My June culturefest is finally winding to a temporary pause, with this afternoon's summer mixed programme from the National Ballet of Canada. The first and last works on the programme were both wonderful in their very, very different ways. The middle one, alas, did not work at all for me although many others were greatly taken with it.
But, start at the beginning. Kenneth Macmillan's Elite Syncopations is a crowd pleaser if ever there was one. With music drawn from the rags of Scott Joplin and his contemporaries, an onstage band dressed in costumes and straw boaters, and the entire dancing cast done up in outrageously coloured hand-painted tights, it's impossible not to smile right from the get-go. And once Elite Syncopations gets going, it's hard not to laugh outright. Fortunately, no one expects a Toronto audience to try!
The dancers depict the conventions of a public dance hall of the late 19th century, and each one has a distinct individual character to create. There's the shy guy, who wants to ask every girl to dance but doesn't know how, the two wallflowers who inevitably end up together, the flirtatious sexy girl who has to get every guy in sight onto the dance floor, the short guy who ends up partnered with the tallest girl in the room, and so on. Macmillan's choreography is a perfect visual primer on how to create hilarious stage pictures with ridiculous poses. Not only that, but the comedy artfully conceals the sheer virtuosity of the piece. Only in the penultimate number, a flashy flying solo danced on this occasion by Keichi Hirano, does the technical flair of the dancing draw attention to itself -- and even then, it is very stylish in keeping with the occasion.
It was also great to see the former music director of the National Ballet Orchestra, Ormsby Wilkins, back on stage as the conductor and pianist of the dance band -- alternating between the beautifully tuned modern concert grand and a nasally twangy old honky-tonk upright.
The second piece was Maurice Bejart's Song of a Wayfarer, a brooding, intense duet for two men, one of whom acts as a kind of shadow double of the other. Beautifully as it was danced, I couldn't enjoy it because of the music. I'm very familiar with Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer, and the very clear and specific images the poetry conjures up. When the choreography seems to bear no relationship whatsoever to the poetic and musical imagery, the result for me is a kind of disconnection, in which the two seem to belong in two different performances. That's one of the perils of coming to the ballet with an extensive background in classical music.
The final work was Wayne McGregor's Chroma, the piece that introduced McGregor to National Ballet audiences -- hard to believe that is still less than two years ago! My first exposure to Chroma created a sense of shock and awe at the sheer dynamism, power, and energy of both music and dance. Now, with the lapse of time, and with knowing what to expect, I can pick up more of the subtleties of detail -- and there is a lot of detail flying by very quickly! While one or two sections have gentler, more lyrical music, there is nothing lyrical about the choreography. It's spiky, dangerous, dynamic, and bizarre to the nth degree. Not only do the dancers move with incredible speed and power, but they continually twist their bodies into positions that you aren't even sure you saw right, so impossible do they appear. More than almost any other contemporary work the National Ballet has done, this one truly stretches dancers beyond the limits, and shows off just what this company is capable of doing, in spades!
Saturday 16 June 2012
Friday 15 June 2012
Overwhelming Grandeur
That is the only possible description of the Toronto Symphony's presentation of Gustav Mahler's Symphony # 8 this week. What else can you call a piece that assembles an orchestra of 120 players, plus 7 extra brasses, organ, two adult choirs, children's choir, and 8 vocal soloists? This magnificent late-Romantic outpouring of sound, known colloquially as the "Symphony of a Thousand", is a unique musical experience, and one that simply must be heard live. Recordings and video (like the 5 CDs and 1 DVD that I own) can capture the beauty of the music but you have to attend a live performance to become immersed in the sheer physical power of this work. And it definitely does have a physical dimension; recorded sound cannot transmit the weight on your ears of a deep organ pedal note, a heavily-rolled bass drum, or the sudden addition of 7 extra brass instruments playing from high up on the side of the hall at the final climaxes of each part.
It was 29 years ago this month that the symphony was performed for the first time in Canada, by the Toronto Symphony at the end of the opening season of Roy Thomson Hall. I heard it played live then, and again in 2 subsequent remountings. This marked the first occasion when I heard the work played since the renovation of Roy Thomson Hall, and the difference was striking to say the least. The addition of substantial amounts of Canadian maple to the upper reaches of the hall (and floors) paid huge dividends as the sound became clearer and more precise. Loud passages that were simply a roaring wash of sound now permit individual lines to be heard. That's important especially in the huge double fugue at the heart of Part 1, which may well be the single largest piece of music ever composed according to the contrapuntal linear principle so familiar in Bach's time.
