James Strecker Reviews the Arts

JAMES STRECKER: Your production of The Resurrection was already presented digitally in 2021, so what reasons have you for recommending the upcoming live performance?

MARSHALL PYNKOSKI: In the broadest sense, we believe there is no comparison between a film performance and a live performance. One is not superior to the other, but each provides an experience for the audience that is unique unto itself.

• Our film production of The Resurrection took place in the ballroom of St. Lawrence Hall and major concessions had to be made in terms of the choreography and staging due to space restrictions.
• The set that has been designed for Koerner Hall is enormous – far too large to fit into the ballroom of St. Lawrence Hall. In fact, much of it could not even fit onto the freight elevator. Consequently, those who saw the film version of The Resurrection saw only a very few select pieces of the set. The set was designed specifically to fit into Koerner and to blend seamlessly into the architecture and the surfaces of that concert hall. Consequently, our staged production will be visually far more cohesive.
• Due to COVID restrictions, major changes were necessary in terms of choreography and staging when filming The Resurrection. No physical contact was allowed whatsoever – a huge challenge in an opera that is so emotionally fraught. What’s more, the rules of “social distancing” meant that the choreography and blocking had to be reimagined to allow the requisite two meters between all participants at all times.
• The artists were not allowed to sing while filming The Resurrection and consequently were lip-syncing to a playback of their own voices, recorded in Koerner Hall at an earlier date with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Working with a live orchestra allows for far greater spontaneity particularly in terms of delivery of recitative and even in the tempi of the arias and the ballet.
• In the film, the singers and dancers followed the recorded music. On stage, the instrumentalists follow the singers and dancers.
• Costumes for The Resurrection were only partially completed for the film version. The costumes will be realized in their entirety for the stage production.

JS: The Resurrection has been called “Handel’s first acknowledged masterpiece,” so two questions. What exactly makes a musical creation a “masterpiece”? What makes Handel’s Resurrection fit that designation?

MP: I think a masterpiece is a work that lasts beyond the period in which it was originally created. From a baroque perspective, a masterpiece must embody a particularly harmonious fusion of all of the elements that are part of its creation. In the case of The Resurrection, the libretto, the character development, and the music are wonderfully allied, and the dance music is integrated so successfully, it loses all sense of divertissement and becomes an integral part of the story.

For me, a masterpiece must feel new every time you approach it. It must be able to lend itself successfully to a variety of interpretations from artist to artist and period to period. This means that it never remains static. A masterpiece is a catalyst – a point of departure rather than an end in itself.

JS: Handel has been called “the consummate showman” and I wonder what evidence you find of this quality in the composer’s “The Resurrection.”

MP: Handel is always aware of his audience and even in his moments of greatest inspiration, he never loses sight of the fact that it is the audience who must be engaged. He is a master at ensuring that the audience is not reduced to being voyeurs, but rather, that they become participants emotionally in the action.

Handel is always aware that an audience must never be expected to sustain one emotional state for too extended a period of time. This is why a creation like The Resurrection includes moments of subtle, ironic humour. Handel understands the need for a dramatic and emotional palate cleanser.

I find it particularly fascinating that Handel was able to create a sense of dramatic tension even while dealing with a story that is familiar to the audience and in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

Handel never shies away from the opportunity to show off the technical prowess of his instrumentalists, his singers, and dancers. Because he was surrounded by the greatest theatre artists of his day, he brought his orchestration, ornamentation, and dance music to a pinnacle that has seldom if ever been surpassed.

JS: How do the visual and musical elements in your production support and enhance one another? Any favourite examples?

MP: Handel’s composition – his word painting – always reflects the emotional state of the artists on stage. Clearly, he had great respect for his librettists and consequently it is not a difficult process for us to visualize scenes that have already been so perfectly prepared from a musical and textual point of view.

I’m particularly fond of a scene in which Mary Magdalene and Cleophas enter an ecstatic state during which they begin to have visions, or hallucinate – believing they are seeing elements of Christ’s passion, i.e., the nails, the crown of thorns, his beautiful lacerated face. In this instance, the dancers (invisible to the human beings onstage) appear to Magdalene and Cleophas carrying these elements as though they are floating through space. The presence of these props as part of the choreography enhances the surreal nature of the women’s duet.

