Volume 23 Issue 2 - October 2017

Patrick Jang, Carla Huhtanen and Phillip Addis in Opera Atelier’s The Marriage
of Figaro (2010). OA’s revival of Figaro runs from October 26 to November 4.
that, the libretto makes quite clear that both Arabella and Zdenka are
bright, intelligent women who are totally aware of what their parents
have done to them.” What he finds most interesting is that “the relationship
between Arabella and Mandryka is really quite modern in the
sense that they commit themselves to each other as equal partners.”
Some critics have felt that while it was noble of Strauss to honour
Hofmannsthal by setting the unrevised last two acts as they were,
this has led to Arabella being marked as “flawed.” Albery says that
“there’s no doubt, especially in the third act, that we go over ground
we’ve already gone over and we have conversations between characters
we’ve already heard before. So there is a tradition of many cuts in
the third act to remove sections that Hofmannsthal would likely have
removed himself. It’s the kind of editing that Strauss didn’t like to
do but which people of the future have done on his behalf. If it is not
absolutely clear who knows what when, those are the kinds of decisions
we have to make in the rehearsal room and as long as we know
exactly what is happening so will the audience.”
Has Albery’s view of the opera changed since his production in
2012? Albery says, “What changes there are come from the different
interactions of the performers, because different performers bring
different things to the piece and I try really hard in my role to respond
to what they offer.”
Vivier
The other major work of music theatre this month in no way fits
the traditional operatic mould. It is Musik für das Ende written in
1971 by Claude Vivier (1948-83), now regarded as one of Canada’s
greatest composers. The work Vivier described as a “grande cérémonie
funèbre” was originally written for 20 performers divided into three
groups, two of which are visible with one offstage. All the singers play
instruments and are given specific physical tasks to perform. These
instructions written into the score demonstrate that Vivier intended
the work to be staged.
The piece was first performed in concert in 2012; Soundstreams will
have the honour of presenting the world premiere staging of the work.
Vivier, a devout Catholic, writes in his preamble to the score that the
work was the product of his meditation that we are all surrounded
by human beings destined to die: “I experienced the increasingly
strange ceremony of beings disappearing forever and becoming ‘an
infinite moment’ in eternal silence. This became ... a Ceremony of the
End, infused with the hope that humanity would understand the real
meaning of its earthly experience and ultimately purify itself.”
Chris Abraham has been chosen as the director and he explained to
me in an interview the makeup of the evening, of which Musik für das
Ende is both the overall title and one of the three segments.
“The evening begins with a 20-minute-long play by Zachary
Russell, which is a fictional imagining of a night with Vivier (played
by Alex Ivanovici) in Paris shortly after a violent encounter with a
A Canada 150 Celebration!
by Calixa Lavallée
From the composer of our National
Anthem comes this melodious and
farcical screwball comedy!!
Michael Rose, Music Director
Guillermo Silva-Marin,
Stage Director
starring Julie Nesrallah,
Diego Catalá and Gregory Finney
with Lynn Isnar, Julia Obermeyer and
Michael McLean
November 5 at 3 pm
Guillermo Silva-Marin
General Director
Julie Nesrallah
photo: Couvrette/Ottawa
416-366-7723 | 1-800-708-6754 | www.stlc.com
thewholenote.com October 2017 | 21