The Catskill Chronicle

Review by Peggy Friedman, Photos by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY (March 15, 2012) – I anticipated with pleasure the Met Live in HD presentation of “The Enchanted Island,” and had been bitterly disappointed in January when weather forced its  cancellation. This past Saturday, I spent almost four hours in ecstatic Baroque enchantment at the Seelig Theatre at Sullivan County Community College.

Bravi, bravi, bravi to all who created and collaborated in this top-drawer pastiche brilliantly directed by Phelim McDermott; it premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on New Year’s Eve, 2011.

While doing a little pre-performance research, I found that many reviews used the term “pastiche” in a way suggesting that the work is just a stringing together of arias and a silly plot taken mostly from Shakespeare to create a pleasant wintertime diversion. It is much more; it is first rate singing and acting and a total enchantment. The title is apt; we all need an “Enchanted Island” of our own to visit once in awhile, knowing that no matter what tribulations we face, it all turns out alright in the end. For those unfortunate enough to miss it, watch PBS for a rerun.

Jeremy Sams devised and wrote the piece, in collaboration with conductor William Christie, using Baroque-era music by Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau and others. He set clever new texts in English to the wonderful music, moving along a fanciful plot: the two loving couples from Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on the island, a mistake of the sprite Ariel – a fantastic performance by soprano Danielle de Niese (photo right) – who was supposed to shipwreck a vessel carrying Ferdinand and his evil father. Drat, wrong ship! Prospero, countertenor David Daniels, wants Ferdinand as a husband for his daughter, Miranda, lyric soprano Lisette Oropesa, who, he feels, is growing up and becoming a bit sexual. He also has noticed his slave, Caliban (bravo bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni (photo below) – recently a triumph as Leporello in Don Giovanni) is eying her slyly, and he is getting worried.

Caliban is the son of the witch Sycorax, who gets a back-story here not present in the original Tempest: She and Prospero were lovers after he first washed up on the island. She befriended him, but as he gained control he took over the island (we would now read this as Colonialism), exiled her to the boggy part of the property while he and his daughter enjoyed the beach. Prospero, a magician, made Caliban his slave, and freed Sycorax’s servant, Ariel, who is now working off the favor.

As the plot thickens with lovers’ confusions – poor shipwrecked Helena, soprano Layla Claire, is again dismissed by her husband Lysander (as she was in the original Midsummer Night’s Dream), Miranda falls (under the mistaken spells of Ariel) first for Lysander, baritone Elliot Madore, and then Demetrius, tenor Paul Appleby, while Helena and Hermia, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, are running around asking who is that half dressed woman stealing their husbands?

Meanwhile Sycorax, brilliantly performed by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato (photo right), drab and depressed in Act I, by Act II is so empowered by circumstances that her gray hair returns to mostly brown (you can almost hear her incant “I am woman, hear me roar”), uses magic to make Miranda fall in love with Caliban (shades of Midsummer Night’s Dream), and he begins to think far above his current station. He has a wonderful fantasy of power incorporated into a stylish ballet.

After many twists and turns, and much gorgeously played (harpsichord in pit), sung and ornamented music, Father Neptune, tenor Placido Domingo in a cameo role (photo left), is the deus ex machina (although he comes up from the ocean, replete with Rhine Maiden-like mermaids – an homage to Domingo’s Ring appearances?) and peace is restored. Not before, however, Prospero abjectly apologizes to Sycorax, gives her all his magic books and potions, restores her to her rightful position as Island ruler, frees Ariel and Caliban and returns to Naples with Miranda and Ferdinand, who had arrived on a later boat. “Our revels now are ended” he says.

While this plot requires a “willing suspension of disbelief,” that state is easy to achieve due to the superb ensemble acting of the singers. They have developed individual characterizations, and given them motivations and dimensions. Caliban, for example, is played more as a tragic clown, than the sub-human as which he is sometimes performed. His final sadness and resignation is quite touching.

Daniels (photo right) and de Niese stand out as creative singers; their ornamentation of phrases (meaning embellishment on the music) is elegant and beautiful. The  richness of the compositions chosen to create this magic adds pleasure approaching almost awe for the listener. Added treats: costumes by Kevin Pollard, lights by Brian MacDevitt, and choreography by Graciela Daniele. Tommy Watson created the fanciful and decorative wigs.

Some of my favorite bits: Before the first ship wreck, the two couples on a honeymoon cruise stand elegantly dressed in 18^th century finery, on the deck of the bobbing pasteboard baroque singing “Days of pleasure/Nights of love/ Sea below/ Sky above.” A Baroque stage, replete with ornamental wheels indicating the mechanism of the time to move the scenery and do the special effects is appropriate, as are footlights shaped as clam shells. 21^st century effects by 59 Productions include  projections which sometimes project the landscape scenery on top of itself, magical fireworks and Neptune’s watery palace – Ariel visits him in a diver’s suit. Neptune growls invective at humankind for “destroying my pristine ocean that I gave you” – a very modern ecological statement for a 18^th century god!

The period stage becomes an intimate enclosure which is helpful to the opera production, since there are no large choruses or orchestral sections it would have been lost on the huge Met stage. Baroque operas were performed in relatively small theatres, not huge barns like the current 3,800 seat Metropolitan Opera. I would rather see an HD production any day, than sit “with the Gods” high up in the Family Circle at Lincoln Center. Orchestra seats at $250 are out of the reach of many of us.

Thank you Sullivan County Community College for bring us this wonderful series at such reasonable prices.