Persée (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Director:

Marc Stone

Release Date:

2 December 2004 (Canada)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Baroque Opera | Live Performance | French Opera | Baroque

Cast

Colin Ainsworth	...	Corite / Mercury
Cyril Auvity	...	Persee
Luciana Calvet	...	Dancer
Alain Coulombe	...	Phinee
Natalya Gomez	...	Dancer
Nathaniel Kozlow	...	Dancer
Olivier Laquerre	...	Cephee / Medusa
James Leja	...	Dancer
Marie Lenormand	...	Andromede
Courtney Lutz	...	Dancer
Jeremy Nasmith	...	Dancer
Jason Nedecky	...	Amphimedon / Protenor / Fiery Spirit
Stephanie Novacek	...	Cassiope
Kate Scheuer	...	Dancer
Luke Scheuer	...	Dancer
Michiel Schrey	...	Euryale (Gorgon)
Curtis Sullivan	...	Grand Pretre / Cyclope
Barbara Szablowski	...	Dancer
Edward Tracz	...	Dancer
Vilma Vitols	...	Warrior Nymph / Venus
Aarik Wells	...	Aarik Wells
Monica Whicher	...	Merope
Jeannette Zingg	...	Choreographer / Dancer

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Atlantic 18 Productions Inc.

Lovely Music, Great Art at its Best

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There may be a spoiler here but I doubt it. If there is, please accept my apologies.

About five minutes into 'Infortunés, qu'un monstre affreux' mezzo soprano Marie Lenormand sings a line of music that's indescribably beautiful. A moment later Monica Whicher sings the second part of it. Their voices are perfect. The accompaniment is perfect. The next four minutes are rapturous musical bliss. No subtitles are needed. They're meaningless anyway. They don't matter. The sets don't matter. The story doesn't matter. Just the music …only the ravishingly beautiful music … this is the type of thing a person gets lost in, the type of thing only the greatest art is capable of. It's pure perfection, something that's worth any amount of searching. It's priceless. Wow!

This production didn't settle in that easily, not at first anyway. Even with some acquaintance with Lully's music the prominence of lutes over strings (violins etc.) and harpsichords made the style of his music feel unfamiliar. For one used to the more rigid forms of opera seria opera buffa the blurring of lines between recitative and full number created another hurdle. The sets, costumes and lighting all seemed to belong to one family of colors. They aren't really. But the predominant (some would say excessive) use of browns and related colors created that impression—at first glance it was like watching something filmed in sepia. Skipping through chapters in search of a highlight probably didn't help either …

But patience is a virtue. On the second evening the film was started at the beginning and watched properly (at least until the sixteenth chapter but I'll get back to that later). It was worth the effort. After a short period of acclimatization everything meshed. The lack of distinction between song and recitative was serving the drama wonderfully. The use of both lutes and harpsichord for the continuo enriched its tonal coloring with each being used to highlight the other. The singing and acting was all of the highest order. The music was a delight. The set was still a little brown but that was a tiny detail. This production is fabulous. The section (chapter sixteen) mentioned at the beginning of this review stopped me in my tracks. It was watched about five times (give or take a few) before moving on.

There's not enough kind or complimentary words in the English language to do justice to this stellar but (largely) not well known cast. Marie Lenormand has one of the silkiest mezzo soprano voices I've heard in a while. Monica Whicher's voice is radiant and her technique is excellent. Cyril Auvity sings in a soft but powerful tenor with no hint of shrillness that powerful tenors often fall into. Oliver Laquerre and Alain Coulombe have commanding bass voices that never sounds harsh. Mezzo soprano Stephanie Novacek sings in creamy tones marginally lower than those of pure sopranos. Colin Ainsworth is one of the few countertenors (I've heard) who uses his tonal qualities without sounding as if he's singing in a falsetto voice. Vilma Vitols has a flexible mezzo voice capable of immense power and enormous subtlety. Lully's vocal writing stressed subtlety over power and all of these singers shade the nuances in his music beautifully often seeming to glide through the work as opposed to just singing it. The combination is exquisite.

Opera Atelier and Tafelmusik are both familiar names in Canada. And that's as it should be. Tafelmusik has been one of the leading period instrument ensembles for ages and their recordings (usually under the baton of Jeanne Lamon) are invariably excellent. Here they're working under the baton of Hervé Niquet and the result is great. He clearly has an affinity toward this repertoire. Opera Atelier is committed to both performance excellence and introducing young people to the medium of opera. Over the years their productions have been consistently phenomenal. Their revival of this piece (which they did for the first time in 2000) was hailed as the operatic event of the year. It was the first time Persée had been performed since the 18th century.

This is a great production. The staging is largely traditional with the exception being the costumes which (appear to) draw their influences from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries with a touch of modern ballet thrown in. The sets are ornate and reminiscent of the era the music stems from. The sets are spacious and leave plenty of room for the considerable amount of dance used to portray the action sequences. Director Marshall Pynkoski (one of the founders of Opera Atelier) did a great job of pacing the action and keeping the story moving. The orchestral playing is great. The quality of the sound is pristine. And the singing is marvelous. Browns and reds occasionally seem a bit overused but that's a minor complaint about a magnificent production.

It gets the highest rating.