#hanna ulvan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

operafantomet · 1 year

Text

POTO KRISTIANSTAD

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Kristianstad (Kricccchhhensta’) Teater, April 15, 2023

PHANTOM: John Martin Bengtsson CHRISTINE: Hanna Ulvan RAOUL: Jonathan Böiers CARLOTTA: Anna Hammarqvist FIRMIN: Sebastian Lamberth ANDRÈ: Anton Salvin MADAME GIRY: Hanna La Fleur MEG GIRY: Johanna Westholm PIANGI: Filip Barna

And now for something completely different… The speaker announced «Not Broadway’s… Not West End’s… but OUR version of The Phantom of the Opera». And it sure is. This was a production that played with much of the well-known iconography: blonde Christine in white robes, lots of candles, the iconic chandelier, a Phantom in the shadows, and scenes you might feel resemble something you’d seen before. Yet the total felt independent, fresh and creative.

Take the AUCTION SCENE. You’d think featuring a woman as the auctioneer was a gimmick, in the vein of «it’s always a man, therefore we feature a woman». But it worked very, very well. A business woman with authority, and no time for nonsense. The set had a bold original Phantom feel with the drapes and the veiled chandelier in front. The cast was standing around it. But once the Overture hit we got the first glimpse of creative thinking. Raoul stumbled around in the auction set, like a hellish nightmare scene, before it slowly transformed into his youth and Hannibal. I loved this so much. The chandelier rose with flickering light and an added sound effect of crystals shaking. Effective.

HANNIBAL gave the first glimpse of a quite versatile set. In some productions you may tire quickly of seeing the same modules or sets being used for all scenes. I never really got the feeling in this production; only towards the end did I realize they used the same set pieces twisted and turned. But in a clever and effective way. So also in Hannibal, where the main set was a staircase, columns and drapes. I neither loved nor hated the costumes, they went for a minimalistic antiquity look and it served the purpose. Bonus for printed elephants on the ballerina costumes, I guess. Both Filip Barna (Piangi) and Anna Hammarqvist (Carlotta) had impressive vocals. Carlotta’s rant after a sandbag nearly hit her was also A+. And this Lèfevre... He was heading for AUSTRALIA.

THINK OF ME was the first real glimpse of Hanna Ulvan as Christine. The first think that struck me is how very enthusiastic, bubbly and outwards her Christine appeared. As I never saw her in the replica production in Stockholm, I don’t know if it’s the specific directing in this non-replica version, or her take on the role. But I rather liked it, as it made Christine a slightly different figure and in some ways I got Leroux vibes to the kind and giggly Christine described when she’s at the opera (but without the edge seen in the lair scenes).

Voice wise Think of Me didn’t quite do it for me. Ulvan has some glorious upper notes, a a good coloratura ring to it, and she appears to have a nice depth as well. But the mixed middle register, which this first aria has a sneaky amount of, appeared a bit muffled, and her voice sometimes has dominant overtones. At the other hand I know some Christines holds back a bit in the first act to also vocally show Christine progressing in the second act. It made me curious of what to come. Costume wise Christine herself ripped off the Hannibal costume, partly covered by other cast members, and they put on her a bronze robe more or less identical to Carlotta’s. Also got the first glimpse of Jonathan Böiers as a very sympathetic young Raoul.

ANGEL OF MUSIC gave RAH vibes. A set piece with a wall and mirror in the middle, a dressing table with the back turned to the audience to the right, imaginary door to the left. But with a nice twist: during Little Lotte it was Christine who was spinning around on the floor while Raoul sat down at the boudoir. Which very much underlined Ulvan’s bubbly Christine. She had nice chemistry with both Meg (Johanna Westholm) and Raoul (Jonathan Böiers).

Ya know how I rave about John Martin Bengtsson as the Phantom? Well. I had forgotten about just how amazing his vocals is. The second his voice boomed from behind the mirror I knew the next minutes of the show would be glorious. Such depth, such volume. As the mirror was down on the floor and not tilted, they had Christine sitting down on the floor for max effect. And that was beautiful - her reflection overlapped perfectly with the Phantom’s.

Now, for the TITLE SONG they used all the innovative tricks in the book and I loved it. For the first part a big gate went down in the middle of the scene. It gave an impression of a huge mirror - but this was in fact just doubles perfectly mimicking the leads; one pair crossing from right to left, and the other pair from left to right. This was one of my favourite set solutions in the whole show.

