Remembrance of Things Past - End of Season Review

Looking back over my 2012-13 season of opera, concerts and theatre I can only count myself lucky to have access to some truly great theatre in London.  As this blog is mainly operatic in nature and dedicated to a certain opera house, I'm going to concentrate on opera I have seen at the Royal Opera House from September 2012 to July 2013 - and hand out a few awards in the process.  But to give you an idea of which opera I'm judging, this is what I managed to see at Covent Garden this season:

Albert Herring (not strictly ROH but staged by ETO at the Linbury)
The Minotaur
Eugene Onegin (new production)
Written on Skin (new production)
La Boheme
Tosca (twice plus a rehearsal)
Nabucco (new production)
Die Zauberflote (twice)
Don Carlo (twice)
La Donna del Lago (new production)
Gloriana (new production)
La Rondine

So, not included in my considerations are the Ring Cycle which kicked off the season (still a bit of a Wagner-phobe...or Ring-phobe), L'elisir d'amore, Robert le Diable (probably just as well), Simon Boccanegra or Cappricio in concert.

Best New Production
This was a perversely hard decision as quite frankly I think most of the new productions this season have been a bit of a let down - I do hope this isn't going to be a trend. But in the end my vote goes to....

Gloriana. Although some critics didn't enjoy the 1950's framing device, I thought it worked.  I also enjoyed the commitment of the cast and of the conductor Paul Daniel, and although Susan Bullock's voice is not a beautiful instrument, she was touching in the final scene and the whole opera was a joy to watch.  Toby Spence was also a fine Essex and brought a sweet vulnerability to the part.

Worst New Production.
Where to start?  For the most part I found the new productions this season depressing or incomprehensible or both.  Doppelgängers in Eugene Onegin could have been a good idea but the execution was clumsy and interfered too much with the story.  Rather perversely I enjoyed the production of Written on Skin but hated the actual music. Nabucco was musically very good indeed but so depressing to watch - 50 Shades of Grey indeed. So that just leaves the winner of this category....

La Donna del Lago.  Poor Joyce.  She's a game girl but even she couldn't persuade me of the merits of this one.  Which is a pity as the singing was sublime - as you would expect with Joyce di Donato and Juan Diego Florez.  But what a waste of such fantastic singers.  One where you closed your eyes and listened.

Best Production Revival
A bit spoilt for choice here and most of the revived productions were well executed, well sung and had their particular merits but for me the winner is....

Die Zauberflote.  For me, the sign of a great production or performance is that I want to go back and see it again - and in this instance I did, with the added bonus of a different cast for the second performance.  Both casts were equally good.  Stand out performances for me were Charles Castronovo as Tamino, Simon Keenleyside still funny as Papageno and Sophie Bevan as Pamina - not all in the same cast unfortunately. David McVicar's production is still magical and I'd definitely go back and see another performance.

Worst Production Revival
Actually very hard to pick out a production that I'd label 'worst' so be kind I'd say that this one is less good in comparison to others this season.  The winner is....

La Boheme.  Now don't get me wrong, I like Boheme as much as the next person and I also know that this production is vintage and 'well loved' but honestly I think its time for a new production to have a fresh look at this. Mind you, given the lack-lustre new productions this season perhaps we'd better stick with this for a few more years.  The singers were fine and in some cases very fine indeed.  Sonya Yoncheva as Musetta impressed, as did Hibla Gerzmava as Mimi. Vittorio Grigolo I found quite annoying.  His arrogance and mannerisms on stage did him no favours, which is a pity because when he settled down and started paying attention to his fellow singers (and the conductor) he was actually quite good.

Which brings me to...

Best Male Singer Performance
For regular readers of this blog (and my twitterfeed) the winner of this award will probably come as no surprise. However there was some serious competition and honourable mentions must go to Charles Castronovo in Zauberflote and La Rondine; Feruccio Ferlanetto in Don Carlo, Aleksandrs Antonenko in Tosca and Toby Spence in Gloriana.  But the winner has to be...

Jonas Kaufmann. As as I said, probably no surprise but honestly this performance just blew me away - so good I saw it twice. I would venture that the role of Don Carlo is a great fit for Kaufmann, he really seems to relish the dark, tormented characters in opera so this one fits the bill perfectly.  And if you add superb acting to the daring vocalism and you have the perfect package.  I'm hooked.

