that fateful night, cast doubt on her veracity. Don’t ask where her fiancé was and why is she putting him off for a year at the end? A splendidly sung and beautifully portrayed Donna Anna.

The fiancé, of course is Don Ottavio who gets some bad press sometimes, but tenor Colin Ainsworth in the role, deserves nothing but high praise. His rendition of “Il mio tesoro,” for example, is delivered with surpassing tenderness, passion, beauty and resolution. Ainsworth’s performance makes Donna Anna’s reason for rejecting Don Ottavio suspect. 

 Meghan Lindsay, Colin Ainsworth, Stephen Hegedus, Olivier Laquerre, Carla Huhtanen, 

Douglas Williams and Mireille Asselin. Photo: Bruce Zinger

If Donna Anna was ditched on the first night, Donna Elvira was abandoned on the third day and soprano Carla Huhtanen wants us to know about it with her passion and furor. Her passion tells her to forgive him but her mind tells her to flee her traitor as expressed marvelously in “Ah, fugi il traditor”   and “Mi tradì quell'alma ingrate” (that ungrateful soul betrayed me.) Dramatic, passionate and vocally fabulous.

Zerlina is the peasant girl we love. Pretty, lively, smart and able to handle her man, applies to her and soprano Mireille Asselin in the role. A lovely, light soprano with a beautiful lilt, perfect for the role and a delightful performance. It’s wonderful to see her handle the hulk Masetto who is a bit of an oaf that she turns into putty. Bass-Baritone Olivier Laquerre is perfect for the role vocally and physically.

The whole enterprise is led by Douglas Williams and Stephen Hegedus, the two bass-baritones who sing Don Giovanni and Leporello. Williams looks, acts and sings the great seducer with relish and vocal brilliance. Hegedus is just as adept in his role as his cohort but sly, ambitious and resentful. But in the end they are a team. I enjoyed their ability to act and react to each other even more than their individual prowess in their roles.

The Ed Mirvish Theatre does not really have an orchestra pit but that did not seem to bother David Fallis and the magnificent Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra who gave a marvelous performance.

Gerard Gauci’s set with its neo-classical exterior with the necessary balconies and entrances is effective and easily changeable.

I have made no secret of my enjoyment of this production and like a hungry Oliver Twist (for opera that is) I can only repeat I want more and so should you.

[Travel commitments and scheduling problems prevented me from attending an earlier performance].                                                 

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Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart, presented by Opera Atelier, opened on October 31 and runs until November 9, 2019 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria Street, Toronto. www.operaatelier.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press 

THE ROSE TATTOO – REVIEW OF ROUNDABOUT THEATRE PRODUCTION IN NEW YORK

James Karas

The Rose Tattoo, Tennessee Williams’ 1950 drama has received a disappointing production by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre in New York. It boasts of having the star-power attraction of Marisa Tomei in the role of Serafina Delle Rose. According to Williams, she is a plump little Italian living in a village populated mostly by Sicilians along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Mobile.

The politest thing one can say is that she is simply miscast in the role. Ms Tomei is neither small nor plump. She is a beautiful woman who would never settle for a nobody like Alvano (Emun Elliott) after the death of her husband. She idolizes her husband Rosario and is deeply in love with him while worshipping the Madonna and being very superstitious. We never see her husband but he turns out to have been working for criminals and is killed. What’s worse, Serafina’s idol had a mistress in the village. Everybody knew about it except her. 

Marisa Tomei and Emun Elliott. Photo: Joan Marcus

Tomei can do the histrionics that are part of her character but she can only manage an atrocious Italian accent that added with her looks moves her away from the Serafina of the play.

Elliott is even worse as Alvano Mangiacavallo, the truck driver who, as I said, is attracted to Serafina after she becomes a widow. He is a buffoon as Serafina describes him, but what kind of a buffoon? Elliott is an American who tries to hide his native accent and impose an Italian inflection on his speech. He fails miserably and the character is left hanging between being an American with a bad Italian accent or an Italian who is trying to speak proper English.

Ella Rubin as Serafina’s 15-year old daughter Rosa and Burke Swanson as her boyfriend Jack are refreshingly fine in their roles. The women of the village who drop by Serafina’s place are necessary minor characters. Tina Benko makes a very alluring Estelle Hohengarten, the blonde with whom Rosario has an affair until his untimely death. She orders a shirt from the seamstress Serafina to give to someone who turns out to be her lover who happens to be none other than Rosario, Serafina’s husband.

Director Trip Cullman has done away with a number of characters and scenes from the play and there is no issue with that.

The set designed by Mark Wendland and the video projection designed by Lucy Mackinnon are quite dramatic. Serafina’s house backs to the Gulf with the water and waves visible on all three sides of the stage. The surging waves, no doubt symbolic of Serafina’s and Alvaro’s rising passion are marvelous with the small caveat that on the day I saw the performance they were not working very well. And I am not sure about the crowd of plastic flamingos on the edge of the water.

Cullman adds some songs and music by Fitz Patton which did nothing for the production.

The Rose Tattoo has a great deal of humor and we did get a few laughs but the production was spotty and never managed to bring out the comedy and the passion coherently and convincingly. A disappointing night at the theatre.   

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The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams in a production by Roundabout Theatre Company continues until December 8, 2019 at the American Airlines Theatre,  227 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y. https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/ 

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press 

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – REVIEW OF BROADCAST OF NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Richard Bean’s adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2011 and it was a resounding success. Bean called his adaptation One Man, Two Guvnors and its freewheeling, farcical elements as directed by Nicholas Hytner made it a hit. It has toured extensively including a successful run on Broadway.   

