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Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer (Concert Performance): James Hancock (Holländer), Gweneth-Ann Jeffers (Senta), Karl Huml (Daland), Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (Erik), Anne-Marie Owens (Mary) and Richard Roberts (Steuermann), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Lionel Friend (conductor). Barbican Hall, London 27.11.2008 (JPr)


I know a little bit about planning to put on performances of operas or symphonies. Some  ideas  come to fruition and some wishful-thinking has often needed to be abandoned before I have committed the organisation I was involved with. So there were mixed emotions in welcoming London Lyric Opera’s mission-statement ‘to fill a niche in the UK opera scene by producing high quality concerts with the best available singers and musicians’ without resorting to reduced orchestrations and always aiming ‘for the highest possible musical standards’. 

My mixed reaction was because I have some idea about how much it all costs. The money necessary can come in from a mix of four possible ways; ticket sales, corporate or private sponsorship or from a single individual who risks everything. For fledgling organisations to get sufficient corporate money however,  the company has to see a return on their outlay and if success is not achieved quickly enough they are unlikely to hang around for long. Enough willing private contributors can sometimes be found to empty their pockets over and over again but the sums found from such sources are often not huge. Tickets sales alone are never likely to cover costs if ambitions run high and so it often comes down to a single ambitious – or fool-hardy – person, their friends and family who pay the bill.

The Barbican, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Chorus are certainly not cheap to hire and the brunt of raising the money for this fell on the broad shoulders of Australian-born James Hancock who was a tenor when last I heard him but has now re-launched himself in the interim as a baritone. He is the inspiration behind London Lyric Opera and was totally involved apparently in the planning of the concert so the trouble-shooting that that entails could not have been easy for him when he was also  preparing the role of the Holländer in which he had cast himself. LLO’s principal conductor is Lionel Friend, an excellent choice; a former assistant to Sir Reginald Goodall,  he is one of the UK’s foremost Wagnerians with an extensive international career but with too few opportunities in his own country.

We were promised the opera uncut and performed in the original keys played by an orchestra of 78 as Wagner originally intended. The performance was probably based on the autograph score of 1841, which is held in the national archive at the Richard Wagner foundation in Bayreuth. The opera originally had just one act with three scenes and was set on the coast of Scotland but it had undergone many changes by the time it was first performed: these changes included dividing the opera into three acts, moving the setting to Norway and changing the names Donald and George to Daland and Erik. Senta’s ballad was also transposed from A minor into G minor, which called for a change in instrumentation. Going back to the composer’s first ideas only went so far however in that Gweneth-Ann Jeffers sang the A minor version of her ballad but the opera was unforgivably split into separate acts, something that is  the exception now rather than the norm.

When the RPO is used for these sorts of one-off evenings, casts are  lucky to  get more than one rehearsal on the day but I understand there was a full run-through of this performance a few days earlier. Undoubtedly everyone involved remained unfamiliar with the music and their concentration seemed very much on getting through it together,  and as faultlessly as possible,  without worry about any great interpretative insights. Despite Lionel Friend’s best intentions, the overture careered on,  coming over a bit too hard-driven and loud, which set the tone for much of the performance with the accompaniment at its best in the characters’ more reflective moments in Act II. The Philharmonia Chorus were on great form and the 100 voices were well deployed; the sailors' choruses were particularly rumbustious and their off-stage amplified ghostly counterparts were suitably eerie. Their chorus master for the evening was LLO’s assistant conductor Madeleine Lovell.

James Hancock dedicated his performance to his late father and may have been unduly affected by this together with the trials and tribulations of his close involvements with LLO,  but even in good health (he was suffering from a respiratory infection) the Dutchman is unlikely to be a role for him. It was to his credit that he got through the evening and his final moments in Act III as he reveals his true self to Senta were his best.

What was very good however was that the principals sang without scores but they all needed a little direction to unify their individual ideas about characterisation. Best of all were Gweneth-Ann Jeffers’s first Senta who portrayed someone dominated by her father and wishing to escape her humdrum existence in any way possible. She was perfectly paired with Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts’s shaven-headed  and bear-like Erik who appeared almost driven insane by his despair for Senta. Their voices were well matched; hers secure, ardent and visionary and his very intense, with echoes of his fine Grimes, though I would have liked a voice with a freer top to it.

Anne-Marie Owens brought great experience to Mary though Richard Roberts’s Steuermann was overacted and sung rather self-consciously. Karl Huml from the Vienna Volksoper sang Daland: his was a rather youthful take on his role as Senta’s father and his bass has an Italianate quality to it that I found quite interesting ending up wishing he had swopped roles with Hancock as I am sure he has the notes for the Dutchman.

At the end of the evening the financial loss I am reliably informed was very significant. What’s the alternative?  Well,  you can aim lower and may be call in favours or seek freebies. London Lyric Opera with their extravagant send-off at the Barbican and a follow-up Fidelio (conducted by Madeleine Lovell) in February at the Cadogan Hall have great plans so  I for one want them to survive until at least later this year (and then afterwards hopefully for much longer) as they promise a chance to hear again a sadly neglected work, Weber’s Der Freischütz once more under Lionel Friend.

Anyone wanting more details about corporate sponsorship opportunities or about becoming a Friend of LLO please email lara@londonlyricopera.com or for other information see their website :  www.londonlyricopera.com.

Jim Pritchard


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