{"id":45206,"date":"2017-05-13T09:15:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T13:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=45206"},"modified":"2017-05-13T09:18:58","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T13:18:58","slug":"scuritny-belly-laughs-and-drama-charm-together-in-toronto-consorts-helen-of-troy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/05\/13\/scuritny-belly-laughs-and-drama-charm-together-in-toronto-consorts-helen-of-troy\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Belly Laughs And Drama Charm Together In Toronto Consort\u2019s Helen Of Troy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Toronto Consort, Helen of Troy, 2017. (Photo: John Terauds)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Helen of Troy, by Francisco Cavalli. The Toronto Consort and guests, conducted by David Fallis. Trinity-St Paul\u2019s Centre. Continues to May 14<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

Helen of Troy, the icon of female beauty in Ancient Greek mythology, had a face that launched a thousand ships, according to playwright Christopher Marlowe. Her tumultuous personal story has also launched thousands of poetic, literary and musical expeditions into the irresistible wilds of love and passion.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Consort and an excellent cast of guests introduced us to a peculiar operatic take on Helen on Friday night, in the first of three concert performances of Helen of Troy by Baroque Italian opera composer Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) at Trinity-St Paul\u2019s Centre.<\/p>\n

The plot of Cavalli\u2019s Elena, a dramma per musica<\/em> dating from 1659, is so convoluted that it defies quick description. Suffice it to say that it is equal parts comedy and drama, a mixture close to the hearts of Venetian operagoers, who likes plenty of zesty sauce with their dramatic meat. The result is a work that has the audience weeping along with a lovelorn swain one moment, and laughing from the gut at the buffoon\u2019s antics the next.<\/p>\n

Carrying off this balance of drama and farce involves a delicate balancing act \u2014 one the forces assembled on the concert stage Friday night pulled off with remarkable style. David Fallis led a mixture of Toronto Consort core members and guests in a performance that any fan of Baroque opera should get to this weekend.<\/p>\n

As Fallis noted in the program, Elena was produced when commercial opera was in its infancy, run with small ensembles on shoestring budgets (crazy how that still sounds familiar). But, as was the case in 17th<\/sup> century Venice, a small orchestra and stage does not limit how enjoyable the result can be.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Toronto Consort, Helen of Troy, 2017. (Photo: John Terauds)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The eight-person ensemble of experienced period-performance players led by Fallis made Cavalli\u2019s colourful score pulse and glow. Even without the prominent surtitles, the music would have amply conveyed the basic meaning of what was happening on stage. The 11 soloists were excellent, too, most of them really digging in to their expressive toolboxes to bring the most out of their vocal lines. There are a number of duo arias and choruses that added further colour and interest.<\/p>\n

Worthy of particular note were the vocal contributions by soprano Michelle DeBoer, the very picture of the sweet and silly Elena. Tenor Cory Knight\u2019s lyrical qualities were on gorgeous display as Theseus. Tenor Kevin Skelton brought a na\u00efve charm and warm voice to his strange role of Menelaus, disguised as an arm-wrestling Amazon, and mezzos Laura Pudwell and Vicki St. Pierre brought some vocal heft to a score dominated by high voices and instruments. One of the most versatile musicians in town \u2014 tenor Bud Roach \u2014 was a treat not only as the story\u2019s jester, but also for his fine guitar playing.<\/p>\n

Kudos also to Fallis, who nipped and tucked more than an hour\u2019s worth of material from the score, making it feel like a brisk, enjoyable romp.<\/p>\n

Toronto is so fortunate to have such great artists in its midst: people who can take a dust-covered work from more than three-and-a-half centuries ago and breathe so much fresh life into it. This is Elena\u2019s probable Canadian premiere and, given the lay of the musical land, it may not be seen or heard in these parts again anytime soon, so let this Helen work her charms on you, too.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Consort and an excellent cast of guests introduced us to a peculiar operatic take on Helen on Friday night, in the first of three concert performances of Helen of Troy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,74,19,52,63],"tags":[9549,4492],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/Elena_close.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bL8","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45206"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45213,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45206\/revisions\/45213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45206"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}