Best and Worst of 2014

Oh dear!  Its been a long time since my last post hasn't it?  Unfortunately I was laid low for quite a while with a persistent chest infection which meant that not only did I feel pretty rough, I had to cancel quite a lot of my planned opera and concert going.

But enough of that!  Now restored to relative full health, though I'd start the year with a look back at what I did manage to see!


Outstanding New Production

Surprisingly (or perhaps not!) my outstanding production of 2014 comes not from ROH but from ENO.  The Girl of the Golden West was a delight from start to finish.  A sympathetic, singable translation ensure that this opera was the deserved success it should be.  All of the lead singers nailed their characters and if their voices weren't quite 'perfect' they more than made up for that with dramatic commitment.  Why can't all opera be like this?

Runner up for this category - Manon Lescaut at the Royal Opera.  Again, not quite perfect by any means but the cast almost convinced you that it was!


Best Revival

Once again there was so much choice for Best Revival but this performance of La Boheme with Ermonela Jaho and Charles Castronovo just stood out from the crowd.  Great singing of course, but what impressed and moved me were their performances - they simply became Mimi and Rodolfo.  As I said in my end of term report - mesmerising and magical.

Highly commended in this category was a surprisingly good Barbiere di Siviglia and a deeply emotional Diaglogues des Carmelites (classed here as a revival as its been around for so long!).


Best Male Performance

Yes I know, but honest I couldn't resist this year!  Jonas Kaufmann is simply a force of nature!  Put him in the right role and he simply overcomes resistance...at least for me!  I think his most impressive performance came from the new Met production of Werther - which I managed to catch in the HD broadcast.  He really does suit the more brooding and introspective characters.  Also impressive was his assumption of Des Grieux in the ROH Manon Lescaut, even if the production didn't quite fire on all cylinders.  But most memorable for me was his performance of Wintereisse also in the hallowed halls of ROH. This has led to the purchase of many lieder CD's (not just his) and also many tickets to Wigmore Hall!

Honorable mentions for Best Male Performance go to Charles Castronovo for La Boheme and Michele Angelini in his ROH debut as Count Almaviva in Barbiere di Siviglia



Best Female Performance

So many riches to choose from, but if I'm honest the performance which simply blew me away in 2014 was Sondra Radvanovsky in Tosca.  This was my first chance to hear this artist in person and oh my word...what a stunning voice!  I simply left the auditorium open mouthed with wonder. Stunning.  Please, please can she come back?

Other outstanding female performances were Joyce DiDonato (Met HD Cenerentola), Karita Mattila for a stunning Ariadne auf Naxos, Susan Bullock for a resplendent Minnie in Girl of the Golden West and Kristine Opolais - her dramatic commitment to Manon Lescaut was impressive indeed.

Biggest Disappointment

Once again I suppose it was the quality of the new productions.  Don Giovanni was the biggest disappointment for me.  While the singing was for the most part top notch, dramatic invention was replaced by overused projections and a spinning set.  Add a touch of misogyny to the female portrayals and a bizarre ending for a most unedifying experience!

So there we have my selections for 2014.

Have a Happy New Year everyone and I wish you many new musical highlights for 2015.

This Cowboy Song...Girl of the Golden West, ENO 18th October 2014

Photo copyright Robert Workman

Although I have a soft spot for Puccini's 'horse opera' I booked my ticket with slight feelings of trepidation  - but once again only because of the English language issues.  Given my recent experience of ENO's Otello, where the translation let the production down I felt, I wasn't really expecting The Girl of the Golden West to be much better.    But bolstered by positive first night reaction from Twitter friends, loins were girded and off I went.

La Fanciulla del West (as this opera is better known) is a strange beast among the Puccini canon of works. Puccini was drawn towards the unusual and exotic for his plots and to an Italian I suppose you don't get much more exotic that the wild, wild West of the US goldrush period.  The libretto is based on David Belasco's play and as usual Puccini has consigned huge chunks to the dustbin, including Minnie and Dick Johnson/Rammerez first meeting.  Its worth a read if you like digging into the background of this opera.

The musical structure too is advanced with very few standalone set pieces (a couple of tenor arias apart) and even those are skillfully woven into the fabric of the opera.  The whole opera moves at a brisk pace with scene after scene flowing quite naturally without disruptive breaks for applause.

As with quite a lot of my experiences, my first encounter with Fanciulla was via a video recording featuring Placido Domingo in the monumental ultra-traditional Pierro Faggioni production at the Royal Opera House.  I finally managed to catch up with this production live in 2005 with Jose Cura - and that was the last time I saw Fanciulla live on stage....until now.

This new production by Richard Jones is very clear and uncluttered and does the job of telling the story well.  Slightly updated - The Polka now has electric lighting - but it still highlights a group men mining for gold, with Minnie as the only (good) girl in town.  I liked this production although I had a couple of issues with some of the directorial decisions - especially in the second act.  I thought the slap/coffee throwing incident between Minnie and Johnson could have been staged better - or perhaps it was just the view from my seat.  Nothing worse than a fake slap that doesn't quite come off!  The second act set didn't really leave Johnson many places to hide so he ended up under the bed!  Now really, hiding under the bed - isn't that the first place anyone would look?  And rather then letting the poor wounded tenor faint and have a lie down, he seemed to be propped up against the wall while Minne and Rance gambled for his life.  But honestly, these are minor quibbles and certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.  I found the final scene especially touching - and where Minnie & Johnson normally ride off into the sunset, here the miners are standing on the set start which receded slowly away. Very effective.

Vocally things were competent rather than outstanding although again that is probably just me being picky. I do like Susan Bullock a lot and as Minnie she certainly convinced with her acting.  Her singing was fine and its a tricky part but I did miss a more typical Puccini voice in the role.  These days the casting tends towards Wagnarian sopranos but I did miss a bit of warmth and plushness in the voice. The same could probably be said for Peter Auty who was a sympathetic Dick Johnson but whose voice I found slightly constricted in the upper reaches - and there are plenty of upper reaches in this role.  Craig Colclough as Jack Rance grew on me - again more because of his overall portrayal than having a stunning voice.  He was more than a one-dimensional villain and that greatly added to the drama.

All of the other parts were taken well and the cast made their roles into real individual characters - always a plus when so many of them are on stage at once.  It's hard to know what to do with the Native American Indian characters of Wowkle and Billy.  As written they can come across as horrible stereotypes with lots of "Ugh's" and other nonsense.  On the other hand turning them into dramatic ciphers with no character as here didn't really work either.

Ah and what about the English translation I hear you say?  Well, to my great surprise it actually worked in English.  Somewhere a decision was made down the line to incorporate American accents. I thought this would be distracting but actually I think it helped with the text and translation and the translator Kelley Rourke was very skilled in producing a very singable and yet understandable translation.

If you haven't had a chance to see this opera, do go!  I heartily recommend it and you will leave the theatre will a smile on your face.  I'll leave you with this clip from the Met production of Fanciulla with Placido Domingo and Barbara Daniels.  This is the scene were Dick Johnson has been revealed as the bandit Ramerrez and Minnie confronts him.  It has Spanish subtitles but its very clear I think.  And a particularly good example of a stage slap!