Then on to the boat, which basically was a mesh/cage structure rising from the floor. As the Phantom gondoled and Christine held the lantern, smoke and cliffs surfed past them, giving a sense of movement. The cage structure was then lowered into the floor, with a brief curtain down and the cadenza, and what had been the staircase structure for Hannibal was massively transformed into a labyrinth of stairs covered with masks, the monkey musical box, a creepy ballerina doll, a «cracked» backdrop, and a large organ to the right. During the song the ceiling was also covered with burning candles, Harry Potter/Restaged Tour style. Absolutely gorgeous.

Cue: MUSIC OF THE NIGHT. Which again was utterly vocal perfection. John Martin Bengtsson is tall, and this time in floor-length leather coat and half-mask covering the upper half of the face which created an iimposing figure opposite tiny Hanna Ulvan. The overall blocking felt like familiar terrain, with some poses resembling original Phantom. In this version I would have liked for the blocking to include more direct physical contact - or almost so - between the Phantom and Christine. Instead Christine got a bizarre dance with the creepy ballerina doll, which obviously made her faint… Gotta give props for a take on it I had never seen before, and also a foreshadowing to the Managers scenes where the Phantom is shows as the perfect puppet master. Yet… I’m not sure i loved it, I just enjoyed it on an intellectual level. If that makes sense.

STYDI… A more literal take on «music that burns», as Christine wakes up from the thunderous composing and is franatically covering her ears to make it stop. The Phantom, in the mean time, ha brought over some composing quirks from the Danish production. YES to that. You’d think this would not encourage her to approach the Phantom, but she does. The unmasking was a perfect balance between utter rage and a «pitiful creature», and beautiful acted by both of them. Yet I could not stop wondering why the Phantom didn’t snatch one of the 15 other masks he had laying around in the lair to cover his face… I get the symbolism, that it’s not really about the mask itself, rather that Christine revealed him and saw his face. But still. Dude, you have a lot of masks!

It appears non-replica versions really love to have Buquet sing MAGICAL LASSO from box five, or at least one of the boxes. They did the same in Hungary, in Romania/Norway/Greece, and also here. It works well as a foreshadowing, you know Buquet is messing hard with the Phantom when doing that. Using the theatre’s actual boxes was a nice detail as well. In this scene I noticed what a splendid voice Madame Giry (Hanna La Fleur) has. Beautiful upper register.

1ST MANAGERS… This set resembled the dressing room set, but this time with a «window» in the upper left side, a staircase next to it, and in front right a writing desk and chairs. The managers was very good; André (Anton Salvin) was less flamboyant than in the replica versions. Firmin (Sebastian Lamberth) had more comical relief moments. Interesting change. The «window» and the staircase introduced an ever-flowing new range of people until the scene was set for the Phantom.

The moment they started reading his letter he appeared in the «window», and I was like «Aha! Just like Hungary and RAH and stuff». But then they took it up a notch. The people in the office froze, the Phantom physically entered the room, and at one point he even started waltzing with Carlotta when casting her as the silent pageboy, much like Christine had been waltzing with the creepy ballerina doll in his lair. This was eerie, as all of them were frozen except the Phantom. A true puppet master. With him leaving they returned to normal. The rest of the scene felt very ordinary after this! Carlotta changed into the Il Muto costume on stage, as favoured by RAH and a long line of non-replica productions.

The IL MUTO costumes had a LOT more going on than what photos ever showed. They were all glittering in silvery gold and pink. Pretty. I didn’t quite understand the Il Muto set, it looked like a tiny box on a big stage. Why so cramped? The scene itself was fairly close to the replica version, or maybe more RAH as they sat on a chaiselongue. But the acting was much the same, as was the costume routine. Here (as well as in Hannibal) they made a big deal out of Carlotta using a mouth spray. I never liked that, as it covers up the Phantom’s ventricolist abilities. You’d think they rather underline that here, with their Phantom being such a puppet master after all. But ah well.

I gotta admit I did not like the choreography in this version at all, and especially so the Il Muto ballet. The choreography made them look like a beginners class in jazz ballet. The Il Muto ballet was possibly my least favourite scene in this production. By no fault of the dancers, mind you. But it didn’t help that there were only three dancers in the scene. Would probably have been cooler with just one primadonna and the others standing in the back. But… dead Buquet was a great effect. He (I.E. his dummy) had a bag over his head and was flung in from the left. Looked scary and realistic, it did.

