Friday, February 21, 2014

Nordic Reviews: Rebecca

And finally, the last entry and the only disappointment in my Nordic series: Malmö Opera's Rebecca.

Rebecca's not one of my favourite musicals, but still a show I remember liking well enough when I saw it for the first time. It's after all a thriller full of drama and emotion, so it's not too hard to stay interested! Malmö Opera's production, however, didn't make me experience any strong feelings. It was lukewarm at best.

Visually, the production was very stylized. The leading couple wore period clothing, but the ensemble had unique, futuristic-meets-middle-ages type looks. The sets were very minimal, most of the scenery was created via projections, and the cast's movements were strictly choreographed throughout. It all looked sort of nice, but felt distancing. I suspect the cold visuals were supposed to convey that the heroine of the story doesn't feel at home in Monte Carlo nor in Manderley. But somehow, whereas in Cabaret the modern looks helped me to get into the story, here they took me further away from it. Or maybe it's just impossible to stage an intense, intimate show in a huge hall like Malmö Opera?

What's more I don’t know if I was just sitting in a really bad place acoustically or what, but to me, the orchestra sounded like a big blur of sound, massive but uninteresting. None of the instrumentals really sent shivers down my spine. To be completely honest, most of the songs sounded the same to me.

I wasn't too impressed with the leading lady, Ida Högberg. I didn't get a clear sense of the character's internal growth, she felt pretty much the same from start to finish. Philip Jalmelid, then, felt a bit too young for the role of Maxim de Winter still, and a bit too subdued to really convey his character's internal struggle all across the huge auditorium. But I've a feeling that in a few years, in a different, more intimate production, he might make a brilliant Maxim. His vocals were quite awesome already!

My favourite performances of the evening, however, were Rickard Söderberg as Ben and Fred Johanson as Jack Favell. The former made me feel real sympathy towards his character and sung the part with a strong, beautiful voice. The latter was deliciously slimy.

Despite the few good performances, I left the theatre without having felt much anything. Malmö Opera's Rebecca is one of those shows you can easily forget you even saw. 

Photos by Malin Arnesson.

1 comment:

  1. Bleh, the photos look so promising that I was hoping the production would be good. Apparently it's performed only for a short period so I get the lack of sets, but lame directing and bad orchestrations can't be excused. I like the musical, but the material isn't strong enough to stand out on its own if the production sucks.