This 1984 live English
National Opera Gloriana is the
first complete recording of the opera
on DVD and could well be its earliest
fully recorded performance. The first
complete audio recording was made in
1992 by the Chorus and Orchestra of
the Welsh National Opera/Charles Mackerras
(Decca 4762593), while the first DVD
to be released in 2006 was of Phyllida
Lloyd's film adaptation of the 1999
Opera North revival conducted by Paul
Daniel (Opus Arte OA 0955D). The latter
controversially cuts about one third
of the opera and fuses performance and
documentary. I refer you to my review
for the details (see review).
Here from Arthaus we
have the opera, the whole opera and
nothing but the opera. Not just sitting
you in the front stalls, however, as
this DVD started life as a production
for Channel 4 UK television directed
by Derek Bailey. So there's a fair mix
of long shots taking in the stage set
and court scene, the public spectacle,
and close-ups, showing you the private
emotions. Which is sensible because
that's what the opera is about, the
conflict between the public persona
of Elizabeth I as ruler and her private
infatuation with the Earl of Essex.
For me the greatest
strength of this performance is a then
37 year old Mark Elder's magnificent
realisation of the orchestration. It
has more edge than either Daniel or
Mackerras. Elder's slightly pacier approach
is a contributory factor. His overall
timing before curtain calls is 143:39
against Mackerras 148:13. I'll give
just three examples of Elder's skill.
Those trumpet fanfares in the first
scene are both resplendent and gaudy,
prepared and spontaneous. They're also
heard first and last in the distance.
This gives perspective to the procession,
difficult to achieve on a stage where
width is generally more noticeable than
depth. But they also give perspective,
as the opera does, to a reign: the Queen's
progress is to come and depart.
In scene 2, when the
Queen sings of being wedded to the realm,
the horns and contrabassoon backcloth
symbolize what a weary burden this is
at the same time as her heroic song
of duty. Later, when Essex enters (tr.
7 27:08 in continuous timing) Elder
creates a Puccinian frisson of tremolando
strings which should be matched by the
ardour of Essex's 'Queen of my life'
(27:35) but isn't quite. The recorded
sound, only in stereo, has excellent
clarity if the somewhat fluorescent
brightness of early digital recording.
The camera can be an
unforgiving eye. Little errors of detail
you might miss just watching a stage
performance can irritate on DVD replay.
In the first scene the stage direction
- on page 17 of the vocal score - is
that Essex is wounded because he turns
at the sound of the Queen's trumpeters.
Not here (tr. 3 8:17). He's just wounded
in the course of a fight in which Mountjoy,
or maybe Neil Howlett playing him, is
a more stylish fighter! Sarah Walker's
Queen is an aristocratic presence rather
wryly amused by this quarrel. In it
Mountjoy sings 'I flaunted nothing, you intruded' (tr. 3 11:10) but this
stage production has him getting his
page to bind the Queen's favour on his
arm having already acknowledged Essex.
I prefer Phyllida Lloyd's production
which has Essex lurking in the shadows,
then coming out to address Mountjoy.
After their reconciliation the Queen
signals them to rise (tr. 6, 15:22)
which they do, before she sings 'Rise'
(15:25).
The second scene finds
the Queen addressing her political adviser
Cecil as 'my pygmy elf' (tr. 7 21:50),
an authentic term but here rather kettle
calling the pot black as they're both
about the same height. Essex later refers
to Cecil as 'the hunchback fox' (tr.
21 65:59), yet he appears to have no
deformity here. Only in Act 2 does he
take to sporting a stick! Again Phyllida
Lloyd's production is more fastidious
in such details. A key moment in the
present one's second scene finds the
Queen showing Cecil 'this ring' (tr.
7 22:09), signifying the realm to which
she is wedded, only Sarah Walker doesn't
really make a point of showing it at
all.
Now comes the intimate
audience with Essex and his two lute-songs.
Anthony Rolfe Johnson sings with directness,
clarity, brightness and lightness of
tone with well rounded, graceful melismata
in the second song 'Happy were he'.
