Rejoice! Old school opera is alive and well at the Met : The Enchanted Island steampunks it’s way onto the stage as of New Year’s Eve. The pastiche , a smorgasbord of little known baroque touchstones comes to The Metropolitan Opera at the behest of Mr. Gelb, General Manager extraordinaire. Countertenors, old fashioned hand-painted scenery, lush (really, really lush) costumes and a plot to boggle the mind bring a joyous experience that is basically opera 101 taken into 2012. It’s a brave new world out there with that projection screen that has come to roost at Center Stage, as an oft-seen element of design in many of the new productions this season. In Enchanted Island, the back screen is one delightful ingredient in indulgence. The characters stem from a long line of Shakespearean extempores: Prospero, Caliban, Ariel, to name a few. With a slick underplot from the Tempest, and an overt soap opera storyline from Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, the basics are a complicated commedia dellarte. Ariel takes some hints from Mickey Rooney in her/his spritely carryings- on throughout the drama, as the comic relief at every turn. Prospero is the manipulative lord of all he surveys , complete with 18th Century Court dress and appropriate haughty attitude. Sycorax, and her son, Caliban, as cast aways to the nether side of this Gilligan’s Island to a realm of twisted tree limbs and strange creatures.
The proscenium stage writhes in H.R. Giger inspired totems. Screen projections of watch works lend the old to the old and bathe the painted stage set in moments of Jules Verne fantasy. The baroque trills of the countertenors draw us into the moment, a moment in Baroque time to study. This pastiche is a masterwork of golden efforts that weave bits of different époques into a poetic lush tapestry. With Prospero garbed in his coats, embroidered and trimmed in rich passementerie and Miranda in a Greco-Roman gown, hung with Swiss Family Robinson accoutrements, the coin is constantly flipping to show all of it’s different sides.
If ever there was a modern way to see the classics, this is it~Midsummer’s Night’s Dream meets the Tempest, in compositions by Handel, Leclair, Vivaldi and Rameau. Toss in a bit of a new wave design element, and you’ve got your self a production that will fill every opera 101ster ‘s heart with joy. The comedic wafts through the text, as relief (the aforementioned Ariel), while evil tendrils curl, and bizarre creatures “snarl” in the backdrops. Breathtaking, and that’s not the half of it! Your heart stops when Placido Domingo as Neptune, is revealed, god that he is in the opera world as well as in this opera within a play within an opera . Surrounded by mermaids suspended in mid “ocean” ,superbly garbed, and attended by his due “court” of sea creatures and the wondrous Met chorus, Neptune sits upon his throne as the Lord of the Seas, in a shimmering pool of light. His voice is from the depths of the sea, resonant, profound, clear in tone, charming in accent . The mercreatures float dreamily above, as angels on high in heaven, dispensing magic via flecks of glitter, which only lends a deeper air of magic and myth to the scene. Grandeur.
Opening on December 31, Enchanted Island fuses Baroque with Disney, in a “merveilleux” way. For anyone who ever loved a bit of braid, or a feather, this is the opera to see. Brush up your Shakespeare, and run to the box-office. Bring it on, O Met, bring it on!
Credits: Conductor: William Christie; Production: Phelim McDermott; Associate Director & Set Designer: Julian Crouch; Costumes: Kevin Pollard; Lighting: Brian MacDevitt; Choreography: Graciela Daniele; Animation& Production Design: 59 Productions.
Cast: Prospero: David Daniels; Ariel: Danielle de Niese; Sycorax, Joyce DiDonato; Caliban: Luca Pisaroni; Miranda: Lisette Oropesa; helena: Layla Claire; Hermia: Elizabeth DeShong; Demetrius: Paul Appleby; Lysander: Elliot Madore; Neptune: Placido Domingo; Fredinand: Anthony Roth Costanzo