Against the Grain Theatre launched itself two summers ago by presenting one of the world’s favourite operas, La Bohème, in a worn-down pub. It wasn’t just a clever marketing ploy; it was a fully realised concept that resonated immediately. — so much so that the company’s infrequent shows have already become one of Toronto’s hot arts tickets.
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I was trying to think of a quick way of describing what Against the Grain does, and could only think of one word: Gesamtkunstwerk.
It may seem bizarre to apply Richard Wagner’s ever-so-grandiose dream of a fusion of all the arts into one spectacle to the work of a company of money-starved upstarts. But it does describe the spirit of what Against the Grain does: take nothing for granted, and make sure that each aspect of what your audience experiences complements the others.
When Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk is realised, the whole is larger than the sum of the parts. And so it has been, so far, with Against the Grain.
Their next project is a wholesale re-imagining of The Marriage of Figaro. It is scheduled for four performances on the top floor of The Burrowes, a re-purposed Victorian-era commercial building at Queen and Bathurst Sts, running May 29 to June 2.
The vibe has shifted from cheap’n’grungy to oh so hip it hurts to sit down in your skinny jeans. But it’s still not opera as mainstream audiences know it.
The gang offers a sneak peek of what they are trying to accomplish on Thursday at noon, at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. It’s a free concert that is bound to be a great event in and of itself — so get there early, if you can.
The first thing to note is that even the arias have been translated into English — well, actually, totally re-cast into the modern world. Hence the change of title to Figaro’s Wedding.
I had a chance to chat with director Joel Ivany, who took me through the concept.
The Burrowes event space, complete with exposed pipework, ducts, brick walls and views of Queen West rooftops, is being turned into a wedding hall. The action takes place in and around the wedding rehearsal for Figaro and Susanna, a young Toronto couple circa 2013.
Marcellina, housekeeper in Mozart and Da Ponte’s 1786 original, becomes the Burrowes event manager. Antonio the gardener is now the florist. Bartolo, the doctor-lawyer becomes a priest. Curzio, the judge, is transformed into wedding planner.
I remind Ivany that Mozart’s opera is all about subverting class structures in 18th century Vienna, to which he almost gives me a don’t-be-so-dense look, before patiently explaining how making Alberto Almaviva into a slimy boss and Figaro into a beleaguered employee will resonate with anyone who has set foot in a modern workplace.
Ivany smilingly describes Figaro’s boss as “more of a Blackberry user,” and the young man desperate to keep his job as “more of an iPhone user.”
Add in careless relationship arrangements between Almaviva and his wife Rosina, and the stage is set for something straight out of, say, Damages. “It’s still all about power and money in a way we understand it,” says Ivany.
The final opera has been trimmed down to 2 hours, which will unfold in the event space without intermission. The acres of Mozart’s recitative (sung dialogue) have been replaced with shortened, spoken dialogue. The only other noticeable cut to the original is the loss of Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter. “She was a sacrifice,” Ivany frowns.
The director says it took three drafts of his update to get the mood and the flow right. He worked intensely with Against the Grain music director Christopher Mokrzewski to make sure words and music meshed seamlessly.
Since the company’s birth in 2011, Mokrzewski has provided all musical accompaniment. This time, to go with the expanded space and heightened production values, the pianist is joined by four string players.
The gang uncovered a string quartet reduction of the opera’s score from 1805. While Ivany recast the libretto, Mokrzewski meticulously re-arranged the 1805 score for piano quintet, bringing in more of the original orchestration into the musical textures.
This represents hundreds of hours of preparation — not counting the conceptual work behind the staging itself.
It’s pretty daring to do this to an iconic work.
“I feel you can take liberties with a masterpiece,” declares Ivany. “We’re not messing with it in a bad way; we’re just doing something different.”
In fact, Ivany says that he and his team feel that they have no choice but to take these risks in order to produce something that will stand on its own.
“When you’re the boss, no one is going to say no,” he smiles.
But he admits that physical realities do sometimes intervene. “Cherubino will not be jumping out the window,” he laughs as we look down six stories onto the busy Queen St sidewalk.
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Thursday’s preview concert will introduce us to the new libretto, the music, the singers — Stephen Hegedus (Figaro), Miriam Khalil (Susanna), Lisa DiMaria (Rosina), Teiya Kasahara (Cherubino), and Alexander Dobson (Alberto) — and the instrumentalists — pianist Mrozewski, violinists Edwin Huizinga and Andréa Tyniec, violist Carol Gimbel and cellist Soohyun Nam. You’ll find all the details here.
For details of what Against the Grain Theatre is up to, click here.
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Against the Grain is as savvy about its marketing as its artistic work, so we’ve been seeing teasers on social media for the last couple of weeks, including this marriage proposal, and production trailer:
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
