Dangerous Mezzo Productions

I’m thrilled that I’ve been asked back to Dalhousie University to direct their Opera Workshop again next school year — I can’t wait!

An American Triple Bill:  Giancarlo Menotti and Samuel Barber
Dalhousie University Opera Workshop
February 1, 2, 3, and 4, 2007
Reviewed by Daphna Levit

Halifax could well host an opera explosion, if the budding talent apparent in Dalhousie’s Music Department is a reliable indication.  For its Opera Workshop it just produced three short operas: Menotti’s The Telephone and The Old Maid and the Thief, and Barber’s A Hand of Bridge (libretto by Menotti).

Double casting gave quite a number of students, at every level of their university training, an opportunity to tackle the challenges of these three entertaining pieces. This reviewer attended the Saturday production (Feb 3) which was sold out to a very receptive audience, as, reportedly, were all the other performances.

The evening started with The Telephone featuring a very attractive couple, Catie Shelley and Justin Simard, who comically conveyed a love story devoid of any depth and a corresponding shallow life in very good, strong voices.  This was immediately followed by A Hand of Bridge, a tiny masterpiece, starring four singers who overcame their youth in tone, posture and expression to seem old, bored and even sleazy. Their roles gave them little opportunity to develop as individual singers, but their singing was perfectly suited to the bridge game that no one could ever win. It was a delight.

The second half of the evening consisted of the more elaborate The Old Maid and the Thief.  Much thought was obviously given to the sets and the costumes, which established the appropriate time frame – early 20th century.  The elegant Julie Rudolph (Miss Todd) had to achieve quite a dramatic stretch to be credible as an aging spinster stooping to such a dissolute conspiracy. Sarah Barrett-Ives (Laetitia), her co-conspirator, was equally more likeable than conniving.  Nevertheless, musically, all four performers (including Kristi Assaly and Justin Simard) were impressive.

Dean Bradshaw on the piano provided a controlled and congruent interpretation of all three operas; Gary Ewer inconspicuously conducted The Old Maid and the Thief and kept it tightly moving; Nina Scott-Stoddart’s direction produced a professional and highly entertaining opera event.