There's a trivial mistake: he sings
'In contemplation ending all his days'
(tr. 10 31:44) rather than 'spending'.
I only mention it because this is the
opera's best known song. As for the
contemplative Queen, we see her careworn
and serene by turns. Elizabeth and Essex's
first duet (tr. 11 34:40) seems a kind
of decorous musing in which neither
barely looks at the other. What stays
in the memory is the steely resolution
of Walker's final soliloquy statement,
'I live and reign a virgin, will die in honour' (tr. 13 39:23) to the splendour
and burden of that orchestral brass
again, especially the trombones, before
movingly sinking to her knees in prayer.
Time to consider some
crucial points of comparison. Is Sarah
Walker's portrayal of the Queen as fine
as Josephine Barstow's in the other
recordings? Not quite. She gives an
accomplished performance but Barstow
stands apart more from the court and
seems totally identified with the role.
Being a soprano, for which voice Britten
wrote it, helps. Her upper register
has more density and, where appropriate,
lightness and there's more evenness
across her range than Walker's mezzo's
inevitably more regal lower register.
Tom Randle is a more vibrant and sympathetic
Essex than Rolfe Johnson. He has more
ardour, energy and in the lute-songs
subtlety and variation of delivery.
There's also an evident chemistry between
him and Barstow in the duet. On the
other hand Daniel's orchestral backcloth
seems in comparison more atmospheric
than the third figure in the drama that
Elder makes it.
In my earlier review
I referred to ages of the cast in relation
to those of the historical characters
so it's pertinent to do the same here.
Elizabeth was actually 66, twice Essex's
age, when she sent him to Ireland. This
puts a different perspective on their
relationship, from both sides. With
Barstow 59 and Randle 41 the age difference
is more appropriate than Walker at 39
and Rolfe Johnson 44. To put it crudely,
she's too young and he's too old. On
the other hand, Van Allan at 49 is an
excellent match for a Raleigh of 47,
better than Bayley's 39.
Act 2 Scene 1, the
Queen's visit to Norwich, is her happiest
time in the opera. All finery and floral
decoration. Mutual affection of Queen
and subjects and those six choral dances,
brilliantly written in an updated madrigal
style for semi-chorus. The fast peal
of the first, 'Yes, he is Time' (tr.
15 47:42) is formidably realized here.
The third, 'From springs of bounty'
(tr. 17 51:53) is also very quickly
despatched given the marking 'Gracefully swaying' but its continual echoes between
female and male voices are refreshingly
revealed. The proceedings are directed
by a fresh-voiced Adrian Martin as Spirit
of the Masque, albeit he doesn't have
the poise and grace of John Mark Ainsley
in the Mackerras audio recording.
In this DVD both the
spectacle and symbolism of the dance
strike home. Time as a dancer holds
centre stage, then Concord, his loving
wife. They join in an idyllic interlude
of stillness, 'each needeth each' (tr.
16 50:50). The inference being Elizabeth
isn't complete without Essex and vice
versa. In giving thanks Sarah Walker
comfortably rises to her highest note
in the opera, B flat (tr. 19 58:23)
before the opera's mantra, 'O crowned
rose', appears in its most ecstatic,
dazzling version (59:18).
Act 2 Scene 2 finds
the all purpose set cleverly draped
to become the garden of Essex's house.
Mountjoy and Lady Rich have an adulterous
love duet, one step beyond that of Elizabeth
and Essex. Joined by Essex and Lady
Essex a plot begins to unfold in ensemble.
Seeing this is more sinister than just
hearing it. And you feel sympathy for
Lady Essex who's all the time in a minority
of one in urging caution.
And it's she who's
the victim in Act 2 Scene 3, the Whitehall
ball. Essex decks her out in an outstanding
gown. A step too far for Elizabeth,
who steals it and puts it on to deride
it and Lady Essex. But the gown in question
isn't the dazzling vermilion of Phyllida
Lloyd's production but only the pinkish
hue of Colin Graham's. Lady Essex's
plain dress isn't markedly different.
