Between 1919 and 1925 Janacek composed three of his finest operas, all
on subjects with special resonances for him: Katya Kabanova with
its neglected wife who takes a lover, The Cunning Little Vixen
with its sympathetic portrayal of animals (and particularly the female
fox), and The Makropoulos Affair’ with the 'ageless' woman who
fascinates all men.
The ETO staged Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen on 23 October
in the Richmond Theatre as part of their autumn tour. James Conway,
ETO’s new General Director, directed Janacek’s rather convoluted ‘opera
within an opera’ in a conventional way. A group of rural people enact
for a wedding the story of the Vixen and yet the distinction between
the animal and human worlds is blurred in this production. This is not
entirely their fault because, in spite of Janacek’s beautiful, gestural
music, The Cunning Little Vixen has big dramaturgical flaws:
there are too many roles whose characters are not properly developed
and there is no time and space to get emotionally involved with any
of the characters.
The single, static stage design - probably down to financial and travelling
constraints – didn’t help bring clarity and with costumes and lighting
design they could have done more. As it was, the stage was cluttered
with props which didn’t reveal their purpose and the general impression
of the stage design was messy, something underlined by the painted black
and white forest used as a backdrop for the whole opera.
All the singers produced wonderful sounds, which is particularly remarkable
in the dry acoustic of the Richmond Theatre. Louise Walsh, in the double
role as Vixen and Terynka, was great, although I felt pity for her knees
as she had to crawl across the stage a lot of the time. Charles Johnston
as the forester/headman had a warm, deep voice.
The orchestra played well. The brass section had a few glitches. Occasionally
I found that the conductor, Andrew Greenwood, should have restrained
the orchestra to give the singers more space. The double bass was sometimes
too loud. The dry unforgiving acoustics of the Richmond Theatre didn’t
help to mould the players into a homogenous sound. Jonathan Dove rearranged
the score for a reduced orchestra, which might also have disturbed the
balance.
The following night a revival of Don Giovanni was shown. This wonderful
piece of comedy and horror was brilliantly performed under the baton
of Dominic Wheeler in fast tempos and with great energy. Clear, effective
stage and light design was complemented by beautiful costumes set in
the 1950s. The acting of all the singers was exceptional, especially
the comic parts of Don Giovanni (D’Arcy Bleiker) and Leporello (Daniel
Jordan) in the first half of the opera. Indeed, the singing of Daniel
Jordan is world class! The contrasting turn from comedy to horrific
tragedy wasn’t as strong as it could have been. I suspect this is partly
due to the lack of orchestra size and reverberation, which would have
given The Commendatore (Deryck Hamon) even more weight to his imposing
voice.
The orchestra, especially the brass and string section, need more practice
to create a homogenous, well- tuned sound. For a touring opera with
fluctuating members this is difficult to achieve. It is up to the conductors
to work on this. Having said this, however, ETO is a great enterprise
and it is a fantastic idea to bring opera to smaller towns which cannot
afford their own companies.
The ETO tour will visit Buxton Opera House, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre,
Theatre Royal Bath. For further details see
http://www.englishtouringopera.org.uk
Jean Martin
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