Category Archives: Performance review – COC

Carmen again

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We were back at the COC last night for the first performance of Carmen by the alternative cast.  (First cast review) As so often seems to be the case with these double cast shows it felt almost like a different production.  The biggest differences are produced by the new Don José, David Pomeroy, and the new Carmen, Clémentine Margaine.  Pomeroy is a very decent singer but he doesn’t have the ease, power and bloom of Russell Thomas.  What he does have is vastly superior acting chops.  His Don José is a believably complex human being.  We can see his decline from rather boring and provincially stuck up into despair(1).  It’s palpable.  Margaine’s Carmen is a similar story.  Her voice isn’t as big or dark as Anita Rashvelishvili(2) but she’s much more physical on stage.  Further, Pomeroy and Margaine are much more credible as a couple.  The net result is the drama that was rather missing in the first two acts on Sunday.  The price is not hearing two absolutely incredibly beautiful voices.

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Carmen in Cuba?

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I caught the second performance of the current run of Carmen at the COC this afternoon.  It’s a revival of the production previously seen in 2010 but with, we are told, debuting director Joel Ivany being given some freedom to change things up a bit.  Obviously he was mostly constrained to use the existing sets and costumes which, for reasons that escape me, transplants the piece to 1940s Cuba which was, as far as I know, markedly short of both gypsies and bull fights but there you go.  Actually it matters scarcely at all because both sets and costumes are generic scruffy Hispanic and could be anywhere from Leon to Lima.  For the first two acts too the blocking and Personenregie is pretty standard too.  It’s all really down to the chemistry between the singers and the quality of the acting and neither is anything to write home about.  It says a lot when Frasquita is scene stealing.  Fortunately it livens up a lot after the interval.  The third act is atmospheric and Micaëla’s aria is deeply touching and for the first time I felt genuine emotion.  It gets even better after that with a really effective use of the whole auditorium for the parade which had much of the audience clapping along and a clever stage set up for the crowd during the final confrontation scene.  I don’t think it’s a production for the ages but it’s better than merely serviceable and I’ve seen much worse Carmens.  And, frankly, it’s simply not realistic to expect one of the season’s cash cows to push the envelope very far.

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Ensemble Studio Marriage of Figaro

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Once a season the young artists of the COC’s Ensemble Studio get to perform one of the company’s productions on the main stage of the Four Seasons Centre.  Last night it was the Claus Guth production of The Marriage of Figaro.  I’ve said enough about the production already here and here so let’s cut to the chase.

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Another look at the Guth Figaro

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Back at the Four Seasons Centre last night for another look at the current Claus Guth production of The Marriage of Figaro.  It was a somewhat different experience than opening night.  The timing and physical comedy seems to have crisped up and the audience seemed more relaxed.  There was a lot of laughter.  A lot.  I could see why too, although I have never thought of this as a “funny” production.  Indeed the 2006 Salzburg original earned its reputation as “the darkest Figaro ever”.  Interval conversation suggested that the production has been progressively “lightened up” in its various Salzburg revivals and maybe this was just the next step in that progression.  There seemed to be fewer dead birds too.  One effect of the shift was to bring the character of Figaro more to the fore.  I thought Joseph Wagner was a bit anonymous on opening night but he impressed me last night.

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Guth’s Figaro at the COC

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Claus Guth’s production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, first seen at Salzburg in 2006, opened last night at the COC.  I was curious to see how it would be received because, while by no means an extreme production by European standards, it’s well beyond the 1970s aesthetic beloved by sections of the Toronto audience.  The aesthetic is Northern European; a Strindberg play or a Bergmann film perhaps.  It’s monochromatic, quite slow and focusses on the darker side of the characters’ psyches.  It’s the antithesis of Figaro as Feydeau farce.  There’s also a non-canonical character, Cherubim.  He’s a winged doppelganger of Cherubino and seems to be a cross between Cupid and Puck.  Pretty much omnipresent he manipulates scenes and characters though with a power that falls well short of absolute.  Perhaps the whole production is best summed up in the final ensemble.  Cherubim visits each couple in turn and is brusquely rejected.  Only Cherubino is still subject to his power and that seems to have become destructive.  Perhaps the message is “Now we are married forget this love nonsense and let us get back to our drab lives of quiet despair”.

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Heil dir, Sonne!

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François Girard’s Siegfried, a revival of his 2006 production, opened last night at the COC.  Despite using the same basic set concept as Atom Egoyan’s Die Walküre, Girard’s Siegfried, has a rather different look and feel.  The fragments of Valhalla and the remains of Yggdrassil are still there but they are supplemented in imaginative fashion by a corps of supers and acrobats who play a key role in shaping the scenes.  For example, in the opening scene we have Yggdrassil festooned with bodies, as if some enormous shrike were in residence.  Some of these are dummies and some aerialists who come into the drama at key points.  The flames in Siegfried’s forge are human arms.  Acrobats make a very effective Fafner in the Niedhöhle scene and the flames around Brünnhilde’s rock are human too.  Most of the characters are dressed in sort of white pyjamas which makes for a very monochromatic effect on the mostly dark stage.  The one visual incongruity is the “bear” who is present, tied to Yggdrassil, throughout Act 1.  Frankly it looks less like a bear than John Tomlinson after a night on the tiles.  Still, all in all, the production is effective without being especially revelatory.

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Traviata redux

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Nederland, Amsterdam, 02-05-2013. Muziektheater, DNO: La Traviata voorgenerale orkest.Last night we saw the last performance of the current COC run of La Traviata, this time with the alternate cast.  Joyce El-Khoury, Andrew Haji and James Westman came in for Ekaterina Siurina, Charles Castronovo and Quinn Kelsey.  We were also sitting in Ring 3 rather than lower down which gave a rather different perspective; perhaps not showing off the clever lighting for the intimate scenes quite as well but much more effective, by giving greater depth, for the party scenes.

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Night of the living mezzos

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As previously revealed the line up for last night’s Centre Stage; the COC’s gala competition cum Ensemble Studio final audition featured four mezzos, two sopranos and two baritones.  Not a tenor to be had.  As was the case two years ago the competition was split into two parts; a late afternoon session for an invited audience and an early evening public session separated by a cocktail reception.  Each singer presented one aria in each session.  Accompaniment was provided by the COC Orchestra with music director Johannes Debus.

The Lieutenant Governor with the contestants

The Lieutenant Governor with the contestants

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Pyramus and Thisbe – Beyond time and space

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Back last night for a second look at Pyramus and Thisbe at the COC.  I’ve been involved in a huge amount of discussion, mostly with Katja, about this show since we saw it on Tuesday and there were many things about the Monk Feldman piece and its staging that I wanted to think about again.  Lots of thoughts and, perhaps, a slightly different perspective since I was watching from two levels higher in the house this time.

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Pyramus and Thisbe – a world premiere

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The new COC creation Pyramus and Thisbe with music by Monteverdi and Barbara Monk Feldman opened last night at the Four Seasons Centre.  I was expecting abstract and cerebral, which it is, but I was rather expecting that I might admire it more than enjoy it.  As it turned out it was a remarkably satisfying show on many levels.

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