The Minnesota Opera presented Italian director Andrea Cigni’s beautifully conceived production of Massenet’s opera “Thaïs”. The event took place at Minnesota Opera’s home in the Saint Paul (Minnesota) Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
Kelly Kaduce’s Thaïs
Soprano Kelly Kaduce brought vocal beauty and dramatic intensity to the role of Thaïs, a famous, wealthy courtesan of the early Christian era, who, at a moment of personal crisis, abandons her sensuous lifestyle to enter a religious order.
[Below: Kelly Kaduce as the courtesan Thaïs; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Kaduce was affecting in the “mirror aria” Dis-moi que je suis belle which reveals Thaïs’ fear of losing her beauty and of growing old.
Psychologically, Thaïs is prepared for the offer of eternal life, so that we may think of the monk Athanaël as simply the agent who sets the terms of that offer.
[Below: Thaïs (Kelly Kaduce) is consumed with the fear of aging and death; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
To be a truly successful Thaïs, a soprano must have more than the ability to sing beautifully. She must exude sensuality in the scenes in Nicias’ Alexandrine court, then, in a short space of time, believably convert to an austere religious order.
[Below: Having abandoned her previous lifestyle for a life committed to God, Thaïs (Kelly Kaduce) looks forward to a heavenly afterlife; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Kaduce, who possesses a rich, full voice with power, sang brilliantly. She also acted impressively, convincingly portraying the psychological terror that invoked Thaïs’ heartfelt conversion.
Lucas Meachem’s Athanaël
North Carolina lyric baritone Lucas Meachem was a vocally mellifluous, dramatically persuasive Athanaël. Meachem created an effective portrait of the monastery-based desert hermit – who, as a youth, had become a religious zealot.
[Below: Lucas Meachem (front center) as Athanaël; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
In many ways, Athanaël is the central figure in the story. If Thaïs’ path is linear from sensuality to sainthood, and her convictions always discernible, Athanaël’s makeup is much more psychologically complex.
[Below: Athanaël (Lucas Meachem, second from right) agrees to wear an elegant robe and to be groomed and perfumed by the Servant (Christian Thurston, left), Crobyle (Michelle Liebl, right) and Myrtale (Nadia Fayad, second from left); edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Athanaël’s backstory is sketchy, but intriguing (one wishes for an “origins” storyline to be developed for him). We know that as a youth he was friends with Nicias and, at some point, had been at the concubinage where Thaïs was a central figure. But something about that adventure caused Athanaël to abandon Alexandria and join a group of hermit monks.
As the opera opens, we learn that Athanaël has had sexual dreams about Thaïs, which, despite the doubts of the monastery’s head, Athanaël interprets as a sign that he must seek out Thaïs and convert her to the service of God.
[Below: Athanaël (Lucas Meachem, left) offers Thaïs (Kelly Kaduce) eternal life, if she enters God’s service in a religious order; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Although he appears resolute that Thaïs must convert, ultimately his sexual attraction to her overwhelms him after she enters the order. Another sexual dream causes him to enter Albine’s hermitage where Thaïs is on her deathbed.
In the extraordinary final duet, Thaïs seeks a final blessing before death, while Athanaël vainly attempts to persuade her to become his lover. At its end, Kaduce’s and Meachem’s intensely dramatic scene drew an audience ovation.
Gerard Schneider’s Nicias
Austrian tenor Gerard Schneider plays the dissolute satrap Nicias, whose over-the-top scenes are the opposite of the sexual repression of the conflicted Athanaël.
[Below: Gerard Schneider is Nicias; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Nicias’ Alexandria is the embodiment of sensual excess and wild abandon, and Schneider’s smartly sung Nicias is wholly comfortable in being the leader of an orgiastic following.
In addition to his strong vocal performance, Schneider proved to be a commendable dancer as well, briefly joining the dance troupe in a section of the opera’s second act ballet.
[Below: Nicias (Gerard Schneider, center) joins the “Thaïs” ballet; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
William Clay Thompson’s Palémon and Other Cast Members
Bass-baritone William Clay Thompson as Palémon provided the appropriate gravitas as the leader of the hermit’s monastery.
[Below: Palémon (William Clay Thompson, center in brown robe) is surrounded by the members of his monastic order; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Nadia Fayad as Albine was Palémon’s female counterpart, leading the woman’s desert hermitage.
Fayad doubled in the role of Nicias’ companion Myrtale, who always appeared with Michelle Liebl’s character, Crobyle. Jeni Houser sang the role of La Charmeuse. Christian Thurston appeared as one of the most strikingly dressed servants in all of opera (see above photograph under Lucas Meachem’s paragraph heading).
The Cenobite monks were Andres Acosta (a Minnesota Opera resident artist), Joel Mathias, Matthew Opitz, Alex Ritchie and Colyn Tvete.
Heidi Spesard-Noble’s Choreography and the Zenon Dance Company
I have long thought that the 21st century might prove more receptive to the exotic musical palette, dramatic situations and psychological underpinnings of “Thaïs” than was the case in the mid- and late 20th century, but I had not expected to see a successful revival of its 1897 ballet.
[Below: as Thaïs sleeps, her image (Alyssa Soukup, above) dances to the violin solo called the “Meditation”; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Director Cigni and choreographer Heidi Spesard-Noble have utilized all of the “Thaïs” ballet music and a large part of the opera’s orchestral preludes and interludes, including the famous Meditation, to forward the flow of action through dance. Both the Minnesota Opera concertmaster Allison Ostrander and the Zenon dance captain Alyssa Soukup received an audience ovation at the Meditation’s conclusion.
[Below: Members of the Zenon Dance Company perform; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Eight dancers from the Zenon Dance Company (Doug Hooker, Patrick Jeffrey, Tristan Koepke, Scott Mettile, Leslie O’Neill, Laura Osterhaus, Sarah Steichen Stiles and Alyssa Soukup) performed a variety of roles, particularly those representing glittering Alexandria.
[Below: Members of the Zenon Dance Company perform; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Maestro Christopher Franklin and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Maestro Christopher Franklin (whose baccalaureate training took place in Saint Paul) led a spirited performance of Massenet’s exotic, often seductively melodic score.
The elegantly costumed Minnesota Opera chorus sang superbly. Andrew Whitfield is their Chorus Master.
Andrea Cigni’s Direction
Cigni’s staging effectively highlighted the psychological tensions between the three principal characters. He has taken major steps in solving riddles as how to make this once very popular opera accessible to 21st century audiences. He has highlighted the Freudian aspects of the story through intelligent staging, utilizing opera singers, especially Kaduce, Meachem and Schneider, with good acting skills.
Cigni has found ways to use every part of Massenet’s melodic, often exhilarating musical score, that can help win back audiences for the unjustly neglected French repertory. The idea of incorporating (rather than cutting) the ballet and the music written for it into the dramatic action proved to be a winning formula in the hands of Cigni and his team.
Lorenzo Cutuli Sets and Costume Designs
Much of the production’s success can be attributed to the dazzling sets and costumes by Lorenzo Cutuli.
[Below: a stilt walker (Ariel Begley) joins the ballet; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the Minnesota Opera.]
Recommendation
I recommend the opera, cast, musical performance and production enthusiastically both for veteran opera-goers and persons new to opera.
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