Opera 5 opened the Toronto Opera festival on Wednesday at Theatre Passe Muraille with a Puccini double bill; the rarely seen Suor Angelica and perennial crowd pleaser Gianni Schicchi. Both were presented fully staged in productions by Jessica Derventzis with accompaniment by a chamber ensemble (string quartet, bass, harp, piano) conducted by Evan Mitchell.

The Suor Angelica staging made excellent use of the possibilities offered by TPM’s multiple gangways and staircases with nuns popping up all over the place; especially in the finale. The opera really falls into three parts. In the first third the sisters sing hymns and discuss the gentle quotidian pleasures and pains of the cloistered life. It’s well staged and there’s some excellent ensemble work from the large cast.

Then there’s the pivotal scene where La Zia Principessa visits her nice Angelica who leans of the death of the baby that was taken from her at birth. This is very well done with a strong, emotional performance from Rachel Krehm as Angelica and Krisztina Szabó absolutely splendid as the sour faced, relentless and unforgiving Zia. There’s real drama hear and both singers nail the only real arias of the piece.

Which, of course, leads up to the final scene which is Catholic kitsch rivalled in opera perhaps only by the last scenes of Faust or, maybe, Maria Stuarda. Derventzis plays this for all its worth with the heavenly choir in the gallery and a real child running on. No revisionism here! There’s more emoting from Krehm but it’s musical and just about not too over the top. This opera is what it is and I think the O5 interpretation is a fair representation.

And so to Gianni Schicchi with Greg Dahl in the title role. This time the staging sticks more or less to the stage with only Rinuccio and Lauretta’s final duet up in the gods. The setting, we are told, is 1924 and it looks about right with colour schemes that look more appropriate to an Italian beach resort than anything more northerly.

The ensemble work is once again excellent with fine performances from Kristina Szabó as a particularly acid Zita and some strong singing from Aaron Dimoff as Simone. Jeremy Scinocca runs around energetically and produces some excellent tenoring as Rinuccio and Kate Fogg as Lauretta does the necessary with a fine account of “O mio babbino caro”. Gherardino is turned into a (very frilly) young girl played with some energy by Paige Robinson.

But, inevitably, Dahl steals the show with very stong singing and a sharply characterised and very physical Schicchi. It’s really hard not to like him, scoundrel though he is! It’s a large cast again and everyone contributes to a very satisfying production.

The chamber ensemble is excellent in both pieces. Seven players can provide volume enough for the relatively small space and the instruments chosen provide enough colour; perhaps surprisingly so. Once again Evan Mitchell shows he can do a lot with a little and goes a long way to reinforcing the case for chamber reductions rather than just piano when a full orchestra is not feasible for whatever reason.

All in all, a very decent night at the opera. Opera 5’s Puccini double header runs at Theatre Passe Muraille with further performances on June 4th, 6th and 7th. Tickets available here.

Photo credits: Emily Ding