Elsewhere… - critique on Toronto-based filmmaker Atom Egoyan and his chamber opera production titled 'Elsewhereless'

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 1998 by Iris Winston

Does Toronto-based, movie-maker Atom Egoyan, like the chief character in his chamber opera, Elsewhereless, dream of being elsewhere? Perhaps.

Does he move back and forth in time and space between film and opera as his movies do? Frequently.

His movie Exotica won the International Critics Prize and was voted best foreign film at Cannes in 1994. His highly acclaimed The Sweet Hereafter won eight Genie Awards, three prizes at the Cannes film Festival-including the Grand Prix-and was voted one of the top films of the year by 250 US movie critics in 1997.

Most award-winning film directors would settle for the accolades heaped on them for successes like these and continue making movies exclusively. Not Egoyan. Though he is now in the throes of making a new feature film, Felicia's Journey, based on the novel by William Trevor, and recently returned from promoting the release of The Sweet Hereafter in Japan, he is not satisfied with only the cinematic creative outlet.

The 38-year-old movie director is fascinated by opera which, he said in a recent interview with the Ottawa Citizen, "floors [him] in ways that film rarely does. If you've ever been taken to those heights, you know the allure."

Egoyan's first venture in opera was in 1996, when he directed the Canadian Opera Company production of Salome. Two years later he directed the world premiere of Dr. Ox's Experiment by Gavin Bryar for the National Opera in London, England. A month later he was in Ottawa for the opening of Elsewhereless, the opera that he wrote as well as directed.

Public and critical response to Egoyan's work in opera has not been nearly as consistent as to his films. Comments on Dr. Ox's Experiment ranged from fiercely negative to wildly effusive. Reviews of Elsewhereless, which had a short run at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in May before moving on to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as part of Festival Canada, were generally mixed, mostly negative.

Part of the disappointment with the hour-long chamber opera sprang from its being touted as one of the highlights of the festival. (It wasn't.)

Much of the problem lies with the incongruity of the form. The cinematic staging does not mesh comfortably with traditional operatic style. Composer Rodney Sharman's often dissonant music and the on-stage music ensemble interfere with the theatrical aspect. The story line of this sung play is too thin to sustain the attack on colonialism at its core. As it stands, Elsewhereless is an unhappy hybrid that is neither dramatically believable nor musically exciting. (It is hard to resist the temptation of saying that this piece of work leaves many audience members wishing themselves elsewhere.)

Yet it is a work that has a long history for Egoyan. Elsewhereless began life as a play (then called External Affair) in 1982, when Egoyan was apprenticing as a playwright at Tarragon Theatre. Its roots lie in the Egyptian-born, Armenian writer's own heritage. Its non-linear style of moving backwards and forwards in time is similar to the pattern evident in his movies.

As long as the challenges posed by opera keep calling, film-maker Atom Egoyan is likely to move back and forth in space, continuing a non-linear career path that bridges at least two art forms.

Iris Winston is an Ottawa freelance writer.