Sunday afternoon saw VOICEBOX:Opera in Concert’s first performance in their new home; Trinity St. Paul’s.  The offering was Gluck’s Alceste in the French language 1776 Paris version.  Lauren Margison sang the title role with Colin Ainsworth as Admète.  Guillermo Silva-Marin directed.

Trinity St. Paul’s has advantages and (perhaps) disadvantages over the Jane Mallett.  It’s significantly better acoustically but much harder to do much in the way of staging.  It’s a church and it looks like one with lots of carved wood and stained glass!  I’m not sure that this is a disadvantage though.  Rudimentary blocking with entrances and exits for the principals and concert wear is fine with me given that in either venue full staging wasn’t/isn’t very practical.  The value proposition is more around getting to hear operas live that no-one else in Toronto is likely to do.  I’m fine with that.

It’s piano score too so, the excellent pianism of Suzy Smith aside, it’s really about the quality of the singing and the singers ability to create credible characters.  My initial thoughts were that Lauren has quite a big voice for a Gluck soprano but this is, by 18th century standards, a “big voice” role.  (It’s been recorded by Kirsten Flagstad, Maria Callas and Jessye Norman!).  I thought her rich full timbre worked really well and she produced a very creditable account of the opera’s one big number “Divinités du Styx”.  She could also throttle it back when needed and she has excellent French.  Her physical and vocal acting made for a credible and sympathetic queen.

Colin Ainsworth has probably been Toronto’s “go to” for 17th and 18th French tenor/haut contre roles for as long as I can remember.  We were told before the show that he’s still recovering from major surgery but I would not have noticed if I hadn’t been told.  He has the high notes, the French diction and the légèrité required.  He worked well with Lauren, including some rather fine duets, and they made a believable couple.

The other roles, and there are quite a lot, were all taken by singers doubling as choristers.  I particularly enjoyed Sebastien Belcourt’s swaggering Hercule, who gets to sing a memorable trio with the royal couple, and Austin Larusson impressed as the High Priest.  There were also a couple of pleasing contributions from debutante soprano Anastasia Pogorelova whose lighter, brighter voice made a pleasant contrast with the leading lady.  The other minor roles were more than adequately done.  The chorus has a lot to do in this piece, and here under the direction of Robert Cooper they made an important contribution.

All in all it was a very creditable presentation of a little seen but interesting opera.