CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY Spring 2013 Per forman ce LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR Roger Honeywell as Narraboth and Helen Field as Salome in the COC production of Salome , 2002. Photo: Michael Cooper CONTEN TS 4 A DANCE TOWARDS THE LIGHT ROBERT CARSEN AND MICHAEL LEVINE DISCUSS DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES BY CLAIRE MORLEY 18 BEL CANTO AT ITS BEST DAVID ALDEN DISCUSSES LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR BY SUZANNE VANSTONE 26 LOOKING AT SALOME BY NIKITA GOURSKI Anna Christy as Lucia in the CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY Spring 2013 English National Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor , 2008. Per forman ce Photo: Clive Barda n CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY EDITORS: Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial; Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative n RJ PERFORMANCE MEDIA INC .: PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Joe Marin o n CEO: Frank Barbosa n SECRETARY TREASURER: Rajee Muthuraman n FINANCE: Gina Zicari n NATIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTORS: Danny Antunes, Gary Bell, Tom Marino, Paul Radford n ART DIRECTOR /DESIGN: Jan Haring a n GRAPHIC ARTIST: Glenda Moniz n Cover images: Lucia di Lammermoor : Anna Christy as Lucia in English National Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor , 2008. Photo: Clive Barda Salom e: Helen Field as Salome in the Canadian Opera Company production of Salome , 2002. Photo: Michael Cooper Dialogues des Carmélites : Patricia Racette as Madame Lidoine (centre) in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Dialogues des Carmélites , 2007. Photo: Robert Kusel Canadian Opera Company’s edition of Performance magazine is published quarterly by RJ Performance Media Inc., 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent is prohibited. Contents copyright © Performance Inc. Subscriptions available by contacting publisher. Direct all advertising enquiries to 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1 or phone 905-829-3900, Ext. 222. Catch up with blogs and enjoy COC Radio at coc.ca . 3 The COC presents Dialogues des Carmélites . Isabel Bayrakdarian as Blanche de la Force in the Lyric Opera of Chicago (LOC) production, 2007. Photo: Robert Kusel ADAN CE TOWARDS THE LIGHT: ROBERT CARSEN AND MICHAEL LEVINE DISCUSS DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES BY CLAIRE MORLEY irector Robert Carsen and set designer Carmelite nuns made. It’s very powerful DMichael Levine created their production because of both the spiritual and intellectual of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites for quality of the work; these are people who the Netherlands Opera in 1997. Since then, have dedicated their whole lives to their it has been performed in numerous cities beliefs, and achieve some kind of good across the world. Carrying “overwhelming through them.” emotional force” ( Chicago Tribune ), this is Carsen and Levine, who have worked the first time their production of Carmélites together for over 25 years on 26 productions, will be seen in Toronto, an exciting venture began their creative process by going for Carsen and Levine, both Toronto-born. directly to the score, paying careful attention According to Carsen, the unique power to both Georges Bernanos’ libretto and of Dialogues des Carmélites lies in its ability Poulenc’s masterful setting, which Carsen to “speak to humanity in a very particular argues is in a class of its own. “The quality way. You don’t have to be Catholic to be of Poulenc’s writing is so beautiful and very moved by the sacrifice that these 16 seductive. The orchestration is brilliant, 4 Canadian Opera Company 2012/20 13 Season A DANCE TOWARDS THE LIGHT: Robert Carsen and Michael Levine discuss Dialogues des Carmélites ™ a i r o h p u e n o i t a r o p r o C c i t e m s o C n i e l Robert Carsen Michael Levine K n i v l a C consisting of strange, electrifying moments, So much of this intention, Levine argues, 2 1 0 yet the whole work has a genuine and is informed by the French Revolution. “We 2 honest sincerity to it. It’s a very unusual wanted to give the sense and feeling of © piece of writing.” what it would be like to be an aristocrat The musical climax of the piece is saved with revolution on the doorstep. That is a for the final scene, in which the nuns sing difficult story to tell and get across to an the famous “Salve Regina” and, one by one, audience. Quite early, we decided the best are executed by guillotine until only Blanche way to illustrate that was to have a large is left singing, having finally accepted her group of revolutionaries on stage