Music review: Vancouver Opera Orchestra comes out of the pit for an epic emotional performance of Cavalleria Rusticana
Top Canadian singers, a standout chorus, mesmerizing music, and swirling visuals make concert staging a grand affair
Artful projections build the mood in a concert that gathers Vancouver Opera’s full chorus and orchestra. Photo by Tim Matheson
The Vancouver Opera presents Cavalleria Rusticana in concert until February 13 at 2 pm
TO UNDERSTAND HOW cathartic Vancouver Opera’s concert performance of Pietro Mascagni’s gorgeous Cavalleria Rusticana was Saturday night, it’s important to consider how far we’ve come.
When the company launched its online-only season during the pandemic in the fall of 2020, its first show out of the gates was the one-woman La Voix Humaine, with no one in the audience. But here we were last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, with the full orchestra up on stage, out of the pit. Each and every instrument took the spotlight in Mascagni’s mesmerizing score, some of the most beautiful in all of opera. Behind the army of musicians, on risers, was the full chorus decked out in their glam best.
It was an inspired act of programming—a chance, as general director Tom Wright pointed out before the performance, to celebrate a mass of talented individuals who have been “underemployed” in the past two pandemic years. The distinct impression watching them perform Mascagni’s one-act wonder was of everyone playing and singing their hearts out in a work that really allows them to do that.
The added draw, of course, was the chance to see Europe-based music director emeritus Jonathan Darlington, who conducted the VO orchestra for almost two decades, in his first appearance here in three years due to the pandemic. VO fans accustomed to seeing his silvery hair bobbing in the pit were treated to a full-body performance by the maestro at centre stage. Electric voltage seemed to pass through his baton in the rousing orchestral and choral crescendos of the Easter-hymn “Regina Coeli, laetare”. Later he paused dramatically to bring the strings down to extreme quiet at the beginning of the famous “Intermezzo”, gently building them back up with big round arm movements, his stick stabbing downward to bring in the low brass. The orchestra found all the nuance in the lush score.
Conductor Jonathan Darlington and soprano Othalie Graham build to a crescendo. Photo by Tim Matheson
Should the idea of a concert version of an opera bring to mind performers standing and singing, think again. The world-class Canadian cast actively brought their characters and stories to vivid life, care of stage director Amanda Testini. In brief: the Sicilian-set story follows Santuzza, who has been ex-communicated for her tryst with Turiddu. He has abandoned her and taken up with his former fiancée Lola, who is married to Alfio. In revenge, Santuzza rats Turiddu out to an enraged Alfio.
Baritone Gregory Dahl’s Alfio entered full of swagger and, later, near exploded with rage. Tenor David Pomeroy’s philandering Turiddu raised a real glass in his brindisi (“toast” song), and was wracked with fear when he realized he’d gone too far—his bravado giving way to that famous, meek cry for “Mamma” when his fate became clear. Mezzo Hillary Tufford’s Lola strutted in her scarlet dress, at one point walking a seductive loop around Turiddu before exiting the stage. The chorus gasped, chattered, and expressed its shock when Turiddu died.
Voices were powerful across the board, magnetic star Othalie Graham’s warm, gleaming soprano holding its own easily against the swells of the chorus and full orchestra. For his part, Pomeroy travelled all the intense emotions in “Mamma, quel vino e generoso”, unleashing fully into its sustained note, but bringing enough shading to the role that you actually felt a bit sorry for Turiddu.
Jordan Barianiecki’s swirling abstract projections, which conjure, by turns, rippling waters, burning Sicilian sun, and heart-pumping blood, added to the mood and the visual appeal of the concert. (It’s amazing to note that Baraniecki is an Emily Carr University master’s student who has never worked in opera, and was mentored here, in a new collaboration, with projection designer Sean Nieuwenhuis.)
The ending was met with one of the longest standing Os seen in years at the VO—loud enough that you forgot the audience was at provincially mandated 50-percent capacity. The most fun final flourish to a beautifully inspiring evening? Darlington enthusiastically hurling his bouquet into the audience during the bows.
In all, there was enough wow factor in this epic 75 minutes to sustain opera audiences through a few more months of performing-arts withdrawal. If you haven't got your dose of grand-scale opera this weekend, month, or seemingly endless past two years, and are in desperate need of one, there's a final matinee at 2 pm today.
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