LEND OPERA NUOVA YOUR EARS
Bard-inspired work simply sings
There is a nice moment of selfirony in Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which Opera Nuova gave in the first of two performances at the Oasis Centre Wednesday.
Lorenzo, having secretly ushered Romeo in to see Giulietta, says “speak softly.” That, of course, is exactly what can’t happen, because this is opera and what’s more, this is bel canto opera, where the whole point is the glory of the singing.
Keeping your voice down doesn’t really come into it.
Bellini’s fifth opera is not directly based on the famous Shakespeare play. The source was an earlier Italian libretto, based on an Italian play, itself loosely following the Bard’s story.
Gone are the nurse and the friar, and the Montagues and the Capulets are warring political factions rather than feuding families. The essentials of the story are all there, even if librettist Romano doesn’t quite explain why the two factions are always drawing swords but never fighting — especially Romeo and Tebaldo. Tybalt lives: the only deaths are those of Romeo and Juliet at the end.
The intimacy of the Romeo and Juliet love story, however, is very effective, and there are some wonderful musical passages, notably the quintet at the end of Act One, with the all-male chorus joining in with menacing staccato at the end.
It was enterprising of Opera Nuova to present the opera as part of the 2016 Nuova Opera and Music Theatre Festival because it has never been seen in Edmonton. More importantly, it gives the young singers of Opera Nuova’s training program, on the cusp of their professional careers, a welcome opportunity to develop their skills in bel canto roles.
The very nature of bel canto stretches the young singers — after all, the music was originally written for the finest and most experienced voices of the day. But they acquitted themselves well Wednesday night, with a strong sense of ensemble and an enthusiastic chorus.
Soprano Brittany Rae’s voice is, I suspect, better suited to later Italian opera than to the decorative elements of a bel canto Giulietta, but she was effective in her more impassioned interactions, both with Romeo and her father, Capellio.
Bass Simon Chalifoux, in the role of Capellio, produced some resonant singing and if his acting was a little wooden, he carried off the part.
The outstanding performance, though, came from the Romeo.
The part, following a long Italian tradition, was written for a mezzo-soprano in a ‘trousersrole’ (in which a female appears in male clothing), though that tradition ended with this opera. In a modern age of LGBTQ rights and awareness, that inevitably gives an added dimension to the lovers, especially when the story is so well known.
Jamie Groote brought a palpable stage presence to the role and her singing was the best of the evening. Although the lowest part of the range has yet to completely fill out, there is real, and justified, self-confidence in her voice, an attractive warm tone, and happily secure high notes.
The staging by director Carol Castel, while not impeding the flow of the opera, was less effective. At first sight, the Oasis Centre, a conference centre and wedding venue, seems an unlikely place to stage opera.
But, in fact, the auditorium mimics (ironically) a classic Shakespearean theatre space, with the ballroom floor providing the thrust stage, the audience seated on three sides and the small raised platform with curtains behind reminiscent of the Shakespearean ‘tiring-house.’
Castel let the singers take advantage of this stage (and the clear acoustics) to sing to the sides and back of the area, avoiding traditional forward-facing opera singing. This was refreshing but occasionally awkward, with inevitable discrepancies between the singers and the small orchestra, conducted by Stu Martin and placed behind the audience.
A Shakespearean thrust stage completely changes the relationship between players and audiences, and Castel’s direction didn’t really take advantage of this. Yes, the proscenium arch was gone, but there was a kind of invisible one in its place, surrounding the stage on three sides, so the audience was still as much distanced. One rather longed for a more inventive and radical staging, playing directly to that audience to draw them in, especially as the young singers would almost certainly have responded.
There is another performance of I Capuleti e i Montecchi Friday, though with a different cast (apart from Chalifoux).
The festival then continues with La Boheme (June 24-26), set in the Paris of the 1930s, and the musical Parade (June 29-July 3), both at Festival Place in Sherwood Park.