Opera Australia
15 May 2009
State Theatre, the Arts Centre
I had never seen a full production of A Little Night Music until now and Opera Australia’s version has supported my wonder at the Stephen Sondheim’s mastery, but it wasn’t this production that convinced me of its greatness.
As a remount of the original 1973 Broadway production (directed by Hal Prince), Opera Australia’s version is worth seeing for the historical value. The gorgeous and slightly ironic design still colours and supports the work perfectly and the evening lets us see how fulfilling and rewarding A Little Night Music can, and should, be.
Sondheim tears through to our souls and grasps the real emotions that drive us. A Little Night Music is about lust, passion and love. Act 1 oozes sex: Madame Armfeldt tells her granddaughter how she shagged kings, Désirée Armfeldt laughs with her old lover about her latest lover’s talents, the married Charlotte and Carl-Magnus Malcolm freely chat about his lover – and that’s a mere scratch of the surface. Everyone’s action is driven by their sexual desires and wants, even of its fear of sex or remembering what it once was - but everyone is with the wrong person - Charlotte and Ann confide, everyday is “A Little Death” as “Love’s disgusting, Love’s insane, A humiliating business”. Act 2 lets the need for love take over and this is where Sondheim’s remarkable knowledge into human motivation takes hold. This is in the music, in the lyrics and in the book – I just wish I’d seen more of it on the stage. For all the talent, what was missing was the lust, passion and love.
Conductor Andrew Greene is the star of the production, pitching and controlling the music to sustain and pace the emotion of the work, in a way not fully reflected in the performances. Vocally, the well-trained and experienced cast are ideal, with the mix of opera and music theatre voices adding a curious dimension to the characters. The refreshing and contrasting vocal qualities of Lucy Maunder (Ann) and Kate Maree Hoolihan (Petra) are especially welcome.
However, the inspired casting is Sigrid Thornton as Désirée. Thornton is by no means a singer, and never pretends that she is. Dramatically and emotionally she is on another level to the rest of the cast (with the exception of Nancye Hayes, whose Madame Armfeldt is perfect). Désirée is the character who we care about and the one who we believe. Thornton approaches her songs as her character and this is what nails it every time. It doesn’t matter if she barely sings “Send in the Clowns”, because she shows the irony of Désirée’s bitter hurt, regret and despair.
This thorough approach to character was missing elsewhere. There is no emotional consistency on the stage, as everyone seems to have their own interpretation of the work, especially with the male casting. Not one man on that stage let me believe that they were faintly interested in these women, let alone that they wanted them naked or that they loved them.
A Sondheim song is as powerful and enlightening as a Shakespeare soliloquy. We are privileged to see the hidden feelings of the characters; their secret thoughts and dilemmas that they would never tell anyone else. Early in Act 1, Fredrik considers “ravishing” (today we’d say raping) his teenage, virgin wife (who is terrified of sex); while Henrik, his depressed (and suicidal) son, despairs about his “intolerable” life, as he his dismissed by everyone who should love him. It’s not just about singing it well – it’s about showing us the raw emotion of the character.
I loved Stuart Maunder’s direction of The Pirates of Penzance, as it captured the fun and overall joke of Gilbert and Sullivan’s work. But you don’t direct, perform or even compare G & S to Sondheim. The heart of Sondheim is the drama and passion of complex, damaged souls. It’s filled with irony and comedy (it even reflects a French farce) – but it’s never a joke.
I wondered if I was being overly critical of a production that really does have a lot of marvellous aspects to it, until Google found me a YouTube clip of Sondheim directing an actor (his words) singing Henrik’s “Later”. I’m not comfortable comparing our national opera company’s production to a short YouTube video – but in a few minutes, Sondheim himself showed me how this production missed the mark.
Opera Australia is our funded, supported flagship opera company. With the astonishing artistic talent and skill available, and the ongoing support of audiences and funding bodies, this company should be consistently creating the best productions in the country and I shouldn’t find a YouTube video more emotionally rewarding.
This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.
