A rollicking Rossini - Pacific Opera Victoria

TIMES COLONIST, VICTORIA, B.C.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2016
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WEATHER, C14
STAGE
VICTORIA FILM FESTIVAL
Absurd
auteur can
be forgiven
his sins
A rollicking Rossini
Barber of Seville takes audience on a riotous comic roller coaster
REVIEW
Times Colonist movie writer
Michael D. Reid is covering the
Victoria Film Festival. Go to
timescolonist.com/VFF for daily
updates. Ratings are out of five
stars.
What: The Barber of Seville
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Tonight, Feb. 17, 19, 21
Rating: Four out of five
ADRIAN CHAMBERLAIN
Times Colonist
It’s hard to imagine anyone disliking The Barber of Seville.
Of course, Rossini’s rollicking
opera buffa is as frothy as a
Valentine’s Day bubble bath (you
do have one planned, don’t you?).
And it is awfully familiar, whether
you’re a regular opera-goer or
someone who has heard the music
via Bugs Bunny cartoons.
But I’d venture to say, if you
don’t love a good Barber of Seville
(and this is a good one), you don’t
love life. There’s sex, money,
deception, jealousy, betrayal.
There are furtive note-swappings,
amusing disguises, people hiding
behind pillars. And seeing it again,
we’re reminded how beautiful —
and clever — the music truly is.
Pacific Opera Victoria has
hatched a lively, springy Barber
worth seeking out. There’s some
strong singing, particularly from
baritone Peter McGillivray as Dr.
Bartolo and mezzo-soprano Sylvia
Szadovszki as Rosina. The direction is sure-footed, with the opera
becoming increasingly rollicking
as it progresses. The whimsical
period costumes are bold. And the
set is astoundingly beautiful.
Often, The Barber of Seville is
presented as a pure yuk-fest. Certainly, the temptation is there.
Director Morris Panych’s vision
is different. In the first half, he
does retain the opera’s inherent
humour (it is a farce, after all). At
the same time, Panych avoids
overdoing it, allowing the possibility that Figaro, Count Almaviva, Rosina, Bartolo, et al. are
indeed real people.
In the second half, the comedy
is allowed to run rampant like a
gaggle of rambunctious youngsters released for recess. During
the music-lesson scene, the dis-
The Brand New Testament
Cineplex Odeon
Feb. 12, 6:30 p.m.
Feb. 13, 4 p.m.
Today, 4 p.m.
Rating: Four stars
Peter McGillivray, left, as Dr. Bartolo and Clarence Frazer as Figaro in The Barber of Seville.
guised count (wearing a curly
wig) cheekily pushed Bartolo’s
pot-belly. Then he goosed Rosina
with his crotch.
One of Panych’s most memorable directorial sequences is the
Act I finale. This is Fredda ed
immobile (Awestruck and immovable), a riotous comic sextet that
roars like a fast-track train. Taking a literal cue from the lyrics,
the singers move like robots and
freeze in statue-like poses.
It’s a terrific touch — and
there are many in this Barber. I
loved how one of Rosina’s letters
abruptly wafted heavenwards.
Also compellingly, often a performer held a lantern up to illuminate another character. This happens once again, significantly, at
the opera’s denouement — providing a lovely image, a literal
“shedding of light” on the plot’s
threads, now neatly tied in a bow.
On Thursday night,
McGillivray received the most
vocal applause at curtain. He’s a
fine singer, particularly impressive during A un dottor della mia
sorte, when a jealous Bartolo
interrogates and lectures Rosina.
McGillivray is also a gifted
comic actor, one of those performers able to project humour
and whimsy with a gesture or
look. His turns were among the
most enjoyable of the evening.
No one sang better than
Szadovszki, who makes a suitably
pretty and charming Rosina. Displaying a lush, attractive voice,
the young mezzo impressed with
her clarity and projection.
Singing with a nicely rounded
vibrato, Szadovszki navigated
treacherously tricky coloratura
passages with aplomb.
Her aria Una voce poco fa (in
which the feisty Rosina promises
she can sting like a viper as well
as being gentle) was wonderful,
especially the thrilling high notes.
Baritone Clarence Frazer is a
solid Figaro, offering a pleasingly
cocky version Largo al factotum,
one of opera’s most famous tunes.
The surtitles mysteriously vanished during this one, but we still
got the idea. Bass-baritone Giles
Tomkins, as Don Basilio, also
sang well.
Tenor Antonio Figueroa, playing Count Almaviva, is a good
DAVID COOPER
actor who looks the part. The
singer’s strength lies in his lyricism. At times — such as his first
song in which he serenades Rosina
— his florid passages seemed
laboured. And on this night, some
high-register notes lacked heft.
The Victoria Symphony, conducted by Timothy Vernon, was
appropriately light and dexterous.
This was particularly apparent
during the overture, which
reminded my companion of champagne bubbles.
Arguably, the most unforgettable component of this Barber of
Seville is its jaw-dropping set.
Designed by Ken MacDonald, one
of Canada’s most gifted set designers, it is inspired by the organic
architecture of Antoni Gaudí.
Beautifully lit, it’s like a fantastic confection, both modern and
timeless, a magnificent cake decoration, perhaps. Towers and other
edifices resemble giant white
paper cut-outs, curled and curving in a delightful way. Serpentine
decorations are subtly painted
onto the buildings, like etchings
on glassware. Oranges dot white
trees. It’s a work of art, really.
Grant ready for a good awards party
What: Jenn Grant with Joshua Hyslop
When: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Lucky Bar, 517 Yates St.
