Michael Hendrick has a highly estimable heroic tenor voice, silvery and beautifully sustained, and delivers a convincing interpretation of the priceless Tenor/Bacchus.
Behind the scenes
Montreal
Wilfrid-Pelletier Room
06/11/2004 – and November 8, 11, 13 and 17, 2004
Richard Strauss: Ariadne on Naxos (1916)
John Fanning (Music Master), Georg Martin Bode (Butler), Claude Grenier (A Lackey), Antonio Figueroa (Officer), Danièle LeBlanc (Composer), Michael Hendrick (Tenor/Bacchus), Etienne Dupuis (Wigsmith), Aline Kutan (Zerbinette), Marina Shaguch (Prima Donna/Ariadne), Peter Blanchet (Dance Master), Allison Angelo (Naiade), Mia Lennox-Williams (Dryade), Marie Simoneau (Écho), Aaron St.Clair Nicholson (Arlequin), Marc Belleau (Truffaldin), Nils Brown (Scaramouche), Pascal Charbonneau (Brighella)
Chris Alexander (director)
Robert A. Dahlstrom (sets)
Bruno Schwengel, Cynthia Savage (costumes)
Guy Simard (lights)
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Jacques Lacombe (conductor)
Notice to all lyricophiles disappointed by a relative but no less tenacious shortage of German opera on Montreal stages, the current production of Ariadne auf Naxos, premiered at the Opéra, could well mark the beginning of a healthy evolution of Germanophile morals in this city. The scenic balance of a work like Ariadne is ultimately fragile, and dependent on multiple elements colliding throughout the score. Here, first and foremost, we must salute the work of American director Chris Alexander, who succeeds in orchestrating countless games of tension/relaxation between kitsch and truth, pastiche and tragedy, food and seriousness, pretense and sincerity, aesthetics. and vulgarity, through an exquisite visual abundance which seems to bring us closer to what a “current” rereading of an “old” work should be. Here the gesture remains lively and brilliant, the spirit of the text respected and the performance of the performers highlighted by a simple, effective, and above all credible scenography. Alexander manages to take the spectator behind the scenes with him, to make him witness to the pleasures and vicissitudes of the artistic condition, and finally to make him reflect on the place that art occupies in our society, and on our own perception of it. -this. What more ?
The distribution is intended to be adequate in many aspects. Danièle LeBlanc, the valiant Italiana of a few seasons ago, lends her carnal and ductile mezzo to a youthful Komponist whose eagerness of despair is ultimately matched only by the ardor of impulsiveness. The voice is beautiful, suits the language and the role well, and projects very well despite some somewhat dry high notes. Michael Hendrick has a highly estimable heroic tenor voice, silvery and beautifully sustained, and delivers a convincing interpretation of the priceless Tenor/Bacchus. Aline Kutan dazzles as Zerbinette, by turns fragile and mischievous, and in her case vocal acrobatics combine with body contortions in a surprising way. Much was expected of Marina Shaguch, already known to Montreal audiences for her superb Tatiana from Onegin given recently with the OSM, as well as for a unique Iolanta in Lanaudière; we must admit that this time it disappoints somewhat. Notwithstanding a singing of impeccable beauty and a characterization of great dramatic intensity, his interpretation suffers from cruel shortcomings in terms of projection, shortcomings which we do not really know what to blame. You have to listen carefully to savor the garlands of vocalizations of a Zerbinette, so be it, but the same cannot be said of the title role. We therefore regret despite everything the absence of Margaret Jane Wray, remarkable Gutrune and no less eloquent Sieglinde at the Metropolitan this year, and initially announced in the main role. At the head of a reduced OSM, Jacques Lacombe delivers a rigorous reading of this score riddled with ambivalences, affectionately caressing the elegiac lines and infusing a very characteristic verve into the frenzied passages.