slowly faith. Intensely tragic though this ending close in. In order to give some sense of may be, Carsen felt strongly that Poulenc’s the anxiety within the piece, which is very score also evoked a sense of something apparent in the score, the revolutionaries more profound taking place. “The music is slowly encroach on the aristocrats and remarkable for this ending, and we wanted nuns. We realized that the way to define to try to find a way to deal with what we these spaces was by using people.” heard in it, which is both very powerful These various senses of space are yet has a sense of something positive some of the most powerful aspects of the happening. You hear this in the music, production. Carsen says, “It’s really a space which is so ravishingly beautiful. So we in which the audience has to believe. have treated this not just as a horror story We use people, not objects, to delineate it, with the guillotine, but in a more stylized and I decided not to use any scenic way which I call a ‘dance towards the light.’” elements that would describe where you Levine adds, “When Robert and I work, are. I felt very strongly that it was wrong to we always begin with the music and the have any theatricalized religious elements, story, and we try to find a way that will m ake so there are no crucifixes apart from on it come alive for the audience. We take these the rosary, and no religious scenery – it pieces that were written anywhere from the is all done in a much more abstract way. 17th through to the 20th century and try Religious scenic elements on the stage can to present them to an audience today in very easily go kitsch on you, and I wanted a way that is both accessible and exciting. to avoid that. That doesn’t necessarily mean turning “I don’t think it’s possible to do it in a it on its head and setting it in a Laundromat more minimalistic way, and I couldn’t think euphoria Calvin Klein is proud to be in Chinatown – it doesn’t have to be that. of the work as being anything other than the Preferred Fragrance of the Canadian Opera Company For us, it’s more about discovering the an empty space – like the emptiness of a intention behind the piece.” cell. If you think of a monk or a nun praying 6 Canadian Opera Company 2012/20 13 Season 1 8/24/12 12:52 PM A DANCE TOWARDS THE LIGHT: Robert Carsen and Michael Levine discuss Dialogues des Carmélites in a completely undecorated space, you can to bring it to Toronto because of his pride imagine this ‘faith space. ’” Levine adds, “As in the production. “It feels good to do soon as you bring an object into that space, something that, after 16 years, is still a very it places great importance on that object. strong piece of work. That is very rare and You can define it in other ways – we try to I’m thrilled to see it finally make its way to define the emotion of the scene in an empty Toronto, to one of the best newly designed space defined by the people on stage and opera houses in the world, and one that the lighting.” I really love.” Carsen believes that these spaces will Carsen is similarly enthusiastic about be complemented by the aesthetic of the bringing it to Toronto audiences. “I think Four Seasons Centre for the Performing wherever one performs it, it inevitably has Arts (FS C). “Apart from Amsterdam, we an extraordinary impact; Poulenc’s personal have never done this production in a really circumstances while he was writing the modern opera house,” he says, “and the work are very much in the DNA of this FSC will be an incredible support to this piece. You feel his personal suffering very production. Even the production’s colour poignantly in the opera. I really believe this tones are very much in harmony with the is Poulenc’s masterpiece, and I can’t wait hall. And with one of the best casts we’ve for everyone to rediscover it.” n ever had, I think it’s going to be very powerful to hear this in that theatre.” Claire Morley is the Communications Assistant Levine adds that he is particularly excited at the Canadian Opera Company. FOR FURTHER INSIGHT INTO DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES , PLEASE READ JON KAPLAN’S INTERVIEW WITH ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN, ADRIANNE PIECZONKA AND JUDITH FORST, AVAILABLE IN THE SPRING ISSUE OF PRELUDE ONLINE AT COC.CA/PUBLICATIONS . A scene from the LOC production, 2007. Photo: Robert Kusel 8 Canadian Opera Company 2012/20 13 Season A DANCE TOWARDS THE LIGHT: Robert Carsen and Michael Levine discuss Dialogues des Carmélites Supernumeraries are, as both Robert Carsen and Michael Levine attest, a crucial part of their production of Dialogues des Carmélites , forming the menacing mass of French revolutionaries who are an ever-present threat throughout the opera.