The National started transmitting performances in 2009 and One Man was first broadcast in September 2011. In celebration of the 10^th season of broadcasts, the National is showing the 2011 production of One Man again at Cineplex theatres.

 

James Corden and Suzie Toase. Photo: John Persson 

Goldoni worked within the tradition of commedia dell’arte of stock characters, convoluted plots and physical comedy but imposed a plot to be followed by the actors. He opposed the traditional fashion where actors who specialized in certain roles improvised much of their acting.

Bean has transferred the action from Venice to Brighton, England in 1963 and has remained faithful to some of the commedia dell’arte traditions but clearly with a script that must be followed.

The star of the show is James Corden as Francis Henshall, the clownish servant. Henshall was the minder of Roscoe Crabbe who is dead. Roscoe’s sister Rachel (Jemima Rooper) shows up in Brighton disguised as her twin Roscoe to claim a pile of dowry money from Charlie Clench (Fred Ridgway). Roscoe and Clench’s daughter Pauline (Claire Lams) were to be engaged but he was killed by Stanley (Oliver Chris) who happens to be Rachel’s boyfriend.

In the absence of Roscoe, Pauline wants to marry Alan (Daniel Rigby) the son of the crooked lawyer Harry Dangle (Martyn Ellis). In the meantime Francis has his eye on the busty Dolly (Suzie Toase) who is Clench’s bookkeeper. He is also hungry and broke and gets the chance to work for Stanley and (you guessed it) complications ensue for about two and a half hours.

There is verbal, physical and slapstick comedy. Characters punch each other, act silly, engage the audience and have numerous aside comments. They bring audience members on the stage and address the audience directly. At one point Francis asks where the diary of a character is and is told by an audience member. He thanks her and when he looks at the diary “realizes” that it is the wrong one and calls the audience member “a stupid cow.” The audience loves it.

The convoluted plot continues to fold and unfold with acting and overacting for the sole purpose of evoking laughter. There is no subtlety and no need for it. The characters are types and there is no character development or any need for it.

Dolly is big chested, not too bright and no pushover, but she wants a husband. Alan is an aspiring actor and an avid lover. Clench and his friend Lloyd (Trevor Laird) are former prison inmates.

The opportunities for doing and overdoing just about everything are rampant. That does not mean that they are all funny and as with much in theatre they are a matter of taste.

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One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni was The Norman Conquests (2013)
Photos by Cylla von Tiedemannshown at various Cineplex Cinemas on October 24, 2019. For more information visit http://www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senor Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

ALMIGHTY VOICE AND HIS WIFE – REVIEW OF SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

James Karas

Almighty Voice and his Wife by Daniel David Moses consists of two distinct but related plays about Canadian natives. It is not promoted as such but the differences are obvious as are the connecting threads. The play receives a sensitive and superb production at Soulpepper directed by Jani Lauzon.

Almighty Voice was a Cree who lived in Saskatchewan in the late 19^th century. He killed a cow for food and was arrested by the Mounted Police and thrown in jail. He escaped and managed to elude capture. But in the meantime he killed a Mountie and after a massive manhunt was found and shot dead.

The first half of Moses’ two-hander is a lyrical, comic and beautifully told story about Almighty (James Dallas Smith) and White Girl (Michaela Washburn), a Cree woman that he courts and marries. The courtship has elements of romance, humour and beauty. The rest of the segment is dramatic and moving.

James Dallas Smith and Michaela Washburn. Photo: Dahlia Katz

In the second half we are presented with a minstrel show in a school with the ghost of Almighty Voice and a white, male Interlocutor played by Washburn. The act contains songs, dance routines and “humorous” sketches. The Interlocutor wears a bright red Mountie tunic and the show is a satirical burlesque and serious critique of the type of show that showed indigenous people and especially black Americans in one of the many ugly manifestations of racism. Almighty Voice of course deals with Canadian Aborigines.

The second act is self-consciously theatrical as the Ghost of Almighty and the Interlocutor work to entertain the audience of the minstrel show. On the surface it is all supposed to be jolly good fun but one can hardly miss the allusion to the treatment of Aborigines when the Interlocutor brags that “we have the guns…we did it to the buffalo. Do you want to be next?”

The supreme irony comes when the Interlocutor sings “The Sioux Song” to the tune of “Amazing Grace.” There is no grace here, only exploitation of Aborigines. It is followed by “Sweet Sioux” about the exploitation of native women and the corruption of the legal system where Aborigines are involved.

Some marvelous things happen at the end but I will not disclose them.

                                               James Dallas Smith and Michaela Washburn. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Almighty Voice is a wonderful play for the two actors and the director. The first act is a conventional story involving Aborigines and, as I said, it is moving and funny. Smith and Washburn handle it with aplomb. The second act is far more complex and requires a great deal of flexibility and acting talent. The two go through a number of phases and it looks almost like a test in acting school about how many things they can do. They do them all with expertise, confidence and panache. Outstanding acting.

Director Jani Lauzon may have a simple task in the first act, but her work is decidedly cut out for her in the second act. She must guide the actors through the numerous phases with precision and a sure hand and she does so unfailingly.

Set and Video Designer Ken MacKenzie and Lighting Designer Jennifer Lennon provide the numerous set designs and lighting changes to accompany the many scenes. Kudos for work well done.

The fate of Canada’s Aborigines, from reservations to residential schools, is a blot on our history. The stories about them in the media are almost invariably negative. There are plays about them that are more reflective and searching but not enough. Moses is a prolific writer who has written a significant number of plays about Aborigines including Almighty Voice and his Wife which premiered in 1991. They are a part of what may change our perceptions and the realty of their fate.   

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Almighty Voice and his Wife by Daniel David Moses continues until November 10, 2019 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.