Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto/Director: Ashley Pearson
Conductor: Gamal Khamis
If not quite a masked ball, the back premises of SADACCA are certainly en fete for Opera on Location’s production of A Masked Ball. Way before starting time Caribbean street food is on sale both outside and within the large warehouse used for the performance and a glamorously-attired fire-eater and a wonderfully colourful stilt walker entertain the crowd.
It’s all part of Ashley Pearson’s concept of the opera.A Masked Ballhas had a troubled history, the original version set in Sweden banned because it showed the murder of a king, the milieu changed to Boston in colonial times. Now productions generally revert to the original setting and character names. Pearson uses the Bostonian names (it’s certainly odd to encounter the two conspirators, Horn and Ribbing, behind the homely names of Sam and Tom), but gives it a more modern setting, the 2024 election!
This works up to a point. The community chorus, milling around in apparently disorganised fashion, giving out campaign leaflets, but spot on vocally, is a real triumph. The staging is excellent, with two trucks supporting an 18-piece orchestra, the acting area a narrow strip across the whole width of the building and a substantial tongue cutting the audience in two in the middle, with crowds swelling and oozing round minimal unimaginative furniture. But the problem is that a modern election sits oddly with visits to a fortune teller and the whole disguise thing is even more absurd than in most productions.
The plot is actually fairly simple. Riccardo, a popular political figure, is brought low by his love for Amelia, wife of his loyal friend and supporter, Renato. Ulrica, the fortune teller, predicts that he will die by the hand of the next person to shake his hand who is, of course, Renato. Meanwhile Sam and Tom lurk menacingly on the fringe of the action. Eventually Renato sees the light, joins forces with Sam and Tom and stabs Riccardo at the masquerade held to celebrate the election.
Generally the women fare better than the men in a production that too often separates emotionally connected characters – the flip side of conspirators lurking in corners and those beautifully timed entrances from outside while singing. American soprano Kelly Glyptis is in glorious voice as Amelia, soaring above ensembles and never less than expressive. Mae Heydorn risks going a bit over the top as Ulrica, but pulls it off with a rich contralto colouring in the lower register. Oscar is supposedly a breeches part – a male sung by a female – but Emily Beech brings a freshness and attack to the role, no long a page, Riccardo’s (female) assistant.
The relationship between Riccardo (Gareth Lloyd) and Renato (Aiden Edwards) never quite convinces. Lloyd copes with the difficulties in the range of the part, but never really emerges as a charismatic character whereas Edwards, despite a splendidly focussed baritone, remains somewhat stolid. As the curiously named Sam and Tom Andrew Randall and Chris Murphy excel, almost comically menacing, sardonically mocking Renato.
The chorus consists of four professionals, one to each voice type, and a community chorus not far off 20, and Gamal Khamis’ precise control of all his forces in many different places, including an orchestra working diligently and effectively to make up for limited numbers, is exemplary.
Runs until 24th August 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Wonderfully ambitious
