Vampire’s allure is explored in opera
A handsome lord puts the bite on three young ladies in this summer production
He’s tall, dark and handsome, not to mention a rich nobleman.
That explains the ability of vampire Lord Ruthven to seduce — and drink the blood of — willing young ladies in the summer opera Der Vampyr.
“I flirt and let him take advantage of me,” explains soprano Clarisse Tonigussi, who plays his victim, Emmy. “I’m the daughter of a bartender and he’s rich.” There’s also the physical attraction. “She puts up a strong fight against the vampire’s attempts to seduce her but, in the end, she cannot resist him and gives in to her sexual desires.”
Der Vampyr tells the story of Lord Ruthven successfully drinking the blood of two young women while failing to land the third before midnight, thereby losing his immortality.
The production for Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, opening for four shows Friday, unearths the rarely seen 1828 opera by German composer Heinrich Marschner.
Guillermo Silva-Marin, general director of the 29-year-old summer program, says the timing was right to revive the piece given the prominence of the undead in pop culture.
Silva-Marin first became interested in vampires through writer Anne Rice’s books, including Interview With the Vampire, which was made into a movie in 1994 starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
The Twilight book and movie series, and TV shows such as The Walking Dead ( technically zombies rather than vampires) and True Blood are examples of the curious obsession with those who defy mortality, he says.
“Mystery and strangeness has its appeal,” he says, adding the vampire need for blood makes him the perfect anti-hero.
“Their need of others passes as vulnerability. Who can resist helping an attractive young man?”
The opera was based on the book The Vampyre, written in1819 by John William Polidori one year after Mary Shelley penned Frankenstein. This gothic tale plucked the folkloric creature from the forests, where he was ugly and animal-like, and established him in the world of privilege and beauty.
“He introduced him as high class, an aristocrat,” explains Silva-Marin of the common image we have to this day. It was cemented further by the popularity of Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror story Dracula, about a doomed count.
Der Vampyr has a lush, romantic score and is sung in German.
Russian-born baritone Andrey An- dreychik, who portrays Lord Ruthven, says the vampire isn’t evil.
“He feels the pain of his victim as he sucks the blood,” he says, adding, “I always try to find the empathy in characters.”
Dressed all in black and swirling his silk cape during rehearsal, Andreychik called the music “dramatic and powerful. I like to do things big.”
The University of British Columbia music graduate recently moved to Toronto to establish a career in op- era. All of the 50 cast members in the Summer Opera Lyric Theatre program are emerging artists chosen by Silva-Marin for the intense training program. It ends with the production of three operas, including Martha by Friedrich von Flotow and Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
Der Vampyr, directed by Silva-Marin, is double-cast with two singers portraying each of the three victims on alternate nights. However, Andreychik is the only Lord Ruthven.
Singing opposite two different casts has been an interesting challenge for the singer “as it is never the same way twice,” he said. The program, whose alumni include Krisztina Szabo, David Pomeroy, Nora Sourouzian, Joseph Kaiser, Keith Klassen and Joshua Hopkins, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2016. Performances are Friday to Aug. 9 at the Robert Gill Theatre at the University of Toronto, 214 College St. Go to stlc.com for tickets.