{"id":48790,"date":"2017-11-01T13:47:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T17:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=48790"},"modified":"2017-11-01T13:47:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T17:47:01","slug":"scrutiny-opera-ateliers-theatrical-marriage-figaro-calls-right-tune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/11\/01\/scrutiny-opera-ateliers-theatrical-marriage-figaro-calls-right-tune\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Opera Atelier\u2019s Theatrical Marriage Of Figaro Calls The Right Tune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mireille
Mireille Asselin (Susanna) and Douglas Williams (Figaro). (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opera Atelier: The Marriage of Figaro. At the Elgin Theatre, Oct. 26\u00a0through Nov. 4. Visit\u00a0operaatelier.com<\/a> for details.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It isn’t often we get to see a Marriage of Figaro like Opera Atelier\u2019s successful opening three shows this past weekend, one so polished and sleek, full of vivacious fun and artistic verve.<\/p>\n

Here we have the perfect Figaro \u2014 supremely sung, breathtakingly danced and with spot-on acting.<\/p>\n

And all of it was done without the faintest pretence to the modernization of Mozart\u2019s classic, a comic theatre piece no less and a pure opera buffa <\/em>so ravingly popular with the public and composers that it completely changed the musical landscape with its powerful influence. No one who composed an opera thereafter could ignore Mozart\u2019s masterpiece, especially the innovative Act II finale that proved to be a structurally dramatic game-changer.<\/p>\n

Here are ten reasons why you need to buy a ticket this week to see any one of the remaining shows in Opera Atelier\u2019s highly convincing, successful production.<\/p>\n

\"Mireille
Mireille Asselin (Susanna) and Douglas Williams (Figaro). (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1\/. Singing<\/u>:\u00a0 It\u2019s all good.\u00a0 Douglas Williams is a lithe, kinetic Figaro who seems to throw his whole lanky frame into his vocal signature.\u00a0 He has a great voice, superb acting skills and is a convincing foil for an equally eloquent Stephen Hegedus as Count Almaviva.\u00a0 Hegedus gives the role the three-dimensional balance between misguided philanderer and unsympathetic domineeringness that doesn’t take us directly to the Dark Side, like so many productions do these days.\u00a0 Both baritones are equal in vocal weight and lyricism, flexibility and humanity and on-stage presence.<\/p>\n

The women are splendid too.\u00a0 Mireille Asselin (Susanna), Peggy Kriha Dye (Countess Almaviva), and Mireille Lebel (Cherubino) offer diverse and varying performances, each bringing a masterful understanding of their roles and the needed vocal character to blend both dramatic and comic action.\u00a0 Audiences warmed to all performers, and nothing was uneven.<\/p>\n

Ensembles were like gold.\u00a0 A superb marital spat scene between Hegedus and Kriha Dye (trio, then duo) forms a lengthy highlight centrepiece of Act II.\u00a0 The ensemble revelation scene of Figaro\u2019s origins and true parentage in Act III was compactly focused, nicely harmonically tuned, tonally nuanced, blended and phrased beyond mere four-square predictability, and very often exhilarating.<\/p>\n

2\/.\u00a0 Dramatic Action<\/u>:\u00a0 \u2026..obeyed every eighteenth-century dramatic archetype from character to costume, convention to commedia dell\u2019arte.\u00a0 Never before have I taken in a Figaro that actually made complete dramatic sense along the way, intimately tying the libretto (entirely translated into English), in which the music was subservient to the theatrical norms and dramatic body gestures of the time.\u00a0 Best of all, the libretto\u2019s rampant insouciance and periodic farce laced with innuendo was never too much in your face, except for Christopher Enns\u2019 supremely slimeball Basilio.\u00a0 Enns has the perfect voice, filled with long-scooped onsets and slithering meander suited to the commedia dell\u2019arte snake the role demands.<\/p>\n

\"The
The company of The Marriage of Figaro. (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3\/. Direction<\/u>:\u00a0 To this end, Marshall Pynkoski\u2019s direction was remarkable. Every scene felt fleshed out to its fullest extent.\u00a0 Pynkoski puts you directly in touch with 18th-Century comedy, specifically Viennese-flavoured theatre of Mozart\u2019s time, and as a result, I learned more from this Figaro than the many others I have seen on multiple stages in the past twenty years.\u00a0 Marriage of Figaro needs to live and breathe as a well-researched, staged buffa and not merely as a monolithic operatic icon.\u00a0 Pynkoski brings the stage to life with his customary attention to a thousand details and blends it seamlessly with the music lending Mozart\u2019s melodies and harmonies new clarity.\u00a0 Now that, by its original intention, is what opera is supposed to be.<\/p>\n

