No, not a 'Night at the Garden' this time but a 'Night at the Coliseum'. Not that it's my first venture to ENO but it's rare enough to warrant mention. One of the main reasons I don't venture to ENO more often is their blanket 'opera in English' language policy. I was lucky enough to grow up listening to opera in the original language as background music in my home as my Mum loved opera. So that by the time I came to re-discover opera in the early 90's the foreign language issue didn't bother me - especially as the Royal Opera thoughtfully provided surtitles. So opera in English isn't a great pull for me - especially in the standard Italian repertory as frankly in English just sounds odd!
So there has to be a compelling reason for a visit to ENO; a great singer, a great non-standard opera or a particular production I want to see. While Otello can hardly be called non-standard, I haven't seen so many live performances that I could afford to let one slip by! Especially with Stuart Skelton taking on the herculean title role. With bargain Secret Seat ticket in hand and not without a little trepidation I settled into my seat.
Strangely enough, Otello was one of the very first opera's I came to know and love, rather than one of any number of 'easier' works such as La Boheme, Rigoletto or Tosca. Falling in love with opera in the early 90's I used to raid the local library for CD recordings and snapped this up. Readers, it was love at first listen! I haven't looked back since!
But what about this production?
Let's get the somewhat controversial element out of the way first. Generally speaking (and certainly in all of the productions I've seen) Otello is portrayed as a black man and this usually means the white tenor 'blacking up' to a greater or lesser degree. Quite rightly, this is no longer an option but given the dearth of tenors who can actually sing this highly dramatic role, what is the solution? ENO doesn't really come up with one to be honest and simply ignores the issue. Which I think was wrong. Don't get me wrong, I was quite happy to see Stuart Skelton sans blackface, but I do think that the production has to compensate for this somehow, otherwise Otello ends up just being like everyone else. Where is the sense of isolation, inferiority, 'different-ness' that is implied in both Shakespeare's play and in Verdi's opera. Where is Desdemona's daring in marrying someone not of her kind, her rank or her age? If Otello is reduced to just being another stock jealous 'Italian tenor' figure then the production has failed.
It can be done. In another Verdi opera, La Forza del Destino, the tenor character is also a foreigner, an outsider or as the libretto has it , half-breed or 'mulatto'. Yes, the racial insults fly just as much in this opera as in Otello! And yes, in the past, the tenor has nearly always had a suspiciously deep tan to mark him as 'foreign' and not worthy of his lady-love. However, the times they are a-changing and in the recent Munich production the tenor was outfitted and bewigged in such a way as to mark him out as 'different' without resorting to a change of skin colour.
The production itself was a one-set fits all affair, dark, spare and minimalist with little furniture cluttering the stage. What furniture did appear was subject to some violent abuse by various characters, chairs being thrown around the stage at moments of high tension. Unfortunately this has become something of a cliche so perhaps didn't have the dramatic effect it might have done. At this particular performance Stuart Skelton also (unintentionally) threw himself off a tower of chairs, but luckily was uninjured and carried on as though this was all part of the stage business!
While the set more or less worked for the first three acts, the lack of a separate bedchamber, or even a bed, for the vital last act murder, made it all a bit silly and the murder of Desdemona a bit anti-climactic. Could the budget not stretch to a bed? This all sounds very caviling and I did quite like the overall design and look of the set but it somehow needed more.
Now to the good bits.
Otello is a chorus heavy opera and ENO's chorus were in fantastic form. The sound they produced was awesome in its power and use of dynamics. However I do like to see my chorus have defined characters and here they didn't. I'm sure this was the intention of the director but they just looked like an anonymous amorphous lump. The less said about the flower strewing episode the better!
In the title role Stuart Skelton was anguished, brutal and heartrending in places. While not having a typical Italianate sound, there was glorious compensation in the secure focused tone and the knowledge that there would be no cracking under pressure. This is an interpretation that will grow with time and I look forward to seeing and hearing him in another production - preferably in Italian.
Leah Crocetto was a voice new to me and she has a lovely dark spinto tone, gloriously lyrical and yet able to meet the demands of Otello's anguished spouse. Dignified in approach, she nevertheless conveyed strength of character in a role that can all to easily come over as somewhat wimpy.
Allan Clayton as Cassio is another superb tenor voice, his lighter but still ringing tenor contrasting nicely with Skelton's more hefty anguished tones. While he plays a convincing drunkard, I do think that it was a mistake to play him drunk from start to finish.
As all good Iago's do, Jonathan Summers almost stole the show. Verdi was tempted to name this opera 'Iago' and you can understand why why you have as good an actor as Summers. He was truly convincing as a two-faced manipulator who directs events with the skill of a master. His English diction was also exemplary.
So all in all a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst I enjoyed the singing and music-making very much, the lack of defined direction in the production was a disappointment and my emotions were not engaged - somewhat of a first for me with this opera.
Also disappointing were the swathes of empty seats in the dress circle. If ENO cannot shift tickets with great singers and a well reviewed classic Verdi opera, then I'm not sure I know what the solution is! Certainly I cannot see how they can go on with the constant discounting of tickets especially not that their Arts Council grant has been severely curtailed!
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