A man in love with the world

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This article was published 27/04/2017 (3417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OPERA buffs might wish to stock up on Kleenex this weekend.

Manitoba Opera presents the company première of Jules Massenet’s Werther (pronounced vair-TAIR), a compelling tragedy of aching love and heartbreaking loss told through soaring, rapturous melodies, lushly orchestrated by the 19th-century French composer and loosely based on Goethe’s uber-romantic tale The Sorrows of Young Werther. MO’s final show of the season is sung in French (with English surtitles) and opens Saturday, April 29.

“He’s a young, impressionable kind of guy who’s a poet, so he’s very artistic,” says critically acclaimed Canadian tenor John Tessier of his title role after rehearsal last weekend. “He wears his heart on his sleeve, but he goes too far down that rabbit hole and it gets him into a lot of trouble.”

Trouble indeed. After falling madly in love with Charlotte (mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal), the eldest of nine children who takes care of her younger siblings, including Sophie (soprano Lara Secord-Haid), after the death of their mother, Werther declares his love to the young girl. However, she is already betrothed to Albert (baritone Keith Phares), and despite falling head over heels for the young poet, chooses wifely duty over her own stirring heart.

The four-act opera that includes a searing aria, Werther’s Pourquoi me reveiller, ends with the poet taking his own life out of grief, in a harrowing climax certain to leave no eye dry.

The production, set in the 1930s, also features visually arresting sets and costumes on loan from Opera de Montreal and lighting by Bill Williams.

The Edmonton-born Tessier last appeared on the MO stage as Tonio during its 2012 production of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment; he also performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra during last month’s presentation of Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

“Werther feels things so intensely, whether it’s joy and pleasure in beauty and nature or his intense love and despair later on,” says the show’s stage director Ann Hodges, who also worked with Tessier during the 2012 production. “The first thing that always knocks my socks off with John is his voice. It’s a stunning, clear, bright and yet full tenor sound, and just gets better and better.

“Then you have that boyish quality about him that is so charming. And now, in this role, I’m seeing his ability to access this fierce, dark emotional place that is super-exciting to watch.”

The production marks Tessier’s role debut (in fact, all principal artists will be performing their first Werther); maestro Tyrone Paterson, who will be leading the WSO throughout the nearly three-hour evening, and Hodges are also on their own maiden voyages helming the less-familiar opera.

“I think we have a lovely cast for this show. They’re all beautiful singers, and it’s exciting to see a company working on what is essentially a new piece,” MO’s general director and CEO Larry Desrochers says over the phone.

“I also think that John has the most beautiful sensibility to play this character. You’re going to believe he’s this person who’s overly in love with the world.”

Equally at home performing opera, oratorio and concert recitals worldwide, as well as recording for such labels as Naxos, Telarc, BIS, Challenge Records and Dorian, the Juno Award-winning artist, regarded as one of Canada’s top tenors, stumbled into a professional singing career. After his parents placed him in a children’s choir at age eight, he discovered he loved the warm camaraderie of choral singing, spending every summer at choral camp in Camrose, Alta., playing saxophone in his school band, whistling tunes — another love — and participating in sports.

While studying music at the University of Alberta, Tessier, who was dating a young woman from the University of Colorado, sat in on one of her coaching sessions when her instructor unexpectedly asked him to sing.

He quickly discovered his own gloriously lyrical voice and moved to Colorado, devouring his opera studies and furthering his training each summer at the Banff Centre, where he began working with fabled Canadian vocal coach, Winnipeg-born Mary Morrison.

He’s been married for 21 years to London, Ont.-born soprano/pianist Sherry Steele, who performed in the Broadway production of Riverdance: The Show for more than a year. They met while Tessier was completing his master’s degree at the University of Western Ontario; the couple returned together to Alberta several years ago to raise their four children, now aged six to 15.

Tessier’s life also came full circle in another way. He serves as head of the voice and opera department at his alma mater, the University of Alberta, where he mentors the next generation of singers, working side by side with Leonard Ratzlaff, the Swalwell, Alta.-born, Winnipeg-raised voice professor who first urged him to sing. After living the nomadic life of an opera star, away from home up to 10 months of the year, Tessier now balances his international singing and coaching engagements with spending quality time with his wife, growing family, and his parents, who still reside in Edmonton.

Through the course of his rising career, the golden-haired singer with the kilowatt smile has performed with a galaxy of stars, including such luminaries as Plácido Domingo, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Bobby McFerrin, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Bernard Laba. However, he remains resolutely down-to-earth about the fleeting fancies of fame.

“When you meet these people, you’re totally in awe of them. But in general, they’re like any other opera singer — they’re just very, very good,” he says.

“It’s always been inspirational for me, but I also think that many people I’ve worked with are just as good. They have just had a different path.

“Singing is a very powerful thing and being able to sing itself, especially this more operatic singing, is a tremendous feeling,” Tessier says.

“I used to sing in a church choir in Toronto. One of the men there had a very beautiful voice and we were chatting one day. He said to me, ‘Nothing beats beautiful singing.’

“And that really stuck with me, and is what I try to pass on to my own students. Beautiful and expressive singing is what I’ve always aspired to.”

holly.harris@shaw.ca