{"id":15599,"date":"2013-10-30T22:23:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T03:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=15599"},"modified":"2013-10-31T06:12:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T11:12:25","slug":"opera-review-unappealing-staging-meets-some-fine-singing-in-poe-inspired-opera-5-presentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/10\/30\/opera-review-unappealing-staging-meets-some-fine-singing-in-poe-inspired-opera-5-presentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera review: Unappealing staging meets some fine singing in Poe-inspired Opera 5 presentation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David<\/a>
David Tinervia and company in The Masque of the Red Death<\/em> at the Arts & Letters Club (Emily Ding photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opera 5, one of several intriguing upstart Toronto companies aiming to make something new of an old artform, starts the season with its first show on an old-fashioned proscenium stage, at the Arts & Letters Club.<\/p>\n

At the second of three performances, on Wednesday night, the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired trio of short operas aesthetically complemented the heavy carved-wood trusses of the club’s auditorium. Thursday’s final performance dovetails nicely with Hallowe’en, especially given the staging.<\/p>\n

Aria Umezawa, one of the company’s co-founders, has assembled three short operas based on stories by Poe, and used the same cast and costumes — largely presented as escapees from a zombie movie — to weave the singers through the dark wood of Poe’s twisted imagination.<\/p>\n

That staging, on the high school auditorium-sized stage heaped with empty wine bottles and various other pieces of detritus meant to evoke decadence and decay, seriously doesn’t work. It has a haphazard, amateur-theatrical feel that detracted from some otherwise fine singing.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the evening was the premiere production of The Masque of Red Death<\/em>, set to a Kurt Weill-meets-Tin Pan Alley score by young Toronto composer Cecilia Livingston. Accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra led by Constantine Caravassilis, the music bounced and bubbled and slithered along beguilingly, sounding very much as if from another place and time.<\/p>\n

This work included some nice ensemble singing, which gave the six-person chorus something other to do than bump into each other ghoulishly on the treacherous stage.<\/p>\n

The evening also featured some very fine singing (and acting) by two baritones we should take careful note of: Torontonian Adrian Kramer and American David Tinervia.<\/p>\n

Mezzo Lucia Cesaroni was also a treat to listen to, but her diction, especially in the French-language setting of The Fall of the House of Usher<\/em> by Claude Debussy, was terrible.<\/p>\n

Another star throughout the evening, which began with the late American composer Daniel Pinkham’s Cask of Amontillado<\/em>, was pianist Maika’i Nash who was an excellent music director as well as a 10-fingered piano orchestra during the Pinkham and Debussy operas.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is some fine singing to hear, and, yes, this opera programme fits nicely with this week’s Hallowe’en celebrations, and Opera 5 has some interesting ideas, but the young company is also still busily climbing the opera world’s steep learning curve.<\/p>\n

You can find out more about the company and its productions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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