A monastic monk with a playboy past and a penchant for self-flagellation returns to the city of his profligate youth in order to redeem the most famous courtesan of the day (who also happens to be his former girlfriend) in order to set her on the road to salvation. Along the way, his motives become muddled, she rejects him, but then accepts his invitation and ascends to the level of sainthood. And it’s all, as the movies are fond of saying, “based on a true story.”
That in a nutshell is the plot of Jules Massenet’s 1894 opera “Thaïs,” which had its Los Angeles Opera premiere Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, starring Placido Domingo as the obsessed monk, Athanaël, and Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze as the girl with the golden plumage, Thaïs.
In the 1890 novel by Anatole France, upon which the opera is based, the action transpires in its actual historic setting of 4th century Egypt. Athanaël is a member of a strict hermetic sect of desert Christians known as Cenobites. Thaïs is the Lady Gaga of her day, the toast of ancient Alexandria.
The current production directed by Nicola Raab, with lavish and decidedly wacky sets and costumes by Johan Engels, paints a somewhat different picture. Try imagining a shaggy John the Baptist (from “Salome”) trying to convert glittery Violetta (from “La Traviata”) on the set of “The Phantom of the Opera.” If you can do that, then you have a sense of this fever dream of an interpretation. Does it make sense? Does it matter? That’s up to you. In either case, this may be the only chance you’ll ever have to see the opera on stage; “Thaïs” doesn’t get around much anymore.
Lust, redemption and dreams play an important part in the story. And from start to finish this production plays out as a Freudian phantasmagoria in which the band of desolate desert monks looks more like Oxford dons; 4th century Alexandria becomes 19th century Paris; and the final scene takes place in a roofless, abandoned theater in the dunes a la Salvador Dali.
If you’re willing to accept the craziness, and not be too distracted by the wild and kinky costumes, there is a great deal to enjoy in this production. Massenet’s score is sumptuous, highlighted by the opera’s one hit tune, “Meditation.” The emotional confrontations between Domingo and Machaidze are impressive, as are the sonorous choruses and the beautifully defined conducting by Patrick Fournillier.
From the outset, Domingo’s Athanaël is a tortured soul, torn between his spiritual desire to attain heavenly rapture and the lustful, more earthly side of his personality that keeps popping up. The irony is, at the same moment that Domingo’s character sets out to convert Thaïs, the superstar of Alexandria is in the midst of her own identity crisis, fearful of growing old and more than a bit conflicted about the libertine lifestyle she’s been leading.
What transpires is literally a battle to the death between these two seemingly opposite yet mutually attracted personalities. Act 1 sets the scene. But it is in Act 2, within the opulent confines of Thaïs’ dressing room, that the battle lines are drawn. Their extended duet represents Massenet at his best and the vocal parts are given the magnitude they require by the ever-remarkable singing of Domingo and powerful voice of Machaidze.
As the scene ends, Thaïs realizes she is still too tightly bound to her life of pleasure and stardom to give it all up to become a sequestered nun. It is later, during the production’s skillful staging of the musical interlude known as “Meditation,” that Thaïs begins to appreciate the heavenly rapture Athanaël is offering. But when she tries to explain to the monk the real power of love, he is incapable of grasping the truth of her words and explodes in a jealous rage. Nevertheless, she follows him into the desert to find peace and salvation. In the end, it is Thaïs who finds divine bliss, while Athanaël remains below, broken and conflicted by the dual aspects of his nature.
In the production Paul Groves plays the role of the Alexandria nobleman Nicias, who admits Athanaël to his opulent home, disguises him in festival finery and provides him access to Thaïs. Valentin Anikin plays the wise monk Palemon who advises Athanaël to steer clear of earthly entanglements. And Milena Kitic sings the role of Albine, a former noblewoman who has exchanged her gowns of state for a nun’s existence.
Jim Farber is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
