Quebec's Lepage unveils ambitious new opera

Robert Lepage's upcoming new opera sounds pretty ambitious — even by his standards.

For The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, making its world premiere Oct. 17 in Toronto, Lepage plans to fill a partially raised orchestra pit at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with roughly 30 tonnes of water. His singers will wade in, waist-deep, to manipulate puppets while they perform. The orchestra will play onstage behind them.

Even Lepage's collaborators sounded apprehensive about the lofty ambitions of the program, but the Quebec showman said he was undaunted.

"Doubt is important in the creative process," Lepage told The Canadian Press in an interview backstage at the Imperial Oil Opera Theatre, where he was rehearsing the project.

"You have to doubt about yourself and about your concept, otherwise if you think everything is going to be fine, it means you're not doing anything new or you're walking in somebody's footsteps or something.

"I'm very confident .… I mean, it's not that revolutionary. It's not that special."

He does admit that the project is complex. Its unconventional features include acrobats, shadow play and Asian puppetry, all woven into a program of pieces by composer Igor Stravinsky.

"I always say it's a small little project because there's small little pieces and there's small little stories but it's a huge thing to put this together," Lepage said.

"Technically, it's very, very difficult. It's 60,000 pounds of water that you have to deal with. It's a lot of engineering issues. That's the heavy side.

"But the result is so light and it's so simple, and it looks simple. It's a very pure little show. So I don't feel crushed by it, even though it's a lot of work."

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen

Lepage has had the idea kicking around the recesses of his mind since the 1990s, when he found a DVD of a Peter Gelb-produced performance of Oedipus Rex staged in Matsumoto, Japan, that featured puppetry. Lepage said he was inspired and ever since has been waiting for the opportunity to meld puppetry with opera.

He thinks he found the right match in The Nightingale, a lyric story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, with a libretto written by Stepan Mitussov in 1914. Soprano Olga Peretyatko will step into the title role, with German tenor Lothar Odinius singing the role of the Fisherman.

Since The Nightingale is relatively short, the program will be rounded out by other vocal and instrumental pieces by Stravinsky.

Though Lepage sounded confident in his vision, others working on the production weren't quite as certain. Costume designer Mara Gottler said the circumstances presented unique challenges.

"I started experimenting with things like silicone and plastic actually at one point, when I first heard we were going to be dealing with water," Gottler said.

"The texture of everything changed and it was all really stiff and horrible."

After experimenting with a multitude of different fabrics — and importing some from Singapore — she said she found the right material and "ignored the issue of water, ultimately."

Jonathan Darlington, the principal conductor of the Vancouver Opera who will make his COC debut, also admitted to some apprehension about the program.

"I didn't really know what I was getting myself into," Darlington said with a laugh.

But Lepage did. And he doesn't mind that some of his collaborators sound a little unsure about the project.

"The people you select to work with you, not just the creative team, but the singers, the conductors, they have to come in hopefully with lots of enthusiasm, and also with a bit of doubt," he said. "And they challenge you."

Lepage said he especially enjoys working with puppets, which he says is drawing a totally different sort of performance out of his singers.

"It's a pity we can't do all operas like this," he said.