One other thing I proved to my own satisfaction. To hear this symphony in its full power, you simply must spend the dollars to get a seat in the prime section as near to the geographic centre of the ground floor as possible. That gives you the full impact of the built-in stereo of the 2 choirs to either side of you, not to mention the spatial separation of the extra brass group and the Mater Gloriosa.
All the soloists acquitted themselves nobly, and that's a huge challenge because Mahler's massive orchestra calls (with one exception) for solo singers with equally massive voices! I especially enjoyed Erin Wall's trumpeting high B-flats (there are quite a few of them!) in Part 1 -- all delivered with searing accuracy of pitch. If Twyla Robinson couldn't quite match her for volume in the passage where they trade the high note right at the end of Part 1, she certainly came into her own in the more lyrical second part, where she was able to give her solo sections with a smooth and easy tone that was a delight to the ear. Tenor John MacMaster was a late substitution for Richard Margison, and gave such a magnificent account of his extensive part that I didn't miss Margison for a moment. It helped that MacMaster has sung the role a number of times already.
That brought up an interesting memory. In my collection I have a CD copy of a legendary live performance given by Jascha Horenstein in the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC back in the late 1950s. The program notes point out that it was necessary to engage soloists who were prepared to learn the work, and to double cast all roles, because the symphony was so rarely performed in those days. Now, we've had it mounted 5 times in less than 30 years in Toronto, and you can get (at the last minute) a soloist like MacMaster who has sung the work (according to his bio in the program) in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Singapore, and can now add Toronto to the list!
One other most critical soloist deserves praise. Andriana Chuchman's soprano floated down gently from the organ loft in the short 2 phrases of the Mater Gloriosa, near the end of Part 2. The musical line is both quiet and cruelly high, and she delivered it with spot-on accuracy and no hint of strain at all.
The several adult and children's choirs were all beautifully trained and sang magnificently. One plus point was that this performance actually used less singers than the previous versions I heard, and that was all gain. There was still ample volume of sound, but again the individual lines of the choirs came through that much more clearly. Putting the sopranos out on the wings, and the basses in the centre, allows the audience to hear more clearly the alternations of Choir 1 and Choir 2. The Toronto Children's Chorus were as wonderful as ever, and I was as ever impressed by their ability to sing the whole of their complex and lengthy contribution from memory.
The orchestra excelled throughout. Much of Part 2 of this massive symphony actually calls for small chamber-like ensembles of constantly shifting instrumentation, and these episodes were all beautifully balanced. Supreme praise to conductor Peter Oundjian who was completely in control of the complexities of the score, and held the whole huge performance under his firm control. Tempo changes become more difficult to pull off as the number of singers and players escalates, but there were no problems with any of the numerous gear shifts in this concert.
This was as memorable a climax as you could possibly wish to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 90th Anniversary Season!
It was 29 years ago this month that the symphony was performed for the first time in Canada, by the Toronto Symphony at the end of the opening season of Roy Thomson Hall. I heard it played live then, and again in 2 subsequent remountings. This marked the first occasion when I heard the work played since the renovation of Roy Thomson Hall, and the difference was striking to say the least. The addition of substantial amounts of Canadian maple to the upper reaches of the hall (and floors) paid huge dividends as the sound became clearer and more precise. Loud passages that were simply a roaring wash of sound now permit individual lines to be heard. That's important especially in the huge double fugue at the heart of Part 1, which may well be the single largest piece of music ever composed according to the contrapuntal linear principle so familiar in Bach's time.
One other thing I proved to my own satisfaction. To hear this symphony in its full power, you simply must spend the dollars to get a seat in the prime section as near to the geographic centre of the ground floor as possible. That gives you the full impact of the built-in stereo of the 2 choirs to either side of you, not to mention the spatial separation of the extra brass group and the Mater Gloriosa.
All the soloists acquitted themselves nobly, and that's a huge challenge because Mahler's massive orchestra calls (with one exception) for solo singers with equally massive voices! I especially enjoyed Erin Wall's trumpeting high B-flats (there are quite a few of them!) in Part 1 -- all delivered with searing accuracy of pitch. If Twyla Robinson couldn't quite match her for volume in the passage where they trade the high note right at the end of Part 1, she certainly came into her own in the more lyrical second part, where she was able to give her solo sections with a smooth and easy tone that was a delight to the ear. Tenor John MacMaster was a late substitution for Richard Margison, and gave such a magnificent account of his extensive part that I didn't miss Margison for a moment. It helped that MacMaster has sung the role a number of times already.
