Opera North On Tour: The Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays, UK. 07- 11.11. 2006 (RJF)

 

Verdi: Rigoletto
Britten: Peter Grimes
Poulenc: La voix humaine

 

I suppose that Opera North took leave of the superb new rehearsal facilities in the refurbished Leeds Grand Theatre somewhat reluctantly, to go on tour with all three of the new productions premiered there since October 7^th.  I saw Rigoletto on that opening night at Leeds (see review) and found the updated costumes and production rather missing the drama that is within Verdi’s great masterpiece. In particular I worried that the chorus, of which more anon, seemed at a bit of a loss as the Dukes acolytes. They are his courtiers in Piave’s original libretto, and their response to a jester’s jibes in a medieval court, like the jester to the curse, need to be vividly painted. As I pointed out in my review of that first night, having the jester portrayed as the janitor of the boss's (Duke’s) office rather took the wind out of the drama.

But what Verdi’s Rigoletto does have is some of the greatest tunes in all opera from the most popular tenor aria of all time, La donna e mobile, through Gilda’s Caro nome via Rigoletto’s Cortigiani, vi razza dannata to the great quartet of act three. Put that luxury meal in front of an audience and they go away humming and happy and that is certainly what happened to the well-attended audience at the two performances at The Lowry. Jonathan Summers had taken over from Alan Opie in the name part and sang strongly with good feel for a Verdian phrase and line.

 

The second offering of the touring season is Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Peter Grimes. It is a bleak story of the small mindedness of parochial villagers and their treatment of an over authoritarian fisherman who has the misfortune to have two of his apprentices die in accidents in a high-risk job. If the story is bleak, Anthony Ward’s sets in this production are even more so; they provide the backdrop of the story in the starkest and most dramatic terms.

 

There is neither pub nor Grimes’ hut in this production and only a large cross represents the church. A larger suspended fishing net serves as the focus of the occupational activities of the village in two scenes and  with the exception of the construction of a platform to represent the hut, all  the other props are simple black painted palettes carried on and off by the singers and chorus and used to represent structures. Such sparseness puts pressure on the producer, soloists and chorus to fill out the story in a meaningful manner but in  fifty years of opera going I have rarely seen this achieved so successfully with so little stage furniture.

The new rehearsal space at Leeds has clearly been very well used indeed to give such meaningful coherence to this brutal story and I need hardly say that the objective is not achieved by production and set alone. The choral work in Grimes is among the most difficult in opera and one of  Opera North's greatest strengths  has been the long-standing  professional commitment of its chorus,which with the benefit of good direction consistently gives its all. This is what they do here as the villagers; they all have a precise and  full grasp of their roles,  particularly  their collectives relationships towards Grimes.

 

The orchestral playing under opera North’s Music Director, Richard Farnes, and the solo performances  are a perfect complement to the production, sets and choral singing. Britten’s evocative orchestral interludes are played with appropriate drama and emotional feeling. During the  interludes,  Phyllida Lloyd’s visual imaging is foolproof, none more so than when Grimes lifts the latest of his dead apprentices, carries him to the footlights and then lifts him above his head in mental agony in the Moonlight interlude. For this to be realistic the tenor singing Grimes has to have physical as well as vocal strength.

 

 

Although Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts is a big man physically his tenor voice is relatively small and tightly focussed. None the less he can and does sing with great variety of expression, colour and variation of dynamic. With shaven head and fishing waders this Grimes looks a bit thuggish and makes one wonder what Ellen sees in him, especially as he becomes more psychologically disturbed, a state of emotional deterioration that Lloyd-Roberts portrays to perfection. Giselle Allen sings strongly as Ellen but with too little clarity of diction, which is a particular strength of the strong singing and sympathetic portrayal of Balstrode by Christopher Purves. Yvonne Howard (Auntie) sings with clarity and strength although what she was supposed to be doing as the villagers partied I had better not inquire too much about. This scene was really the only representation that Britten might not have recognised from his Suffolk of fifty odd years ago, although the Ned Keene as the smarmy drug pusher always looking to buy and sell people pills or coke might have been a shock as would the Mayor having a grope at a pelmet skirted niece. Roderick Williams’ portrayal of Keene was as to the manner born.

There were really no weaknesses in the singing cast all of who acted their parts to perfection with particularly notable cameos from Alan Oke as Tom Bowles and Ethna Robinson as a pill popping Mrs Sedley. If one did not leave the theatre humming tunes then that is the nature of Britten’s music and the harrowing story but as I left, emotionally drained, I wondered if Phyllida Lloyd could be persuaded to produce Rigoletto at some time and bring out the core of its human drama as she had done here. That would be another night to remember.

 

The third offering in this tour Poulenc’s monologue for solo singer La voix humaine. Premiered in 1959, it is in modernist compositional style with strident orchestral accompaniment to the fraught psychological state of The Woman. Psychological states seem to be the subtext of this Opera North season with Rigoletto rejected by his deformity, Grimes for his social non-conformity and The Woman by her man ; or was her neuroticism the cause or the effect? Deborah Warner’s production, interpreted by Joan Rodgers, leaves little doubt. Forty five minutes on the telephone to her man, without frequent cut-offs leaves her gagging into the bidet. Her more psychotic episodes are accentuated by lights flashing onto a ceiling screen to coordinate with the heavy orchestration at these points. Apart from the light bank, the set comprised The Woman’s bed, a washstand, WC and bath as well as the bidet; rather excessive to the needs! Joan Rodgers’ sung and acted performance of this rather shabby story is outstanding and deserved a far larger audience than it got.

In an introduction to the programme Richard Mantle, General Director of Opera North, seeks to justify putting a forty five minute work on as the evenings sole offering. He mentions the company’s Eight Little Greats of two years ago and defends the Poulenc monologue because of its inherent emotional punch. But how many will turn out, particularly on such a foul night as welcomed the punters to the Lowry? Not many. Perhaps better marketing with a combined ticket to Grimes or Rigoletto would have helped. Certainly Joan Rodgers in particular, as well as the production team orchestra and conductor deserved better numbers in the auditorium. Well worth seeing as long as the transport, rush hour and the weather are kinder elsewhere than around The Lowry. 

 

 

Robert J Farr

 

 

Opera North continue their tour of these three productions with visits to:

Nottingham. Theatre Royal from November 14^th to 19^th.

London. Sadlers Wells Theatre 21^st to 25^th November

Newcastle. Theatre Royal from 28^th November to December 2nd

 

Opera North return to The Lowry on February 21^st 2007 for their spring tour with revivals of Donizetti’s lyrical love story The Elixir of Love, Mozart’s ever popular Magic Flute and a new production of Claudio Monteverdi’s seminal Orfeo by the American Christopher Alden. The tour also takes in Nottingham and Newcastle.