Rise and Shine! ROH Friends Booking 4th March 2014

Last week The Royal Opera announced a rude awakening for Friends who want to nab those choice tickets.  They have moved the opening of the summer season booking on 4th March from a reasonable and sedate 10.00am to a mind-boggling 8.00am!  Not so bad I suppose if you have no need to earn a crust and get into work or have some lackey do the booking for you.  But for a lot of London and outer-London based Friends 8am is prime commuting time.  And in my case that means being stuck on a train, usually standing up and with no hint of a wi-fi signal.  What with that and the ROH's recommendation that I log in to the computer in good time, basically means I have to drag myself out of bed at around 5.30 to ensure I'm at my desk, logged in and ready to go by 8.00 am,  

Is it worth it?  Let's have a look.

La Boheme - Puccini

The revered and much loved John Copley production starts its final run before being retired for good. There are 11 performances and two casts to choose from.  First cast offers the delights of  Anna Netrebko gracing London with a rare visit....possibly.  I wouldn't lay odds on her actually turning up as the role of Mimi doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest of her current repertoire of Lady Macbeth, Leonora (Trovatore), Manon Lescaut, and Anna Bolena.   She last sang Mimi around two years ago so there's every chance she will....and equally every chance she won't.  However her colleagues are not to be sniffed at with Joseph Calleja as Rodolfo and Jennifer Rowley making her much anticipated (by me) ROH debut as Musetta.

The second cast is actually my preferred - especially if I could do a bit of swapping around.  Lianna Haroutounian, who made a big impression here as Elisabetta in Don Carlo and Helene in Les Vespres siciliennes, sings Mimi, Piotr Beczala is Rodolfo.  For the final performance Placido Domingo takes up the conductors baton - very apt as he was this production's very first Rodolfo.  Tears will be shed!

Don Giovanni - Mozart

Kasper Holten's production of Don Giovanni makes a speedy return to the stage with a brand new cast.  Can't say that I'm overly keen to reacquaint myself with this production as I found it misogynistic and hard to take. However the cast assembled for this revival is very good indeed. Christopher Maltman is the Don, while Alex Esposito returns as his sidekick Leporello. Albina Shagimuratova, Dorothea Roschmann and Julia Lezhneva are Anna, Elvira and Zerlina while Rolando Villazon essays Don Ottavio - sharing the role with the fantastic Michele Angelini.  Alain Altinoglu conducts what should be a musically fabulous revival - if only the production were better.

Guillaume Tell - Rossini

Finally a new production! Damiano Michieletto makes his Royal Opera House debut with Rossini's opera - the one with the famous overture! Antonio Pappano will conduct a strong cast with Gerald Finley in the title role, Malin Bystrom as Mathilde and American tenor John Osborne as Arnold.  One to watch!

Falstaff - Verdi

Verdi's final opera makes a welcome return in Robert Carsen's very amiable production, updated to the 1950's.  The updating doesn't really work but doesn't really jar either so definitely worth seeing if you haven't seen it before.  Casting is fine without being star-driven - but then its not that sort of opera. Ambrogio Maestri returns as the corpulent knight,  Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta is Alice Ford (replacing a previously announced Marina Poplavskya) and Roland Wood (who I enjoyed as Roucher in Andrea Chenier) is Ford.

And that's it for opera performances for the 2014/15 season. There are a couple of extras to round off the season.  The Jette Parker Young Artists have their 'end of term' concert on 18th July which will include excerpts from Simon Boccanegra, Adriana Lecouvreur, Les pecheurs des perles, Romeo et Juliette and others.

While on 19th July Placido Domingo's Operalia competition comes to London for the first time.  A great chance to do spot possible stars of the future.

So that's it!  But what does next season hold?  No one quite knows - or at least they're not telling.  A season announcement is not expected until early April so until then why not visit the Future Royal Opera Wiki to keep abreast of matters - or even add some inside information!

I'll leave you with my bit of wishful thinking for next season:

Heart of Darkness Part 1 - Verdi's Il Trovatore

This is less of a performance review more a post with general musings about Il Trovatore.  Along the way I will be commenting on some of my recent experiences with this opera - most recently of all the new production from Munich with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros.

On the face of it Trovatore is one of Verdi's most popular opera, regularly appearing in the top twenty in the league of opera performances across the world.   And why not?  Packed full of instantly recognisable 'tunes', full of verve and vigour, it seems like the classic template for Italian opera, an easy way in for beginners and a satisfying night out for more experienced opera lovers.  However, in recent years (and not so recent), it seems to have acquired a 'difficult' reputation.  Branded 'old-fashioned' and 'melodramatic' it has been an easy target for parody with everyone from the Marx Brothers, Gilbert and Sullivan and there is even a memorable Tiny Toons parody of the Anvil Chorus.

