First produced twenty-two years ago, Robert LePage's
production of two one-act operas, Bela Bartok's
Bluebeard's Castle and Arnold Schonberg's
Erwartung, makes a glorious return to the COC. For those who
haven't seen it, suffice to say there are plenty of visual surprises. For those
who have, what's immediately obvious is that the stage presentation now takes
its rightful place alongside the music it once unintentionally upstaged. Bartok's
richly layered score glows under the baton of maestro Johannes Debus. Bass Dan
Relyea gives a superb Bluebeard, fearsome and compelling, as he unveils the
horrors of his castle to his determined new bride, Judith, in a glowing
portrayal by mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova. Strange to think that performances
of Schonberg operas were once almost as rare as they were overly earnest.
Thankfully, our twentieth-century ears no longer treat modern works as a
strange and difficult adjunct to classical music, but as an extended tonal
range on a very full palette. With a new generation of performers and singers
like mezzo Krisztina Szabó, who sings the role of the psychologically
unbalanced Woman in
Erwartung with stunning
beauty and agility, these works are now a great pleasure to hear as well as to
see. Kudos to the Canadian Opera Company.
