They could not have chosen a better advocate than Christopher Doig to steer a new course towards future opera productions. So out the ashes rose the phoenix which has been named ‘Southern Opera’ with Doig at the
helm as Executive Chairman and a small team of enthusiastic and experienced people to help guide and move the company forward.
Supporters of opera in Canterbury have been tirelessly fund-raising and organising events, and already this year ‘ Southern Opera’ have presented operatic concerts and events to raise both funds and their profile.
With Doig’s focus, vision and wide range of contacts a strong basis on which to build a company was in place. It is also great to see such strong corporate, financial and sponsorship support for the company. And wisely and understandably for their first operatic venture, they chose a safe, well
known popular opera in Bizet’s Carmen, and they relied significantly on local practitioners that gave a sense community involvement and ownership to the production; pleasingly local audience support was strong, such that all six performances were extremely well attended. Naturally some principals needed to be imported, but the majority of the others had a Christchurch connection of some sort. This first production has provided a good basis on which to build for future productions.
No company ever chooses to mount the opera Carmen unless they have someone in place for the titular role and they could not have chosen better than Israeli/ New York based mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham who has justifiably received rave notices for performances at Glyndebourne and elsewhere is truly a “femme-fatale”. Having seen many productions I often find this a problematical and frequently unsatisfying opera despite the glorious music; to be convincing there must be a real demonstrable
sensual and sexual chemistry between Carmen and both Don José and Escamillo. Carmen is a fatalistic, wild child and free spirit, here Shaham acted and sang superbly, ranging and pacing the stage with feline grace, sultry, sensual allure and spitfire power and spirit. Displaying great energy, she owned the stage, sang brilliantly and looked terrific. She was seductive and surely charmed the whole audience. Her spontaneous mocking of José in the last act by conducting the crowd took us by surprise and it worked well. Her ‘Habanera’ and ‘Seguidilla’ were wonderfully evocative, her voice displaying a lovely rich, warm quality in the middle and lower registers.
Renowned American tenor Vinson Cole sang with beauty and delicacy as Don José, although he was less proficient in his acting and in conveying his feelings and passion. The characterisation was a little limp, and insipid. Real involvement and passionate dramatic chemistry didn’t appear until the vital dramatic final moments of the opera, which were finely and believably handled by both principals, when they became a potent pair. This approach for José may well have been an intentional characterisation style.
Joshua Bloom was rather short of the machismo and swagger needed for Escamillo and his voice lacked focus to begin with and moved on to a swallowed, woofly, barked sound along with intonation problems which I found unattractive.
As Micaëla, Christchurch based soprano Suzanne Prain was the epitome of naive fragility showing vulnerability and innocence in her portrayal. Her entrance to a naked stage devoid of props, dwarfed by towering full theatre high sets, was effective. She sang beautifully, was meltingly affecting, and a delight to the eye.
The smugglers quintet was very well sung indeed, and characterised effectively, although it demonstrated a lack of any cohesive stage direction. Christchurch originals, Amanda Winfield (Frasquita) - back from overseas, Rachelle Pike (Mercedes), Brendan Casey (Le Dancairo) along with the Zuniga of Wade Kernot and American import Ravil Atlas (Le Remendado) were excellent.
Of course as new company many things have to start from scratch again so a chorus of local singers had to be found. Prepared by Louise Clark the adult chorus generally sang very well, with some vibrant work, although the basses struggled a bit. The children’s chorus of urchins, from Medbury School, were dramatically alive` and active, though sometimes too unruly beyond the requirements of their roles, but their singing was excellent, spirited and appropriate in timbre and style.
For the scene at Lillas Pastia’s tavern a couple of real flamenco dancers added verisimilitude, vitality, and colour to theassembled smugglers and hangers-on, bringing splendour to the action. The costumes were lavish, colourful and as well as the set colours, Goya-esque.
Allan Lees’s excellent angled, askew set design was versatile and functional, with descending steps on stage right, a flat angled wall and two arched entrances on each wall which could have been higher and bigger to be more effective in allowing movement. The set was painted in dappled sun-bleached terracotta colours and bathed by excellent lighting from Joe Hayes. There were beautiful atmospheric lighting effects particularly the simulated falling snow in the mountains during Act Two and the bright, blinding, sunburnt feel for the final act. An innovation was that the flat wall had
three tiers of performance ramps behind the fa?ade covered by gauzy sacking. The fa?ade had arched window alcoves which could be backlit, to show scenes behind. The cigarette factory and girls made their appearances in these alcoves behind these windows. Unfortunately, but probably unintentionally, the cigarette girls’ gestures did not seem to be indicative of work but, with languid sensuousness, rather more suggestive of the “girls” in the windows of Amsterdam brothels! However in the final scene this part of set was used tellingly, with the chorus as spectators at the bullfight with their backs to the audience looking at the arena to later turn and witness the brutal, chilling murder scene.
I was very disappointed with veteran theatre director Elric Hooper’s vision and direction of this opera, firstly in the decision to perform the long and largely discredited, Guiraud recitative version of the opera and secondly, and more importantly, in his style of stage direction which was actually old fashioned and traditional, reminiscent of what we might have seen fifteen
or twenty years ago. I could find no evidence to support Hooper’s indication that he was using a cinematic treatment. The use of a stark bare stage, with very few scene setting atmospheric props hindered the delivery of realism. There seemed to be no discernible cohesive or consistent vision of how to stage the work. Everyone, principals included, did not to
appear to have been given much direction on how to play their roles, and everybody seemed to have been left to their own devices. The principals, including Shaham, resorted, at times, to overacting. Having seen excerpts of her in other performances of the role this was not how she has played the character. The stage movement of the chorus was aimless, slow, meandering, and unconvincing when moving on and off the stage. The important card scene, set front of stage, though well sung, was directorially
underplayed and missed the impact required.
The musical direction provided by conductor Brian Law throughout was flaccid and also left a lot to be desired. His tempi were inconsistent and erratic, with the pit and stage often out of sync. Most unforgivably he nearly ruined Cole’s lovely, sweetly sung ‘Flower Song’ with unsympathetic accompaniment. The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra played as well as they could and did their best despite Law’s direction.
I can understand the reasons for using the local people this time, but to move forward and progress the company needs to engage others in the future. Never-the-less there was still much to enjoy and this was very a creditable first up opera performance from the company. The quality of the majority of the singing, with Shaham of outstanding international quality, was notable. Southern Opera can only move forward, build on this success and the marvellous support provided by the community. I must note that
the brilliantly designed poster image had terrific impact.
I await with much anticipation next year’s touring production of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and their mainstage Verdi Il Trovatore and a bigger and bolder fully staged presentation of the Richard Strauss opera, Salome at the
Christchurch Town Hall in 2009.