And on the Queen the gaudy one doesn't
noticeably appear, as she sings 'too short' (tr. 30 79:11). Nor are the general
pauses in the score at 80:37, 42, 50
and 54 sufficiently marked to clarify
what's intended to be the Queen's grotesque,
halting exit, though the heavy brass
venom is notable.
The dances themselves
are very naturally played. The dancers
fill the stage munificently. Essex,
Mountjoy and their ladies lead the galliard,
Elizabeth the lavolta. The morris dancer
(tr. 28 77:10) doesn't have 'his face blackened' (vocal score, p. 133) but
whitened. I suppose more PC, even in
1984. Lively goosing, as well as some
silky movement, in this from Robert
Huguenin whom Britten buffs will recall
as the original Tadzio in Death in
Venice.
As in the first scene
of Act 2, that of Act 3 has an echo
chorus but this time it's a fractious
crack of dawn rumour exchanged between
sopranos and contraltos as the Maids
of Honour debate 'What news from Ireland?'.
Even with a combination of wide stage-shot
and close-ups it's pretty static here
and Phyllida Lloyd was right to have
swift panning and a claustrophobic dim
lit environment. Essex is most distraught
in Rolfe Johnson's movingly emotive
'forgive me' (tr. 36 95:27). Walker's
Elizabeth caught nearly half dressed
actually looks not weaker but harder
and more resolute, so their second duet
is bitter, the recall of their first
with 'Happy were we' (tr. 36 100: 39)
frozen in sorrow. Barstow and Randle
make this a more beauteous, reflective
elegy. Phyllida Lloyd makes better use
than Colin Graham of the dressing-table
song to adorn and prettify a Queen barely
out of bed. What's more striking in
the present DVD is the energy of the
orchestral accompaniment to Cecil's
report and the vehemence with which
it backs the Queen's decision to place
Essex under guard.
It's interesting to
compare Act 3 Scene 2 in this DVD and
the Mackerras CD. This scene relates
the news of Essex's escape and failed
attempt at rebellion through the perspective
of a group of old men outside a tavern
in the City and a Blind Ballad Singer
with gittern player who gets most of
his news from a boy runner. On the CD
Willard White as the Beggar has a richer,
more velvety voice and more smilingly
philosophical objectivity which extends
to the roundedness of the response of
the men's chorus, but the rabble Essex
boys are rather polite. Mackerras's
orchestra is lively but not as graphically
so as Elder's, whose timing for this
scene is 9:35 against Mackerras 10:35.
For Elder, Norman Bailey's Beggar has
more character with a somewhat more
gnarled voice. The fellow feeling with
the men's chorus is less clear as they're
rather posh in attire but there is one
telling visual image: the march past
of the Essex boys, an army without arms
and almost without clothing let alone
armour, no threat to anyone.
In the final scene
starkness is all. Everyone largely in
black as if already in mourning for
the condemned Essex. The tension boils
over with the councillors in great alarm
when Cecil suggests the Queen might
pardon Essex. The Queen's dilemma, 'I
love and yet am forced to seem to hate',
is movingly presented in soliloquy with
unpitying directness by a pallid Sarah
Walker (tr. 43 126:36). The trio of
pleading Mountjoy, Lady Essex and Lady
Rich (tr. 44 128:05), musically very
severe because of the rich tone of the
mezzo Lady Essex, is vividly gaunt when
all kneel before the anguished Queen
in view, singing what we know from her
soliloquy are her thoughts as well as
theirs. It's Lady Rich who has the top
C 'Ah' (tr. 45 134:28) when Elizabeth
has signed the death warrant, but the
Queen appears simultaneously to be letting
out a silent heart-wrenching sigh.
Time to sum up and
it's difficult. If you're looking to
make a first purchase of Gloriana
this should be your choice as it's the
closest recorded representation of the
full operatic experience. But there
are times, as I've indicated, when the
other recordings offer a finer interpretation.
Michael Greenhalgh
Chorus and Orchestra of the English National
Opera/Mark Elder
ARTHAUS
102 097 [146:51] 
