John Christie inaugurated the first Glyndebourne Opera Festival
seventy-five years ago, in May 1934. He owned a fine Tudor and
mock Jacobean pile in the lovely Sussex countryside. Something
of an opera aficionado, and not without a secure financial inheritance
to go with his opulent home, he courted and married Audrey Mildmay,
a beautiful Canadian soprano. They honeymooned in Salzburg and
Bayreuth. The idea of establishing an English Bayreuth grew in
his mind, and involved featuring his lovely young wife. Strangely,
given his liking for Bayreuth, the rise of Hitler, a regular visitor
at the Wagner shrine, and his anti-Semitic ideologies enabled
Christie to sign up three significant refugees from Germany. They
were to provide the creative backbone and expertise to bring his
dream to fruition. The three were the conductor, Fritz Busch,
the director, Carl Ebert and the impresario and administrator
Rudolf Bing. This trio combined to launch Christie’s dream with
an acclaimed production of Mozart’s Figaro on 26 May 1934
and featured Audrey Mildmay as Susanna.
John Christie’s
son, George, took over the running of the Festival in 1962
and as its popularity grew he was aware of the limitations
of size, about eight hundred and thirty seats being the maximum.
Early in 1991 he had decided on a rebuild and enlargement
using traditional materials to ensure the building fitted
in with the surroundings. On a similar basis wood was to be
used in the new auditorium for its acoustic properties. Given
that no new opera house had been built in England since the
original Glyndebourne in 1934 it was a formidable undertaking.
The fourth disc in this collection is a fifty-minute documentary
telling the interesting story of the realisation of the £34
million project. The new Opera House opened on budget on 26
May 1994, the sixtieth anniversary of the original opening.
As on that occasion the new house opened its doors to a performance
of Mozart’s Figaro. Bernard Haitink, the then musical
director of the Glyndebourne Festival, conducted it. Many
of the productions and casts from the Glyndebourne Festival
have made it onto recordings, both audio and video, and this
fine opening performance in the new house is the first of
the three Mozart operas featured in this Glyndebourne collection.
DVD 1
The Marriage of Figaro -
Opera buffa in Four Acts K492 (1786)
Figaro - Gerald Finley bass); Susana - Alison
Hagley (soprano). Count Almaviva - Andreas Schmidt (baritone).
Countess Almaviva - Renée Fleming (soprano). Cherubino - Marie-Ange
Todorovitch (mezzo); Marcellina - Wendy Hillhouse (soprano);
Don Basilo - Robert Tear (tenor); Don Bartolo - Manfred Rohrl
(bass); Barbarina – Susan Gritton (soprano)
The Glyndebourne Chorus; London Philharmonic
Orchestra/Bernard Haitink
Director: Stephen Medcalf; Designer: John
Gunter
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo / Dolby Digital
5.0 Surround B
Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Japanese
rec. May 1994. [188:00]
The performance
is ideal musically with Haitink having a seemingly innate
feel for Mozart’s rhythms and turn of phrase. The principals
are uniformly good with Gerald Finley’s lithe figured but
well covered and coloured vocal tone being particularly notable
in his arias whilst his acting is outstanding (CH.7). Andreas
Schmidt is a chubby-cheeked and appropriately humourless and
haughty Count (CH.43). Alison Hagley’s well portrayed and
pert Susanna is well up to the many acting demands with facial
surprises to match her vocal clarity; her Deh ieni, non
tardar is a delight (CH.64). As the Countess, Renée Fleming
of 1995 is not the svelte figure that introduces so many performances
for New York’s Met on broadcasts worldwide and on DVD. Nonetheless
her pure lyric soprano, caressing the phrases in Porgi
amor (CH.22) and Dove sono (CH.46) has not been
bettered since that of Kiri Te Kanawa twenty years or so before.
Marie-Ange Todorovitch as Cherubino is a convincing young
male. Of the lesser parts Robert Tear’s slimy Basilio is in
a class of its own as is Donald Adams as Antonio the gardener
who keeps stirring the plot.
The staging and
costumes are traditional although the country girls look rather
strange in black as they come to present flowers in the dance
(CH.55). The stage direction by Stephen Medcalf is well realised
although too many close-ups were distracting. The sound is
a little flat and certainly later recorded performances from
the new house have greater presence. There is generous applause
at the end of many arias.
In summary, this
Figaro is a typical Glyndebourne traditional production
with a good all-round singing cast and an excellent orchestral
contribution under the direction of a fine Mozartean.
