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November 14, 2008
Sassy renaissance woman
Berlin directs Tchaikovsky's Onegin for Vancouver Opera.
TOVA KORNFELD
A rich baritone voice wafted through the closed doors of the rehearsal hall as I sat waiting for a lunch break interview with Pamela Berlin, guest director for Vancouver Opera's season opener, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
Berlin came out and we headed across the street to a café. She was rehearsing the principals, working six hours a day in the small hall behind Holy Rosary Cathedral on Richards Street. She told me that the local chorus members came for their three-hour practices in the evening, after their day jobs.
I had Googled her name to get some background material and got more than 2,000 hits. She was born in Virginia. Her father is Irving Berlin, but not "the" Irving Berlin. She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and obtained her master's of fine arts in directing from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Tex. She has directed across the entertainment spectrum: theatre, opera, summer stock and film. She is on the faculty at Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers in New Jersey and has guest directed for the Tisch School of Arts at New York University and at Julliard. She was the president of the American Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers for six years. She is also on the Tony Award voting panel and now calls New York her home. Critics have praised her work with such comments as "crisp staging," "astute" and "sassy." We sat down to talk.
JI: Here you are in Vancouver again after seven years directing what many believe to be Tchaikovsky's greatest opera. It is being performed in Russian with English subtitles. Does that create any special challenges for you?
PB: This is the first opera in Russian that I have directed. It is based on Pushkin's epic poem of the same name. I started doing the research about a year ago, so I could get a feel for the time and place: Russia in the early 19th century. I met with the lighting and set designers, who I had previously worked with whenever they were in New York, so we could crystallize our vision for the production members. Russians by nature are emotional people with strong spirit and I wanted to make sure that this production reflected that. Of course, it is difficult not knowing the language, so that some of the nuances may be missed. However, we have some Russian-speaking cast members to guide us.
JI: What would you tell people to encourage them to see this production?
PB: I would say that opera or not, the music is incredibly beautiful, I mean, after all, it is Tchai-kovsky. It is the most produced Russian opera worldwide. The story is passionate and romantic and driven by great characters. It is about friendship, love, honor, duty and regret within the context of various relationships. It is presented not as a continuous story but as selected sketches over time. The characters start off young, naive and somewhat self-centred and end up as mature adults who have endured the trials and tribulations of life.
JI: You have directed theatre and opera. Is there any difference in directing these genres?
PB: In the theatre world, I am involved in the auditioning and casting process. The actors are blank slates and I build from there. I control the whole process both from an interpretative and presentation perspective. In opera, it is all about voice, the singers are already selected and I get what I get. Also, there are really two masters, the conductor and the director. This can be challenging, but also allows for a collaborative effort.
JI: Of the plays you have directed, many have Jewish content, The Cemetery Club, Driving Miss Daisy and Crossing Delancey Street, the last of which you directed at the Jewish repertory theatre in New York. Do these plays resonate more with you because you are Jewish?
PB: I was born Jewish. I went to Sunday Hebrew school and was confirmed. Presently I am not affiliated and do not attend services, but I feel culturally Jewish. When I do a play like The Cemetery Club or Crossing Delancey Street, it makes me feel like I am coming home.
About the opera ...
Eugene Onegin originally opened in Moscow in 1879 and was first performed in English in London in 1892. It premièred at the Met in Italian in 1920 and was last seen here in Vancouver in 1985.
The plot begins when the poet Lensky arrives with his friend, Onegin, an aristocrat from St. Petersburg who has just inherited land in the country, to visit the estate of widow Madame Larin and her daughters, Tatyana and Olga. Lensky is courting Olga and has come to profess his love. Fifteen-year-old Tatyana strolls the gardens with Onegin and is instantly smitten by him. That evening, she writes an impassioned letter disclosing her feelings. Upon receiving it, Onegin advises her that he is not interested in her and that, in the future, she should control her feelings to avoid being hurt. He then flirts with Olga, leading to a quarrel with the jealous Lensky and a challenge to a duel, which ends with Lensky being killed.
Onegin travels the world haunted by the death of his friend and searching in vain for the meaning of life. Years later, he attends a ball, where he sees Tatyana, who has become an urbane, married sophisticate. Onegin, realizing he is in love with her, writes to her about his feelings. Tatyana agrees to meet him and, although still harboring feelings for him, resolves not to break her marriage vow. She leaves him heartbroken and full of regret.
Homegrown talent Brett Poleato (baritone), Rhoslyn Jones (soprano) and Allyson McHardy (mezzo-soprano) play Onegin, Tatyana and Olga, respectively, while authentic Russian flavor has been added with tenor Oleg Balashov, a graduate of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, portraying Lensky.
The opera opens Nov. 22 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre and runs for four performances. Visit www.vancouveropera.ca for more information.
Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and theatre critic.
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