Beauty and the Beast meets the age of consent in new opera retelling of the classic fairy tale
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2019 18:00:57 +0000
Beauty’s Beast
When: Sept 6 and 7
Where: ANNEX
Tickets: $35 ($30 students/seniors) at eventbrite.ca
Don’t expect any dancing-and-singing clocks or candlesticks in East Van Opera’s retelling of the classic story of Beauty and the Beast.
“It’s not a fairy tale,” local composer and soprano Allison Cociani said. “It directly deals with the idea of consent and Stockholm Syndrome and touches on the #MeToo movement. It focuses on the building of healthy relationships.”
Beauty’s Beast is East Van Opera’s second production. For the first, 2017’s Alma, Cociani not only wrote the music and libretto, but played the lead. She also formed the company to bring the work to stage.
“It also featured ballet and burlesque,” she said. “It was quite the production.”
Anna Shill is Beauty and Jason Cook is Beast in East Van Opera’s Beauty’s Beast, playing at the Annex Sept. 6 & 7. Photo: Kathryn Nickford
For Beauty’s Beast, she and East Van Opera have scaled back. The opera features three characters, one musician (pianist Perri Lo), and is generally less epic in length and size than Alma.
“I wanted to produce something we could tour easily, where you could have just a few performers and pack it up and take it wherever it wants to go.”
Cociani wrote only the music this time out, not the libretto. And though she has a role, it’s smaller than in Alma; here she plays the Enchantress, a third wheel to the two leads. The Enchantress tells the story and gives background, Cociani says.
“It’s a lot less singing, which I learned from Alma. I don’t have the time to be the lead but I enjoy a bit of singing and being on stage, it’s fun.”
Anna Shill, who plays Belle, had the idea of modernizing the story. She is also the librettist.
“She had this vision of creating a libretto for Beauty and the Beast,” Cociani said. “She loved the idea of getting deep into Beast and Belle’s relationship and creating something around that that’s different and more modern. I said, ‘Well you write the libretto and I’ll write the opera.’”
The setting of Beauty’s Beast is not specified, though it does take place in a fairy-tale-like world. “The costumes are 18th-century, and the set is very minimal.” Projections and lighting create the idea of time and space. “You sense that it’s in a magical setting. And the Enchantress is a magic-y element. She’s not really human. She weaves throughout the story and moves the characters and shakes them up and puts everything where she wants.”
Julie McIsaac, a former Artist-in-Residence at Pacific Opera Victoria, directs. Baritone Jason Cook, who sings with Vancouver Opera, plays Beast. “He’s very convincing,” Cociani said. “It’s definitely fun when you see him in the costume and with the makeup and horns. And Anna’s quite short and Jason’s tall, so it’s a good match.”
Cociani wants Beauty’s Beast to be accessible to non-opera-goers and fans alike. “The music ’s very lush, and also very modern,” she said. “People who are afraid of modern opera will be able to connect to the melodies. And people who enjoy a more complicated contemporary musical experience can find that as well.”
Audiences will also find a contemporary spin on an iconic pop-culture couple. “We wanted to make something that really draws attention to the relationship between Belle and Beast. They’re both flawed. But they both grow and change.”