From the House of the Dead: A Brief Cultural Excursion
Before the snow set in, I had the opportunity to see the Canadian Opera Company’s performance of Janacek’s opera, From the House of the Dead, based on Dostoevsky’s memoirs of his time spent in prison. My overall impression was that this opera was both very well conceived and performed.
One of the distinctive features of this opera is that the plot is fairly loose. It is connected by the central narrative of Alexandr Petrovich (sung by Robert Pomakov), a political prisoner, as he serves his sentence, but branches out to explore the backgrounds of several of the other prisoners. Not surprisingly, these tend to be rather lurid, but are complemented by a haunting, somewhat discordant score, rendering them bold and compelling.
The structure of the opera, in addition to a diffuse plot, is somewhat unconventional: its musical organization is much more organic than most. For example, there is very little of the singing that could be considered arias, which leads to a stronger sense of musical continuity, especially in the context of its short length.
In terms of this specific performance, I found all of the performers highly engaging in their roles. The staging was also very interesting, with multiple levels (a cage on the bottom for prisoners, the roof of which provides the main area of the stage, and a balcony with constantly visible prison guards) supporting a variety of acts going on in the background. With this in mind, it is worthwhile to make sure you have a seat with an unobstructed view; otherwise you will miss a substantial portion of the action. Despite the occasional heavy-handedness with symbolism (this being essentially the extended use of the eagle as a symbol for freedom or Petrovich—though in some cases, it was quite clever, such as putting eagle carvings on the prison commandant’s chairs), this made both a profound intellectual and emotional impression on me, above and beyond what could have been purely a reaction to the altitude of my seat.
Playing until Feb. 22.
Tags: "cultural activity", opera, performance
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Sunday 24 February 2008 at 3:23
So I ended up seeing this again, from a seat much closer and noticed a few things.
Firstly, that the people who sit in the very front row at operas are just like the ones who sit in the front row in class, sitting forwards in their seats and hanging onto every note sang with exaggerated earnestness.
Secondly, when the curtain fell, and the cast took their bows, these people clapped enthusiastically, shouting out “bravo” with seemingly mechanical cheer. Notably, the character whose aria consists of describing how he killed his wife garnered the most applause, along with the eagle also used in the production.
Thirdly, there is almost nothing more awkward than a half standing ovation that doesn’t quite get to the critical mass such that everyone feels pressured to stand up.