Luminato Pageant & Tapestry Opera/Queen of the Evening Communion, created and directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, music course 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 revolutionary 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 spite of everything, the Queen of the Evening Communion, so it made sense that it was this specific 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 informed 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 in control of 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 have been all excellent singing actors which was an essential necessity on this program.
Mori is credited as director. General, far more might have been achieved with motion. There have been just a few occasions in the course of the present the place the actions appeared mounted or choreographed; a lot of the time, the singers appeared to mill about with out type or motive. I’m wondering what extra affect may need been created with extra course 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 have been Allan’s preparations that I promise you have been completely authentic, even bordering the weird, as a result of solely sometimes did the music get carried out because it was meant.
Take the “Habanera”, for instance, which was sung by all eight singers as an ensemble.
Are you able to additionally consider that the organ accompanied the arias for essentially the most half, with the piano sometimes supporting the artwork songs? Think about the “Habanera” sung to an organ?
But the Communion was in a church, so by some means the organ contributed to the strangeness of the gathering, including gravitas to what might 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 all the way down to the entrance stage by the facet aisles previous the heavy columns illuminated in purple.
The Setting
In actual fact, the church was fairly darkish for this efficiency with minimal lighting. It was laborious to see the faces of the singers which made it troublesome to know who was singing, however which added to the thriller I suppose. They have been additionally carrying cloaks with hoods which additionally obscured who they have been and a few even had masks.
All 4 ladies have 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 each side of the church.
Now if a duet from Delibes’ Lakmé appears a may tame for a Queen of the Evening Communion, keep in mind the Datura flower lurks dangerously shut within the jungle.
Themes
Although Mori’s repertoire groupings have been scattered all through the night, looking back you possibly can see the cleverness within the programming if one adopted his authentic thought.
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 could be very a lot thought to be an indication of Peter being unstable, and it was additionally included.
One other grouping have been the picks exposing these decided to be intentionally provocative which may definitely trigger harm, just like the aforementioned “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen, and “Lied der Lulu” from Alban Berg’s eponymous opera.
However, “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 loss of life.
For expression of id disaster and inside turmoil, Mori made some nice decisions.
Each baritones as Rigoletto bitterly mirrored in “Pari siamo” from the Verdi opera that the jester is similar because the murderer Sparafucile who kills along with his dagger, whereas Rigoletto kills along with his savage tongue.
The troubled younger man within the aria “Final Evening” 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 up to now of unrequited love. Mori successfully staged this by having a male solid 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 loss of life. Useless “When I’m laid in earth” from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas was on this system, as was Rebecca Clarke’s haunting track “The Seal Man” the place an harmless younger woman is lured to her loss of life 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?
Properly, 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 Evening’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 combined opera refrain.
The meditative ending included the gorgeous “Regina coeli Laetare” from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Purcell’s reflective “Night Hymn”.
The wonderful 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 individuals within the communion may be in opposition to the powers that be, and the injustices they trigger, however they’re not in opposition to the inherent goodness of God, or so I believe.
Closing 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 variety in Canada, and the majesty that it delivered to the Queen of the Evening Communion.
As I sat by this system, I noticed 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 manner 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 Evening Communion is the essential function that Tapestry Opera is enjoying 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, significantly 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 College for the Arts.