Tickets: $12.50 at Lyle’s Place and
ticketfly.com
Note: Grant also performs Wednesday in
Nanaimo at the Dinghy Dock Pub and
Thursday in Ladysmith at the Music Hall
MIKE DEVLIN
Times Colonist
Jenn Grant would love to suggest
that making records isn’t about
winning awards, or that her pursuit of artistic satisfaction trumps
her need for peer recognition.
According to Grant, life as an
artist can safely include a little bit
of everything. Plus, she will never
deny the pull of an awesome
awards-show party, especially
when surrounded by fun-loving
folk who call Atlantic Canada
home.
“I love being recognized for
something that I have worked so
hard on. But I also love getting
dressed up for a party,” the P.E.I.raised singer-songwriter said
with a laugh, during an interview
from her home in Lake Echo, N.S.
“I don’t feel like I have a bad
ego, but I feel like nominations
and awards give me a bit of a
boost.”
Grant has good reason to cele-
C1
brate: her latest album, Compostela, will compete for six East
Coast Music Awards on April 17.
The massive amount of awards
attention — Grant is technically
nominated for seven awards,
counting the nod for her side
project, Aqua Alta — comes on
the heels of two nominations at
the Juno Awards in 2015. In addition to Compostela’s adult alternative album of the year nomination, Grant was also recognized
with a Juno nod in the songwriter
of the year category.
Clearly, she’s on to something
in her work, which has been
described as “a world full of love,
loss, sadness and flights of happiness” by No Depression magazine.
There was certainly a tinge of
sadness to the songs on Compostela, some of which was
inspired by the death of her
mother in 2012. Not wanting to
make a song cycle full of sadness,
she added some moments of levity, which are more reflective of
her personality, Grant said.
“The record, for me, doesn’t
feel like a sad record. I feel like
I’m honouring something and
looking for the beauty in life and
in loss, and what you learn from
those experiences. With writing,
you have to explore every side
Jenn Grant’s latest album is up
for six East Coast music awards.
and angle of your personality and
imagination. You have to allow
yourself to go in any direction.”
Grant’s tour with her husband,
music producer Daniel Ledwell,
will bring the duo to Vancouver
Island for three concerts beginning Tuesday in Victoria. She will
make her debuts in Nanaimo on
Wednesday and Ladysmith on
Thursday, but she will need no
introduction to Victoria audiences. Grant has played the city
regularly since 2008, alongside
everyone from Hayden to Ron
Sexsmith.
Her date at Lucky Bar, where
she has played several times
previously, might catch some
off-guard next week, however.
Grant said she’s devising ways
of keeping both herself and the
audience engaged on her sixdate, nine-day West Coast run,
her last tour before she settles
down for an extended run of
studio work.
“I find a little [flair] goes a
long way,” Grant said. “If you put
some effort into something, it
makes it feel more like an experience for everyone.”
She has been off the road since
Dec. 5, a respite that followed 250
days of touring and 200 shows
through Canada, Australia, the
United Kingdom and the U.S. in
2015. She has enjoyed her down
time with Ledwell, but is growing
restless these days.
Some of her songs are taking
shape, but the real work begins
when she gets home. Grant isn’t
sure how the album will look, content-wise, but there is a sense of
moodiness that comes from writing songs on piano, which she is
teaching herself to play.
“I’m writing like crazy, and
going crazy writing. It will be
good for me to get out and play
some shows.”
[email protected]
In the gospel according to Jaco van
Dormael, God is a mean-spirited
bully who lives in Brussels with his
long-suffering wife Goddess,
whose hobbies include embroidery
and collecting baseball cards.
Their rebellious 10-year-old daughter, Ea, with the help of her longlost brother, JC, represented as a
tacky statuette, decides to randomly recruit six new disciples,
sparking worldwide chaos and
unexpected hilarity by sending
text messages to everyone telling
them when they’re going to die.
Sound blasphemous? It certainly
is, but if you can forgive the Belgian auteur’s sins, you’ll be
rewarded with a playfully absurd,
darkly whimsical diversion underscored by optimism. Van Dormael’s absurdist sense of humour,
recalling Monty Python at times, is
strategically offset by biblical references, with a dose of humanity
on the side. It nicely complements
this giddily inventive theological
comedy’s overall lunacy and surreal imagery, including the presence of Cathernie Deneuve as a
loveless French housewife who
shares her bed with an unlikely
soulmate, a large gorilla.
Lost and Found
Vic Theatre
Tonight, 6 p.m.
Rating: four stars
Not since the Tom Hanks movie
Castaway has a volleyball even
come close to evoking as much
emotion as the one in this compelling documentary focusing on
attempts to reunite items that have
washed up on our Pacific shores
since the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan with
those who tragically lost them. The
lost volleyball with Japanese
inscriptions was found by John
Anderson, a Forks, Washington,
beachcomber and marine-debris
collector determined to find and
return it to its owner overseas. It’s
part of millions of tonnes of
wreckage, including toys that have
been played with, a little girl’s slipper, colourful buoys and motorcyles that have reached our
shores. Through the stories of
their subjects who forge unexpected friendships with survivors,
directors John Choi and Nicolina
Lanni eloquently remind us that
this is not just “debris” so much as
treasured fragments of people’s
lives. Other stories that beautifully
humanize this tragedy involve a
yellow buoy that Alaskan David
Baxter finds and traces to Sakiki
Miura, a widow who used it as part
of a sign on her tsunami-destroyed
restaurant; Tofino artist Peter
Clarkson’s discovery of several
distinctively notched Japanese
house beams; and Kevin Easley, a
rugged but sensitive Anchorage
dentist who adds artistic touches
to a bike helmet he hopes to return
to its owner. As these tales unfold,
you can’t help thinking that the
tragedy that occurred in Japan
could happen here, especially after
our recent earthquake. Food for
thought.
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