Worldwide reviews for a worldwide audience
CHRISTOPHER WILLIBALD GLUCK
ALCESTE
OPERA BOSTON
JANUARY 30, 2004
Reviewed By Paul Joseph Walkowski
OperaOnline.us
Photo, Clive Grainger. Nicolle Foland as Alceste, in Stage Director Brad Dalton's post-modern interpretation of Gluck's mid-Eighteenth Century work.
THE STORY:
Based on a Greek tragedy by Euripides, Admete, the king is slowly dying. His wife, Alceste, Queen of Pherae in Thessaly is overcome with grief and offers her life to the gods if her husband’s will be spared. Hearing her plea the gods grant her wish and Admete is revived. Admete becomes angered, however, when he learns of the deal and vows to prevent her death. At the fated hour, Alceste is called to her task and is summoned to the gates of Hades, but at the last minute is rescued by the king’s closest friend Hercules. The god Apollo is struck by the willingness of Alceste and Hercules to sacrifice their lives for Admete and at the last moment gives all his blessing to live and share their happiness with their subjects.
WHERE I VIEWED IT:
The Cutler Majestic Theater (circa 1903, Beaux-Arts style) in the heart of Boston’s theater district (The Wang, Colonial, Schubert, Wilbur and Charles Playhouse) is a magnificent hall in which to view opera, and one more reason to visit Boston for its theater. Convenient to hotels, dining and public parks, the Cutler Majestic is grand, cozy, warm and ideal for opera.
THE PERFORMANCE:
Christopher Willibald Gluck’s, rarely performed 1767 work “Alceste” was revived last night at the Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston, under the smooth baton of Boston Baroque conductor Martin Pearlman. While the performance was brilliantly conceived and executed with some of the finest set lighting and design and smart stage direction one could hope for, overall the affect was disappointingly flat as an opera. This has nothing to do with the fine cast, or the staging of the piece, but rather is a result of a plodding libretto that painfully drags in one long lament after another that is relentless in its sacred repetitiveness. The entire first act is one sorrowful thought repeated over and again by Alceste, ad nausea. Come to think of it, the entire opera is plodding. However, this is a case where the sum of the parts was infinitely greater than the whole, and where magnificent performances by a talented cast, brilliant use of set lighting and design and a wise and economical use of a magnificent, robust and precision chorus, elevated the performance to a feast for the eyes and ears.
Director Brad Dalton’s restaging of the piece in what looked like a walled fortress (granite-walled castle, perhaps, with a cut away roof, giving the lighting designer ample opportunity to light the sky with glorious colors, which he did) but with Shaker-like, flagellating characters inside, always gathered around an oversized elongated table, dressed in black and carrying or waving their ever-present books (were they supposed to be prayer books? Manifestos? Who knows. . . ) was both striking and, when set against the absolutely wonderful display of colors given us by lighting designer Christopher Ostrom (Opera Boston’s invaluable and brilliant resident lighting designer), was darn near hypnotic. As the moods changed, the lighting changed; as a shuttered window was opened, brilliant color filled the opening – crimson one moment, red, deep pink, stark white the next. I think the point has been made: the lighting was superb. So, too, was the set design: one set throughout. A room, perhaps a great hall, with granite walls, and a large space in the middle of the floor occupied by the community table, which is where, it appears, all business was transacted for the character in this piece, who, pretty much like the Shakers, knew their places – men on one side, women on the other, and when the two came together it was always communal for a purpose, never giving a hint of emotion or affection for one another. This was the Boston Baroque chorus: confident, full, harmonious, wonderfully directed, wonderfully placed and wonderfully entertaining. Interestingly, it was the chorus, not the period piece orchestra that dominated the musical landscape. Special kudos to Charles Blandy and Sarah Asmar for their strong and clear delivery throughout. Regarding the orchestra, the orchestra was at its best when supporting the singers, not leading. In the latter regard there seemed to be an absence of fullness to the orchestra at the very moments when one’s senses might have anticipated a more dynamic passage. Perhaps this is “Gluck’s beautiful simplicity” the conductor writes about in the production notes. Music to support the drama, not overwhelm it. In that regard, Maestro Pearlman delivered beautifully and exactly as one might expect, giving us a good measure of the period Baroque-style music one might hear in the mid-to-late Eighteenth Century.
As for the cast, it was flawless, although I must admit some confusion with an almost comedic Hercules in dreadlocks in the final act. Stephen Salters’ voice, however, was in fine, strong, theater filling form, both in the role of the High Priest and Hercules. His strutting, preening stage presence as the confident hero in the final act contained the only light moments in this otherwise very serious dramatic piece. Nicolle Foland, who made her Opera Boston debut, lit the stage with her luminescent interpretation of Alceste: sensuous, tall, regal, skin as white and smooth as a satin sheet (made even more so by the effective use of face lighting), she exhibited good skills as an actress and a solid and full voice that seemed as comfortable on the mezzo side of soprano as she did on the higher end. Note: Ms. Foland has a strong stage presence and seems to have a natural talent for being the center of attention when she is present. This is what star power is all about. Norman Shankle, who also made his Opera Boston debut, gave us a wonderful interpretation of a tormented King Admete, and was his most effective in the final act duet with Alceste, when he was pleading to bargain his life for hers before the gods. Sumner Thompson and Kevin Deas, (Apollo and the Oracle respectively) both made their Opera Boston debuts and each gave strong and compelling performances, although Sumner Thompson’s role called for less singing. Still, as the omnipresent characters, always dressed in white, they flowed in and out of scenes as called for, giving the impression of being sensed more than seen by the characters around them, adding just the right amount of “otherworldly” drama the libretto called for. A note must also be made of the fine performances of the two “littlest” character, the children of the Queen, performed by Tommy Neblett and Diane Arvanites Noya. The childen not only danced well, but resisted any youthful urge to be “cute”. They acted as children, and were in a way, elegant in their movements about stage. Young Mr. Neblett’s “pirouette” was quite good.
All in all Opera Boston likes to live on the edge, and from time to time wheel out a vintage piece that, as the production notes acknowledge, is rarely performed. For this, the audience last night, owes a debt of gratitude to Carole Charnow for having the guts to take a chance. Here, I think the gamble paid off, big time. Opera Boston brought us one of the oldest operas around, updated it with a little Twentieth Century Shaker mystique and bathed it in glorious color such that the sum of the parts here carried the day in grand fashion. Well done!
Conductor, Martin Pearlman
Stage Director, Brad Dalton
Producer, Carole Charnow
Set design, Susan Zeeman Rogers
Costume Design, Rafael Jaen
Lighting Design, Christopher Ostrom
Choreographers, Prometheus Dance
Repetiteur, Alison d’Amato
Diction coach/surtitles, Allison Voth