That brought up an interesting memory. In my collection I have a CD copy of a legendary live performance given by Jascha Horenstein in the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC back in the late 1950s. The program notes point out that it was necessary to engage soloists who were prepared to learn the work, and to double cast all roles, because the symphony was so rarely performed in those days. Now, we've had it mounted 5 times in less than 30 years in Toronto, and you can get (at the last minute) a soloist like MacMaster who has sung the work (according to his bio in the program) in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, Singapore, and can now add Toronto to the list!
One other most critical soloist deserves praise. Andriana Chuchman's soprano floated down gently from the organ loft in the short 2 phrases of the Mater Gloriosa, near the end of Part 2. The musical line is both quiet and cruelly high, and she delivered it with spot-on accuracy and no hint of strain at all.
The several adult and children's choirs were all beautifully trained and sang magnificently. One plus point was that this performance actually used less singers than the previous versions I heard, and that was all gain. There was still ample volume of sound, but again the individual lines of the choirs came through that much more clearly. Putting the sopranos out on the wings, and the basses in the centre, allows the audience to hear more clearly the alternations of Choir 1 and Choir 2. The Toronto Children's Chorus were as wonderful as ever, and I was as ever impressed by their ability to sing the whole of their complex and lengthy contribution from memory.
The orchestra excelled throughout. Much of Part 2 of this massive symphony actually calls for small chamber-like ensembles of constantly shifting instrumentation, and these episodes were all beautifully balanced. Supreme praise to conductor Peter Oundjian who was completely in control of the complexities of the score, and held the whole huge performance under his firm control. Tempo changes become more difficult to pull off as the number of singers and players escalates, but there were no problems with any of the numerous gear shifts in this concert.
This was as memorable a climax as you could possibly wish to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's 90th Anniversary Season!
Sunday 10 June 2012
Three-In-One Posting -- Music and Theatre!
It's crazy. So many arts events this June, and here I am falling behind on my blogging. I have three events to write about today! Waste not your hour, Ken, and get on with it!
Wednesday night: Toronto Symphony. Concert began with Green by Toru Takemitsu, a work with links to the TSO, which gave it a premiere recording way back in the 1960s under Seiji Ozawa. Very strange, like Debussy crossed with Schoenberg, but not in an unpleasant way. I would want to hear it again.
Schumann's Piano Concerto, a long-time favourite of mine, came next with the solo part beautifully played by Jonathan Biss. However, the orchestra were distinctly getting out of sync with each other at a couple of passages -- I suspect due to lack of rehearsal because "everybody knows it" even though it doesn't get played too often. Pity, because I really wanted to enjoy this and couldn't quite relax into it.
Shades of my one and only year in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir where we didn't even crack our Messiah scores until 2 nights before the first performance, because "everyone knows it" and we were deeply busy with other music.
The "other music" in this case was the Shostakovich Symphony # 11 "The Year 1905". I missed this when the orchestra did it 4 years ago. This sprawling, panoramic, almost cinematic piece is actually very quiet for about 70% of its 65-minute length, and the quiet passages were played to perfection -- icy cold and devoid of emotion at all times. The strings were right on the mark here in the fiendish fugue passage which introduces the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre, and again in the wild skirling figures of the finale. Kudos to Peter Oundjian and the orchestra for an incredibly tight, solid, effective performance of a very tricky symphony!
Saturday: two musical shows at the Stratford Festival (what a change of pace!). In the afternoon, 42nd Street, a new one for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance as a whole, with every member of the acting cast projecting their characters clearly and strongly. The dancing was simply phenomenal, and the Festival Stage is a wonderful venue to watch tap dancers going at full throttle -- unlike a proscenium stage, you can see every move of the flying feet!
My only disappointment was in the book. Okay, I'll assume that the story hews closely to the original 1933 movie which I haven't seen, and to the novel which that was based on. But the character of Dorothy Brock, the leading lady, comes across as totally bitchy with no redeeming niceness at all. And unlike the comparable character of Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me, Kate, she has no equally spiteful male partner to put her in her place and draw out her vulnerable side. So it's too easy to just hate her -- and that makes her solo bow at the end of the show doubly puzzling, when the show really tells the story of the young Peggy Sawyer who replaces her and becomes a star on merit. But still, a fabulous couple of hours of singing and high-octane hoofing.
