Thanks to the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, we’re seeing and hearing a lot more of Oakville-based tenor Michael Schade this season.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
In a few days, Schade joins the TSO in this year’s run of their Messiah at Roy Thomson Hall — alongside a very promising roster of soloists that includes countertenor Daniel Taylor, soprano Yulia van Doren, and Schade’s old singing buddy, baritone Russell Braun. (Details here.)
Over at the Four Seasons Centre, Schade appeared to have a ball singing the role of Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus in October. He returns to the COC mainstage in Februrary for an eight-performance run as the fair and forgiving Emperor Titus in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. (Details here.)
These are valuable opportunities to hear one of the world’s great lyric tenors at the height of his powers — opportunities entirely due to the determination of COC general director Alexander Neef to show off our finest voices in their own country.
As an interlude, one can enjoy Schade’s relatively slight turn in an excellent Vienna State Opera production of Richard Strauss’s Arabella, recorded live in May, and available now on DVD or BluRay disc.
Schade sings Matteo, a young officer who acts like a deer caught in the tractor-beam headlights of single-and-desperately-looking Arabella. He is all passionate intensity that suits the role perfectly.
There is a lot more to love in this production.
Let’s start with the vocal splendours of American soprano Emily Magee, who has the unenviable task of being on stage in the title role through much of the three acts. She is perfectly matched in Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who sings the man of her dreams, rural landowner Mandryka, from Slavonia.
The rest of the cast is uniformly strong, with a special rhinestone-encrusted gold star going to Austrian soprano Daniela Fally, who is a true physical and vocal firecracker as Fiakermilli in the second-act party scene (I want to know how many other coloratura sopranos can toss off an aria while doing the splits on top of a bar).
Rolf and Maria Glittenberg’s Art Deco set and costumes are ageless in this robust production, which had its debut in 2006. Director Sven-Eric Bechtholf keeps the focus clear throughout in this opera, which had its premiere in Dresden in 1933.
And then there is Richard Strauss’s gorgeous music. Conductor Franz Welser-Möst (who arrives in Toronto with the Vienna Philharmonic on Feb. 27) never allows the composer’s ever-roiling musical waves to overwhelm the singers.
The plot is straightforward: An impoverished but pedigreed Viennese family is on its last legs, but all would be fine if elder daughter Arabella could find the right husband. He shows up in the form of Mandryka, but due to a bit of intrigue on the part of Arabella’s sister Zdenka, Arabella almost loses him.
Fortunately, Zdenka confesses all before it’s too late, and Matteo happily takes her as a consolation prize.
The most beautiful and touching moments of the opera are reserved for Arabella and Mandryka, where Strauss’s score sweeps away everything in its path.
This one’s a keeper.
You’ll find all the details of this recording here.
Here are Magee and Konieczny in the final scene, followed by Schade singing Robert Schumann’s dreamy setting of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem “Mondnacht” earlier this year:
(In case you’re wondering, the glass of water routine is an old folk rite of acceptance into fiancée-hood, according to the plot.)
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
