Luminato Competition & Tapestry Opera/Queen of the Night time Communion, created and directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, music route and preparations by Kathleen Allan, with Dr. Jonathan Oldengarm, organ, and Hyejin Kwon, piano, Metropolitan United Church, June 6 & 7.
Within the YouTube teasers that creator Michael Hidetoshi Mori made to pique curiosity on this progressive opera live performance, he dropped tantalizing hints that the efficiency can be about secret societies and ritual ceremonies, and much more intriguing, private grievances and insurrection.
This was, in any case, the Queen of the Night time Communion, so it made sense that it was this explicit operatic girl who was assembling this clandestine gathering as a result of nobody else might probably have a larger axe to grind then she did.
As Mori instructed us in each these teasers and the press materials, this was opera that was going to be elemental, uncooked, pressing and transformative. For this communion, the queen was going to collect collectively the mad, the misunderstood and the magnificent.
Subversive Singing Souls
I’m calling these communion attendees broken but indignant and even subversive souls. They included matched pairings: two Mezzo Sopranos, Krisztina Szabo and Alex Hetherington (with Szabo accountable for the lot), two Sopranos, Kathleen Allan and McKenzie Warriner, two Tenors, Mishael Eusebio and Ryan Downey, and two baritones, Alexander Hajek and Justin Welsh.
At this level let me say that this octet turned out to be a really spectacular group of singers with full wealthy voices that carried superbly to the impossibly excessive ceilings of the resplendent Metropolitan United Church. Extra to the purpose, and fortunately so, they had been all excellent singing actors which was an vital necessity on this program.
Mori is credited as director. General, rather more might have been finished with motion. There have been just a few occasions in the course of the present the place the actions appeared fastened or choreographed; a lot of the time, the singers appeared to mill about with out type or purpose. I’m wondering what extra affect may need been created with extra route in that space.
The Repertoire
The place Mori did cowl himself with glory was in selecting the extremely imaginative repertoire. The viewers was handled with an astonishing combine of non secular anthems, opera arias, lieder, and artwork songs, some well-known, others not.
Additionally, charming had been Allan’s preparations that I promise you had been completely authentic, even bordering the weird, as a result of solely often did the music get carried out because it was supposed.
Take the “Habanera”, for instance, which was sung by all eight singers as an ensemble.
Are you able to additionally imagine that the organ accompanied the arias for probably the most half, with the piano often supporting the artwork songs? Think about the “Habanera” sung to an organ?
But the Communion was in a church, so in some way the organ contributed to the strangeness of the gathering, including gravitas to what may very well be an in any other case amusing idea.
Nobody was laughing, nonetheless.
The night started with the singers within the church balcony. First, there was the majestic organ “Recessional” by Karg-Elert, then the ardent music of Hildegard von Bingen. It was the “Flower Duet” that introduced the singers right down to the entrance stage by the aspect aisles previous the heavy columns illuminated in purple.
The Setting
Actually, the church was fairly darkish for this efficiency with minimal lighting. It was laborious to see the faces of the singers which made it tough to know who was singing, however which added to the thriller I suppose. They had been additionally carrying cloaks with hoods which additionally obscured who they had been and a few even had masks.
All 4 girls had been singing the “Flower Duet”, and I believed I might even hear some males. It was completely attractive, as a result of it was like stereo coming from either side of the church.
Now if a duet from Delibes’ Lakmé appears a may tame for a Queen of the Night time Communion, keep in mind the Datura flower lurks dangerously shut within the jungle.
Themes
Although Mori’s repertoire groupings had been scattered all through the night, looking back you could possibly see the cleverness within the programming if one adopted his authentic concept.
We definitely had real insanity represented in Ophelia’s hysterically rendered “Mad Scene” from Thomas’ Hamlet the place the younger singer actually needed to be calmed down. “Now the good Bear and Pleiades” from Britten’s Peter Grimes may be very a lot considered an indication of Peter being unstable, and it was additionally included.
One other grouping had been the alternatives exposing these decided to be intentionally provocative which might definitely trigger injury, just like the aforementioned “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen, and “Lied der Lulu” from Alban Berg’s eponymous opera.
Then again, “O Sailor” from Kate Soper’s opera “Right here be Sirens” is attention-grabbing as a result of the ladies do query why they’re stranded on a rock having to lure males to their demise.
For expression of id disaster and interior turmoil, Mori made some nice decisions.
Each baritones as Rigoletto bitterly mirrored in “Pari siamo” from the Verdi opera that the jester is identical because the murderer Sparafucile who kills together with his dagger, whereas Rigoletto kills together with his savage tongue.
The troubled younger man within the aria “Final Night time” from Gregory Spears’ opera Fellow Travellers is a religious Catholic agonizing over a gay encounter.
In Schubert’s “Der Doppelganger”, a person is caught within the psychological trauma of seeing a picture of himself locked previously of unrequited love. Mori successfully staged this by having a male forged member standing on a mounted block within the centre of the church, moaning in agony, his physique twisted in ache because the singer, pushed with ardour, pointed to him in horror.
After which there was the morbid crowd obsessive about demise. Useless “When I’m laid in earth” from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas was on this system, as was Rebecca Clarke’s haunting tune “The Seal Man” the place an harmless younger woman is lured to her demise by love and drowns at sea.
The ambiance did start to lighten as angers dissipated and feelings calmed The charming “Presentation of the Rose” scene from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier led to {couples} dancing, some heterosexual, some not.
A Meditative Conclusion
So the place on this principally darkish opera expertise did we lastly see our misfits and malcontents discover their Moxy?
Nicely, that occurred simply earlier than the non secular ending, when, in tight formation, the octet marched defiantly down the center aisle of the church belting out the Queen of the Night time’s “Der Holle Rache” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the organ thundering in accompaniment.
It was fairly a second listening to that iconic aria as a blended opera refrain.
The meditative ending included the gorgeous “Regina coeli Laetare” from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Purcell’s reflective “Night Hymn”.
The fantastic organ Postlude by Charles Marie Widor and the non secular ending took us full circle again to the organ Recessional and Hildegard von Bingen,
Why the non secular bookends? These contributors within the communion is perhaps towards the powers that be, and the injustices they trigger, however they’re not towards the inherent goodness of God, or so I believe.
Remaining Ideas
For the sheer glory of it, allow us to reward Dr. Jonathan Oldengarm and the magnificent organ at Metropolitan United Church, the most important instrument of its sort in Canada, and the majesty that it dropped at the Queen of the Night time Communion.
As I sat by this system, I spotted on simply what number of ranges I used to be having fun with the expertise — the wonderful singing, the bizarre selection of repertoire and the much more uncommon method it was carried out, the very stunning use of the organ, and extra to the purpose, the originality of the idea behind the live performance.
Maybe the largest takeaway from the Queen of the Night time Communion is the crucial function that Tapestry Opera is taking part in within the creation of thrilling new opera experiences.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for varied cultural teams and universities, notably on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.