The Atlanta Opera is a decent, but not fabulous, opera company. They are the sort who get nominated for opera awards, but for accessibility rather than anything artistic. The only time I've actually seen them achieve fabulosity was during their 2015 production of Rigoletto, which I think was mostly due to Nadine Sierra. Now that she is triumphing at La Scala, Atlanta will probably be henceforth unable to afford her. In opera, as in life, money is important.
With that in mind, the Atlanta Opera's Pirates of Penzance was decent, but not fabulous. It was fun; this operetta being difficult to make less so, but there were a few musical problems. Some of the cast were having projection difficulties, notably, and unfortunately, the chief of police. That should be a standout role, and it just wasn't. Some of the general's daughters as well were difficult to hear, and since the orchestra was playing much more piano and less bombastically than I could wish (and it's a small orchestra) there's just no excuse for that. Also, the music was played more slowly than is an artistic choice of tempo I could agree with. This operetta is ridiculous, and it should be played uptempo and with gusto.
There were definitely good points. Maureen McKay, as Mabel, sang the guts out of her coloratura role while playing up the comedy as much as she could. The general's daughters as an ensemble were fantastic, moving as they did in clumps and casting shade on Mabel's amorous choices. Individually, they were only average, but they were well choreographed at least. The Pirate King, Kevin Burdette, easily stole the show in his tight pants. He would have been better with a police chief with a personality to be a foil, but what can you do?
The set was fabulous, consisting entirely of movable pieces which cast members moved around as they needed things to pose on or hide behind. Except for maybe the set of their 2014 Rigoletto, which was a brooding pit of darkness with paintings of depravity beneath a gleaming white city, this is probably the best staging I've ever seen here. I'm hoping they stay more with things like this and move away from their fancy technological projected backgrounds.
Pirates of Penzance is genuinely, sidesplittingly, funny material. It's one of Gilbert and Sullivan's better (and better aging) works, and making it not wonderfully funny would require great effort. We may have lost whatever they were mocking with the timid policeman and probably other subtleties, but enough meaning translates into modernity without effort that it's not a problem. What is the problem is that I felt that the production was banking on funny to carry them through some musical weaknesses. I had a great time, and I like going to the opera, make no mistake. I'm happy the Atlanta Opera is returning to 4 productions for next year. I think this is an important step to becoming a higher quality company. If it takes producing crowd pleasing operas with shoddy singing in places, to get there, well, I'll be willing to be pleased and hope they make enough money from me to invest in more singers than just the principals.
In the meantime, on to Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. I have never seen this before, and I am so excited.
No comments:
Post a Comment