Word: handels
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...transformation. The late movie comedian was a hero of sorts, forever skirmishing with a legion of enemies of the quizzical stare and the faraway gaze. And now his near-namesake, Peter Sellars '80, has devised a monumental gesture to commercial fantasies in his new American Repertory Theater production of Handel's opera Orlando, at the Loeb Drama Center...
...When Handel composed Orlando in 1732, based on the Ariosto saga, his cast of characters consisted of the hero of the title, the Queen of Cathay, an African prince, a shepherdess, and a magician. The setting was simply a nameless forest. "Handel's audience didn't need to be told who Orlando was, as audiences today don't need to be told about Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock," Sellars writes in the production's program notes. "As soon as the characters appeared, the audience had a set of collective expectations, and was ready for action. Thus, I think the logical...
...unlikely quintet may not exactly fulfill the ART audience's collective expectations. They sing the original Italian libretto, for instance, and tend to roll about the floor in odd formation--but their capacity to charm and delight is endless. All five are top-flight performers: well-suited vocally for Handel's soft, delicate arias, and passionate and convincing as actors. Sanford Sylvan reveres every syllable he sings as Orlando, and his gentle descent into madness (represented as the planet Mars in this production) is mesmerizing. Janet Brown's rendition of the queen/deb Angelica's melancholy reflection on false hopes...
...Sellars's Zoroastro receives his potion in the claws of The Eagle--the Apollo 11 lunar module, that is. (In both cases, a printed synopsis of the opera lets the audience know the original scenario.) This sort of inventiveness does not constitute a groundbreaking reinterpretation of Handel, but it's a refreshing and cheerful Handel nonetheless...
Above all, Sellars's updating never interferes with the music. In fact, many of his innovations involve clever exploitation of the Handel score. The bouncy rhythms of Dorinda's first-act aria on the ineffable nature of love--she's the beach bunny, nee shepherdess--become the excuse for an hilarious mock-disco strut. Later in the opera, when Dorinda sings of love's bitterness, it is Sellars's inspiration that she pour herself a stiff drink between repetitions (all Orlando's arias consist of six or eight lines repeated again and again), with the result that her octave leaps...