Seen and Heard Opera
Review
Gioachino ROSSINI, La Cenerentola,
Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester,
March 9th 2005 (RJF)
Mark Bell (left) Don Magnifico,
Domenica Matthews, Angelina / Cenerentola,
Daniel Chadwick (second right) Dandini, Christopher Turner (right)
Don Ramiro.
It is some years since the RNCM presented a Rossini opera for
their spring season. I looked back at my notes of their 1984 Il
barbiere di Siviglia that featured Barry Banks as Almaviva.
I had been impressed by his Tamino in Die Zauberflöte
two years earlier in a production that also featured Jane Eaglen
as one of The Ladies, Joan Rodgers as Pamina and Linda Kitchen
as Papagena; a distinguished list of alumni who, like Banks, have
gone on to grace the boards of many of the world’s great
opera houses. Banks’ facility in the florid singing, and
high tessitura that is the hallmark of Rossini’s writing
for the tenor voice, provided him with a firm foundation for his
significant stage career and despite his small stature. Tenors
who can sing Rossini tend, with the odd notable North American
exception, to be at least slender. Christopher Turner, here singing
Don Ramiro, the prince seeking a bride, is over six feet in height
and well built. His is a true light lyric tenor voice with heft
and metal allied to flexibility. At age only 22 he has already
won two of the College’s major vocal competitions. His singing
was easy, fluent and assured. He is not yet the finished article
vocally or histrionically; his runs could have been sharper, whilst
his acting was a bit stiff. If he takes full advantage of the
vocal tuition for which the College is renowned, and resists the
stupid offers that are so frequently put in front of tenors, he
will become a welcome addition to singers of his register in this
repertoire and proceed to enjoy a considerable professional career.
Dominica Matthews sang the eponymous heroine. With significant,
appalling scheduling on the part of the College she had, together
with two other members of the cast, competed for the ‘Elisabeth
Harwood Award’ the evening before. Miss Matthews sang five
items in that competition including one of the most beautiful
and expressive ‘Mon Coeur s’ouvre a ta voix’
from Samson and Dalila that I have heard in the theatre,
in recital or on record, for a long time. Most importantly, her
diction matched her vocal skills. The prize of £5000 is
open to students at the end of their time at RNCM. Having concluded
her five items with an incisive ‘Parto, parto,’ from
Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Dominica Matthews
won the prize hands down for the quality of her singing and her
palpable communication with the audience. The maturity of her
singing, the wide range of her voice together with its even tonal
purity expressiveness and legato, overwhelmed me. However, knowing
Rossini’s Cenerentola, I did worry that the vocal
and emotional demands of the competition would impact on her performance
24 hours later. In fact her vocal command of the rondo finale
of the opera was as vocally secure as her more gentle musings
of ‘Una volta c’era un re’ at the start. The
opera is not merely about Cenerentola’s physical transformation
from kind-hearted scullery maid to regal woman. She also grows
for a naïve girl into a benevolent woman. Dominica Matthews
achieved both transformations via both her singing and acting.
Her voice, as I have indicated, has a wide range. It extends from
a contralto’s richness into high coloratura. Given that
range and vocal flexibility, I can think of several roles from
Rossini’s Naples operas that she could already sing with
distinction. Hers is one of the best well schooled operatic voices
to have emerged from the RNCM in recent years. Her performance
was a credit to herself and her teachers. I shall watch her career
with interest and hope it is not only pursued in her native Australia.
The School of Opera and Vocal Studies at the RNCM prepares students
in acting and movement as well as singing. All these skills were
well implemented by both the Clorinda of Gillian Ramm and Tisbe
of Susan Boyd. They both exhibited good comic gifts although this
did extend to rather more running and falling than we are used
to. Also excellently conveyed was the foppishly played Dandini
of Daniel Chadwick. His flexible well covered bass has sap in
it and he could develop into a significant buffo. His use of hands,
face and stance, allied to a comedians sense of timing, was best
seen as he revealed his true identity to Don Magnifico in the
duet ‘Un segreto d’importanza.’ Mark Bell was
less successful in his portrayal of Don Magnifico, the neglectful,
inebriate father of Cenerentola. His young well tuned, but lean,
bass was just that, too young. Despite his whiskers, he sang and
moved more like a 25 year old brother than a dissolute father.
Jonathan Pugsley, another who had competed the night before, sang
Alidoro. His voice is strong and resonant but with odd raw patches
in the tone. His portrayal of Romiro’s tutor was a little
stark, lacking the avuncular benevolent touch.
Apart from some over strident brass at the start of the overture,
Enrique Mazzola conducted with a sure feel for the idiom whilst
giving support to his young singers and keeping the story moving
along. The orchestral playing was very good indeed and if I commend
the wind section in particular there is no implied criticism of
standards elsewhere. The sets were realistic and evocative. Their
easy and smooth movement between scenes greatly helped the cohesion
and smooth flow of the whole work which I have seen lost elsewhere
in over elaboration. The photographs projected onto a false proscenium
during the overture were an effective introduction. I take it
they represented the childhood of Cenerentola and her sisters
and seemed to be late Victorian. If the costumes were more 1920s
with Clorinda and Tisbe as feathered flappers it was no great
discontinuity and suited the arrival of a period open topped car
to take Cenerentola to the ball. Stefan Janski’s production
was full of typical deft touches that helped the singers reinforce
their feel for what they were singing and expressing. More than
many producer directors he understands the needs of singers and
how and where they need to stand as soloists and in ensembles
and which were particularly well managed. I could have done without
the overdone business as Don Magnifico and his ‘sommeliers’
overdid the drinking; too much like a student romp and not enough
like Rossini whose music lives in vibrancy without such cavorting
and extraneous vocalism.
This production and performance provided an ideal showcase for
the singers and highly enjoyable entertainment for the audience,
who were justifiably enthusiastic. There are further performances
on March 13th. 16th, 19th and 22nd at 7.15pm. If you are within
travelling distance of Manchester I strongly recommend you book
soon.
Robert J Farr
Photo: Jon Super © RNCM 2005
