ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE by Christoph Willibald Gluck. (Opera Atelier). At the Elgin Theatre (189 Yonge). Runs to April 18, April 14 and 17 at 7:30 pm, April 18 at 4:30 pm. $38-$181. 1-855-622-2787, ticketmaster.ca. Rating: NNN
C.W. Glucks 1762 version of the Orpheus and Eurydice story is perhaps the best-known operatic telling of the tale of the musician who goes to the underworld to bring his dead wife back to the world of sun and life.
Opera Atelier presents its first staging of Hector Berliozs reorchestrated 1859 score, with a mezzo rather than a tenor as Orpheus the production is sometimes charming and sometimes problematic.
This is a work with a small cast of vocal soloists: only Orpheus (Mireille Lebel), Eurydice (Peggy Kriha Dye) and the personified Amour (Meghan Lindsay), the last sending the musician on his quest and providing a happy ending by means of love and music when things dont go as expected.
Theres much to admire in the design (Gerard Gaucis sets, Margaret Lambs costumes and Michelle Ramsays lighting), but under Marshall Pynkoskis direction, the beginning is sluggish, with Lebel at times inaudible and the Tafelmusik Orchestra needing more bite.
Happily, energy arrives with Amours descent from the heavens, Lindsay brightening up the show considerably. Her Amour resembles Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro, all vigour and flirtatiousness.
Ballet figures prominently in the opera, and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zinggs choreography is often the centre of attention. The underworld episodes work best, first in a flaming encounter between Orpheus and its rulers, Pluto and Proserpina, and even more seductively in the tranquil Elysian Fields, where music and dance are expertly paired. The calmness of the blessed spirits provides a contrast to Orpheus excitedly seeking his beloved.
But then its back to awkward staging in the climactic encounter in which Eurydice begs Orpheus to look at her (she doesnt know hes been forbidden to do so until they reach the surface, on pain of losing her again) and he initially refuses to do so. The excellent Dye throbs with emotion, while Lebel is totally low-key, not even suggesting the pain and passion Orpheus feels. Dyes song of despair is heartfelt, Lebels aria of mourning (the operas most famous number) all too restrained.
The celebratory dances at the end, after love wins the day, are charming, but then the director spoils the finale with an unnecessary, over-the-top rah-rah staging of the final chorus that belittles whats come before.