DVD 2 Don Giovanni - Dramma giocoso in
two acts K527 (1787)
Don Giovanni - Gilles Cachemaille (baritone); Leporello -
Stephen Page (bass); Don Ottavio - John Mark Ainsley (tenor);
Masetto - Roberto Scaltriti (baritone); Anna - Hillevi Martinpelto
(soprano); Elvira - Adrianne Pieczonka (soprano); Zerlina
- Juliane Banse (soprano); Commendatore - Gudjon Oskarsson
(bass)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Yakov Kreizberg
Director:
Deborah Warner; Set designer: Hildegard Bechtler
Costume
design: Hildegard Bechtler and Nicky Gillibrand
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.0 Surround B.
Subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
rec. August 1995 [176:00]
If I have luxuriated
in the opening 1994 production of Figaro in this trio of
Glyndebourne Festival productions of Mozart’s operas, the reverse
was very much the case with the Don Giovanni performed
a year later. In 1990 Sir Peter Hall resigned as Artistic Director
of Glyndebourne. Various avant-garde
bloods had been imported and had introduced updated sets and costumes,
many of which he felt were inimical to the house style as well
as to the music being performed. Filmed in the year following
the opening, this production sets Don Giovanni in
twentieth century dress. The set is very basic and comprises a
front sub-stage on the main stage. Suspended by hawsers at each
corner this tilts and lifts to represent different scenes. There
is often little else except the words to indicate what or where
these scenes are being played out. There are attempts at lighting
effects but these hardly illuminate the goings-on, even if they
brighten the stage!
The singing is variable
with the men being the better of an undistinguished cast. Stephen
Page’s scruffy suit and thick-toned singing as Leporello detracts
from the role whilst his Catalogue Aria (CH.8) goes for little. Gilles Cachemaille
as Don Giovanni appears first in a balaclava and has a half struggle
with Anna’s father before stabbing him. Whilst his lighter-toned
baritone contrasts with that of Leporello, it makes their exchange
of clothes as one impersonates the other less than convincing.
There is no window for the serenade (CH.36) when Don Giovanni
simply looks scruffy with designer stubble and vest - maybe some
women like a bit of rough. Or, perhaps this is intended to be
like Leporello who puts on a silly white wig as Masetto arrives
seeking revenge for Don Giovanni’s treatment of Zerlina. Roberto
Scaltriti’s singing and acting as Masetto is one of the more convincing
performances, whilst John Mark Ainsley struggles as Ottavio. Perhaps,
like me, he was unsure of what he was supposed to be doing as
he sings Il mio Tesoro (CH. 47).
Certainly there
is no doubt about the visit to the graveyard (CH.50). The
statue of the Commendatore walks about whilst Don Giovanni
wraps himself in a shroud to invite him to supper. He then
steals a statuette of the Madonna, and leaves. The hawsers
lift the inner stage, which becomes Don Giovanni’s supper
table with the statue of the Madonna his companion (CH.53)
and the shroud the tablecloth. As he tries to deny Leporello
food so he tries to force it into the statue’s mouth. Likewise
wine, which pours all down the Madonna’s body. Don Giovanni
then throws the statue to the floor, and mounts it! Yes, Don
Giovanni is a sexual libertine, but the only word for this
display and portrayal is sick. I was thankful the statuette was not a Madonna and Child,
which might have tempted this producer into more profanity.
Those with religious convictions might find this scene more
disturbing than I did!
Hillevi Martinpelto
as Donna Anna is sometimes rather unwieldy, while Adrianne
Pieczonka as Elvira a little too shrill. The tall Juliane
Banse as Zerlina does her best to invest some feeling into
the proceedings, in voice and face, as she pleads forgiveness
from Masetto (CH. 26). The ultimate updated silliness comes
as the participants at Don Giovanni’s party dance the twist
to Mozart’s sublime music (CH.31).
The lean tones
of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Yakov Kreizberg
lack the tonal weight for the last scene as Don Giovanni takes
the hand of the strongly sung, if rather monochrome, Commendatore
of Gudjon Oskarsson. I have seen this scene, which can be
a veritable coup de théâtre, presented far better in
semi-professional productions.
The Glyndebourne
Festival receives no grant from the Arts Council. It is wholly
dependent on its corporate sponsors and putting bums on seats.
Despite the high cost of the tickets, Sold out is the
order of the day for all but the most obscure work. For me,
this staging and performance of Don Giovanni is among
the least enjoyable of the many I have seen live or on DVD
over many years and I have seen some rather bizarre stagings
in my time. However, I must also note that the top dollar
paying audience were more appreciative at the end than I was.
