Every year, students at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music stage an opera. This year, it was Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, which the entire cast carried off with brio, delivering a high-calibre performance. The evening was filled with magic, humour and sumptuous music. A resounding success!
In an interview with PAN M 360 earlier this week, Stephen Hargreaves (artistic and musical director) and David Lefkowich (guest stage director) confided that Massenet’s score contained passages that would give even professional companies a hard time. As a member of the audience, we recognize that some passages are difficult, both for the orchestra and the singers. But the performers give the impression that these passages are actually very easy. Even the fastest, most virtuosic passages are performed with solidity and confidence.
There’s no denying the exceptional quality of Opera McGill’s cast (impressive in number, especially as two casts share the three performances). From the very first bars, the orchestra asserts itself and delivers a performance of consistent quality, despite Cendrillon’s two-hour running time. Massenet’s writing is highly evocative, and the orchestra can musically convey the plot, the grandeur of the nobility, the melancholy and the magic concealed in this work.
The same praise can be heaped on the singers who share the stage. There is a fine variety of voices, all solid and remarkable. Particularly commendable is the perfect diction of the French text: every syllable is captured. The English text is projected above the stage, as is customary, but we would also have benefited from the French text, to savour even more the humour of Henri Caïn’s libretto. This humour, which is immediately apparent on reading the opera text, is sublimated by the staging. The performers have fun on stage, and their acting makes us laugh a lot. Some liberties are taken, and the acting is sometimes exaggerated, but all these elements have their raison d’être and make for a most enjoyable evening. The set design and costumes, by Vincent Lefèvre and Ginette Grenier respectively, do much to transport the audience into the magical world of Cinderella.
Very funny moments rub shoulders with extremely touching and sumptuous ones. The scenes featuring the fairy (Kate Fogg) are breathtaking, both for their magical scenography and for the interpreter’s high-quality performance. The duets are also full of emotion, from the love songs between Cinderella (Bri Jones) and Prince Charming (MacKenzie Sechi) to the one in which Cinderella’s father, Pandolfe (Nicholas Murphy), proposes that she leave her wicked stepmother’s house and return to the peaceful country life of yesteryear. Last but not least, moments involving the chorus transport the audience to the king’s court, or a forest inhabited by spirits and mysteries.
This exceptional evening demonstrated just how ready young music students are to take on major challenges, and their ability to shine and excel at the same time.
Cendrillon by Jules Massenet, with Opéra McGill and the McGill Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Hargreaves. Additional performances January 27 at 7:30 p.m. and January 28 at 2 p.m. INFO AND TICKETS HERE!
For the complete program of events at the Schulich School of Music, click HERE!
Photo credit: Stephanie Sedlbauer
