February 10, 2003.
Castor et Pollux
opera masterpiece
GEOFF CHAPMAN
MUSIC CRITIC
Now it can be told.
The naughty atsronomers who named the constellation Gemini you
might occasionally glimpse through our pollution-ruined atmosphere played fast
and loose with the truth.
They weren't really twins at all, they were half-brothers as
described in Greek mythology. And Castor's mom may have been putting a delicate
spin on things when she fessed up about the kids, one of them mortal (Castor)
but the other (Pollux) immortal, the fruit of her union with a swan (Jupiter in
disguise, she claimed).
It's no surprise, then, that the story which unfolds in Sparta
(and Hades) in the 18th-century opera Castor
et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau, his crowning musical achievement, has a
more bizarre than usual plot.
Castor and Pollux both love Télaire. She and her sister Phébé,
fiancée of Pollux, both love Castor. At the end of the first (of five) acts,
Castor is dead. But in Act 4, he's brought back from Hell by his father-in-law.
Thankfully, today's producers cram everything into two acts.
The tale was brought wonderfully to life by Opera In Concert this
weekend. A CD will result on the Naxos label, but those who missed the live
production certainly missed a treat.
With a chorus of 30, the 21-member Aradia Ensemble directed by
Kevin Mallon and, above all, four principals in excellent voice on stage, the
Jane Mallett Theatre throbbed with intensity amid remarkable displays of
eloquence at yesterday's performance, the second of two.
Rameau's dramatic style mixes melodious airs with innovative and
often sombre orchestral accompaniment. It clearly sprang from a fertile musical
imagination and this was exploited splendidly by the cast. In an opera manner
very much unlike its Italian counterpart — there are very few arias, so most of
the singing is pure recitative, the chorus has to do a lot of work and the
on-stage action is a dense mix of dialogue and declamation — their performance
was full of engaging charm.
One aspect of French baroque work Opera In Concert could not
replicate, given the venue and the organization's budget, was to have dancers.
Instead, Aradia had lengthy opportunities to strut its stuff, but its
contribution was the least effective — musicians sounded stiff when they
weren't playing funeral music, the flow was laboured (though harpsichord and
cellos were on side) and only rarely were they able to emulate the passions
unleashed by the singers. The lengthy breaks for tuning were also annoying.
Ah yes, the voices. A new comet streaked into view at the weekend
with the OIC debut of Montreal-based baritone Joshua Hopkins, currently doing a
master's degree at McGill. As Pollux, he would seem to have every resource
needed for success, with a thickly attractive vibrato and imposing ruggedness
that are just part of his full-bodied, darkly coloured tonal armoury.
As Castor, tenor Colin Ainsworth understood how to wring every
last drop of emphasis from his role, which is particularly important when this
concert form is inhibiting to any kind of acting beyond hard stares (though a
hug or two was managed). His warm voice found congenial employment in a text
that goes out of its way to stress noble aims, with brotherly love and
honourable actions taking the prime positions, and clearly is on an upward
career path.
Sopranos Monica Whicher (Télaire) and Meredith Hall (Phébé, plus a
few extra vampy moments as celestial tempstress) were well-matched, both with
ringing tones and a full and vibrant delivery that operates throughout their
vast ranges, as well as a clear understanding of the need for expressiveness to
ornament basic recitative. Their heady emoting made much of this richly
harmonized music.
Lesser roles were capably filled by bass Giles Tomkins as Jupiter
and soprano Renée Winick as Cleone.
As lyric opera, this production of Castor et Pollux was simply splendid. As soap opera it is full of
potential for hundreds of new episodes. After all, you never learn what happens
to the ladies when Castor and Pollux are made gods. And once you find out that
the guys' sisters are Helen of Troy and the murderous Clytemnestra and that P
and T have also been having a fling with yet another pair of brothers, this one
could run and run!
Rameau reappears, in superb voice
By KEN WINTERS
Special to The Globe and Mail
UPDATED AT 8:33 AM EST
Monday, Feb. 10,
2003
Castor et Pollux
Opera in Concert
Jane Mallett Theatre
in Toronto on Saturday
The great operas of the Baroque
era have been largely ignored by our major houses. They have been thought too
cumbersome and expensive to produce, too difficult to sing, too heavy for the
paying public to bear. What's sad about this is that some of the most vivid and
beautiful dramatic music ever written has been left to gather dust on archival
shelves.
But two things have been
happening in recent years to subvert this attitude. Some modest but musically
enterprising and intelligent organizations have been putting on concert
performances that have given us the musical essence of what we have been
missing. (Last season in Toronto: Monteverdi's Ulysses' Return to his Homeland by the Toronto Consort; and
Handel's Semele by Opera in Concert,
both stylishly sung.) As if in response to such performances and their
apparently abundant audiences, a crop of fresh young Canadian voices has sprung
up, perhaps not always quite ready but fundamentally able and certainly willing
to take on such operas, even to specialize in their peculiar problems.
Opera in Concert -- which under
its founder Stuart Hamilton and now under his successor, Guillermo Silva-Marin,
has been giving Toronto performances of rare operas for nearly 30 years -- did it
again Saturday night, but this time with a masterpiece of the French Baroque,
Jean-Philippe Rameau's Castor et Pollux,
and some of those resourceful young Canadian singers.
This densely braided tale of
brotherly love was sorely in need of English surtitles on this occasion, but
Rameau's music had its own singular eloquence, lyrical, heroic, tragic,
exalted, enlivened everywhere by dance rhythms, and enriched by the most
sophisticated harmonic palette of the era, outside Bach's. Much of the singing
was a treat.
The Castor was Colin Ainsworth,
a bright, natural high tenor, all head-voice (no chest) but perfectly focused,
flexible and steady. The Pollux was Joshua Hopkins, an outstanding young
baritone with a virile, vigorous yet velvety sound and an immediately evident
dramatic authority.
The sisters Phébé and Télair,
both in love with Castor, were sopranos Meredith Hall and Monica Whicher. Hall
has a clear sound and a forthright manner. Whicher is an accomplished singer
with that uncommon asset, a workable trill.
Renée Winick was an appealing
Cleone, Phébé's confidante. All the singers seemed to have a real sense of
Baroque ornamentation.
The chorus, trained by Robert
Cooper, rose to meet Rameau's superb music. The orchestra -- the Aradia
Ensemble, under its founder Kevin Mallon -- was responsible and assured. Mallon
had made the performing edition used on this occasion, and his hands guided the
whole. He is an assiduous rather than a galvanic conductor, seeming to pat and
stroke and usher the notes into place. One might ask for a more overarching
coherence and a longer perspective, but Mallon is on the side of the angels.
This production of Castor et Pollux is to be recorded by Naxos.