February 2002 - Nr. 2
An Operatic Tale
by Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
Michael Schade is performing more in Europe than Canada, but he still considers Canada his home. This is where his parents live, this is where he spent most of his youth, this is where he got most of his education, where he studied and discovered his love for singing and the stage. This is also where he and his family, his wife and daughter, own a lovely home to which they gladly come back to as often as possible.
It is especially around Christmas time that he comes home. Festive occasions and close family ties beckon just before the season of the Canadian Opera Company is about to begin and Michael Schade prepares one of his roles for Canada’s premier opera institution.
This
is also the time when we enjoy our annual ritual, an interview with the man
not only the German Canadian community is very proud of. We like to adopt
many artists from many different shores into our sphere, but we do like it
especially when one of our own makes it, so to speak; and Michael made it,
and he made it big. This is of no surprise to anyone who has heard him sing
or had the pleasure of meeting him in person. He appears to have a perpetual
sunny disposition, earnest at times, but always joyous. There is no
detectable veneer to protect himself other than his professional attitude.
He relies on his personality to carry him through; he is himself when not on
stage. Even his father thinks that he is amazingly normal.
During our recent meeting, just prior to the premier of The Journey to Rheims we caught up on the events since we last met about a year ago. He moved into a new house and is extremely pleased with it. Ideally suited for entertainment he made full use of the special setting it allows to be created and invited a large group of people for a Christmas/Advent evening with music and "Stollen", which his wife Noreen Burgess and his mother baked. They even made "Gluehwein" in the traditional way. Canadian guests were smitten with all these specialties and amazed at how different this gathering was from so many others everyone attends. It appears that our German customs made some new friends along side with the musical world, which surely will also benefit.
"When you are famous then you have opportunities otherwise not available," says Michael. And with that he immediately speaks of responsibilities to help where it is needed. Therefore it comes as no surprise that he gathered some friends and gave a concert to benefit Leukemia research. The rented hall was packed and the concert was of course a smash hit and raised a tremendous amount of money. Michael did not want the money to go into a general field of research, often no one knows where exactly it goes to, so it was decided to purchase a diagnostic instrument instead, which was much needed. And he did all this because his mother made a miraculous recovery from this life threatening condition, which all of us are pleased to hear. We understand that Anneliese Schade is singing again, together with her husband, in the renowned Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. It is clear that this family is tightly knit together and practises mutual understanding, love and respect.
We had to get to the professional part of the interview quickly because his daughter was waiting for her dad to take her to ballet classes. So we asked about this years Canadian Opera Company project for him. It was the only recently discovered opera, or perhaps it should be called a humoresque cantata for 14 major voices, by Rossini "The journey to Rheims". In it he plays a Russian general who, together with other aristocrats, want to attend the newest Emperor’s, Charles X, coronation. In the spa where everyone is attempting to make it to Rheims the proprietors are used to the "Schickeria" of the day and ready to cater to it, but no one can supply the necessary horses for the journey. During the wait for a resolve of this problem all sorts of games are played which allow the audience a glimpse at the sometimes rather bizarre neurotics of a layer of society that only shortly before was relentlessly persecuted. Obviously it was ok again to indulge oneself, as long as one could pay for it.
In true Italian style every one of the 14 singers had their chance alone or in duets to shine. The script allowed for any human play of game between the sexes, all light-hearted even when earnest. Costumes and staging accompanied the frivolous action in a most becoming way, making it look quite natural that grown man should play with huge toy soldiers and shoot each other with miniature cannons.
The audience enjoyed this opera whose libretto could have been written by Arthur Schnitzler and applauded liberally all the fine performers, with Michael Schade getting a lion share of it.
Perhaps it was also relief that made the audience shower so much praise on this production. Perhaps people felt so good because they, like us, had seen the much hailed revival of Atom Egoyan’s Salome by Richard Strauss a few days earlier.
Much
has been written in the interim about both operas, but a controversy ensued
about Salome, so much so that the director felt it necessary to publicly
respond. In his distinct style, which is certainly not everyone’s cup of
tee, he dragged this biblical monster into a modern age with multi media
apparatuses and other visual aids. And while the technical expertise and the
high skill level of all artistic aspects in this opera are worthy of praise,
there remains the question if this interpretation at this point in time was
the most appropriate version for its time. At a time when women in some
parts of the world have to hide their faces for fear of getting stoned to
death, when wars are being fought over religiously fundamental questions,
when we know that barbarism is just below our oh so civilized exterior, when
we have just witnessed how destructive man’s inhumanity towards man can
disrupt whole nations, just then, when we have experienced it first hand
once again and so close, just then do we need a lecture in Freudian theory
with an already insensitive script that discriminates against Jews and
Christians alike and only displays an underbelly of humanity that large
parts of the world’s population have been trying to reduce to manageable
proportions? Not only could this be called insensitive for the times but the
critics of gratuitous sex and violence could also have their day in moral
court for this production. The story is already and by its nature as retold
in the bible overly sensuous and smacks of violence and every other deadly
sin. Is it smart to whip an already ailing population into frenzy with a
symphony in Freud? What is being served with such a display, one asks.
Applying the old adage that art imitates life and life imitates art and that
we have to shock people out of their complacency and hold a mirror to their
face so they recognize how horrible and weak they are, we can easily say
that this time it was not necessary because we just learned our lesson a
couple of month ago and we are still licking our wounds.
Interesting enough another critic must have thought something similar because he simply wrote about the absence of arithmetic in going to the opera, other than in the gang rape in the last chapter of this production, while the rest of life somehow and continuously demands the application thereof.
To be fair one must concede that, as I did before, the artistic effort other than the interpretation of the story, is truly unique and thought provoking; yet the ones that need to have their thoughts provoked won’t go to an opera, not likely, and the ones that think already realized what and that something is wrong with the world. So, the question is really: Was this the artistic effort of an artist who needs to realize his view of the world for himself to feel that he is doing his job? Is it some weird narcissistic way of self-therapy?
We will never know, because at this point of the controversy the critics as well as the critiqued have dug their trenches deep and wide enough for comfort.
So, who says opera is boring? Not in Canada, aye?
We are looking forward to other productions of our glorious COC, including Oedipus Rex with Michael Schade in the next season.
