Opera director's debut sets stage for his vision

Photo by Christopher Blank/Special to The Commercial Appeal

Opera Memphis' production of Johann Strauss Jr.'s comic operetta "Die Fledermaus" opens Saturday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

When Ned Canty steps onto the set of Johann Strauss Jr.'s comic operetta "Die Fledermaus," he looks disproportionately small and way overdressed. Four Romantic-era paintings of buxom nude women -- each about 15 feet tall -- tower over him like giants from a B-movie.

The general director of Opera Memphis laughs when asked if this is his strategy for broadening the company's subscriber base.

"No! I chose this set because this is a very bawdy comedy," Canty says. "We like to think that ribald comedy is a modern invention, but it's not. There's a long history of decadence in opera, and we were going for that look and feel."

This isn't to say that Canty doesn't subconsciously know what the human mind craves. His parents were both psychologists. And in his directorial debut at Opera Memphis, he says he brings an audience-centered sensibility to opera staging.

Photo by Christopher Blank/Special to The Commercial Appeal

Caroline Worra (as Rosalinda) and Ryan MacPherson (as Alfred) rehearse a comic bit from Opera Memphis' "Die Fledermaus," opening Saturday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

"I have this obsession for telling stories very clearly and crisply," he says. "I'm very proud of the fact that people come up to me and say they've understood an opera for the first time after seeing something I've directed."

"Die Fledermaus," which premiered in 1874, opens Saturday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre and repeats on Tuesday night. Sung in English, it's the most popular operetta written by the "Waltz King," whose other works include "Blue Danube" and "Tales from the Vienna Woods."

Though this season was planned before Canty took over the company from former artistic director Michael Ching, he chose to direct "Die Fledermaus" partly because it was the second opera he ever worked on. In 1996, he assistant directed a production under the comic actor Charles Nelson Reilly.

"He taught me so much about doing comedy in opera," Canty said. "There are some very simple rules that need to be followed. If you love Danny Kaye or the Marx Brothers, then you'll see what we're going for here."

While Ching was a musician and a composer, Canty's background in acting and staging brings new priorities to the opera's leadership. The differences in their perspectives are apparent in the informational CDs that are mailed out to donors. Ching would focus on the score or the vocal needs; Canty likes to talk about the history and the plot.

"I tend to direct an opera the same way that I'd direct a play by Shakespeare," he said. "There are a set of rules, a set of clues baked into it. Then the conductor and I work together on the interpretation."

Canty also expects to do more outreach in the future. At "Tosca" in the fall, he was inspired by a group of students from the Stax Music Academy who stood in the audience at intermission and sang an a cappella song. He invited the students to make a cameo in the second act of "Die Fledermaus."

"Our biggest strength as an opera company is that we are in a city full of artistically curious people," Canty said. "People jump between art forms, from dance to theater to opera. Running an opera company should be a little like running a modern museum. There is that wing where you have the Old Masters, and there should be a wing for the new artists. In the future, we plan to have a better mix of both."

While the current set of "Die Fledermaus" appears to be hung with Old Masters, at Saturday's performance a new artist gets to put on his first exhibition in Memphis.

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'Die Fledermaus'

7:30 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, 1801 Exeter. Tickets: $45-$60. Call (901) 257-3100.

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