Feb. 16, 2004. 07:26 AM
A reason to wave the flag
MUSIC
CRITIC
Better get out the Maple Leaf flags — but not to wave for those
soul-destroying Maple Leafs.
Your Saturday night would
have been spent much better enjoying Toronto Operetta Theatre’s ambitious
mounting of The Widow, a work that premiered in 1882 when most of the
hockey-playing Leafs’ current lead-footed stars were young.
It was the comic opera’s first professional production in Canada —
there are vague hints that a student group did it in Toronto in the 1980s and
that an ensemble mounted it in Hamilton in 1976 — and yes, flags should be
waved, because the cast did very well at the show’s second incarnation yesterday
afternoon at Jane Mallett Theatre and because the composer’s ghost probably
expects it.
That composer was Calixa Lavallée, who two years before The
Widow premiered in Springfield, Ill. had debuted his music for a “chant
national” based on a poem by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier — it has been our
national anthem ever since.
The anthem has a properly stirring theme, but Lavallée had
to lighten up somewhat for the operetta world where sunny optimism is
absolutely necessary and heaving emotions are to stay at the shallow end of
proceedings. He wasn’t exactly a novice. He was also a pianist, organist and
teacher who wrote other operettas and at least one symphony — of the 60 works
he penned less than half survive.
He also mirrored many contemporary Canadian success stories by
finding most of his fame south of the border (and in France). Born in Verchères,
Que., he was actually buried in Boston before his corpse was exhumed in 1933
and re-interred in Montreal; later still streets in Quebec were named after
him.
The Widow, with 10 principal roles, a breezy chorus of 10 and an
orchestra of nine conducted with verve by Jose Hernandez (who did the
orchestration from voice-and-piano information) is not easy to do. Neither is
simplifying a plot synopsis.
It’s a long, three-act creation in which at almost every moment
someone breaks out into a love song. There’s also a weight of dialogue that not
everyone on stage could handle with conviction.
Yet although the acting was mostly lame and the choreography modest,
The Widow was blessed by good singing in English and, by the middle of
the second act, an appreciation of the pace and élan required to pull off the
comic part of comic opera, even a “sighing song.”
Indeed, while the music nods in the direction of Johann Strauss
and Franz Lehar, there’s a lot of farce in The Widow that anticipates
the glory days of the Whitehall Theatre, with a fake suicide, convoluted
twittering amours, rampant matchmaking, wild suspicions and mistaken
identities. Add slamming doors and collapsing suspenders and it’s there.
The classiest singing
of Frank Nelson’s simple libretto came from soprano Meredith Hall as Nanine,
niece of the Duke who wants her to marry someone other than Marcel (tenor Colin
Ainsworth, his enveloping tonal warm always pleasing). Her two big “arias” with
eloquent, silky declamations and coquettish characterization were excellent,
trills well established. Also notable were veteran mezzo Gisele Fredette’s
amazingly supple takes on the title role, while soprano Heather Shaw as Lizette
and mezzo Chantelle Grant also boasted voices worthy of attention.
Among the men baritone Alexander Dobson as the philandering
Marquis and bass-baritone Neil Aronoff as the bemused servant were strong.
The finale was terrific, a bundle of exultant love declarations,
patter-song à la Gilbert & Sullivan and Fredette the black widow spider
doing her Spanish thing, just one fascinating part of a piece of Canadian
cultural history.
Operetta
Review - February 16, 2004
TORONTO OPERETTA
THEATRE - "THE WIDOW"
If you have ever
wondered why our national anthem is a good sing, you just have to hear Toronto
Operetta Theatre's recent presentation of Calixa Lavallée's 1882 operetta
"The Widow". Lavallée wrote in the delicate style of French operetta
with a dollop of Gilbert and Sullivan thrown in for good measure, particularly
in the ballads, but while the songs are tuneful, only a handful are memorable
or clever. The libretto by Frank H. Nelson is deliciously stilted in its
Victoriana, while the lyrics are almost hilarious in their banality.
Nonetheless, there is nothing wrong with being tuneful, and hearing a lost bit
of melodious Canadiana is a pleasant way to pass the time. Kudos to music
director José Hernàndez who not only conducted with romantic flare, but who
composed the orchestrations. Only a vocal/piano score of "The Widow"
exists today.
Re
the story, just when one is getting a handle on the plot, another romantic
couple keeps on appearing. In fact, there are four couples in all, not to
mention two secondary characters for a total of ten. Set in France, the heroine
is the feisty Spanish-born widow Doña Paquita, played with gusto by
mezzo-soprano Gisele Fredette. While exacting revenge on her former love, who
is now married to someone else, she expedites the forbidden romances of two
young cousins, as well as her own. TOT assembled a first-rate cast that
included sopranos Meredith Hall and Heather Shaw, tenors Colin Ainsworth and
Jason Hales, mezzo-sopranos Chantelle Grant and Rosalind Lewis, baritone
Alexander Dobson, and bass-baritones Neil Aronoff and Sean Curran. Stand-outs
included Dobson and Hales.
I'm Paula Citron, arts
reviewer at CLASSICAL 96.3 FM.
Visit www.torontooperetta.com