ellid | Ellid goes to the opera

As I've mentioned here before, I snagged one of the last tickets to the Boston Early Music Festival's production of Niobe, Regina di Thebes in Great Barrington. I got in very late last night so this is not a coherent review, but here are my observations:

- Performance space was the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, an old, beautifully restored theater in Great Barrington, a little over an hour from my house. The auditorium seats slightly under 700 people, creating an intimate space that's not all that far off from the court theaters of Baroque Europe. I chatted a bit with one of the BEMF brass who was manning the sale table, and she told me that some of the musicians who were used to performing in Europe preferred the Mahaiwe to the Boston venues because it's smaller and closer to what they were used to. It also was a strain on the singers' voices at the end of the run.

- Seat was in the nosebleed section but was surprisingly good. I could see almost everything except a couple of entrances from the far left, and the acoustics were terrific. Also, "nosebleed section" in a 681 seat theater is a lot different from a place like Symphony Hall in Springfield, where my knee locked partway up the stairs on my way to the mezzanine last spring. Quite satisfactory.

- The instrumentalists were uniformly excellent. I was particularly impressed by Paul O'Dette, who conducted in between plucking his theorbo, as well as the bass viols who accompanied a stunning first act aria (see below).

- Costumes were just luscious, with plenty of jewel tone brocades, silk velvets, and proper corsets. I particularly loved the martial costumes worn by the Thessalian soldiers. Really, really nice work - some of the singers looked like they'd come fresh from a performance at Versailles for Louis XIV.

- Sets were equally impressive. They were all done in accordance with late 17th century staging and set design, including a flying chariot drawn by a dragon (!), cloud effects, and sliding flats that changed the scene from Thebes to the woods to the temple of Latona in seconds.

- I'm pretty sure there were area mikes on the stage, particularly in the rear, to aid with the sound mix. This actually helped in certain scenes, especially the entrance of Manto, the ingenue, but it was somewhat distracting to hear the singers taking a breath from time to time. I also really question whether baritone Jess Blumberg (Poliferno) or countertenor Phillipe Jaroussky (Anfione) really needed the microphones, especially Jaroussky on his high notes.

- As for the singers...standouts were Blumberg, who has a wonderfully rich baritone; young soprano Yulia van Doren as the ingenue Manto, who has a sweet, almost winsome voice and a face to match; Charles Robert Stephens, a splendid bass who ably portrayed the blind priest Tiresia; and countertenor Matthew White as Creonte, the besotted prince of Thessaly.

Two disappointments: I wasn't all that impressed with countertenor Jose Lemos as Nerea, the busybody old nurse who serves as comic relief. He kept dropping into a very gravelly low range, plus he was wigged to resemble an extra from The Mikado, not a Baroque opera. Worse, at least for me, he looked a *lot* like Annabella, Duchess Isabella's apprentice, and fellow SCAdians will understand why this was disconcerting.

I also was somewhat disappointed by Amanda Forsythe as Niobe. She has a lovely voice, and her acting was terrific - Niobe is a manipulative, arrogant, overly proud bitch for most of the opera, and Forsythe really brought out this quality. She was really excellent in her last aria, after she's lost everything, and her voice blended very well with the countertenor playing her husband...but this is supposed to be a woman so charismatic, so dazzling, that she reduces three men, one of them the son of Jove, to wibbling little puddles. She just didn't have that sort of charisma for much of the opera, at least for me.

But the best, the absolute best, was the French countertenor Phillipe Jaroussky as Anfione, king of Thebes and husband of Niobe. He was stunning from his opening notes to his last, truncated aria as he dies on-stage, with a laser-clear vocal quality and gorgeous, almost silvery high notes. He handled all the trills and runs and ornamentation as if he'd been doing this for decades, to the point that I had to keep reminding myself that he's only in his early thirties.

He also brought out the dreamy, idealistic side of Anfione, a king who only wants to retire and write music. There was an aria about the music of the spheres in the first act that was just mesmerizing, and so simple - it was Jaroussky, some simple but dramatic lighting effects, a couple of off-stage bass viols, and long, simple, but eloquent vocal lines. You seriously could not take your eyes off him, and I only realized I'd been holding my breath after he finished and the audience started to applaud.

- Best of all, I got to chat with the director, Gilbert Blin, as I was leaving. I told him that the opera was stunning, and worth the long drive from Easthampton (over an hour). He thanked me most graciously, and then told me to be careful driving home since it's so easy to be lost in the world of the opera and forget about safe driving - and when I said I'd be okay since I had a Charpentier CD in the car, he pointed out that the BEMF is doing a semi-staged Charpentier opera in November! It was a nice little coda to the evening.

To summarize:

Seven dead bodies. One dancing bear. Two gods. No blood. Fantastic singing. Off-stage sex (between Niobe and Creonte). One evil sorceror. On-stage suicide (Anfione). Five curtain calls. One standing ovation (for Jaroussky at the end). Five stars. Ellid says check it out when the inevitable CD comes out sometime next year.