Jeannette and I were particularly inspired by the opening aria of The Archangel, and the extreme militant quality of the music writing. The orchestration sounds, to us, like wings (not unlike Mendelssohn’s depiction of the winged creates in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and we consequently decided to include all of our dancers onstage as angelic beings – carrying swords and engaging in highly styled swordplay on the ritournelles between the sung portions of The Archangel’s aria.

Finally, Handel is a genius at creating running music, walking music, weeping music – music of sleep, and of rage. His cues are unmistakable and we do everything we can to follow them.

JS: We are promised “an inventive transformation of Koerner Hall by Gauci” for this production, so please fill us in with the details and tell us what you’ll be doing to one of my favourite halls.

MP: I don’t want to give too much away, but you can expect to see some spectacular architectural elements added to the Koerner Hall stage and balconies. We were very anxious, however, to do nothing that would impose on the space or make it seem that we wished we were in a proscenium arch theatre. Consequently, the enormous staircases and platforms have been given a painted treatment that make them indistinguishable from the architecture and woodwork of the hall itself. These new architectural elements do allow our singers and dancers to appear at a variety of levels that would never be possible otherwise.

JS: I need you to clarify and say more about this delicious sentence regarding your production: “Handel’s astonishingly sensual score and vivid word painting act as a catalyst for an exceptional play of emotions for all the protagonists.”

MP: Handel may have been a Protestant, but he seems to have absorbed all of the most sensual aspects of the counter-reformation Catholic church. The Catholic church of the 18th century never shied away from those emotions and responses that make us most human. In fact, the church took these qualities and translated them into a spiritual realm. The line between human sensuality and sexuality becomes blurred as characters enter states of spiritual ecstasy. Pain and pleasure become inextricably tied together. A perfect example being Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa or countless Saint Sebastians and other ravishing martyrs depicted in the throes of ecstatic duress.

JS: Apparently, this will be the first time “both male and female Artists of Atelier Ballet will be armed with swords” and I wonder if anyone has recently requested an increase in pay, considering this new addition to their performance skills. Do the personalities of your dancers change when they carry arms?

MP: The Artists of Atelier Ballet are all superb fighters, having been in the capable hands of our resident Fight Director, Jennifer Parr, for many years. We seldom, however, have had the opportunity to put weapons in the hands of the women of the cast – other than the brandishing of a dagger or Cherubino’s adorable fencing match with Figaro. It was a great pleasure for all of the Artists of Atelier Ballet to handle weapons together for the opening of The Resurrection. The swordplay becomes an extension of the choreography, just as you would find in ballets such as Romeo & Juliet.

JS: Please tell me more about “renowned acoustics” of Koerner Hall that so many singers remark upon. How is sound experienced differently by singers and listeners in this venue in comparison with other venues.

MP: Our singers invariably comment on the fact that every part of the stage gives an equal response to their voice. They find there is no need to push and that their voices carry in a particularly natural way into the house. Our singers and dancers have also all commented on a heightened sense of colour in the music-making of the orchestra – a less amorphous sound, and more of a sense of individual instrumentalists working together to create a desired effect.

JS: Speaking of singers, you again, as usual, have a very impressive cast for your production. Could you say a few words about each singer and what unique qualities we can anticipate in each one’s singing?

MP: With pleasure.

