Opera spoilt by poor singing

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 04/02/2004 2:23 PM  |  Life

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Not having actually seen an opera performed live before, it was with high expectations that I arrived for the Jakarta Conservatory of Music's production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas last Friday night at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta.

The professional lineup, which included one of Indonesia's top sopranos, Binu D. Sukaman, and conductor Avip Priatna, promised a pleasant evening filled with high quality singing and orchestration.

Unfortunately no amount of good intentions -- introducing opera to an Indonesian audience, for one -- could save the performance on this night.

There was nothing wrong with the singing, in fact the three main performers -- Binu, soprano Ignatia Rozana Unsulangi and tenor Farman Purnama -- were in top form, as was the Jakarta Conservatory String Ensemble conducted by Avip.

However, there is a huge difference between singing opera compositions and acting them out in a full opera performance.

In opera, acting skills are usually kept at a minimum, unlike in plays. It is more important for the singers to be able to convey emotions through the force of their voices instead, helped along by the music of the orchestra.

But despite having powerful voices, none of the performers this night could express with any conviction the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas.

The opera of Dido and Aeneas was composed by Englishman Henry Purcell (1659-1695) with Nahum Tate as librettist (a libretto is in opera as a script is in film). It is considered England's oldest operas and was first performed in 1689 at a girl's school in Chelsea, London.

For the Jakarta Conservatory of Music performance, director Ian Peirson divided the action into five scenes, split into three acts, running for approximately 50 minutes.

The story for Dido and Aeneas was adapted from the Aenid, Virgil's epic on the founding of Rome. The queen of Carthage, Dido (played by Binu D. Sukaman) falls in love with the heroic Aeneas (Farman Purnama), prince of Troy, who has landed in Carthage from Troy after defeat in the Trojan war.

However, some witches living near Carthage, who hate Dido, tell Aeneas that he is fated to go and be the founder of the Roman empire. Aeneas is reluctant to leave, knowing that his sudden departure would appear suspicious to Dido.

As Aeneas' sailors prepare to set off, he tells Dido that he loves her so much he is willing to ignore the summons. She tells him that it is too late, that she cannot trust him anymore. He leaves, and she dies of a broken heart.

The story is exceptional for an opera of this period because one of the main characters, Dido, dies. In most pre-19th century operas, the hero or heroine's life may be threatened but they are usually saved by the end of the opera.

With so much ripe material for emotion, it was therefore disappointing to see Binu fail to bring home the tragedy to the audience, both when Dido throws Aeneas out of her palace and when she sings the famous aria When I am laid in earth (Dido's Lament), where Dido asks her maid Belinda (played by Ignatia Rozana Unsulangi) to remember her when she is dead.

Language has always been one of the major barriers in classical opera -- most being written in Italian, German or French -- but this usually does not bother opera lovers because the music and actors are expected to be able to convey the story.

If this fails, most opera houses provide subtitles, called surtitles or supertitles, where film slides are projected on the wall above the stage.

Dido and Aeneas should never have this problem because it was created in English, a familiar language for most Indonesians. Granted, the words may be difficult to catch since they are being sung instead of spoken, but when a member of the audience actually spent the first quarter of the performance thinking it was in Latin, then there is serious trouble.

Personally, my first live opera experience was ruined after Rozana Unsulangi sang Belinda's first aria, Shake the cloud from off your brow, with imperfect pronunciation, and progressively worsened as she sang Pursue thy conquest, love.

Farman as Aeneas had the best pronunciation, but with only a minimal role in the opera this strength alone was not enough to save the day.

Operas were invented to combine awe-inspiring singing, great-sounding orchestra, riveting drama, stunning dance, spectacular sets, lavish costumes, fancy lighting and special effects.

This performance of Dido and Aeneas fell short on several of these counts.

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