In the evening, an old favourite, The Pirates of Penzance. As a teenager, I sang chorus in this show (with my brother John as the Pirate King) so I've always enjoyed revisiting it. Unlike the last turn Stratford took at Pirates, this performance was not full of sheer over-the-top nuttiness. I loved director Ethan McSweeney's insistence that the fun you need is all written into the script already, and just needs to be drawn out. He's right -- and his production proves the point, in spades.
The staging was both mechanistic and "Victorian", in the sense of recalling the theatrical and technological whimwhams of that era. Choreography was limited but effective, being focused mainly on choreographic pratfalls and a balletic battle scene. Extra music was effectively provided for these in a style that was half folk, half music hall.
Singing and acting were again on a high level. I first thought that Gabrielle Jones was in over her head as Ruth, with unlovely and forced tone production, but at the end of the show when she appeared "transformed" (I'm not saying how!) her voice too changed, becoming much smoother and more beautiful in sound. Larry Herbert struggled a little with the Major-General's patter song (but who doesn't? A G & S patter song is a very specialized art form indeed), and drew plenty of laughs with his enactment of the added encore verse. This, by the way, was almost the only amendment to the text that was used, a far cry indeed from the last Stratford mounting of the show.
Sean Arbuckle was a very effective Pirate King -- it's just too bad that the costume and makeup departments decided he had to be made to look like Johnny Depp playing Jack Sparrow. Amy Wallis as Mabel was, alas, a little two-dimensional amongst more vividly realized characters, until her Act II solo, Ah, leave me not to pine when she suddenly became a heartbreakingly complete person and drew tears to my eyes.
Star of the show, and of the whole day, was Kyle Blair who captured all the heroics of Frederic with complete seriousness, which of course makes him much funnier. His marvellous tenor voice put him right on top form in all his many musical numbers. And that was after having performed a similar leading tenor role in 42nd Street in the afternoon -- how's that for a full day's work?
Both of these shows are great fun, and well worth a trip to Stratford. Next time I go, I expect to start getting into some Shakespeare!
Wednesday night: Toronto Symphony. Concert began with Green by Toru Takemitsu, a work with links to the TSO, which gave it a premiere recording way back in the 1960s under Seiji Ozawa. Very strange, like Debussy crossed with Schoenberg, but not in an unpleasant way. I would want to hear it again.
Schumann's Piano Concerto, a long-time favourite of mine, came next with the solo part beautifully played by Jonathan Biss. However, the orchestra were distinctly getting out of sync with each other at a couple of passages -- I suspect due to lack of rehearsal because "everybody knows it" even though it doesn't get played too often. Pity, because I really wanted to enjoy this and couldn't quite relax into it.
Shades of my one and only year in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir where we didn't even crack our Messiah scores until 2 nights before the first performance, because "everyone knows it" and we were deeply busy with other music.
The "other music" in this case was the Shostakovich Symphony # 11 "The Year 1905". I missed this when the orchestra did it 4 years ago. This sprawling, panoramic, almost cinematic piece is actually very quiet for about 70% of its 65-minute length, and the quiet passages were played to perfection -- icy cold and devoid of emotion at all times. The strings were right on the mark here in the fiendish fugue passage which introduces the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre, and again in the wild skirling figures of the finale. Kudos to Peter Oundjian and the orchestra for an incredibly tight, solid, effective performance of a very tricky symphony!
Saturday: two musical shows at the Stratford Festival (what a change of pace!). In the afternoon, 42nd Street, a new one for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance as a whole, with every member of the acting cast projecting their characters clearly and strongly. The dancing was simply phenomenal, and the Festival Stage is a wonderful venue to watch tap dancers going at full throttle -- unlike a proscenium stage, you can see every move of the flying feet!
My only disappointment was in the book. Okay, I'll assume that the story hews closely to the original 1933 movie which I haven't seen, and to the novel which that was based on. But the character of Dorothy Brock, the leading lady, comes across as totally bitchy with no redeeming niceness at all. And unlike the comparable character of Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me, Kate, she has no equally spiteful male partner to put her in her place and draw out her vulnerable side. So it's too easy to just hate her -- and that makes her solo bow at the end of the show doubly puzzling, when the show really tells the story of the young Peggy Sawyer who replaces her and becomes a star on merit. But still, a fabulous couple of hours of singing and high-octane hoofing.