• Tenor Colin Ainsworth, interestingly enough, made his professional debut singing the role of St John for Opera Atelier’s semi-staged production of The Resurrection which took place in 1991 in the Jane Mallett Theatre. Even then, the extraordinary ease of his upper register and the sheer beauty of his voice promised great things and he has more than lived up to that promise. It would be difficult to find a more mellifluous or more sensitive singer. This combined with an extraordinary acting ability makes Colin, to my mind, one of the great singing actors of our time.
• Soprano Carla Huhtanen: There are few coloratura sopranos who can handle the ornamentation that Handel wrote for The Archangel in The Resurrection. The ease with which Carla moves through ornamentation that was intended for castrati is astonishing. This coupled with her dramatic delivery and wonderful, ironic edge has made her an integral member of what is essentially a repertory company of singers and dancers.
• Soprano Meghan Lindsay: We have known Meghan Lindsay ever since she graduated from the Glenn Gould School. It has been fascinating to witness the development of her voice as it has become bigger, richer, darker, and more dramatic over the years. Meghan is so at ease with the technical side of singing that at times you forget that she is singing at all. The line between singing and speaking becomes so blurred that she simply becomes an actor, capable of interpretations of great depth. Meghan will try anything you throw at her – a fearless performer in every aspect of her craft.
• Mezzo-Soprano Allyson McHardy: Allyson’s beautiful voice is one in a million. She has all of the dark beauty and richness of a contralto, coupled with a top that any mezzo would envy. She is a particularly intelligent and thoughtful performer, who deeply internalizes her emotions without ever losing sight of her audience.
• Bass-Baritone Douglas Williams: Douglas is one of the most fascinating performers you could hope to meet. His astonishing good looks and heroic physique would practically put him at a disadvantage were it not for the fact that they are coupled by a magnificent voice, extraordinary dramatic ability, and a completely un-self-conscious sense of humour which captures his audience and colleagues off guard. He would be as comfortable singing Papageno as Don Giovanni. He is capable of projecting a type of darkness and danger, which I personally find fascinating, and lends itself particularly well to roles such as Lucifer, whom he has depicted for us in OA’s film production of Angel, and now in The Resurrection.

JS: Please tell us something about your creative relationships with Kimberly Purtell, Michael Legouffe, David Fallis, Tafelmusik, Gerard Gauci, and of course Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg. For one, how do they influence your thinking about a production or about opera itself?

MP: Opera Atelier has grown organically over the years and this is one of the company’s great strengths. By surrounding ourselves with a team of like-minded people, we have been able to pursue goals that we have in common, even while continuing to grow and develop in our own personal directions. OA’s creative team never ceases to take Jeannette and me by surprise. Their input is never predictable and the growth and changes we have all experienced within our artistic careers have in turn pushed Opera Atelier into new and unexpected directions, aesthetically and in terms of repertoire.

Production meetings, per se, are less important in our creative process than the daily interaction and exchange of ideas that takes place between all members of the creative team. Our work is collaborative in the extreme and we are well aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Gerard Gauci and David Fallis have been part of Opera Atelier since the company’s inception, and Jeannette and I now enjoy a sort of creative shorthand with both of them that enables a smooth and efficient creative process. That process extends beyond what we create in the theatre and includes what books we read, what music we listen to, where we choose to travel, and the other art forms that influence us. Photographer Bruce Zinger should also be included in this roundup. We are all in agreement that an OA production begins with an image. The images Bruce creates for us and with us do not depict precisely what our audience will see on stage, rather, they alert our audience to what the production will feel like, and how we, as a creative team, feel about the repertoire in question.

New members of the core team are brought in on a regular basis. For example, this is only the second production we have created with Lighting Designer Kim Purtell. We were aware of Kim’s exceptional work and had wanted to collaborate with her for many years. It was only recently, however, that our schedules aligned and I feel that Kim has come to collaborate with us at exactly the right moment in our company’s history.

The same can be said for Costume Designer Michael Legouffe, our Fight Director Jennifer Parr, our team of painters and carpenters, and our entire administrative and production team.

JS: You’ve spoken of Toronto as “returning to live theatre with great enthusiasm,” so could you fill in for us why live theatre, and live concerts, are so important in our lives. What are we without them?

MP: As inhabitants of the 21st century, we spend a great deal of time interacting and being influenced, on a personal and professional level, by our virtual relationships. As we have become more and more cut off from each other socially, we have begun to lose an important sense of community. Live theatre provides us with a space in which we can reestablish that sense of community, while interacting with artists and audience members in ways that affirm our humanity and our dependence on each other.

There is something in our DNA that responds to live storytelling – an activity that belongs to the prehistoric and preliterate world. The sort of storytelling that a live theatre experience makes possible has a cleansing effect on all participants – a cathartic experience that cannot be replicated by interaction in the digital world.

Live theatre and live concerts literally make us more human and more humane. Without them, we are only partially conscious.

JS: What are your plans for next season?

MP: I can’t speak of these plans in detail, but you can expect a major piece of late 18th century French repertoire, and a program that includes French music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, played on period instruments. A program of this sort would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, but this exemplifies the natural evolution and growth that takes place within a company like Opera Atelier.