Feb.
7, 2005. 01:00 AM
Singers do justice to surreal opera
JOHN TERAUDS
TORONTO STAR
When you hear a stage prince sing,
"Dear orange, we're finally alone together, just you and me," you
know you're not listening to the usual grand-opera fare.
But, then again, Opera In Concert is
not about presenting the Opera America Top 10 list.
Yesterday afternoon at the Jane Mallett
Theatre, the organization delivered a worthy and memorable French version of
Sergei Prokofiev's four-act comedy, The
Love for Three Oranges.
This is an opera with a big cast, chorus
and orchestra. All those instruments were replaced admirably by two pianos
played by Opera In Concert's music director Raisa Nakhmanovich and young
Russian pianist Eugenia Yesmanovich. The chorus was led by the company's
conductor Robert Cooper.
Unlike many composers who start off
emulating their teachers and then evolving in new musical directions in
maturity, Prokofiev, who was born in Russia in 1891, was barely out of the St.
Petersburg Conservatory, still a teenager, when he hit the pen and ink with the
gusto of his fellow early-20th century pioneers in Eastern and Central Europe.
His music became more firmly tonal
later in life, in the service of Mother U.S.S.R. He died on March 5, 1953, the
same day as Stalin.
Using a sung-through structure shaped
by changes in mood and rhythm, rather than by arias and choruses still used by
the Italians and British at the time The
Love for Three Oranges was written, the work sounds as contemporary today
as it did at its premiere at the Chicago Opera in December, 1921.
The plot defies quick description. But
here goes: a Prince is desperately melancholy and can only be cured with
laughter, so his father orders festivities that are futile, thanks to evil and
ambitious forces inside the court. When a witch accidentally makes the Prince
laugh, she curses him with a love for three oranges — one of which turns into a
beautiful princess.
There is a happy ending, thanks to an
on-stage "audience" (the choir) that demands particular plot twists.
It's all a bit surreal, but the technical demands Prokofiev makes on the
singers are huge, stretching the range of just about everyone present.
The performances yesterday were
remarkable, given that many of the minor parts are filled with advanced voice
students — all of whom did an excellent job. Someone to watch is recent Glenn
Gould School (Royal Conservatory) grad soprano Miriam Khalil, who has a strong
stage presence and voice.
Among the professionals, the star had
to be Toronto-based bass Alain Coulombe, whose rich, commanding basso was
tailor-made for the role of the King of Clubs. Soprano Renée Winick was
charming in the beautiful-princess role of Nicolette. She has one of those
slightly unusual husky voices that is begging for a good Italian verismo opera role.
Yesterday's performance was part of a
weekend-long symposium and mini-festival aimed at reappraising the life and
work of Prokofiev, organized chiefly by the University of Toronto.