BK Opera’s latest production of Mozart’s Abduction starts in the foyer. There is a pre show atmosphere created with actor interaction and a music troupe. The costumes and hair of the congregation along with Satan hand-out creates atmosphere as though the singspiel had already begun and we were a part of it.
The Ladies were the strongest.Belinda Dalton in the role of Konstanze was outstanding. Her language and voice suited the role perfectly and she sung difficult passages and the high sustained notes with ease. April Foster’s stage presence as Blonde embodied the character and voice perfectly. She created a wonderful vulnerability. Alison Lemoh had a beautiful vocal tone using both voice and body language to convey the dark elements of her character Osmin. A cane attached to her costume throughout show added to her sinister nature
Stephen Carolane (Belmonte), the young tenor showed lots of potential. He struggled a little with the more complex Mozart passages in the aria and needed more legato line at times He had a great onstage rapport with partner Constanza, their voices blended well. Robin Czuchnowski played Pedrillo well as Belmonte’s servant, though his performance started off somewhat tentatively and unsure. He grew into the role.
A religious cult sermon interspersed. The spoken role was very powerful and strong in the final sermon but the opening scene was hard to hear him at times. Special mention to the chorus as they solidified the idea of the cult and ended the opera with a powerful finale before walking off presumably to their own deaths
This is a brave adaption of Mozart. A small difficulty was that he has already inbuilt a humanist message within this work, so the cult setting was working against this it times. Also it felt less like I was a part of the congregation as it was a small audience and the actors were sitting on the side. It would have been nice to have them sit amongst audience as they had already interacted with us pre-show.
A question that crossed my mind with this production was whether it could have been sung in English. The subtitles didn’t work at times and German speaking and singing was difficult to decipher amongst most singers. This would have solved these problems and maybe made the production more assessable to a wider audience.
Mozart’s Abduction is a successful production made even more impressive as it is a “no budget” opera. BK Opera is definitely a company to watch. They are trying new ideas and bringing opera back to relevance today.
Heidi Lupprian – Theatre Now