On the surface it has a bog-standard opera plot (soprano loves tenor who returns that love, but is thwarted by baritone who also loves our heroine) so not much too ridicule there you would have thought.  And yet the criticism most often thrown is that the plot is either ridiculous or too complicated.  Personally, I've never had a problem with the plot - I have other problems but the actual plot isn't one of them.

So for those not familiar with Il Trovatore here is the briefest of summaries.   It is the story of two brothers, separated in infancy when a gypsy kidnaps the younger child in revenge for her mother's death at the stake. This younger son is raised by the gypsy in total ignorance of his origins.  All of this takes place before the curtain goes up.  The brothers grow up to be rivals in love and war and the opera takes us through the subsequent events until the final tragic denouement.

So far, so typical.

However, there is another important character in this opera, and one so pivotal that Verdi originally considered naming the opera after her - Azucena, the gypsy who not only set the original events in motion, by kidnapping the Count di Luna's younger son, but is haunted by her own mother's death at the stake and her cries of revenge.  A revenge that Azucena feels compelled to seek without really knowing the ultimate outcome but pursuing it with dogged determination none the less.

Perhaps I've been unlucky in my encounters with this opera but I've never really seen a production (either live or on DVD) that fully embraces the darkness inherent in the story.  Most of them have been 'picture postcard' costume dramas, concentrating on local gypsy colouring or the love triangle or the production of beautiful sounds above dramatic values. None has really got to the dark heart of the story - this is an opera about a woman who is prepared to sacrifice, if required, the child she has brought up from infancy as her own, as long as she obtains the revenge demanded by her mother.  It is the relationship between mother and supposed son that is the most fascinating one in this opera.  And yet I've never seen a production that reflects this...until recently that is.

But before I go rushing ahead I have a confession to make...I don't really like the tenor role in this opera.  I know, shocking really.  I am a huge fan of the tenor voice (as you may have guessed from my blog posts) but there is just something about this particular role that I don't really get. I'm afraid I've probably seen too many productions (yes I'm looking at you Arena di Verona) where the role is based solely around one aria and how loud, how long and how high you can sing a particular note.  Frankly that sort of exhibitionism does nothing for me and I tend to roll my eyes in despair when tenors indulge in these sort of antics.  Especially if they've got nothing else to offer.  So to say Di Quella Pira is a particular bug-bear of mine is putting it mildly.

So I was intrigued, (not to say slightly appalled) when it was announced that the tenor du jour (and my current favourite) would be taking on the role of Manrico for the first time.  Really?  Now while I admire Jonas Kaufmann for carefully ticking off each Verdi tenor role in pursuit of his ultimate dream role of Otello, I would not necessarily have said that Manrico was a must-sing. Aida... yes, Stiffelio....absolutely.  Alvaro...yes please.  Manrico...hmmmmm.   But then I am not a musician or a tenor so what do I know?  Perhaps he's always nursed a secret urge brandish a sword and throw off a high C (or B) with the best of them.  I remained to be convinced.

And so it came to pass that in order to prepare myself for this important event I started digging around, researching the opera a bit more thoroughly, listened to recordings, watched DVD's and haunted YouTube like a demon, in search of the elusive perfect performance. Along the way I discovered that there really wasn't that much choice when it came to appealing versions on DVD.  However on these occasions I always fall back on the Godfather of Tenors....Placido Domingo.  Now while Placido holds all the trump cards for me vocally (my own opinion) even he could not convince me that Manrico was little more than a standard 'tenor as lover/hero' role.  The production from Vienna in the late Seventies is wholly traditional in design and costuming which does absolutely nothing to dispel my doubts about this opera.  Don't get me wrong, I like a traditionally set opera as much (perhaps more) than the next person, but for some reason it seems to obscure  the real story going on here.  The singing is more that adequate (Kaibavanska, Cossotto and Cappucilli) but it's very much opera by numbers and didn't convert me to the cause.

As an aside it's obvious that Domingo loves this opera as he is returning to it in his baritenor disguise as the Count di Luna with Netrebko as Leonora and Antonenko as Manrico. I'm sure that musically he will give it his all - he is an intelligent and tasteful musician after all.  But dramatically?  Well, let's just say I have my doubts - that's one hell of an age gap between the two brothers!

And on that note, and before this post outstays its welcome, I'll finish.  But in Part 2 I'll discuss a couple of recent-ish productions that have some interesting points to make or at least piqued my interest; an ROH production from 2002 and of course, the most recently broadcast version from Munich with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros...complete with naked dancing babies, gypsy grandmothers and a tenor being sawn in half...but until then here's a gratuitous picture of Jonas looking hot in a leather coat....with a naked granny