A Night at the Opera: Mitridate re di Ponto @ Academy of Music
Any critique of “Mitridate, re di Ponto,” the Mozart opera that the Philadelphia Opera put on last weekend is nullified by a few important factors. The first is the theater; the glamorous, near ostentatious, auditorium of the Academy of Music. This building is literally gilded, stunning and ornate, an event unto itself. It is a room that the city dresses up to enter, and there would be no performance so bad it could diminish the effect.
The second factor was this glamorous night at the opera cost only eleven dollars. Peering out from the top seats, closer to the ceiling than the players, and nursing wine in branded sippy cups felt like the height of luxury after so many weekends spent in North Philly basements, for a basically equivalent price. We were easily the youngest, drunkest audience members, and that was enough for a great night.
The show itself was pretty good. In a modern political intrigue setting, two brothers and a father fight over the same women, while the expanding Roman empire knocks at the gates. This take didn’t quite land, lacking the follow through on both the aesthetics and the scripted setting. The brothers flopped around in versace suits, throwing furniture and howling over spited love. At times it was reminiscent of critically acclaimed HBO drama series Succession, at other times, a soap opera. Casting Sifare, the good brother, as a Soprano woman gave a compelling flavor to both the love story and musical score.
When the title character, the father of the competing princes, entered, the show’s pace and dynamic halted. Mitridate lacked total stage presence, and his lack of imposition made the second half of the show, which hinged on the other character’s fear of him, confusing and strange. This may have been because he was costumed similarly to Lord Farquaad, the tiny villain from the Shrek movies, while everyone else donned tasteful modern formalwear.
“Mitridate” is mostly arias. This is a series of stunning park and bark solos, attempted to be made more engaging by allowing the actors to tear into the furniture and set. A helpful feature of the show was the subtitles above the stage, although they were often inaccurate to the Italian being sung. Nevertheless, the plot was easy to follow, and picked up significantly when Rome, dressed in black leather armor, stormed though the gates with a loaded glock in the last act. The show ended with every character singing that they would fight to the death against Rome before getting shot in the head one by one.
The real star of the show was the massive orchestra, viewed from high up like the mechanisms of a piano in the open air pit. The effect was incredible, the singers in perfect fidelity with the pit.
Overall, an incredible, glamorous night of cheap Opera in Center City. I would highly recommend it for a date night, or if you’re just looking for a reason to get dressed up and into the city.
Cover photo via VisitPhilly.
