The Nuova Arts Festival presented three productions this season at Fort Edmonton Park’s Capitol Theatre, a 243-seat venue harkening back to the days of silent film. What began as an opera training program for aspiring young singers has, over the past almost three decades, expanded its mandate to offer participants opportunities to perform not only opera, but also musical theatre. The festival featured two operas this year, Michael Ching’s one-act comedy Speed Dating and Mozart’s Così fan tutte. The musical was Brigadoon.
The production I saw on June 19th, in one of two performances, set the morally problematic Mozart work in a hotel in a snowy mountain wilderness, scenes of which were projected at the back of the stage. Ferrando and Guglielmo first appeared as strapping Mounties; the original Albanian disguises librettist Da Ponte gave the lovers to test their women’s faithfulness were changed to heavily bearded lumberjacks. There are many comic elements in Così, but one of the best in this production was having the two Mounties leave the stage to perform their officers’ duty in a canoe. The ending of Così can be done done in different ways, but when you’ve got a canoe, why not use it for as many laughs as possible? This production ended with sisters and Despina paddling off, leaving the rest of the wedding party behind.
The singers, most of whom have just completed or are finishing undergraduate degrees, were all early in their professional training. This lack of experience did not diminish their clear commitment to the enterprise, and each managed a degree of consistency and theatrical acumen that brought out the silliness in the opera entertainingly. Almost all of the singers – with a couple of exceptions – had spotty moments, but the occasional dry throat just added to the spirit of live theatre, and there were a few standout performances.
Photo Credit: Nanc Price
At the beginning of the test of their fiancées, Jayden Fraser and Jordan Gracie go off by canoe
Joanna Percy sang Fiordiligi like her life depended on it. Besides generating a strong musical impression, her physical commitment to the role was positively athletic. She used her strong voice and her body to give her character’s reactions more than just a vocal foundation; she embodied the role. Grace Vermette, as Fiordiligi’s sister Dorabella, is more easily taken in by the men’s deception, and her portrayal of the eagerly duplicitous sister gave her less scope to wrestle with the moral dilemma the sisters face owing to the machinations of Don Alfonso (Gavin MacKenzie).
MacKenzie was splendid as the cynical ringleader of the scheme to deceive the two sisters. He displayed the right amount of deviousness without ever being menacing. The two would-be seducers delivered many comic moments while impersonating oafish lumberjacks. (The continuo player on a piano, whose name I couldn’t find in the program, threw in a few bars of the Log Driver’s Waltz at one point.)
The first act finale, in which Despina (Emma Lavigne) impersonated a quack enlisted to revive the two men who are pretending to have drunk poison, was animated. The charging cables used by the quack to jolt the men back to life were masterfully managed for excellent broad comic effect. Lavigne played Despina (both as herself and in her two disguises) confidently, taking charge of situations that helped unfold the plot, projecting both authority and mischievousness as she gleefully led the two sisters astray. Her portrayal of the bewigged notary, singing through “his” nose, was hilarious.
Director Rob Herriot managed the stage business fluidly, and conductor Gordon Gerrard, who has just been appointed artistic director of Manitoba Opera, led his contingent of 11 instrumentalists well.
Photo Credit: Nanc Price
Fiordiligi (Joanna Percy), Dorabella (Grace Vermette) and Don Alfonso (Gavin MacKenzie) lamenting the men’s departure
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