NZ Opera’s Le Comte Ory: a comedy of disguises
NZ Opera’s production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
Act 2 begins with a yoga class at a women’s wellness spa at Chateau Whareora
Photo credit: Andi Crown
Take a beautiful operatic soprano playing a monied lady of privilege, embarking on a relationship with a mezzo soprano whose trouser role has been flipped to fit a sapphic love story; add a serial womanizer in the colours of the Aussie rugby team dressing up as saffron-robed guru to have his way with the heroine; imagine the rest of his team of wannabe Lothario-bros putting aside their gold-and-green kit to infiltrate a women’s wellness spa, dressed as “big-boned” holy sisters; and mix in a yoga class, some dubious sexual politics with inappropriate touching and the contents of the chateau’s wine cellar and you’ll have many of the ingredients of NZ Opera’s effervescent production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory.
Of course, this is opera, and the most important ingredient is the music. This production offers us both gorgeous bel canto singing, and Rossini’s joyous and witty orchestral accompaniment, the latter played with sprightly style from the pit by Orchestra Wellington under the insightful baton of Brad Cohen, NZ Opera’s General Director.
A fine cast of mostly New Zealand singers has been assembled for Le Comte Ory. The eponymous anti-hero is sung by lyric tenor Manase Latu, an Aucklander currently based in New York, where he has been part of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Programme. His voice is light and lovely, stronger and more focused in its higher range. He inhabits the duplicitous and lust-driven role of the Count with appropriately oily charm and quick-change skill.
The male leads in NZ Opera’s Le Comte Ory
(from left) Wade Kernot (Tutor/Coach), Manase Latu (Count Ory), Moses Mackay (Raimbaud)
Photo credit: Lewis Ferris
The key role of Raimbaud is played by lyric baritone Moses Mackay. Well-known to audiences in Aotearoa as a member of Sol3Mio, his easy stage presence enables him to communicate freely and direct the action from the outset as Ory’s side-kick. Team coach is bass Wade Kernot, perhaps the strongest and most experienced of the male leads, his fine big voice and range of vocal colour bringing convincing strength to the ensembles.
Polish mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp was an impressive Dorabella in NZ Opera’s Cosí fan tutte last year, and her strong, warm voice is perfect for the role of Isolier, the team’s physiotherapist. She is also agile and muscular on stage, and although this is usually a “trouser” role, (the mezzo playing a male character), here she plays a determined woman besotted with the heroine and eventually in cahoots Countess Adèle to bring the persistent sex pest Ory down to size with a spot of soft bondage.
Emma Pearson as Countess Adèle
“…her elastic and expressive soprano voice is a delight.”
Photo credit: Andi Crown
Soprano Emma Pearson owns the stage from the moment she arrives in Act 1, clad in luxurious fluffy robe and full of misery. The classy Countess is sister of the absent rugby-hero owner of Chateau Whareora. Pearson’s elastic and expressive soprano voice is a delight throughout the opera, effortlessly negotiating coloratura passages and soaring over the orchestra. Her brilliant Act 1 aria En proie a la tristesse, lamenting her malaise and asking for help from the “guru”, is moving in its beauty and sincerity. It’s also theatrically hilarious against the shamelessly seductive behaviour of the disguised Ory and love-struck Isolier’s alternating dismay and joy.
Mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp (centre) as the lovestruck Isolier
“…her strong, warm voice and agility on stage are perfect for the role.”
Photo credit: Andi Crown
Sopranos Andrea Creighton (as Adele’s assistant Ragonde), and Tayla Alexander as young Alice, complete the cast of principals, and both combined fine singing and acting. Ragonde’s bumbling attempts at yoga and her skilful duet with Adèle in Act 2 are beautifully judged for both musical and comedic intent.
A major role in this opera is played by the chorus, who deliver full-voiced extrovert singing and entertaining stage movement throughout. The women play both the wealthy WAGs at the spa and the folksy local peasants outside the gates. The men of the chorus, along with the male leads, are first a rugby team sporting Wallabies’ colours, and later that team improbably disguised as nun-like pilgrims, over-filling their demure habits while breaching the security of the Chateau. In the final scene they’re the world-conquering All Blacks, joining their women in the brilliantly designed - and lit – Act 2 spa-room for a stylish black-and white tableau to complete the triumphant story.
Rossini’s satirical take on the tale, originally set in the time of the Crusades, was composed for a sophisticated Parisian audience of the late 1820’s. Director Simon Phillips wanted this production of the comic opera to communicate as directly as possible with an audience in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2024. He and designer Tracy Grant Lord have pushed the story into the present with a kind of “hyper-reality”; exaggerated brightly-lit design with elements of comic-book, and translations of the French libretto on surtitles dripping with risqué language.
Mackay, Hipp and Pearson as the two women acknowledge their desire in Act 1
“…against full-voiced, extrovert singing by the chorus.”
The production is both risqué and risky in this #metoo age, the whole story hinging on both Ory’s predatory intentions towards the Countess and his rugby team’s designs on the (apparently) brainless and naïve women at the spa. Much of the humour depends on deception and disguise; eventually the women win this tournament of the sexes, led by the victorious Countess and Isolier, who turn the tables on Ory just in time to fulfil the women’s chastity pledge before the return of the home team.
Phillips plays the comedy to the hilt, using free text translations on surtitles to reinforce – and occasionally hijack - the humour. Much of this uses contemporary New Zild vernacular to highly comical effect. “I’m going to score!” sing Isolier and Ory, competing for Adèle’s affections. “Nek minnit…” says Raimbaud, recounting his discovery of the Chateau’s wine supplies. When the men-in-black are heading home at the end of Act 2, the text announcing their imminent arrival pops up on screen with a riotous string of emoji. And for the important Act 1 denouement, as Ory is unmasked, the translation suggests that everyone on stage is singing “What the f..k!”.
Eventually, I found the surtitle humour over-done, losing its comedic element of surprise. It also distracts from Rossini’s own musical witticisms. In contemporary popular culture, words rule, the song-text often carrying most of the appeal. In Le Comte Ory, the ironic music itself can create as many laughs as the libretto, and the production could make better use of the witty melodic lines and clever harmonies emerging from both singers and pit. The audience was so convulsed by funny/naughty translations, I doubt many paid much attention to the Rossini’s musical jokes.
When all ingredients were combined, however, the recipe produced a highly entertaining night at the opera, accessible to both seasoned opera-goers and those newer to the art form. Le Comte Ory is not one of the most well-known comic operas in the canon, but hats off to NZ Opera for extending the repertoire and introducing this engaging work to local audiences with such panache. The good-sized audience for opening night in Wellington left the theatre with a bounce in their step and lightness in their hearts.
NZ Opera Le Comte Ory by Gioachino Rossini, Brad Cohen (Conductor), Simon Phillips (Director), Tracy Grant Lord (Set & Costume Designer), Matthew Marshall (Lighting Designer), Manase Latu (Count Ory) Emma Pearson (Countess Adèle), Hanna Hipp (Isolier), Moses Mackay (Raimbaud), Wade Kernot (Tutor), Andrea Creighton (Ragonde), Tayla Alexander (Alice). With the New Zealand Opera Chorus (Michael Vinten, Chorus Director, Wellington) and Orchestra Wellington, Wellington June 13.
Upcoming performances in Christchurch June 27 & 29, 2024 – more information here