REVIEW: Mansfield Park (NZO) – Theatre Scenes: Aotearoa New Zealand Theatre

[Let other pens dwell on misery]

It’s on an inclement Sunday night that the New Zealand Opera invited viewers members to courageous the lengthy drive as much as Settlers Nation Manor, some 10 minutes from Kumeū. Initially a dairy manufacturing unit, the ‘Manor’ is now a lavish marriage ceremony venue, and, between the smoke hanging within the air and the plentiful darkish wood beams, the primary corridor is making its greatest effort to move the viewers backwards in time.

The leisure for this night is prolific English composer Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, offered as a part of NZ Opera’s transfer to convey opera to unconventional efficiency areas. Dove advised RNZ that it was the protagonist Fanny Value’s reserved nature which compelled him to “think about music…[as Fanny] is just not precisely fully silent, however she doesn’t voice her emotions within the e book…” [1]

Fanny Value’s mom married poorly, and consequently a younger shy Fanny has been despatched to reside together with her wealthier cousins, the Bertrams. Fanny (portrayed on this manufacturing by Ashlyn Tymms) is a imaginative and prescient of propriety and ethical spine, and the character is ready in agency distinction towards her foolhardy cousins Maria (Sarah Mileham) and Julia (Michaela Cadwgan). Flirtations are had, weddings are held, and, in true Austen kind, ethical classes are realized.

Dove’s composition is scored for voice and piano, and is split into chapters. The chapter titles are then sung by the refrain in a enjoyable, meta theatrical acknowledgement of time passing and the scene shifting. It’s an intimate, minimalist at instances, and classy opera, and this staging serves to intensify the intimacy between the viewers and performers. A small stage the scale of a drawing room is raised on the left-hand finish of the corridor, and an extended aisle bisects the viewers seating. Performers can enter the stage area from small wings or from the aisle. Being so near the performers solely will increase the sense of awe felt on the energy of the forged’s voices. This staging additionally offers the forged the chance to show different efficiency expertise. Andrew Grenon, for an instance, is fully convincing as Maria Bertram’s oblivious and beleaguered fiancé Mr Rushworth. Our shut proximity means every twitch of concern and Rowan Atkinson- like grimace gives significantly extra comedy than the inscrutable face of a performer positioned 50 yards away from circle seats on the Aotea Heart.

It’s this identical closeness, nevertheless, which reveals a limitation within the function of Fanny Value. This model of Fanny reads as plain, halting, and moralistic, fairly than the quiet however strong-willed younger girl of the novel. It’s arduous to determine whether or not Tymms has been directed to play the function as reservedly as attainable, whether or not it’s Tymms’ vocal efficiency which lacks sparkle, or certainly if it’s the composition that restricts the character. Regardless of the cause, Tymms’ Fanny Value is clipped, muted, and restrained to the purpose of fading towards the extra vividly painted characters of the piece. Maria Bertram (Sarah Mileham) shines in distinction – however right here the half gives rather more whimsy and heat to play with, and that is mirrored in a very vivid and nimble vocal efficiency.

Mansfield Park rides on the present wave of Regency recognition –  as I write the Bridgerton season three launch attracts nigh. The mixture of this staging’s intimacy, stylishness, and the modernity of Dove’s composition would have executed wonders to show to youthful audiences that opera as an artwork kind gives greater than wobbling wigs and incomprehensible plots.

A lot of what makes this staging so partaking is the various pleasant and creative selections Director Rebecca Meltzer and Assistant Director Matthew Kereama have made to enrich Dove’s rating. 

Because the viewers was sat square-on and stage with the stage, fairly than the standard combination of angled, from under, or top-down sightlines present in a regular operatic settings, Meltzer and Kereama have been afforded the chance to utilize the depth of the stage, or to supply visually putting formations by putting forged members on the completely different ranges supplied by set items/furnishings. One such delight got here within the formation of the a lot sung of barouche (a 4 wheeled carriage). On this the association of the forged upon some eating room chairs, in addition to the novel use of two twirled bonnets within the place of spinning wheels, gave the distinct impression of a automobile rolling merrily alongside. It was a confection of stagecraft.

Whereas the second act of the piece gives much less fast comedy, chapters resembling ‘Follies and Grottoes’ ship scenes of beautiful magnificence. Right here the vast majority of the forged are garbed in gossamer veils and delicately organized to characterize the blurred-featured statues of lengthy forgotten gods discovered within the grottoes and follies of the chapter’s title. These selections will make any lover of Austen recall the scene within the 2005 Delight and Prejudice movie, by which Elizabeth, upon visiting Pemberley, comes throughout an awe-inspiring statue of a veiled girl carved fully from white marble. This alone could be memorable for the visible enchantment of the alternatives, however fairly than merely provide a handy echo, the motion responds to the composition. The forged, as a bunch of statues, sing in refrain. They intone, whereas veiled, harmonically complicated chords which swell at factors in quantity, and at others are softened – a lot in order that the sound produced appears to be suspended within the air, like a thread of silk on a breeze.

There are some lower than spelling binding moments over the course of the night. The Mansfield Park textual content mentions however doesn’t actually have interaction with the origins of the Bertram household’s wealth – plantations in Antigua and due to this fact the Transatlantic Slave Commerce. When invited to attend I used to be deeply curious to see whether or not this staging would try, within the method of different productions and movies of the novel, to make some touch upon the Bertram’s nuevo riche standing. However regardless of performing in a venue named in such a method as to remind the viewers of Britain’s colonial legacy (Settlers Nation Manor), Mr Bertram’s opening and repeated strains of “Plantation, Revenue, Sugar” kind a jarring word of historic actuality which was neither internally nor externally acknowledged. A easy word within the programme explaining that Austen’s snapshot of Regency England largely ignores the up to date problems with classism and slavery would maybe serve to stability actuality towards the rising romanticism of this era of historical past.  

Mansfield Park gives a tremendous efficiency and serves properly to show the NZO’s potential to efficiently stage the most recent in internationally acclaimed operatic works. If solely it might have been loved by a wider viewers significantly that of college teams and younger folks. For NZO to have produced such a completely absorbing and sprightly manufacturing it’s a disgrace it was such a brief season. 

[1] https://www.rnz.co.nz/nationwide/programmes/culture-101/audio/2018933042/from-marx-and-austen-to-stranded-in-an-airport-jonathan-dove-on-keeping-opera-relevant

Mansfield Park was offered on the Settlers Nation Manor for 2 performances on the twenty first of April 2024.