ARTS

Macbeth stands out in places
MACBETH

A Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera,
and Portland Opera coproduction.
At the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
on November25. Remaining
performances on November 30 and
December2

The Gondoliers
By Gilbert and Sullivan• In English

December 14, 15, 16, 8 pm; December 17, 3 pm

II

Mistaken Identity, Marital Woes and Much Merriment
At the CHAN CENTRE

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Tickets atTicketmaster: 604.280.3311 or www.ticketmaster.ca
Or in person at the Chan Centre ticket office

Visit music.ubc.ca or call 604.822.5574 for details!

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Wed & Thu• 7:30pm / Fri & Sat • 8:00pm

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ALSO PLAYING: Ultimate lmprov •Thu• 9:15pm
TheatreSports • Fri & Sat • 1 O:OOpm

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A The Vancouver Opera deserves
V credit for trying to create as
much visual as vocal excitement in
its shows, for pushing its stagecraft
into the 21st century. But Broadway
production-design legend Jerome
Sirlin's ambitious holographic, multi­
screen projections for season opener
Macbeth amount to layers of high-tech
wallpaper briefly enlivened by striking
effects. Like the rest of the production,
the impression is of long, stagnant sec­
tions and short bursts of greatness.
Based on William Shakespeare's
sinister classic, Macbeth is not as
well-known as Verdi's later spins on
the Bard, such as Otelia. It's a psycho­
logical piece, demanding a sustained,
chilling, highly charged vibe from
both its performers and its design­
ers. In the title role, bass-baritone
Greer Grimsley cuts a swath, bound­
ing about the stage, tormented by his
own ambitions and their murderous
outcomes, He's strong in the role, but
his final aria takes the show to an­
other level in a riveting outpouring of
despair that needs no projections to
create atmosphere. As for Lady Mac­
beth, famed soprano Jane Eaglen can
effortlessly manoeuvre the demand­
ing score and resound above the cho­
ruses, but her physical acting is too
stiffto fully radiate the evil, conniving
force of nature that Verdi intended.
Other highlights include the
always-dependable chorus's haunting
"Patria Oppressa" in the fourth act; the
same scene finds tenor John Bellemer,
a bit wooden as the betrayed Macduff,
suddenly pulling off a sweetly heart­
rending ode to his murdered wife and
children. Other than maestro John
Darlington's orchestra's vibrant per­
formance, the show's second-most
consistent strength is Burak Bilgili as
Banquo: his early duet with Macbeth
finds the Turkish performer's richly
rounded voice nicely complementing
Grimsley's own stiletto-sharp instru­
ment, and he leads the huge chorus in
an emotional surge of horror in reac­
tion to Duncan's murder. The next
time we see Bilgili, it won't be in a
supporting role.
The only thorough disaster in the
mounting is the witches-and unfor­
tunately, they're a big part of the show.
From their Cirque du Soleil-style
satin costumes to their over-

choreographed hocus-pocus, they kill
the work's creepiness instead of creat­
ing it. Their antics take away from the
focused gloom and intensity of the
opera, a fault that must fall in part to
director Garnett Bruce.
As for Sirlin's sets, they're not as
groundbreaking as anticipated. Much
of the time, the long, vertical screens
with abstracted patterns simply evoke
settings. They work best when they're
moving-the atmospheric sight of
clouds shifting slowly over a moonlit
night on the moors, or the wavering
of castle "pillars" as Macbeth starts to
hallucinate. The scene containing Ban­
quo's murder shows their true potential:
Banquo sings a song of warning to his
son beneath a swaying forest of leaves,
while his attackers lurk in the darkness
behind the long screen "trunks"; when
the men descend upon him with their
blades, the projected foliage suddenly
drops to envelop the throng.
Moments like that are reminders
that despite the mixed results, it's
still better to see a risky take on a
lesser-known opera than a safe take
on a well-known one.
> JANET SMITH

HEAR II NOW 20D6

Featuring the NOW Orchestra, with
guests Diane Labrosse, John Oswald,
and Pierre Tanguay. At the Scotiabank
Dance Centre on Friday, November 24

A John Oswald doesn't write mu­
V sic so much as design events,
and the incident he crafted at the
Scotiabank Dance Centre last Fri­
day was exceptionally diverting and
exceedingly weird. Rien Ne Va Plus,
commissioned by Vancouver's NOW

Orchestra, employed a bizarre mi
of chance operations, game theoq
sampling, and free improvisatio1
to create a celebratory mash-up tha
honoured the jazz past while simul
taneously giving it a good thwackinf
It was also both unbearably chaoti
and far too short-which is typica
of the incongruities that attend thi
Toronto-based composer, saxophon
ist, and musical philosopher's work
For the debut of Rien Ne Va Plu,
Oswald turned ringleader's duties ove
to Diane Labrosse, a fellow conceptu
alist and long-time spark plug of Mon
treal's musique actuelle scene, Rathe
than manipulate her usual sample
or keyboard, however, Labrosse wa
given a mixing board, some dice, an,
a turntable modified to function as
roulette wheel. When she spun th
"wheel", the result triggered a prere
corded sample of an iconic jazz record
ing. Meanwhile, the musicians use,
colour-coded betting cards to wage
on the outcome of the spin; the win
ners got to play. To further complicat
matters, each musician had been ai
signed a number, and Labrosse rolle,
the dice to decide the soloists.
For Oswald, working with chanc
operations is a way to ensure that eac
performance is different; he aims t
undermine the known parameters c
both written music and improvisa
tional virtuosity. For the musician:
Rien Ne Va Plus offered an opportu
nity to add to-or subvert-a sample,
recording with only the briefest notice
And for listeners, the initial respons
was one of vertigo: hearing a drum
mer and a walking bass when only
handful of horn players were visibl
performing was incredibly unsettlinj!
Nervousness turned to gidd
hilarity as the work's parameter
became more obvious. Hearin
the players' split-second respons
to snippets of Dizzy Gillespie
"Salt Peanuts" or a clip from Mile
Davis's Bitches Brew was fascina1
ing, and the unpredictability buii
into Oswald's structure forced us t,
focus as intently as they did,
Part blindfold test, part performanc
art, and part swinging lunacy, Rien I\
Va Plus was only one highlight of a.
evening that also included new compc
sitions from NOW Orchestra artisti
director Coat Cooke, guest drumme
Pierre Tanguay, and trumpeter Joh
Korsrud, as well as a reworked versio
of Labrosse's Animal Tales. Any on
of these could have been the focus c
this review; likewise the three small
group improvisations that material
ized after intermission. Now nearly 2
years old, this most unconventiom
orchestra is sounding better than eve
> ALEXANDER VART

strallht
stra,.ht-com

Norman Rothstein Theatre
Saturday, December 2 8pm
950 West 41st A venue

Featuring the premiere of Kang Nian Tang's Impromptu and Jacqueline Leggatt's tntarsia
Plus guest musicians Chai Man Cheng, Bruce Henczel and John Oliver

Tickets: $20 / $1 S Available at the door I NRT Box Office
Kam Sing Arts I Tickets Tonight
Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver
lnfo:604 683 8240 zhaozhao@dkam.ca www.vancouverchinesemusic.ca

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72 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 7 / 2006

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