OPERA REVIEW: PRIMA DONNA
15 Jun'10

Prima Donna a vanity project

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 3 out of 5

PRIMA DONNA, the opera that sits pretty much at the heart of this year’s Luminato programming, is a lot of things — but most of all, it’s a stunning reminder of the fact that today’s obsession with celebrity is nothing if not a two-edged sword.

It’s a fair bet, for instance, that composer Rufus Wainwright’s first foray into the world of opera wouldn’t have attracted nearly so much attention were it not for his considerable success on the international pop music scene. And certainly, that foray wouldn’t have attracted investment from such prestigious sources as the Manchester International Festival (which debuted PRIMA DONNA at the Sadler’s Wells), Luminato (which is producing it here in Toronto) and the Melbourne International Arts Festival (where it will play this fall).

In fact, without Wainwright’s celebrity status, it’s hard to imagine he’d have even got a foot in the door at the Metropolitan Opera, where the idea for PRIMA DONNA was born — only to be tossed out with the bath water when Wainwright and Met management had a creative parting of the ways.

But all that access comes with a downside, for while many aspiring opera composers can develop and hone their skills slowly, far away from the glare of major publicity — just as Wainwright developed as a nouveau cabaret artist — he now finds himself in a position where every misstep threatens to become a face plant as he moves forward under the glare of all the attention suddenly trained on him by both the paparazzi and a not-always-welcoming opera establishment. In the heat of white-hot celebrity like this, composer and composition become all but fused, and feelings about one invariably spill over into the other. Which means that, if you’re a Wainwright fan, chances are, you’re going to love PRIMA DONNA. If you’re not, well, maybe not so much.

Featuring a libretto en français, written by Wainwright in collaboration with Bernadette Colomine, PRIMA DONNA tells the story of Regine Saint-Laurent (sung by soprano Janis Kelly), one-time reigning diva of the Paris opera world, but now fallen on hard times since her voice failed her at the height of her career. Five years on, she’s planning a comeback, egged on by her Svengali-esque butler Philipe, sung by baritone Gregory Dahl — and when a journalist/fan (tenor Colin Ainsworth) shows up, reminding the frail Regine of a lost love and threatening to push her over the edge, her maid (soprano Charlotte Ellett) tries to intervene, with no success.

There’s more than a touch of Norma Desmond ready for her high notes to the proceedings, but under Albery’s direction, it does manage to hold one’s attention, despite the fact that Wainwright’s music seems finally as darkly monochromatic as Antony McDonald’s faux silver evocation of decaying Parisian grandeur, the putative home of the failing Regine. But just as an oversized bouquet of roses serves to brighten that set, Wainwright and his performers manage to find occasional moments of great beauty to liven up a score that too often strays into dirge-like solemnity while it flirts outrageously with clichés, both theatrical and musical.

In short, it’s the kind of work that, should one stumble across it in an out-of-the-way theatre on a good night, might generate a certain enthusiasm as a promissory note on future brilliance. But on the stage of the Elgin, in the full glare of the massive attention focussed on its admittedly self-obsessed composer, it emerges as something a little too close to a vanity project.

And frankly, both Wainwright and PRIMA DONNA are a little better than that.