4\/.\u00a0 It’s in English<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes, you read that correctly above.\u00a0 The opera\u2019s original libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte is translated and partly ‘transladapted’ by Jeremy Sams.\u00a0 The new English text injects a little bit of British Music Hall sensibility with a penchant for witty rhyming word play and sardonic insult.\u00a0 In Italian comedy, the wit was grounded more on troping the conventional meaning of words to the unexpected punch-line, whereas the French thrived on parrying point-counterpoint.\u00a0 Some of these qualities are deleted when da Ponte is mildly transladapted here, but the trade-off is worth it to explain the twists and turns in Marriage of Figaro\u2019s contorted plotline, especially in Act IV.<\/p>\n

All this serves Pynkoski\u2019s highly physical direction acutely well.\u00a0 The action is crisp and the show never drags.\u00a0 However with some of the finer Italian moments absent, I’m not the only one to confess that the poetic naturalness of the footfalls that accorded well with Mozart\u2019s melismatic lyricism and rapid parlando byplay make me long for the original.\u00a0 Moreover, Peggy Kriha Dye\u2019s \u201cDove sono\u201d sounds much harder to sing and demands a different, somewhat more strenuous phrasing and breath placement with the English translation. I admired how well she brought it off in Saturday night\u2019s performance (and \u201cPorgi Amor\u201d too) coping very well with a less natural text placement.\u00a0 Finally, Cherubino\u2019s Act I aria \u201cNon so pi\u00f9\u201d was slower in tempo to accommodate the English text, but Mireille Asselin gave it such tremendous diction and beauty, I tended to readily accept the adaptation thanks to her sterling voice and musicianship.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen
Stephen Hegedus (Count Almaviva) with Artists of Atelier Ballet. (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5\/.\u00a0 Comic Kinetics<\/u>:\u00a0 This is a very physical Figaro for both the title role and the somewhat broadly-stroked commedia characterizations of every cast member \u2014 and it paid dividends.\u00a0 Pynkoski\u2019s great direction leaves no corner of the stage unused, no dramatic\/comic possibility unexplored.\u00a0 This allows the plot to reveal more than it typically does in other productions allowing us to appreciate Mozart\u2019s music even more.<\/p>\n

Furthermore in the eighteenth century, when comedy began to be censured for its \u2018debauchery\u2019, there was a growing expectation for commedia dell\u2019arte characters to become more coquettish and discreet.\u00a0 Actors then increased hidden textual meanings through their physicality.\u00a0 For example, in the Opera Atelier production, the clothing change and cross-dress scenes written for Cherubino in Act II were funnier, subtler and more meaningful in conveying disguised attractions.\u00a0 Pynkoski\u2019s approach brought a greater directorial sensitivity to how these moments could be physically played and how their ensuing implications for revealing relationships between the women could likewise expose us to greater musical-dramatic depth.<\/p>\n

6\/.\u00a0 Costumes<\/u>:\u00a0 Masks, commedia dell\u2019arte colours, capes, dresses, coats, hats, all of it by Dora Award-winning costume designer Martha Mann fit the character to the archetypal role so appropriately and without carnivalesque exaggeration that I felt comfortable with each onstage personality.\u00a0 We all knew who they were and what dramatic purpose they were supposed to serve.\u00a0 Mann\u2019s costumes were entirely a refreshing departure from the garish attempts at caricature we often see in other productions.<\/p>\n

\"The
The company of The Marriage of Figaro. (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7\/:\u00a0 Acting<\/u>:\u00a0 Direction, costumes and an inordinate amount of blocking and activity just seemed to bring out the best acting possible from the entire cast.\u00a0 Approaching the audience in ensemble codas to sing to us in theatrical tradition drew us in.\u00a0 The acting was intimate and never hammy, flecked with camp but never too much.\u00a0 Everyone struck the right balance.<\/p>\n

8\/:\u00a0 Orchestra<\/u>:\u00a0 Finally I understand the overture and its comical, nervous giggles and fidgety figurations.\u00a0 They were clearly meant to imitate the intensely physical theatre of the time.\u00a0 Conductor David Fallis slowed only a few tempi, primarily to accommodate the English translation or so it seemed.\u00a0 Largely, Fallis\u2019s scholarship and understanding of the score is utterly unerring.\u00a0 The orchestra was clean and polished, impressive in stylistic nuance and blend, expressive where needed but above all, well calculated for the theatre space in which they played.\u00a0 They sounded superb from the back of the orchestra-level seats.<\/p>\n

9\/:\u00a0 Relevance<\/u>:\u00a0 In an age that witnesses the ever-growing calling-out of high-powered men for their uncouth behaviour and sexual harassment, these performances made one marvel at how an opera more than two hundred years old can tell the perfect tale of the Count Almavivas of today.\u00a0 Without trying too hard, a strong physical theatre performance made me feel like I was watching the perfect mirror held up to contemporary times.<\/p>\n