In the evening, an old favourite, The Pirates of Penzance. As a teenager, I sang chorus in this show (with my brother John as the Pirate King) so I've always enjoyed revisiting it. Unlike the last turn Stratford took at Pirates, this performance was not full of sheer over-the-top nuttiness. I loved director Ethan McSweeney's insistence that the fun you need is all written into the script already, and just needs to be drawn out. He's right -- and his production proves the point, in spades.
The staging was both mechanistic and "Victorian", in the sense of recalling the theatrical and technological whimwhams of that era. Choreography was limited but effective, being focused mainly on choreographic pratfalls and a balletic battle scene. Extra music was effectively provided for these in a style that was half folk, half music hall.
Singing and acting were again on a high level. I first thought that Gabrielle Jones was in over her head as Ruth, with unlovely and forced tone production, but at the end of the show when she appeared "transformed" (I'm not saying how!) her voice too changed, becoming much smoother and more beautiful in sound. Larry Herbert struggled a little with the Major-General's patter song (but who doesn't? A G & S patter song is a very specialized art form indeed), and drew plenty of laughs with his enactment of the added encore verse. This, by the way, was almost the only amendment to the text that was used, a far cry indeed from the last Stratford mounting of the show.
Sean Arbuckle was a very effective Pirate King -- it's just too bad that the costume and makeup departments decided he had to be made to look like Johnny Depp playing Jack Sparrow. Amy Wallis as Mabel was, alas, a little two-dimensional amongst more vividly realized characters, until her Act II solo, Ah, leave me not to pine when she suddenly became a heartbreakingly complete person and drew tears to my eyes.
Star of the show, and of the whole day, was Kyle Blair who captured all the heroics of Frederic with complete seriousness, which of course makes him much funnier. His marvellous tenor voice put him right on top form in all his many musical numbers. And that was after having performed a similar leading tenor role in 42nd Street in the afternoon -- how's that for a full day's work?
Both of these shows are great fun, and well worth a trip to Stratford. Next time I go, I expect to start getting into some Shakespeare!
Saturday 2 June 2012
Hamlet at the National Ballet
What a weekend! The National Ballet of Canada gave the North American premiere of Kevin O'Day's full length ballet Hamlet and I was there to see it -- twice!!!
It's a unique problem to be sure. How do you convert one of the most famous of all plays, with more famous quotes than almost any other single work of literature, into music and dance? Simply put, you have to forget that it is a play and retell the story in a different way.
That doesn't mean changing the story. Indeed, the only really noticeable changes are (1) the elimination of Hamlet's trip to England and (2) the exposure of the king's murder by two travelling dancers instead of travelling actors. Otherwise the events of Hamlet are all there, but in severely compressed form. What dominates this balletic version is the emotional turmoil of Hamlet himself, and the answering turmoil that he gradually stirs up in all the other characters due to his obsession.
The choreography is modern, angular, full of sudden starts and stops and turns and violent lifts and throws. This is not "pretty" like a traditional classical ballet at all. The music is a match for the choreography, and includes computerized random sampling and playback of the live instruments, creating a unique series of echoes and repetitions.
Now the performers:
Conflict of Interest Alert!!!!
(hee hee -- Robert Stephen is my nephew)
On Friday night Guillaume Cote danced Hamlet, and did so with great passion and energy (an absolute prerequisite for this stamina-challenging monster of a role). At the same time there was always a hint of a princely veneer, appropriate to be sure, a smoothness which perhaps harked back to the more traditional princes of the classical repertoire. His Ophelia was Heather Ogden, and her performance showed us Ophelia as a sweet and innocent girl.
Saturday afternoon's Hamlet was Robert Stephen, a late substitution for an injured Naoya Ebe. Stephen's Hamlet was every bit as powerful as Cote's but a little more raw-edged -- a primal scream where Cote shaped the part into something resembling the powerful poetry of Shakespeare. This was a minor difference, more a matter of a subtle change of tone than a major interpretive switch. Stephen's Ophelia, Elena Lobsanova, was likewise more edgy than Ogden to a small degree. Both did a splendid job in the harrowing scene of Ophelia's madness and death.