In the ROOFTOP scene Christine kept her Serafimo costume, but with an added cloak. If I had been a bit hesitant to Hanna Ulvan’s vocals in TOM she sung the h*ll out of this scene. Her «sooooaaar» absolutely soared, with a phenomenal upper register. She and Böiers sounded so lovely together. The set itself had a staircase solution and with two angel sculptures in the back. As is proper the Phantom was later on introduced by a bit of thunder and lightning, looking like a dark shadow like the sculptures. Very cool. Another stellar vocal moment for JMB, especially him holding the «…yoooouuuuu» for eternity, until the curtain call and the chandelier started crashing. DAYM.

(INTERMISSION: Oh so you only accept cash for the brochure? Great… *runs across town for an ATM*)

MASQUERADE. It was a bit meeeh. Again because I absolutely did not like the choreography. Lots of robotic arm movements. Also few costumes that identified the leads well; only when Christine and Raoul sung to eachother did I realize who they were. I would have liked more defined figures, or a choreograpy singling them out more. But nice formations throughout. The backdrop looked like a giant cracked mirror and of course the Phantom came crashing through here as Red Death. Only proper.

Now, for those who saw BBC’s «Behind the Mask» documentary back in the days, original magic consultant Paul Daniels told about his original idea for Red Death. He never liked the very obvious trapdoor which Hal Prince favoured. He wanted Red Death to just dissolve into thin air, his costume falling to the floor. And guess what: that is exactly what they did in Kristianstad. And WHAT AN EFFECT. Amazing.

The BACKSTAGE encounter with Raoul and Madame Giry was fairly standard: them in front of the curtain, with a lantern, still in costume. Again I noticed just how lovely a voice this Giry sported.

2ND MANAGERS: same set as the first, obviously, and the Phantom back as even more of a puppet master. Each time he mentioned a person, they moved like a puppet on a string, to his commandments. Here Christine wore her blonde hair up, and a purplish green taffeta day dress. Cool combo. In this scene i also realized that a redhead Christine with her hair up (like previous Christine Sara Ollinen had) and a redhead Carlotta with her hair up would have looked maybe too similar. Again good chemistry between Raoul and Christine, I can’t pinpoint what I liked so much except everything made sense and they worked so well together.

SITZPROBE: When you take a fairly ornamental piano and paint it white AND turn its back towards the audience… it will look like something from the 1980s. But anyway… fairly standard scene, with the piano to the left and the cast to the right. Biggest «problem» was that Piangi sung too well all through the show, and didn’t sound particularly out of pitch in the sitzprobe. Could probably have exaggerated his dislike of the twelve-tone scale more. But that’s an absolutely minor detail. Oh, and «music that burns»? It did of course make the piano burn, again a feature seen in a handful of non-replica productions (at the top of my head the Restaged Tour and Romania/Norway/Greece).

MAUSOLEUM scene was another where I felt they had gone for originality, and in a good way. A cloaked Christine buying a red rose from a mysterious cloaked woman. A violin appearing in box five during the violin solo, a shadow of the past, Daddy Daaé. Then a low-key graveyard with small black crosses here and there; Daddy Daaé’ grave with a white cross however, where Christine put the role. In the middle a mausoleum. Hanna Ulvan absolutely nailed this scene. Amazing vocals, shifting effortlessly between belting /or mixed voice) and divine top notes. And intense acting. I loved it.

As Raoul appears to find his fiancé, so does the Phantom, emerging from the mausoleum. At the beginning Raoul can’t see him, as he is more in the back, but he can hear him. Christine walks as hypnotized towards the mausoleum, but it cut off by Raoul who now also spots the Phantom. Then… 2004 movie. Sword fight. WHY. Everything up until now had been so perfectly eerie, and then something as mundane as swords. Ugh. It’s not that it was not executed well, and both JMB and Böiers did some amazing swordmanship. But it’s the fact that the Phantom needs to use a physical tool, much like Carlotta’s mouth spray or the infamous gun in the Romanian/Norwegian/Greek production. He looses his magic. Anyhow… no-one really wins, and Raoul and Christine eventually runs off.