Best Female Singer Performance.
Lots of competition for this one too.  I'm not as heavily invested in the female voice, although I do love a good mezzo it has to be said.  Honourable mentions go to Angela Gheorghiu in Rondine, Sophie Bevan in Zauberflote,  Lianna Haroutounian in Don Carlo and Krassimira Stoyanova in Eugene Onegin.  But for me the winner is.....

Joyce di Donato.  Whatever the faults of the production, the singing from Joyce was absolutely superb and if she had any doubts about what she was being asked to do, she certainly didn't show it.  Add to that a winning manner and a wonderful down to earth personality which I was lucky enough to see in her masterclass, then Joyce is my Best Female Singer Performance of the season.  Brava!

And finally...

Operatic Highlight of the Year.
This simply has to be...

Don Carlo.  And not just because of the wonderful performance by Jonas Kaufmann.  If you add Ferruccio Ferlanetto, Lianna Haroutounian, Mariusz Kwiecien, not to mention Tony Pappano conducting then you have a top class performance.

So that's it.  Covent Garden is (relatively) quiet until the new opera season starts with Turandot on 9th September - I'll be having an early preview with the dress rehearsal on 7th September so watch this space.

In the meantime please do let me know your favourites of the season.

Glorious Gloriana - or How I Came to love Britten

Gloriana, Royal Opera House 22nd June 2013

Its been a while since my last blog - and while that's mostly because I haven't been to the opera since then,  I also think I had an adverse reaction to the last new production I saw there (La Donna del Lago) which really made me quite depressed about the new productions being presented at Covent Garden.

So it was with a slight sense of apprehension that I made the journey to see Benajamin Britten's Gloriana - because if you're going to see a new production at ROH then why not ensure that you don't really know the music or the composer that well into the bargain - what could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, very little.

Richard Jones' concept (such as it was) was to stage the whole opera as thought it were a performance set in a 1950's village hall in the presence of the young Queen Elizabeth II - a silent figure who bookended the performance.  Various silent extras lurked around the periphery of the performance area playing directors, prompts, conductors and even a St John's Ambulance lady, which brought back memories.  And yet all of this superfluous business never once intruded onto the real action taken place on stage.  Granted you could also say 'then why bother?' But somehow it worked - at least for the main part.  A rosy glow of double nostalgia permeated the whole colourful production - nostalgia for the relatively simple times of the 1950's and perhaps also a nostalgia for the times when England and her monarch were a force to be reckoned with?

So what, I hear you ask, makes this so much better than the concept of Donna del Lago, which was also surrounded by nostalgia - if a somewhat different one?  I have no idea to be honest.  Why does one directorial idea work and another does not?  If pressed I would say that the Gloriana concept just fitted - it seemed entirely natural that we be watching this through the prism of the 1950's when the opera was composed and presented as a tribute to our current monarch.  In contrast the Donna concept seemed forced and unnatural - at odds with the action taking place and more importantly with the music and libretto.

I suppose my only slight reservation regarding the 1950's framing device, is that it does impose another layer of artificiality over the action.  We already know that these are singers merely playing their part, but now they are also (presumably) singers in the 1950's playing a part!  However I will say that the cast were all fully committed and there was never a sense of not taking the Elizabethan drama seriously nor any  'am-dram' acting.

As to the music I  must admit to being surprised and completely won over by Britten. Albert Herring has been my only other Britten experience and while I liked it, I didn't completely love it.  This music was so beautiful and varied that by the end of the evening I was vowing never to neglect Britten again!  A result surely and one of the (many) reasons I go to the opera.

The singing was good and the English text crisply delivered in most cases.  Stand out performances for me were Tony Spence's lyrical Earl of Essex and Patricia Bardon's Countess of Essex.  She displayed a fine rich mezzo which I'll definitely be looking out for in other productions.  Susan Bullock as the Queen was more problematic for me.  She is a committed artist for sure but she has a shrill edge to her voice in the upper register which on occasion  made me wince.  But she played the part with gusto and was wonderfully touching in the final scene.

All of the cast and the conductor Paul Daniels were quite rightly cheered to the rafters at curtain call and I can heartily recommend this opera to novice and experienced opera-goers alike.  There are currently bargains to be had via various sources but I suspect once word gets out the seats will be snapped up.  Failing that, ROH are broadcasting the opera live on Monday 24th June - details of where it is showing here ROH Gloriana at the Cinema

My real test of a good night at the opera is the question "Would I go and see it again?"  The answer in this instance is emphatically yes.