Indeed, both casts of leads were tremendous, in their different ways, and all the roles were filled with distinction in both performances. However, the one other character in the ballet who really stuck in my mind was Queen Gertrude. In Kevin O'Day's view of Hamlet, the stamp of the father on the son is the critical element, but that doesn't stop his Gertrude from being a major stage presence -- often given a very prominent position and allowed to centre the action. Her choreography ranges across a wide gamut -- queenly one minute, practically eating fire the next, but never deteriorating into merely a shrew. This gives her a kind of tragic intensity that most stage productions can't allow her. Both Stephanie Hutchison (Friday night) and Alejandra Perez-Gomez (Saturday afternoon) rose splendidly to the challenge of this role.
For me, this tremendous production had only one serious drawback. Staged in front of a severe and limiting black set, it was so dimly lit that it was actually difficult at many times to see the faces and sense the emotional state of the dancers. Just a little bit more light would have made a huge difference to this problem. But overall, a stunning example of modern dance drama at its best. Five stars plus!
It's a unique problem to be sure. How do you convert one of the most famous of all plays, with more famous quotes than almost any other single work of literature, into music and dance? Simply put, you have to forget that it is a play and retell the story in a different way.
That doesn't mean changing the story. Indeed, the only really noticeable changes are (1) the elimination of Hamlet's trip to England and (2) the exposure of the king's murder by two travelling dancers instead of travelling actors. Otherwise the events of Hamlet are all there, but in severely compressed form. What dominates this balletic version is the emotional turmoil of Hamlet himself, and the answering turmoil that he gradually stirs up in all the other characters due to his obsession.
The choreography is modern, angular, full of sudden starts and stops and turns and violent lifts and throws. This is not "pretty" like a traditional classical ballet at all. The music is a match for the choreography, and includes computerized random sampling and playback of the live instruments, creating a unique series of echoes and repetitions.
Now the performers:
Conflict of Interest Alert!!!!
(hee hee -- Robert Stephen is my nephew)
On Friday night Guillaume Cote danced Hamlet, and did so with great passion and energy (an absolute prerequisite for this stamina-challenging monster of a role). At the same time there was always a hint of a princely veneer, appropriate to be sure, a smoothness which perhaps harked back to the more traditional princes of the classical repertoire. His Ophelia was Heather Ogden, and her performance showed us Ophelia as a sweet and innocent girl.
Saturday afternoon's Hamlet was Robert Stephen, a late substitution for an injured Naoya Ebe. Stephen's Hamlet was every bit as powerful as Cote's but a little more raw-edged -- a primal scream where Cote shaped the part into something resembling the powerful poetry of Shakespeare. This was a minor difference, more a matter of a subtle change of tone than a major interpretive switch. Stephen's Ophelia, Elena Lobsanova, was likewise more edgy than Ogden to a small degree. Both did a splendid job in the harrowing scene of Ophelia's madness and death.
Indeed, both casts of leads were tremendous, in their different ways, and all the roles were filled with distinction in both performances. However, the one other character in the ballet who really stuck in my mind was Queen Gertrude. In Kevin O'Day's view of Hamlet, the stamp of the father on the son is the critical element, but that doesn't stop his Gertrude from being a major stage presence -- often given a very prominent position and allowed to centre the action. Her choreography ranges across a wide gamut -- queenly one minute, practically eating fire the next, but never deteriorating into merely a shrew. This gives her a kind of tragic intensity that most stage productions can't allow her. Both Stephanie Hutchison (Friday night) and Alejandra Perez-Gomez (Saturday afternoon) rose splendidly to the challenge of this role.
For me, this tremendous production had only one serious drawback. Staged in front of a severe and limiting black set, it was so dimly lit that it was actually difficult at many times to see the faces and sense the emotional state of the dancers. Just a little bit more light would have made a huge difference to this problem. But overall, a stunning example of modern dance drama at its best. Five stars plus!
Friday 1 June 2012
A Match Made in Heaven
One of the things I love about my current home is that it lies just a 35-minute drive away from Stratford. Where formerly I had to plan lengthy multi-night excursions to see all the plays that interested me, now I can just pick a day, hop in the car and whip over there, and come home the same night. If it's a matinee, I can even make it home for dinner!
So, my first show of Stratford Festival 2012: Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker. Let me say, right off the bat, that for me this script completely trumps the musicalized version, Hello Dolly! Not surprising, of course. When you take a tightly-written stage play and try to adapt it into a stage musical, some of the tight writing has to go to make room for songs.