DON JUAN. What. Even. Is. This. Scene. ??? Stage with a staircase on each side. Two dancers laying lifeless in the middle of the stage. Dead? Poisoned? Drunk? Then a black-clad and masked cast enters, with spitroasts and fruit and holds this over the dancers. Ah. They… are… the… fire? The grill? Uhm, WHAT? My brain is trying so hard to get on board. Passarino is a woman. Or a woman in a pants role. OK. Christine appears, clad in a white lace robe. The cast greets her by… holding the spits with meat towards her…? Are they threatening her? Welcoming her to the feast? I am so lost. Then they disappear. Christine is back to her very bubbly, grand self. Acts the HELL out of Aminta, standing at the top of the left staircase. The until-now lifeless dancers starts to move. The Phantom sings from the top right staircase. Christine and the Phantom sings to eachother, at a great distance. The dancers get more and more erotic, at one point I could have sworn they simulated intercourse (separately, but still). Yet SUCH A DISTANCE BETWEEN THE PHANTOM AND CHRISTINE.

This is the weirdest Don Juan I have seen in my life. And frankly the least sensual one, despite the effort of the dancers. There seemed to be no connection between the two leads, mostly due to the blocking. When they are finally descending the stairs and moving towards eachother the scene is over anyway and it feels too late. Original, yes. But too conceptual for me. Way, way, WAY too conceptual for me.

Back in the lair, for the Final Lair. What a relief after Don Juan. I never wanna go back there. Same set as first lair, but the Phantom has some tricks up his sleeve. When Raoul enters, he carries a gun. You should have learned by now you don’t bring down the Phantom with a weapon. The Phantom heads up to his organ and locks the gate with a lever (understood by a rumling sound effect). But then… The Phantom use Christine as a human shield to avoid Raoul’s gun. YOU DID NOT. Absolutely not. Just no. Then he simply snatches Raoul’s gun and use it against him. Buys with toys, enough with the silly weapons. They are a mere distraction. Don’t. Also: you still refer to hanging Raoul. It makes no sense.

Back and forth with the threatening Christine has luckilly had enough (and the Swedish translation of «…turns to tears of hate» is maybe even more powerful, as it means something like «NOW I WISH YOU DEAD», perfectly belted by Hanna Ulvan). As the chaos breaks down she eventually kisses the Phantom, once, twice, absolutely disarming him, if not physically then mentally. He opens the lever and orders them to leave. And it’s a broken Phantom we face at the end. Throughout the scene I almost got Frankenstein vibes, a tall and menancing figure with restrained bodice language. Like a wounded beast. Add booming voice - and it’s such an exclamation point of a character, demanding all attention. This is also why I think swords and guns are unnecessary. He already owns the room and commands all the other characters. But ah well. I halfway suspected the Phantom would just disappear into one of the staircase structure, as he was at one point curled up in one of the corners of it. But then he stood up and walked right through the backdrop, boldly lit up through the many cracks. Walking into the light and to redemption? Walking into the flames of hell? I’m not sure, but visually it looked very good.

In this production the whole goddamn mob enters the lair. But as per usual it is Meg who picks up the mask and holds it up as the light dims. Which objectively is beautiful. In the back of my head I was pondering on how Meg knew which mask was the right one, however. As this lair is decked with white masks. But that’s probably a nerdy or too literal point to make.Cue: thunderous applause.

OVERALL: a very interesting, clever and creative production, playing on familiar Phantom visuals as well as adding many of their own. Raoul stumbling around in the nightmare-ish Auction/Overture set, dreamlike title song and MOTN, a magical Red Death disappearance and a super strong WYWSHA stands out as favourites. Some outstanding leads throughout, with a extra shout-out to John Martin Bengtsson’s Phantom. He is world class. Period. I also really enjoyed Hanna Ulvan’s somewhat different take on Christine, Jonathan Böier’s abolutely solid Raoul and Madame Giry’ beautiful vocals. But frankly, all leads did very well. Energetic orchestra, falling chandelier, old and gorgeous theatre. This was Phantom allright.

So I traveled through three countries (and two train break-downs) to see this. It was the first live production I saw of POTO after the pandemic. It’s the second non-replica production I have seen live, and my second production where John Martin Bengtsson played the Phantom. I only had a vague idea of what to expect, but I very soon found out that photos doesn’t do this production justice at all. Scenes really needed to be watched in full to make sense. Many details were also much revamped for the 2023 run compared to the 2020 premiere. So I had to experience it live, and I am so grateful I was able to.

#phantom of the opera #poto kristianstad #poto sweden #john martin bengtsson #hanna ulvan #jonathan böiers #anna hammarqvist #sebastian lambert #anton salvin #hanna la fleur #johanna westholm #filip barna #non replica #operafantomen #kristianstad teater

105 notes · View notes