Although originally conceived as an oratorio, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah (1846) has in recent years been staged, on occasion at any rate, as an opera. Last night’s semi-staged performance by The Bel Canto Singers showed why: whatever the libretto may lack in theatricality is made up for by the drama in the music, sung by operatically-sized cast of a dozen named characters and a large chorus.
Reflecting, perhaps, the work’s origins, staging was limited to players (and dancers), costumed in modern-derived, if not exactly modern, dress, and a small number of props: some lights, a wheelchair for the ill boy. Only Elijah, bedecked in silver chains and what might have been black leather, looking as if he might have arrived on a motorbike and channeling a rock star, evinced any evident directorial comment.
The large cast features singers well-known to Hong Kong audiences: Albert Lim as the titular prophet, Carol Lin as the Angel, Ashley Chui as Tirzah, Jasmine Law as Hamatal, Fifi Lee as Rizpah, Kenix Tsang as the widow, Matthew Keung as Obadiah, among others. The Pro-Musica Society supplied the chorus, as much as a character in the work as Elijah himself. Vivian Ip conducted.