The Golden Ass: Will We See It Again?

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Wntr, 1999 by Ben Viccari

During the intermission at the premiere performance of the Canadian Opera Company's long-awaited The Golden Ass, patrons were hurrying to the box office to buy tickets so friends and relatives could attend the following five performances. The final tally on attendance indicated that the Robertson Davies/Randolph Peters opera reached 92 per cent of capacity: about 18,000 people. The Ass outsold even the beautifully sung and highly dramatic production of II Trovatore with which it alternated at the Hummingbird Centre during the last two offerings of COC's 1998-99 season.

But the question is: will this opera, which caused so much stir since its production was announced, return to the stage in Canada or anywhere else in the world?

To counter negative rumours that things were not going so well with the new opera, word was leaked out that The Golden Ass was "highly accessible". Meaning, of course, that for once, this just might be a "modern" opera with a score that could be enjoyed by majority COC audiences rather than endured. This proved to be true, but not entirely to the satisfaction of some elitists who perhaps were looking for something less penetrable. They should have known better from a work in which the late, great Rob Davies played such a strong part.

One recalls that Davies quotation:

"I write for people who delight in life and are curious about many aspects of it and are aware of its tragedy as well as its comedy but who do not adopt a sort of glum attitude which they think is realism!"

The COC has come a long way in recent years, thanks largely to the blend of artistry and showmanship that elevated Richard Bradshaw from chief conductor to general director in 10 years. The fact that COC's double-bill production of Bluebeard's Castle and Ewartung was invited to Hong Kong and Edinburgh and travelled well is evidence that Bradshaw loves the challenge of the moderns. All four productions pulled out all the stops and drew raves from the critics if not all of the audiences.

But in an era when private and public funding for the arts is a constant matter of concern, Bradshaw knows he must play his cards wisely if he's to keep subscriptions high. In spite of his championship of contemporary opera, Bradshaw has reverence and enthusiasm for the classics. Take a look at the lineup for COC's 50th anniversary season: La Boheme, The Dutchman, L'Elisir D'Amore, Traviata, Don Giovanni and Pelleas et Melisande. The closest COC will come to the moderns is the Ensemble's three performances of Britten's Rape of Lucretia. What if they are "standards?" Who can deny quality to any one of these seven and greatness to at least four?

It follows, then, that for the COC to offer even such well-known 20th century composers as Schoenberg and Bartok involves chances that Bradshaw is from time to time willing to take. However, the calculated risk that Bradshaw and the COC took with The Golden Ass was far greater than most people realize. While he knew that many operagoers would find Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms "difficult", they are part of the modern opera repertoire and attendance would be obligatory. With one chamber opera, Nosferatu, seen so far in only the limited performances of an Ensemble showcase to his credit, Peters was obviously not yet "establishment".

During the period leading up to opening night, public and critical interest focused far more sharply on the libretto by Robertson Davies than on the potential of Peters. And Urjo Kareda, writing in Toronto Life about perceived pre-production woes, seemed to wonder whether even Davies as librettist was worth making such a fuss over. His article was titled "Dead Men Don't Do Rewrites" and the opera classified as a "huge, expensive somersault into the unknown."

Even after opening night some opera critics, while praising Davies' libretto, tended to undervalue Peters' score and damn it with faint praise. Yet the score was obviously a delight to the audience from the moment the curtain went up to reveal 50 performers in a marketplace scene to the closing when Festus the storyteller (Theodore Baerg) stands beneath a glittering shower of golden coins, his reward for a good yarn.

As the musical world knew by opening night, Davies had chosen for his subject a classic, ribald Roman work by Apuleius, one of history's first novels, written about A.D. 170. It was a subject he had contemplated for more than 40 years. The libretto he completed before his death in 1997 recounts the tale of a self-absorbed hedonist, Lucius (Kevin Anderson) who in his endless search for pleasure seeks to learn forbidden occult arts. He is transformed into an ass and suffers ill treatment and humiliation at the hands of human beings including captivity at the hands of a band of brigands. Finally repentant, he returns to human form.

Audiences who came to the premiere expecting an opera that lacked in tonality and harmony were agreeably surprised to find the Peters' music indeed highly accessible and Robertson's libretto witty and amusing. And the production was outstanding. As director of the opera, Bradshaw had selected Colin Graham who has staged many outstanding modern opera productions including all of Britten's work. From the moment the curtain rose, the stage was filled with constant motion as more than 50 performers recreated a market place in ancient Carthage of almost 2,000 years ago. Deployed on a set consisting mainly of two flights of marble stairs, and acting out a variety of situations, including some torrid (and convincing) lovemaking and a ballet based on the legend of Cupid and Psyche, they moved up and down the stairs with fluidity.