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Happy Birthday Johann Strauss Jr Montreal
Salle Pierre-Mercure
10/24/2025 -
Johann Strauss, Jr.: Excerpts from Die Fledermaus, Eine Nacht in Venedig & Der Zigeunerbaron – Kaiserwalzer, op. 437 – Pizzicato-Polka
Franz Lehár: Excerpts from Zigeunerliebe & Die lustige Witwe
Odile Portugais (soprano), Tessa Fackelmann (mezzo), Colin Mackay (baritone), Jamal Al Titi (baritone)
Orchestre Classique de Montréal, Simon Rivard (conductor)
Thomas Lussier (stage director)
S. Rivard (© OCM/Tam Photography)
The Orchestre Classique de Montréal celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Johann Strauss (1825‑1899) with a concert featuring his music as well as some by Franz Lehár, who composed in the same genre. Needless to say, Die Fledermaus was prominently featured, specifically its overture and several arias and ensembles. The singers featured were resident artists of the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra de Montréal.
Despite most selected excerpts being the most familiar, Simon Rivard and his orchestra managed to give the music a fresh outlook. He also managed to eschew a heavy‑handed, schmaltzy tradition, common to this repertoire. Though typically this approach emanates from a certain style of string playing (violins and celli predominantly), having a string orchestra was in this case an advantage. My favourite (and least saccharine) versions of Strauss’ waltzes are the transcriptions by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, which sound lighter and more elegant. A string orchestra, especially one led by an inspired conductor, can produce a similar sound. Happily, this was the case here.
The intelligent staging by Thomas Lussier created an inspired coherence for the concert, despite the disparate provenance of the sung pieces and the absence of a unifying story. With the four singers appearing as two couples, each seated at opposite ends of the stage, one almost believed this to be an evening in a restaurant, with interactions between the singers leading to outbursts of emotion in the form of operatic singing.
All four young singers showed promise, though their affinity for the repertoire was not always palpable. Mezzo Tessa Fackelmann was probably the one who most identified with the music and genre. Her phrasing was the finest of the four as well. Her impersonation of Prince Orlovsky in Act II’s “Ich lade gern mir Gäste ein... Chacun à son goût” from Die Fledermaus was exuberant, despite being attired in a robe de soirée and not en travesty. This was a wise choice on the behalf of Lussier, as some may not have been familiar with the story. Also, it avoided Fackelmann having to change dresses for other scenes.
Soprano Odile Portugais’s Rosalinda started her Act II aria, “Klänge der Heimat” (Czardas) hesitantly, but was clearly in her element after a few moments. She dazzled with her secure high notes and temperament in the final part of the aria. It’s a pity no effort was put into the fake Hungarian accent, as it’s a big part of the fun. Given Portugais’s upper register prowess, it’s unfortunate she didn’t sing Adele’s Act II aria, “Mein Herr Marquis”, an audience favourite guaranteed to generate laughs.
Baritone Jamal Al Titi impressed with both his powerfully virile voice and natural comic verve. His facial expressions and deportment were hilarious. One wished that more drama had been invested into connecting the disparate excerpts, for example the scene with Eisenstein and Rosalinda, wherein the latter manages to seize his pocket watch (his seduction device) as evidence for later reckoning. Al Titi seemed to have a ball throughout the entire performance.
Colin Mackay, endowed with a high baritone, lighter than Al Titi’s, conveyed charm in the “Also Njegus, hier bin ich” and the final piece, the beloved duet “Lippen schweigen,” both from Die lustige Witwe. Despite efforts at restraint, this overly sentimental duet remained the most cloying of the evening; I seriously doubt it can be performed any other way.
Other than the overture to Die Fledermaus, the enduring Strauss war‑horses Kaiserwalzer and Pizzicato-Polka, an unfamiliar waltz, Lagunen‑Walzer, was added for good measure. It was at once charming and melodious, and deserving of wider recognition. The tempo adopted made it feel more poised than the other waltzes.
Though there were no surtitles, Lussier’s concept of staging the vocal excerpts as vignettes of an evening on the town made them unnecessary. Most of the audience understood, and all seemed to enjoy the proceedings. It was a fitting, highly enjoyable harmless romp, served on the eve of Johann Strauss’s 200th birthday.
Ossama el Naggar
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