FROM AROUND THE WORLD: TORONTO.(Canadian opera productions, Iron Road, Billy Budd, Idomeneo)(Brief Article)(Review)

Chan Ka Nin's Iron Road, produced by Tapestry New Opera Works (world premiere, Elgin Theatre, April 20), is an epic work that casts its action against a large historical backdrop. Within this turbulent saga of the building of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railroad during the nineteenth century, there exists a much darker tale: the treatment of Chinese immigrants (as many as 17,000 men) who came to this country to build the railroad, often under brutally exploitative conditions.

The libretto, by Mark Brownell (with additional lyrics and translations into Chinese by George K. Wong), throws its full compassion toward the laborers, though it unnecessarily skews its sympathies by turning the government and political figures into facile caricatures. Within the large-scale historical context, the opera also offers a drama of personal conflicts that Verdi would immediately recognize: a heroine, Lai Gwan, who enters a dangerous world disguised as a man; her forbidden love for a man who is both outside her race and outside her social status; her reconciliation with an estranged father; even a death in an airless underground vault.

The scenario also includes the parallel world of Chinese spirits, who are represented both physically by dancers and musically by a haunting mixture of Asian and Western musical instruments and an unusual fusion of tones and timbres. The large musical ensembles, mostly choral, are Iron Road at its most expressive. By contrast, the more intimate scenes seemed naive, lethargic and indistinct; despite rudimentary conflicts, the music in these scenes lacked drama.

Tapestry artistic director Wayne Strongman prepared and conducted his forces -- more than forty performers onstage, three quarters of whom were of Asian heritage, and thirty in the pit -- with precision and clarity. Soprano Zhu Ge Zeng was valiant and tireless in the role of Lai Gwan, though her voice was rather small for the auditorium and its timbre less than lustrous. Tenor Stuart Howe created a sympathetic figure in the ill-defined role of Lai Gwan's lover, Nichol, the foreman. Baritone Zheng Zhou and mezzo-soprano Grace Chan brought fuller voices and presences to the roles of Lai Gwan's father (whose identity is revealed only at the end of Act I) and mother (who appears mainly as a spirit, sometimes flying).

Tom Diamond's production laid out Iron Road's narrative simply, with some particularly beautiful effects in the scenes in which the weary, forlorn workers are visited by spirits dressed in brilliant crimson. His most valuable collaborators, Dany Lyne (set design) and Bonnie Beecher (lighting design), heightened the work's theatrical impact. Lyne's spectacular design for the work-camp in the mountains made most visions of La Fanciulla del West look like an anthill; Beecher's lighting was varied and evocative.

Canadian Opera Company's production of Britten's Billy Budd (April 6, Hummingbird Centre) was a triumph of musical and dramatic commitment. Richard Bradshaw conducted a performance of sweep and tension, executed with vivid orchestral playing, superlative singing from the male chorus and acutely detailed performances from the large cast.

The production, jointly owned ...