My second observation is that the choice of this show was perfectly calculated to show off the comedic acting strengths of the current Stratford company. What a marvellous collection of comic skill, timing, and vocal ability!
The downside right away was the set in Act 1. The second story of the set was totally superfluous, and simply ate up valuable acting space without giving much useful space in return. It was a great period showpiece that plainly set the scene in the country town (as it then was) of Yonkers, but its size and awkward shape cancelled the benefits that an upstairs might have created. That said, the restaurant set of Act 2 was gorgeous and worked beautifully for all the complicated manoeuvrings that have to happen there.
This was the next-to-last preview performance, so the show was tight and ran smoothly throughout with no obvious weaknesses (well, except one). Tom McCamus made a strong and disagreeable Horace Vandergelder ("Horace of the money"), a cranky eccentric millionaire who manages to learn a thing or two by the end of the play. Seana McKenna simply lit up the stage from her first entrance as Dolly Gallagher Levi. The two played marvellous scenes together, as well matched a couple as you could want in those roles.
Equally entertaining were Mike Shara and Josh Epstein as Vandergelder's two browbeaten employees. Their comic shenanigans were believable and never overdone. Laura Condlin gave a radiant performance as Irene Molloy, completely centring her major scenes with Shara and Epstein. Andrea Runge as Minnie Fay, Irene's assistant, was also wonderful.
And then there was Geraint Wyn Davies, giving a magnificent take on the uncommon common man, Malachi Stack.
With so many strong performances (including several I haven't mentioned) it seems a pity to have to inject a complaint, but here goes. Nora McLellan, usually a reliably strong performer, badly overdid her characterization as Miss Flora van Huysen in the last act. Overdressed, over-made-up, and vocally completely over the top, this Miss Flora was simply not believable at all -- and in fact only became increasingly annoying each time she spoke. Definitely not an effective choice.
That was the only blot on this tight well-crafted production of a fine modern American classic that certainly ought to be staged more often in Canada. Director Chris Abraham has come up with a real winner, hilariously funny and thought-provoking at the same time. This show is well worth anyone's time and effort to see!
So, my first show of Stratford Festival 2012: Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker. Let me say, right off the bat, that for me this script completely trumps the musicalized version, Hello Dolly! Not surprising, of course. When you take a tightly-written stage play and try to adapt it into a stage musical, some of the tight writing has to go to make room for songs.
My second observation is that the choice of this show was perfectly calculated to show off the comedic acting strengths of the current Stratford company. What a marvellous collection of comic skill, timing, and vocal ability!
The downside right away was the set in Act 1. The second story of the set was totally superfluous, and simply ate up valuable acting space without giving much useful space in return. It was a great period showpiece that plainly set the scene in the country town (as it then was) of Yonkers, but its size and awkward shape cancelled the benefits that an upstairs might have created. That said, the restaurant set of Act 2 was gorgeous and worked beautifully for all the complicated manoeuvrings that have to happen there.
This was the next-to-last preview performance, so the show was tight and ran smoothly throughout with no obvious weaknesses (well, except one). Tom McCamus made a strong and disagreeable Horace Vandergelder ("Horace of the money"), a cranky eccentric millionaire who manages to learn a thing or two by the end of the play. Seana McKenna simply lit up the stage from her first entrance as Dolly Gallagher Levi. The two played marvellous scenes together, as well matched a couple as you could want in those roles.
Equally entertaining were Mike Shara and Josh Epstein as Vandergelder's two browbeaten employees. Their comic shenanigans were believable and never overdone. Laura Condlin gave a radiant performance as Irene Molloy, completely centring her major scenes with Shara and Epstein. Andrea Runge as Minnie Fay, Irene's assistant, was also wonderful.
And then there was Geraint Wyn Davies, giving a magnificent take on the uncommon common man, Malachi Stack.
With so many strong performances (including several I haven't mentioned) it seems a pity to have to inject a complaint, but here goes. Nora McLellan, usually a reliably strong performer, badly overdid her characterization as Miss Flora van Huysen in the last act. Overdressed, over-made-up, and vocally completely over the top, this Miss Flora was simply not believable at all -- and in fact only became increasingly annoying each time she spoke. Definitely not an effective choice.
That was the only blot on this tight well-crafted production of a fine modern American classic that certainly ought to be staged more often in Canada. Director Chris Abraham has come up with a real winner, hilariously funny and thought-provoking at the same time. This show is well worth anyone's time and effort to see!
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