10\/:\u00a0 Dancing as Aesthetic and Metaphor<\/u>:\u00a0 Near the beginning of Act I, when Figaro finds out that his master the Count Almaviva secretly wishes to revive the arcane Droit de Seigneur <\/em>(Right of the First Night), in order to seduce Figaro\u2019s bride Susana away from him, Figaro sings the famous cavatina \u201cSe vuol ballare\u201d \u2014 \u201cIf you want to dance I shall call the tune.\u201d By equipping dance with so powerful a metaphorical impact to describe the opera\u2019s themes of social and political upheaval, Mozart sets his comic revenge-piece in motion using Beaumarchais\u2019 theatrical chaos and comic contortions to effectively show how Figaro, the true intellectual master, outsmarts the Count, in effect cutting through a caste society.<\/p>\n

Opera Atelier somewhat restored the importance of the metaphorical device that dancing and theatre confer to the opera, as we believe Mozart has always wanted. Dancing in Marriage of Figaro was not mere bauble but well-positioned, plot-driven ballata. (Mozart once stated he loved dance even more than music).<\/p>\n

\"The
The company of The Marriage of Figaro. (Photo: Bruce Zinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To dance, in this context, equated to social manoeuvring, plotting, parrying and thrusting, and moreover, duelling between a master and a servant engaged in a battle of wits, which was a highly controversial subject for its time. When Beaumarchais wrote his pre-Revolutionary French play on which Lorenzo da Ponte would carefully redact a libretto that wouldn’t arouse too much criticism from Viennese censors, the gunrunner\/playwright\/revolutionary used the name Figaro, based on the the French verb \u201cfigurer\u201d as in \u201cfiguring out\u201d \u2014 a skill the opera\u2019s title character is supposed to possess in abundance.\u00a0 The same word in both French \u2014 and by co-incidence its Italian cognate \u201cfigurata\u201d \u2014 both mean dancer.<\/p>\n

Figaro the dancer, is also Figaro the highly kinetic buffo baritone, a brand new invention by Mozart for a comic lead.\u00a0 Dance Master and co-artistic director Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg and director Pynkoski have likewise restored the Figaro character as well to something more like Mozart\u2019s original buffo intentions.<\/p>\n

While true that we can see this in a few other productions (many of which I have taken in live and on blu ray), it’s Opera Atelier\u2019s pronounced success at restoring the opera\u2019s required commedia dell\u2019arte theatricality and Douglas Williams\u2019 comically seamless Figaro that lead the way.<\/p>\n

Opera Atelier\u2019s Marriage of Figaro must be seen if you want to truly understand how much this opera meant to people over two hundred years ago, and how much it still means to us today.<\/p>\n

Post-Script:\u00a0 The Fandango Scene<\/strong> \u2014 some extra, but important notes<\/p>\n

Douglas Williams was perfectly timed in the Act III fandango finale, where he and Mireille Asselin\u2019s Susanna must manoeuvre through the dancers, splendidly attired in perfect historical costume and with exact arm motions, complete with compulsory castanets for an aristocratic triple-metre dance. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in the eighteenth century, according to French and Spanish writers, the fandango was a duple-metre dance in 6\/8, but by Mozart\u2019s time, the fandango had evolved into a highly popular, triple metre couple’s dance for the aristocracy \u2014 less sensual, with its original erotic intents disguised for the more demure royalty.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the famous Act III message scene, where Susanna slips the Count a note requesting a late-night garden rendez-vous (it’s a trap of course, designed to humiliate the Count in front of the long-suffering Contessa Rosina, who exchanges cloaks with Susanna), there is a small passage of about ten bars in the score where Mozart writes \u201cFigaro dances\u201d but, in a couple\u2019s dance, with whom? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Opera Atelier gets this scene just right.\u00a0 Pynkoski and Lajeunesse Zingg have Figaro and Susanna manoeuvre through the fandango corps, quite comically and unexpectedly, so that Susanna can give the Count the assignation note without him realizing that the lovers are scrutinizing his reaction.\u00a0 The Count himself is distracted during this subterfuge, and while opening the note is pricked by the pin which seals it.\u00a0 The pricking moment, while Figaro and Susanna move seemingly unnoticed throughout the fandango, was a delicious, dance\/dramatic symbol that other productions nearly always miss.\u00a0 The implication of the fandango, as left to us to decipher from Mozart\u2019s score directions, seems to be that Figaro dances as much with his bride-to-be in this production as he does symbolically with his master, who is yet again to be outsmarted \u2014 pricked by Figaro\u2019s wit.\u00a0 Truly when Figaro dances, he calls the Count\u2019s tune.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Here we have the perfect Figaro \u2014 supremely sung, breathtakingly danced and with spot-on acting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":48800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,43,52,63],"tags":[2494,5852],"yst_prominent_words":[13106,13103,13112,13081,13113,9070,13107,7498,13082,9065,13090,13101,13104,6886,8476,13080,13110,13109,13105,13102],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/Opera-Atelier-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cGW","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48790"}],"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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48802,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48790\/revisions\/48802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48790"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}