Composer: Benjamin Britten
Libretto: Britten and Peter Pears based upon Shakespeare's original ( In English with English supertitles )
Chicago Opera Theater at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph
Phone: ( 312 ) 704-8414; $30-$105
Through: May 28
There's been a large pink and lavender factor to the characters and couture donned by Australian countertenor Tobias Cole for Chicago Opera Theater.
Last year, Cole dressed both in leather and drag as the lovesick Ottone in director Diane Paulus' sexy Las Vegas updating of The Coronation of Poppea. Then as Apollo in the homoerotic Death in Venice, Cole could easily have been mistaken for a circuit boy with a costume consisting of a Speedo-sized loincloth and gold makeup smeared all over his hard-toned body.
Now Cole is playing a fairy—a literal one in the Chicago premiere of the 1960 opera A Midsummer Night's Dream. Cole plays Oberon, the King of the Fairies, a role initially thought to be restrictively difficult to cast.
When gay composer Benjamin Britten ( and his life-long partner Peter Pears ) operatically adapted Shakespeare's beloved comedy, they cast famed British countertenor Alfred Deller as Oberon for the 'otherworldly' sound of his male alto voice. It was a risk that could have restricted the repertory status of A Midsummer Night's Dream to that of a one-hit-wonder: one successful world premiere and then zero subsequent productions.
'At the time, countertenors were few and far between,' said Chicago Opera Theater general director Brian Dickie. In Dickie's opinion, 'Deller essentially reinvented the voice.'
That voice is the closest we have today to the once-powerful breed of Baroque opera superstars known as castrati ( male singers who had their testes removed as youths to preserve their glorious boy soprano voices ) . Forgoing that unkindest of cuts, Deller's pioneering ability to sing in an alto range coincided with and helped spur a huge revival in Baroque music.
'The way the countertenor voice has developed over the past few years or so has been extraordinary,' Cole said. 'Singers are able to build upon the strength and the range. It's become more a voice to be compared with mainstream voices like basses, baritones and tenors.'
Indeed, the existence today of so many prominent countertenors ( like the openly gay David Daniels and Brian Asawa ) has helped once-neglected operas by Monteverdi, Handel and Gluck to become staples of modern operatic repertory.
In many ways Britten was ahead of the curve with the countertenor revolution. While most work countertenors get today is with Baroque repertory, other recent operas have employed countertenor parts including Britten's Death in Venice, Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk and Jonathan Dove's Flight.
' ( Oberon ) is one of the richest pieces in my repertory,' Cole said, though this isn't his first role he learned for A Midsummer Night's Dream.
As a boy soprano, Cole played a child fairy in a production by director Elijah Moshinsky. As an adult, he covered the role of Puck in an acclaimed Opera Australia production reset in colonial India by 'Moulin Rouge!' director Baz Luhrmann.
Cole is delighted to be returning to the city of his American operatic debut for a third go-round.
'It's lovely. Chicago is a fantastic city to be here with my family,' Cole said from his hotel room. 'Chicago wins for its downtown for activities and accessibility for small children.'
For A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cole is re-teamed with his knockout 'Poppea' co-star Danielle de Niese as Tytania, the Queen of the Fairies. Director Andrei Serban, known for his recent controversial Metropolitan Opera takes on Faust and Benvenuto Cellini, has 'sought to reveal the dark side' of the opera according to Dickie. He adds that Serban's modern take 'is not just going to be a light soufflé of a comedy.'
As for Cole's fairy costume in A Midsummer Night's Dream, sorry, but you fans of hunky opera singers like Nathan Gunn and Rodney Gilfry will be disappointed to learn that Oberon's smart tuxedo tails and top hat by designer Leiko Fuseya do not allow for as much exposed flesh ( or camp ) as Cole's previous Chicago Opera Theater outings. But Cole feels that isn't always necessary to enjoy this Britten opera.
'In my experience, A Midsummer Night's Dream has really converted a lot of people to become opera lovers,' Cole said. 'It's such a varied story dealing with fairies, lovers and the rustics. And, it's in English.'