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SCRUTINY | M’dea Undone Holds the Stage in a Post-industrial Setting

By Arthur Kaptainis on May 27, 2015

Photo: Dahlia Katz.
Tapestry Opera/Scottish Opera M’dea Undone. Photo: Dahlia Katz.

Tapestry Opera/Scottish Opera: M’dea Undone at Evergreen Brick Works, Tuesday, May 26.

If we divide all the operas in the world into those that hold the stage and those that do not, there is no question that M’dea Undone, which received its premiere Tuesday night at the Evergreen Brick Works, merits a place in the sainted former kingdom. Heck, it held a sprawling indoor-outdoor industrial space within earshot of the Don Valley Parkway for more than an hour.

But to say the opera retold the story of the betrayed Greek princess with some vigour is not the same as saying this joint commission by Tapestry Opera and the Scottish Opera was a success on all fronts. The British composer John Harris spoke eloquently at a pre-curtain reception about all the work it took to mount the piece. I fear it could do with a little more.

Especially where his contribution is concerned. Scored for seven strings and minor electronics, the score began in a darkly post-romantic style but within minutes reverted to slithery dissonance, in which mode it remain lodged for most of the remainder of the show. Harris gave us something like a season’s worth of glissandi, an effective means of representing tension and conflict, but not one that allows much range or nuance.

Sometimes the sounds coalesced into something harmonically graspable. Few in the audience could have missed traces of the Star-Spangled Banner, a joint reference to the contemporary American setting of the opera and to Madama Butterfly, the Puccini tragedy to which M’dea Undone owes more than a little. But much of the music seemed sketchy. Librettist Marjorie Chan provided several opportunities for free-standing numbers that were left unrealized.

Yet if declamation was the default mode, it was of good quality. Even after the dusk set in and the furnished libretto became unreadable, the words were, at least by operatic standards, possible to follow. And while lines like “nice to meet you” did not have much potential on paper, they fit the verismo setting.

To outline the plot, loosely based on Euripides: Jason is an officer returned from the Middle East with his mistress-interpreter, M’dea, who has had a son by him. Jason has genuine feelings for his family but gets swept into a White House campaign and a photo-ready romance with the president’s daughter.

The Holcim Gallery, as the performance space is called, is vast enough to accommodate multiple sets. To suppose that the American president would call on Jason in a garret was a challenge, but most of the interactions were believable and charged with real drama by director Tim Albery.

The cast was excellent. Mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal infused the title role with tragic resonance, and Peter Barrett applied a wonderfully firm baritone to the leading male role of Jason. Tenor James McLean (the U.S. president) and soprano Jacqueline Woodley (his shallow daughter) quite personified their roles, and Elishka Roux was appropriately transfixing in the silent part of M’dea’s son.

M’dea in this treatment is not quite Cio-Cio San: Much of her dialogue is sarcastic in the modern manner. Perhaps Jason is less of a cad than Pinkerton (no great feat). In any case, there is an element of Tosca in the final scene, which mustered a great deal of tension despite (or maybe because of) a persistent focus on the violins. We could credit conductor Jordan de Souza with maintaining momentum. Since the show runs through Friday, I suppose I should observe the spoiler convention, although the end of the ancient tale of Medea is known well enough.

For all its anomalies, including some I have not recounted, M’dea Undone is a good night out in an interesting post-industrial setting (with classic graffiti). I feel a twinge of regret at not being able to endorse the music as something one might listen to with independent interest. But when was the last time any opera composer produced such a score? Go to https://tapestryopera.com.

#LUDWIGVAN

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Arthur Kaptainis

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