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SEEN AND HEARD UK OPERA REVIEW
Johann Strauss II, Die Fledermaus (1874). Sung in English with surtitles in English and Welsh.
Giuseppe Verdi, Il Trovatore (1853). Sung in Italian with surtitles in English and Welsh
I approached this Welsh National Opera Llandudno season with a strange
mixture of anticipation and unease. Why the unease? Well, I have always
thought of Llandudno as being the Company's second home as well as their
main outpost, Swansea not forgotten, in the Principality. Part of this
derives from my own experience of opera seasons by WNO in this lovely North
Wales resort and which goes back well over forty years when the single
annual visit lasted two weeks and was based, as best could be, in the Astra
Cinema. Every year our family holiday involved our camping nearby and
inducting my young family into opera, sat on cushions on the very back row.
Early Verdi was stirring, as was Carmen with my youngest
keen to join the toreador's aria; I have to be honest though in admitting
that their enthusiasm for Boris was less, despite Forbes Robinson's
fine portrayal. Names on the roster included James Levine on the rostrum and
the very best of British singers. So why my anxiety? Part was related to the
brief season. In recent years, as I have covered the visit for Seen and
Heard, it has always been five nights with three operas scheduled. Was
this brief three day visit with only two works scheduled a portent of things
to come, with the details of the Arts Council axe ominously becoming known
in ten or so day's time. Well it is the same for all the touring venues.
However, the good news is that on the basis of the schedules for the Autumn
visit, and that of Spring 2012, I am pleased to report my fears are
unfounded with reversion to the more usual five nights scheduled and three
operas on offer.
My anticipation was in respect of the scheduled Die Fledermaus. It
has been common knowledge for some time that the production was to be
traditional. As one who had suffered the previous production ten years ago,
and yet loved the music and the genius of Strauss, this was a great relief.
When I say suffered I mean just that. The Catalan producer Calixto Bieito
perpetuated every crude vulgarity in his extensive repertoire on his
staging. In the event, I had travelled to Oxford, a journey of over a
hundred and fifty miles and bought expensive seats; the latter was the only
reason I did not join the large numbers who walked out at the interval.
Never revived, that production, and the opprobrium it brought, must have
influenced the decision to ask veteran John Copley to take on this new one.
I have seen some comments than verge on faint praise, not from me. The near
period sets and opulent costumes were ideal and Copley, also taking advice
also from another veteran and expert on Viennese operetta, added all the
tricks, plus a few gimmicks he has learnt over his long career.
The setting was right, how about the singing? The casting department
focussed, with one notable exception, on regular Company singers and others
well known around the UK and elsewhere. It may be that the real life
partnership of Liverpudlian Paul Charles Clarke and Sicilian soprano Nuccia
Focile, long time artistes with WNO, was the starter. His tenor was a shade
too beefy for Rosalinde's paramour Alfred, although he played the role to
perfection often reminding us of his skills in the more serious Italian
repertoire and being a willing party to Alfred's hurried departure from the
Eisenstein lounge in the Tosca manner, complete with a Caballé
bounce! She too is perhaps not the first soprano one would think of as
Rosalinde, but she is a consummate actress with a voice that belies her
size. An amusing thought crossed my mind during her well-shaped Czardis;
here was an Italian singing a Hungarian song in English, one that was
originally written in German and coming complete with Welsh translations!
Such thoughts were provoked by the fun nature of the staging and the
production with the odd up-to-date jokes in the spoken dialogue, including a
little ad lib in Welsh from comedian Desmond Barrit as jailer Frosch in Act
Three and which he thoughtfully translated for us non native Welsh speakers.
It was that kind of evening and there were no walkouts at either interval
and much cheering to the rafters at the end. But I precede myself. Mark
Stone, as something of an unrepentant philanderer Eisenstein, was suavely
ideal as an actor and his lyric baritone completely comfortable in the
tessitura of the role. His comic play as a supposed Frenchman was matched by
Alan Opie as Frank the prison Governor, who made the most of his Act Three
play with the portrait; this was luxury casting. As Dr. Falke the vengeful
bat of the title, David Stout was appropriately a little sinister and
achieved his end of show change of costume with aplomb. The newcomer to the
UK and WNO was the Estonian mezzo Helen Lepalaan as Prince Orlofsky. Tall
and elegant in her costume, very correct in her acted demeanour, she was,
for me, the vocal discovery of the season. She has a distinguished and
extensive repertoire that extends through the florid Rosina of Il
Barbiere to the drama of Carmen. Oh that WNO would get back to
those heady days of bel canto other than constant revivals of Giles
Havergail's Il Barbiere that it shares with Opera North, due yet
again next November, and remember when Bellini featured in the Company
repertoire! Miss Lepalaan's has a voice and the figure du part to make an
excellent Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi, although not
in a shared production with that travesty Opera North inflicted on Bellini's
sixth opera a year or so back (see
review).
