Opera All Over the Map
Frédéric Antoun a highlight of Montreal’s “Lammermoor”
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
Montreal offers a lot of
classical music — as
well as diversity, much
of historical and architectural
interest, fi ne restaurants,
and a designated Gay Village not
far via Metro or even by foot from
the venues where the two operas
I saw were performed. (Like many
such ‘hoods, it’s said to be less gay
than back in the day.)
“Lucia di Lammermoor” (November
9), from Opéra de Montréal,
fi lled the vast, modern Salle Wilfrid
Pelletier, named for a longtime
Met conductor married in turn to
fi ne second-tier divas Queena Mario
and Rose Bampton. As Lucia,
Kathleen Kim took over rehearsals
on a week’s notice from the vocally
more opulent but usually dramatically
static Albina Shagimuratova.
The company was lucky to
get Kim, a diminutive, vulnerable
stage fi gure with some interpretive
guts and notably good staccati.
Her voice lacks much weight
below and high E fl ats were not on
this occasion stellar, but she more
than earned her check.
The production’s raison d’etre
and highest achievement was the
very fi rst Edgardo of locally bred
and trained tenor star Frédéric
Antoun. A very credible Romantic
hero, Antoun sang extremely
well in good style, balancing Gallic
fl oat with Latin ping in his phrasing.
He offered — in key! — one of
the best fi nal scenes since Alfredo
Kraus’ long tenure in the great
YVES RENAUD/ OPÉRA DE MONTRÉAL
Frédéric Antoun, in his debut performance as Edgardo,
was the highlight of Opéra de Montréal’s
production of “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
role, this despite being ludicrously
upstaged by fi ve (!!!) ghosts, an illadvised
hallmark “innovation” (as
if!) of Michael Cavanagh’s otherwise
clunkily old fashioned staging
in the late Robert O’Hearn’s
“Victor Book of the Opera”-worthy
sets.
Cavanagh and routine conductor
Fabrizio Ventura — who allowed
far too many 1970s-style
held fi nal high notes — also cut
the dramatically crucial Wolf’s
Crag Tower scene, something one
doesn’t expect at an international
house. This gave Gregory Dahl’s
seasoned, professional Enrico not
much to do. Oleg Tsibulko’s solidly
unremarkable Raimondo got
his scene with Lucia. Rising tenor
Mario Bahg sounded wonderful in
Arturo’s brief but exposed duties,
and Florence Bourg contributed a
sonorous Alisa, unfazed by high
Bs.
The next day brought — Antoun’s
work aside — a far more interesting
occasion in Opera McGill’s “Clemenza
di Tito.” Michael Hidetoshi
Mori’s fl uid, intelligent production
ingeniously blended modern choral
dress with Ginette Grenier’s compelling
period robes; using much
more of the recitative (farmed out
by Mozart to an assistant), Mori
and the impressive conductor Stephen
Hargreaves made this sometimes
OPERA
static opera compelling and
exciting to a diverse public.
All the students cast showed
accomplishment. Maddie Studt’s
Sesto proved outstandingly credible
visually, vocally and technically.
The Vitellia, Avery Lafrentz,
had a comic blast and showed a
mettlesome, wide-ranging voice
that should settle in. Olivier Gagnon
was vivid and agile if not always
dulcet in Tito’s tricky music;
in a sudden misstep, Hargreaves
rushed him through the crucial
fi nale. Elisabeth Boudreault furnished
an appealing Servilia ready
for professional stages.
➤ DISAPPEARANCE, from p.34
In saying he was “obsessive
more than I actually was,” Barrese
explained he meant that the
obsessiveness was exaggerated
for purposes of telling the story.
“I’ve been drawn to her because
I’ve been attracted to the mystery
that surrounds her life and her
past and the many contrasts she
has, he said of Benedetta. “My interest
in a subject is proportional
to how much I love the subject. I
have enormous love for her. She’s
so beautiful and charismatic.”
And, indeed, squabbles or not,
the love between mother and son
is evident in every frame of “The
Disappearance of My Mother.”
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY
MOTHER | Directed by Beniamino
Barrese | In English and Italian
with English subtitles | Kino
Lorber Opens Dec. 6 | Quad Cinema,
34 W. 13th St.; quadcinema.
com
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