PROM 2   ‘Mozart the Dramatist’ : Soloists, BBC Singers (men’s voices); Scottish Chamber Orchestra cond, Sir Roger Norrington. Royal Albert Hall, 15.07.2006.   (ME)

 

 

‘X RATED PROM! Leave now if you feel you should’ cajoled the conductor in his most audience-friendly tones, but he was just introducing some of Mozart’s most well known music, from Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. It’s easy to scoff at this sort of thing, and of course most of us do, but this was actually a very enjoyable concert based around a concept which appears so simple that one wonders why it isn’t done more often – that of providing excerpts from the operas in roughly chronological order, presumably to provide an introduction to the master’s works for those who have only just about heard of him, but along the way providing much pleasure for those of us already intimate with this music.

 

After a rather muted performance of the ballet music from Idomeneo, the wonderful duet from Mitridate ‘Se viver non degg’io’ was given by Rebecca Nash and Ailish Tynan: anyone who heard Sally Matthews and Aleksandra Kurzak fiendishly outdoing each other in flamboyant display in the recent ROH production of this opera, would be, to put it mildly, disappointed by the singing on this occasion, with neither soprano having the vocal goods for their roles. Indeed, I found it surprising that either singer should be onstage with the likes of Simon Keenlyside and Ian Bostridge, and even the very young Anna Leese (a Proms debut artist) knocked spots off them. Nash was underpowered as both Constanze and Anna, later in the evening, although she did manage some creamy tone during ‘Al desio di chi t’adora,’ and Tynan’s pert little soubrette soprano really cannot come up to the demands of ‘Ach, Ich fühl’s’ – Pamina is a role often sung by Sieglindes, and it needs a bit more heft in the tone than can be provided by a voice more suited to, say, Barbarina.

 

The ensembles were the most successful part of the evening, with Keenlyside’s ‘Nur mutig, mein Herze’ having been rather indifferently done, with the score, and Bostridge’s ‘Dalla sua Pace’ lacking the sense of the requisite true lyrical tenor. It was rather funny to behold Belmonte and Constanze, in the persons of Bostridge and Nash, behaving as if they had never been introduced: at least Tynan and Benjamin Hulett (a very promising light tenor voice) appeared to have met before. The scenes from ‘Figaro’ and Don Giovanni were a delight: Mozart is said to have regarded Scene 5 of the third act of ‘Figaro’ as the best of all his ensembles, and this warmly loving performance showed why: Keenlyside was at his finest as the arrogant, duplicitous Count, Kyle Ketelsen once again showed his great promise as Figaro, Mikhail Petrenko stood in for Brindley Sherratt with some distinction, and Ailish Tynan was a feisty Susanna.

 

The Act 2 Finale from Don Giovanni showed us, as Norrington said, Mozart ‘at his greatest,’ and it was certainly the highlight of the evening. Keenlyside was the ultimate showman as the Don, insouciantly throwing food into his mouth in mid-aria as well as throwing it to the audience – and how they lapped it up – and he also sang quite beautifully. Ketelsen was a suitably terrified Leporello, Petrenko sang the Commendatore as though it had been written for him, and Anna Leese displayed her bright, secure tone as Elvira. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra recovered from its sluggish start to give lively and characterful accounts of the pieces, nowhere more so than in the ‘Supper’ scene. An excellent programme despite the uneven quality of the soloists, and just the kind of thing designed to encourage those listeners who are as yet tentative about classical music, to go out and experience some of its greatest works for themselves.

 

Melanie Eskenazi