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Voice or Looks—a Casting Dilemma |
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By David Gregson
Still, we would find it impossible to accept an out-of-shape Prince Siegfried partnering an overweight Odette. The fact is, when it comes to physical condition, ballet is neither politically correct nor an equal-opportunity employer. The rambunctious cowboys and cowgirls of Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, or the three randy sailors trying to pick up girls in Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, had better look their parts, which they most certainly did in the American Ballet Theatre’s delightful revivals of these American classics in Costa Mesa recently.
With opera the situation is radically different. Opera has evolved into an absurdist art form in which the evidence of our eyes continually belies the claims of the story being told.
Opera’s true roots are in the elevated style of ancient Greek tragedy, an anti-illusionistic form of drama written in poetry that was both chanted and danced to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Today’s audiences do not demand slice-of-life accuracy in their stage entertainments, but they still want a certain degree of realism, even in the opera house.
So we are delighted to see a Carmen in which the leading lady looks and acts the part, even if she cannot sing it more than adequately—as in the case of glamorous Adria Firestone, who effectively vamped her way through the San Diego Opera’s season opener. As for Micaela, the "other" woman in the SDO production, we had Cynthia Clayton, a soprano in whom physical and vocal beauty found an ideal match. Even baritone Louis Otey could be said to have looked reasonably like a bullfighter, though his Escamillo didn’t have the elegant swagger of a true matador.
In fact, with so many attractive singers around, tenor Richard Leech—in many productions the most alluring person on stage—suddenly found himself looking slightly bloated and unromantic as Don José. It was double jeopardy, since the role is new for him and his voice has lost its former luster, despite top notes that are still ringing and secure.
For a match of sight and sound, the cast for the second production of the current SDO season, Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, was nearly perfection. Imagine a Vogue model as Isabella and you have mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux (Isabella)—not a large-voiced singer but an artist of total charm and technical accomplishment that almost fits her into a category all her own.
Tenor Bruce Fowler (Lindoro) also should have turned up the volume a few notches, but he carried off the fiendish high notes with aplomb and proved himself a stylish Rossini interpreter. Basso John Del Carlo as Mustafa (fresh from his Dr. Bartolo in an excellent San Francisco production of The Barber of Seville with Jennifer Larmore and Dmitri Hvorostovsky) and bass-baritone Reinhard Dorn (Taddeo) were both superb as comics and as singers in their parts. Even the very small roles played by mezzo-soprano Ava Baker Liss (Zulma), soprano Anita de Simone (Elvira) and bass James Butler (Haly) were brought off with vocal and comedic panache. It was one of the SDO’s top efforts in recent years.
What was missing from the first two operas of the season was a truly major voice—a talent so large that it need make no excuse for not being the exact physical type. That comes our way this month, however, when the SDO mounts Puccini’s Turandot with the phenomenal British soprano Jane Eaglen in the title role. Audiences may have to exercise their willing suspension of disbelief to accept her as a femme fatale, yet Eaglen may be the most important new star appearing here this season. She is quickly escalating into the operatic firmament, with major engagements worldwide and an important recording contract with Sony.
The Chinese "Ice Princess" Turandot chooses her suitors by forcing them to answer a series of three riddles. If the suitors fail, it’s off with their heads. Eaglen tells me she wants to make a human being out of this singing serial killer. "When I first tried the role [in Seattle], I was really keen on trying various ways to keep Turandot from being just a horrible person that you hated," she says. "If you look at her too much just on the surface, she’s just a nasty piece of work, really. But I think she’s been brought up to believe that men are the aggressors and users of women. She doesn’t know any better."
What makes Prince Calaf so determined to get her? Drunk with Turandot’s beauty, Calaf takes up the Ice Princess’ challenge, answers all the tricky questions, wins the lady as his prize and ultimately converts her into a loving bride. "Calaf comes into the picture," explains Eaglen, "not to try to win Turandot by force but to prove to her that he’s not like all the rest of the men she’s heard about. Both characters have the opportunity to stop [the fatal contest of riddles]. Neither of them is blameless. When Calaf gets the last riddle right and Turandot realizes what’s happening, she’s actually rather scared. She’s not prepared for this to happen.
"There’s quite an interesting parallel between her reaction and Brunnhilde’s in the last act of Wagner’s Siegfried. After Siegfried wakes her [in her ring of magic fire], Brunnhilde at first wants him to leave her alone. Like Turandot, she doesn’t want to lose her special powers. [Both are transformed—Brunnhilde from a warrior maiden, Turandot from a merciless executioner —into passionate, loving women.] She must lose them if she lets herself be overcome by a man in any shape or form. Both Brunnhilde and Turandot sort of argue, ‘Leave me be!’"
Eaglen specializes in two seemingly very different composers—Wagner and Bellini. Both, however, require a talent for a sustained legato line. Bellini fans thrilled recently to Eaglen’s Norma with the Los Angeles Opera. Wagner fans throughout the world are eagerly awaiting her attempt at Tristan und Isolde. "Isolde is a role I’ve been waiting for," she says. Now the situation couldn’t be more perfect.
In Seattle next season, Eaglen will be paired with the magnificent Canadian heldentenor, Ben Heppner. On the projected Sony complete recording, the Tristan will be Placido Domingo. There’s even a complete Ring being discussed. "There are such high expectations for me," she confesses. "That’s hard, but I try not to think about it."
Opera Pacific patrons have already been disappointed by Eaglen: Due to a painful shoulder injury, she had to cancel Turandot at Segerstrom Hall earlier this year. Some people thought her real problem was that she was trying to do too many things at once: Turandot and Norma rehearsals and performances overlapping in Los Angeles and Orange County. But one thing Eaglen has is plenty of stamina.
"Long operas don’t worry me at all," she says. "The longer I sing, the more I like it and the better I seem to get. I feel at the end of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung [the final installment of Wagner’s Ring] as if I could begin all over again."
For Eaglen, Turandot is a shorty. "It is only 18 minutes of singing, when all is said and done," she says. "It’s less than the whole of Wagner’s ‘Immolation Scene’ [in Götterdämmerung]. The hardest thing about Turandot is you feel as if you’re walking
a tightrope with it. The vocal line is very high, terribly exposed, and physically you have to deal with 5-inch metal fingernails and costumes that have 20-foot trains. With those nails you can’t pick up your dress. It’s limiting."
Eaglen objects to people who call Turandot "just a lot of screaming. "I think everything should be sung beautifully," she says. "I think with Turandot there’s no more justification for screaming than for any other role. Once the riddles are over, it’s quite a different sort of patter anyway. People are often surprised. They ask, ‘Why did you sing that bit so quietly?’ And I say, ‘You know, it’s really weird, but Puccini actually does write things piano in the score. There’s all that limpid vocal writing, and you can’t sing it any other way."
Eaglen hopes for a career as a Wagner specialist. "That is what I was meant to sing. I live the music. It’s a real honor to be able to sing it. I want to for the next 30 years. I’m still young. Kirstin Flagstad [history’s greatest Wagnerian soprano, according to many critics] was actually older than I when she started. And so was Birgit Nilsson," another candidate for history’s greatest.
The sets for San Diego’s Turandot have already been seen in San Francisco and Chicago. (The San Francisco production was broadcast nationally on PBS television two years ago.) Realism is certainly the last thing trendy painter/scene designer David Hockney had in mind when he created those eye-popping sets. Prepare to be blasted with reds, blues and purples. Nothing looks real in the slightest, but it’s absolutely unforgettable. And it’s likely Eaglen’s performance will be the same.
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