The evening of Johann Strauss II was made absolutely perfect by the
orchestra under Viennese conductor Thomas Rösner. I have no doubt that the
vastly experienced Andrew Greenwood will bring similar lilting waltzes to
the staging later on in the tour, much as Wyn Davies brought to Opera
North's recent Merry Widow, also a production and staging
to savour (see
review). Both are names for future revivals of this eminently revivable
staging. John Copley's La Boheme at Covent Garden is in its fourth
decade, this production could last as long and is certainly moneys worth for
the Company and the audience.
When money is tight, and do not doubt it is getting tighter, shared
productions between the UK's regional opera companies is a sensible policy;
after all, their venues no longer overlap. Hopefully this will not involve
sharing with English National Opera who seem intent on dissipating their
generous grant from the Arts Council on ever more ridiculous staging by
producers with little or no opera experience. But care is the name of the
game. It might well be applied to the second offering of WNO's brief visit
to Llandudno, and also to the other touring venues, Peter Watson's
production Verdi's great middle period Il Trovatore in sets by Tim
Hately. Deriving from Scottish Opera, it was first staged by WNO in 2002 and
again in 2007. Whatever direction it ever had is long gone; the singers were
left to their own devices with the outcome dependent on individual acting
skills. The sets are representational. The large vertical, slightly curved
pieces are moved about to represent the venues of the scenes, but not
without the curtain being lowered and a delay spoiling any dramatic
build-up. The stage is dark and gloomy most of the time and the sets really
only work in the Convent Scene; elsewhere, despite mention of castles and
towers no hint of crenellations are to be seen. The costumes are passable
for the soldiery whilst those for the gypsies in act two are indeterminate
scruffy and add nothing to the colour of Verdi's wonderful music. A more
atmospheric camp, even a fire and proper anvils for the famous chorus would
have helped a little. I have no idea how to describe the oval set of metal
pipes that was the centrepiece of this act other than to say the at least
some of the metal tubes must have been tuned. Maybe it was a relic from some
aborted Wagnerian opera production.
As is well known, Caruso was reputed to have said that all that was required
was the four greatest singers in the world for Il Trovatore.
However, that is to underplay the role of Ferrando whose singing dominates
the opening scene. Sung by David Soar, one of the two survivors of the 2007
staging, the role deserved a comparable imprimatur. How he and his
portrayals have grown in stature were both in evidence here. His careful
nurturing by WNO, and a Chris Ball (Chair of WNO Friends) bursary, are
paying handsome dividends for him and the Company. Already he has sung at
Covent Garden and is scheduled to appear at New York's Metropolitan Opera,
whilst also staying loyal to WNO.
Of the four other principals, honours were divided between two Italian
ladies and two Welshmen. Despite massive local support for Gwyn Hughes Jones
from Ynys Mon (formerly called Anglesey) as the hero Manrico, and David
Kempster as the villain Count di Luna, I risk a lynching by suggesting that
the ladies won hands down. As Leonora, Katia Pellegrino, the other survivor
from 2007, sang a particularly vocally beautiful and expressive Tacea la
note placida and did full vocal justice to those long neo
Bellinean arching phrases in the long act four scene and the aria aria
D'amor sull'ali rosee, with both secure and appropriate trill and
coloratura. As Azucena Veronica Simeoni was very badly costumed and
seemingly shod in Doc Martens! But her acting contributed to her survival
and impact. Her vocal characterisation and portrayal helped overcome the
lack of any Gypsy accoutrements for Stride la vampa. She also made
vocal and acted impact when Azucena is captured by De Luna's soldiers and in
the final act Ai nostri monti as Azucena, half asleep, dreams of
the mountains.
In the acting stakes David Kempster's physical stature gives him a flying
start. Vocally he started poorly singing too strongly and a beat evident in
the voice. This settled down, and despite a tendency to singing at full
throttle far too often, he tempered this to sing an expressive Il balen.
Gwyn Hughes Jones's tightly focussed lyric tenor had the range and heft for
both verses of Di quella pira as well as a well held and secure
high C to finish. Personally, I prefer a fuller and wider palette of colour
from my tenor in this role, which is well on the way to the spinto Verdi
roles of Radames in Aida and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino.
His travelling fan club, not very far for them to come this time, were more
than satisfied and enthusiastic at the end of the aria and the curtain.
If Wales won in the music stakes over Italy, it was only because there are
more orchestral musicians and chorus members than the single conductor,
Andrea Licata, whose natural feel for Verdian line was a great virtue with
the orchestra fully responsive to his sweep and beat. When it comes to
choruses in Verdi, few can match the native Italians of La Scala who add the
virtues of their native vocal squilla. But, they don't do acting in the
manner of the WNO chorus; even in the days of an amateur chorus they were
good, now they are superb.
With the musical side of this Il Trovatore having many positive
virtues overall, it is a pity about the staging and lack of direction. I
suggest WNO send it back to Scotland, maybe adding Green Shield Stamps as a
temptation; failing that to Australia and sink it on the way! Verdi, WNO and
the customers of the full house here in Llandudno deserve better, although
in the present economic climate I fear we might wait a long time for a
worthy new production.
The WNO Tour continues on to Southampton from March 24th, Bristol
from March 31st, Plymouth from April 7th and Milton
Keynes from April 14th with three nights at each venue including
two performances of Die Fledermaus and one of Il Trovatore.
Robert J Farr