Three Islands is a UoT Opera show that opened at the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre at York University on Thursday night.  The show is conceived and directed by Tim Albery who has wrapped two 20th century English language one act operas in a wrapper crafted from Kaija Saariaho’s Tempest Songbook.

Ariel’s Hail from Tempest Songbook (Saariaho): Prospero – Ben Wallace, Ariel – Aemilia Moser

So we open with Prospero, Miranda, Ariel and co singing text taken straight from Shakespeare.  There’s a projected backdrop of the sea in its varied moods and characters enter rather dramatically through a horizontal slit in the backdrop.  Saariaho’s music is at the ethereal end of her output; more atmospheric than dramatic and the vocal line clearly serves the text.  There’s a definite sense of Prospero as puppet master which along with the overall “look” distinctly hints at Peter Greenaway.  It’s all rather beautiful.  There are fine cameos from Aemilia Moser, Enquan Yu, Chihiro Yasufuku and George Theodorakopolous and Benjmin Wallace is a brooding presence as Prospero.

Miranda’s Lament from Tempest Songbook (Saariaho): Miranda – Chihiro Yasufuku

It segues seamlessly into Lennox Berkeley’s 1967 Aldeburgh Festival commission, Castaway.  This tells the story of Odysseus finding himself on the island of Scheria where he meets the beautiful princess Nausicaa who promptly falls in love with him.  Etiquette demands that the guest be entertained with no requirement to reveal his identity and it’s only in the post feast revels, when the bard Demodocus sings of the Fall of Troy and the leadership of the dead hero Odysseus that he emotionally reveals his identity.  King Alcinous has already promised the stranger a ship and crew that will leave at dawn so there are only a few hours for hero and princess to lament what might have been.

Castaway (Berkeley): Odysseus – Dante Mullin-Santone, Praxinoe – Teresa Tucci, Briseis – Katie Kirkpatrick, Ismene – Kcenia Koutorjevski

The music is rather what one might expect from an English opera of 1967.  In places it’s lyrical and in others more abrasive but it’s all very singable.  There’s also a certain element of dark humour.  Albery’s staging continues the tone of the “prologue” and there’s some fine singing from Cameron Mazzei as Demodocus and excellent singing and acting coupled with terrific chemistry from Dante Mullin-Santone as Odysseus and Jordana Goddard as Nausicaa.  The substantial supporting cast are all very good.

Castaway (Berkeley): Demodocus – Cameron Mazzei

After the interval there’s a bit of a change of mood and pace.  The first two pieces were conceived as chamber works which Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea is not, though here it’s presented in a chamber reduction to good effect.  It’s a curious work.  It’s set on an island off the west coast of Ireland where the men all drown in various dramatic ways and the women spend their time lamenting them.  It’s chock full of early 20th century clichés about the Irish; all peat fires, bog Catholicism and superstition.  This despite it being based very closely on a play by the very Irish John Millington Synge.  I had a hard time getting over the rather crude portrayal of the rural Irish and I’m about as Irish as Oliver Cromwell.

Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams): Nora – Aemilia Moser

One couldn’t fault the performances though.  I think special praise is due to to Keenia Koutrjevski for convincing as the (slightly batty) “grief stricken widow” Maurya.  That’s not an easy role for a much younger woman.  Excellent work too from Aemilia Moser and Chihiro Yosufuku as her daughters and Dante Mullin-Santone who is her only undrowned son; to begin with at least.  Again Albery’s staging is tightly focussed and makes excellent use of projections to evoke the wild and often deadly Atlantic.  The whole show is cleverly closed off by Benjamin Wallace returning to sing “Prospero’s Lament” where he reminds us that this was all just “an insubstantial pageant” with great dignity.

Throughout the show the orchestra, in the hands of first Sandra Horst and then Russell Braun, is outstanding; maybe the real star of the show though I don’t want to detract at all from some fine singing and acting.  All in all it’s a very cleverly constructed and satisfying show that exhibits the UoT Opera’s talent most effectively.  Personally I’d much sooner see this kind of show than yet another Mozart standard though I know that’s probably a minority view.

Three Islands plays again tonight (Saturday) and Sunday with a different cast.  It’s worth the trek to the wilds of Siberia North York and the York University subway stop is only a couple of minutes walk from the theatre.

Photo credit: Hugh Lu