DVD 3 Idomeneo Re di Creta -
Opera seria in three acts
K366 (1781)
Ilia - Yvonne Kenny (soprano); Idamante - Jerry Hadley (tenor);
Electra - Carol Vaness (soprano); Arbace - Thomas Helmsley
(baritone); Idomeneo - Philip Langridge (tenor); High Priest
- Anthony Roden (baritone); Voice of Neptune - Roderick Kennedy
(bass)
Glyndebourne Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard
Haitink
Director: Trevor Nunn; Designer: John Napier
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Subtitles in English, German, Spanish
and Japanese
rec. August 1983. [181:00]
I watched this
collection of Glyndebourne Festival productions of
Mozart operas in the sequence of their presentation in the
box rather than that of their composition. The Figaro
was first up being deliberately chosen to open the new theatre,
sixty years to the day, as it had the original in 1934. The
Don Giovanni of the following year as I have noted
was distinctly different in production style and musical realisation
with a period band. Coming to this Idomeneo was something
of a cultural shock in a number of ways. It is a film of the
Glyndebourne production that marked the operatic debut of
the renowned theatre director, Trevor Nunn. Being a film there
is no audience applause. The film director uses many facets
of the genre and there are frequent mid and close shots. All
of this makes demands upon the singers to convey the meaning
of the story with bodily and facial involvement as well as
vocal expression. In this there are variable results, some
being more successful than others as I outline below.
The second, but
not unexpected shock was musical style. Mozart composed Idomeneo
between the singspiel works, Zaide and Die Entführung
aus dem Serail. It is firmly an opera seria and based
on Greek legend. This was a genre that the composer did not
return to until his last staged work, La Clemenza di Tito
ten years later when he reverted to opera seria
for a prestigious commission. This reversion is explained
by the background politics of the Vienna Court at the time
(see review).
La Clemenza di Tito was his last staged opera and composed
contemporaneously with the mature singspiel Die Zauberflöte.
Whereas in Clemenza the older and musically more
accomplished Mozart was able to bend the traditional form
of the genre to better encompass the dramatic thrust of the
opera, in Idomeneo this ability is less evident. In
consequence it consists of static vocal showpieces preceded
by recitative. This, like the filming, has serious consequences
for the singers.
My final shock,
really too strong a word, was in respect of the production,
sets and costumes. In 1983 Glyndebourne was a traditional
house. That is not to imply that the production styles were
set in old ways, certainly not with Peter Hall as Director
of Productions. But there were no way out avant-garde
productions of the sort that became the norm less than ten
years later. It was the operatic debut of Trevor Nunn. The
sets and costumes are firmly in Minoan Crete. The sets are
relatively simple, realistic when needed, and wholly appropriate
with lighting giving dramatic effect as when the shadows encompass
the chorus and singers in the storm scene (CH.16) and the
voice of Neptune (CH.24).
The name part
has drawn many famous tenors to the recording studio including
those not noted for their Mozart in the theatre, including
Pavarotti and Domingo. Philip Langridge’s tenor is not of
the same mellifluous character or vocal grace as those famous
names. Although stretched vocally at times (CH.16) he gives
a thoroughly convincing sung and acted portrayal of the name
part. His face, in the many close-ups, always reflects the
appropriate emotions, inner and external. In this respect
he is matched by the Electra of Carol Vaness, whose biting
diction and smooth tones are allied to considerable histrionic
gifts. As Ilia, daughter of the Greek King Agamemnon, enemy
of Idomeneo, Yvonne Kenny looks a little old for the lover
of Idamante. She often fails to reflect the drama of the words
and situations in her body language, albeit her singing leaves
little to be desired with good diction and command of the
florid passages (CH.2, 17). As Idamante, the spurned son of
Idomeneo, Jerry Hadley is altogether more problematic in features,
voice and acting. His tenor has a hard edge and his over-youthful
face seem incapable of reflecting the agonies (CH.7) and ultimate
exultation (CHs. 23-24) of the role.
The matter of
the casting of Idamante as a tenor is problematic. The role
was written for a mezzo-soprano en travesti and that
better serves the musical balance. Glyndebourne staged the
first British performances of the work in an earlier production
in 1951, again casting a tenor. Although Mozart made many
amendments to the music in 1786 to accommodate particular
singers in private performances I am not aware of any being
tenors. I am surprised that Bernard Haitink, who conducts
the London Philharmonic in a well-paced and idiomatic account
of the music, carried this tradition on.
Despite my doubts
about the casting of Idamante, this traditional staging, with
many felicitous details by Trevor Nunn and his team, makes
for an enjoyable evening’s entertainment in a genre that even
today gets little stage time elsewhere.
DVD 4
Bonus - The House That George Built
The rebuilding of Glyndebourne
Directed by Christopher Swann
Recorded 1993-94 [50:00]
As I note above, this bonus disc outlines the
planning (CH1), construction (CHs.2 and 3) and acoustic testing
(CH.4) of the new Glyndebourne Opera House.
Robert J Farr
NVC ARTS 5186534022
