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Article Excerpt
One of the measures of the Canadian Opera Company's growth over the past 30 years is the difference between its two productions of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, the first mounted in Toronto's O'Keefe (now Sony) Centre in September 1979, the second in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts last Apr./May.
The 1979 production paired Louis Quilico in the title role with his son, Gino, also a baritone, singing Paolo. Although a substantial accomplishment, it represented a level of production and performance regularly surpassed by the company since moving into a real opera house and greatly surpassed by the debuting Ian Judge's remount of his Royal Opera, Covent Garden production this season. A stylized yet basically traditional and rather handsome production, with sets by John Gunter and costumes by Deirdre Clancy, it emerged as the season highlight, dominated by the towering figure of Italy's Paolo Gavanelli in the title role, like Quilico a real Verdi baritone with rich resources of tone and a commanding stage presence.
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The Paolo this time was American baritone Daniel Sutin, who joined Tamara Wilson (Amelia), Mikhail Agafonov (Gabriele), Phillip Ens (Fiesco), Alain Coulombe (Pietro), Michael Barrett (a captain) and Erin Fisher (Amelia's maidservant) to produce a consistently strong vocal team, supported by typically excellent work from Sandra Horst's Canadian Opera Chorus.
As expertly as Nicola Resigno presided in the pit in 1979, it was a much mproved ensemble functioning in sonically superior conditions that greeted debuting Italian conductor Marco Guidarini this time. Using the 1881 revised version of the score, he revealed an idiomatic feel for Verdi rhythms, drawing responsive playing from the orchestra throughout.
By comparison with Simon Boccanegra, the COC's April-May staging of Puccini's La boheme marked a regression to competent routine. Last seen in 2005, this Skalicki-designed Boheme (sets by Wolfram, costumes by his wife, Amrei) has been around since the Mansouri years. Though serviceable and nicely lit by Stephen Ross, it looks tired now. Maer Gronsdal Powell added a few fresh directorial touches, but she did not succeed in lifting the evening above a business-as-usual level.
It didn't help that her Musetta, Anna Leese, made a vocally and dramatically stronger impression than her Mimi, FrederiqueVezina, effectively turning the Act II Waltz Song into aria number one. And although both David Pomeroy (Rodolfo) and Peter Barrett (Marcello) possessed bright, thrusting voices, neither sang with much subtlety. Robert Gledow (Colline), Peter McGillivray (Schaunard) and Thomas Goerz (Benoit and Alcindoro) also contributed to the cast.
Julian Kovatchev, Musical Director of the Sofia Philharmonic, led a leisurely, expressive and sometimes indulgently stretched reading of the familiar score, and the orchestra played well for him.
The orchestra faced a special challenge accompanying the company's first presentation of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in May, a score notable for transparency and refinement and thus wisely held in reserve until the company's move to the Four Seasons Centre.
A co-production with Houston Grand Opera, with sets and costumes by Dale Ferguson and lighting by Damien Cooper, it turned out to be a staging sensitive to the character of the music, with the soft, slithering strings of the opening measures cleverly mirrored in the mysteriously woodsy stage picture. With the support of...
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