Owen Wingrave - opera for television (1967)
Owen Wingrave - Gerald Finley
Spencer Coyle - Peter Savidge
Lechmere - Hilton Marlton
Miss Wingrave - Josephine Barstow
Mrs Coyle - Anne Dawson
Mrs Julian - Elizabeth Gale
Kate Julian - Charlotte Hellekant
Sir Philip Wingrave - Martyn Hill
The Choristers of Westminster Cathedral Choir
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Kent Nagano
Director: Margaret Williams for Channel Four Television Corporation 2001
Region Code: 0; Aspect Ratio 16:9; PCM Stereo
ARTHAUS 100 373 DVD [92:00]
Britten wrote Owen Wingrave in response to a 1967 commission
from the BBC to write an opera specifically for television; he later
said he thought it would work even better in the theatre. It’s
good to have the re-release of this 2001 TV film on DVD. It was originally
broadcast on Channel 4 and presumably its re-release is timed to coincide
with the composer’s centenary.
With its small cast and frequent small-scale interactions between
the characters, Owen Wingrave works particularly well on the
small screen. Margaret Williams sets her film in 1958 and this helps
to bring it closer to Britten’s own experience. Its pacifist
subject was of central importance to the composer throughout his life.
One of the reasons Britten accepted the commission was that it would
allow him to broadcast his pacifist convictions to the widest possible
audience. That pacifism is both the work’s strength and its
downfall, though. It lends an unflinching moral purpose to the action,
but the denunciations of war in the first act are preachy and repetitive.
Admirable as Owen is, after taking his decision to leave the army
he then seems to become a doormat for his family’s rabid denunciations.
You often wish he would just stand up for himself a bit more. Still,
the action remains compelling and there is some brilliant music in
the score. As I said when I heard Richard
Hickox’s Chandos recording, this work deserves a wider audience
than the niche it currently occupies.
This being an opera specifically made for TV, rather than a recording
of a staged performance, Margaret Williams embraces both the benefits
and the limitations of the medium. The orchestra’s track is
recorded elsewhere, but the characters sing in person on location
(in other words, there is no lip-syncing), and the different acoustic
is plainly reflected in the voice. You notice it, for example, when
a character is singing inside a room and then goes outside to a more
echo-y corridor. This lends a natural atmosphere to the whole recording
which is very effective. When a character is thinking, though, we
hear his or her thoughts at the same time as seeing a pensive face
- all in a different, interior acoustic to the outward conversation
they have just been having. This works particularly well in the social
gatherings that take place at Paramore, the Wingraves’ country
seat. The final scene of the first act is a very strained dinner party.
We hear the interior thoughts of each character as the camera focuses
on them one by one, but not a word is spoken until the tension explodes.
The country house setting is very good, but the London scenes of mounted
guards processing down the street are a bit tiresome.
Nagano’s direction of the Berlin orchestra is clean and precise,
and the singing is extremely effective, too. In the title role Gerald
Finley sounds splendid but looks uncomfortable. His rich vocal tone
conveys the character’s heroism, but he looks permanently put-upon
and has a look of pained submission etched forever on his face. Peter
Savidge and Anne Dawson play the Coyles as the only sympathetic characters
in the piece. They come across very well, both looking and sounding
great. Hilton Marlton is a suitably irritating Lechmere. Charlotte
Hellekant does as good a job as she can of making Kate a rounded character,
but neither the composer nor the librettist help her in her task.
Elizabeth Gale effectively portrays the self-seeking nature of Mrs
Julian, and Martyn Hill is a suitably histrionic Sir Philip. The show
is comprehensively stolen by Josephine Barstow, however, who chews
up the scenery as Owen’s harpy of an aunt. Barstow’s shrill,
penetrating tone cuts right to the quick of the character and she
appears to be loving every minute of it.
You don’t have an awful lot of choice for Owen Wingrave
in any medium, and that situation is unlikely to improve dramatically
any time soon. Aside from Hickox’s
recording there is the composer’s own, both on CD and DVD.
This one stands up very well alongside them, though. The wide-screen
ratio and the excellent 2.0 sound help to make it recommendable.
Simon Thompson
Not an awful lot of choice but this DVD stands up very well alongside
the competition.
See also review of previous release by Gary
Higginson
Britten discography & review index: Owen
Wingrave
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