If you can imagine a musical in which Oliver Twist was castrated as a child, you'll have the gist of Stiletto. Set in 18th Century Venice with a bisexual castrato, Marco, as the main character, this new musical with its Dickensian plot and quirky characters unfortunately founders. The story opens when the protagonist is accosted by the best dressed beggar we have ever seen. (And indeed, the costumes of Anna Kelsey are quite wonderful.) Marco, who is ambitious to become an opera star, is then fortunate enough to catch the eye of a potential patron, Azurra D'Orozco. He later goes on to be seduced by Azurra, as he abandons his male lover and teacher, Faustino, and falls in love with a poor, black female singer, Gioia, for whom he is prepared to sacrifice his operatic ambitions. Meanwhile, Azurra's husband, whose accountant is his male lover, is involved in a fraudulent scheme to build a hospital and he fears that Gioia has overheard his plotting and will expose him. Add to this a few more characters and subplots, and it becomes a lot to take in! But there are more issues here than an over-wrought plot. The not-very-clever lyrics and dialogue are littered with modern idioms and phrases which are quite distracting if this work is to be taken seriously as a period piece. In fact, that is the major failing of Stiletto. As an opera buffa bagatelle it might work, but both the music and the direction lack the lightness and buoyancy of that genre. Ultimately, this is a musical that is taking itself far too seriously, invoking Les Misérables, rather than The Marriage of Figaro. It is also disappointing that, when the central character, the castrato Marco, sings his operatic pieces, he is played by the female mezzo soprano, Jennie Jacobs. Although Jacobs puts in a lovely and thoroughly professional performance, it would have been so much more effective if Marco had been played by a countertenor, and if his other songs had also been written in that range. We immediately thought of Anthony Roth Costanzo, and his extraordinary performance in Philip Glass' Akhnaten at the ENO and wondered what he might have done with this role. While the musical Stiletto seems like an interesting idea, overall, it lacks much point.
Rated: ★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Johan Persson
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