"But yet the pity of it..." Otello, English National Opera 11 October 2014

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!

Mazes of the Mind - Fidelio, English National Opera, 27th September 2013

I don't go to see opera at ENO very often it has to be said.  This is nothing to do with their tendency to a somewhat more challenging directorial approach than the ROH.  I like to think I'm open-minded and take each production on its own merits.  No, my reluctance is usually to do with the fact that I do prefer my opera in the original language i.e. the language of the original libretto. Italian opera especially tends to sound frankly more than a little strange and grating to the ear when translated into English.  So I tend to avoid the mainstream repertory that I know well and visit ENO for works that I don't know quite so well - or that have a tradition for being translated into English, such as the upcoming Die Fledermaus.

For me Fidelio just about comes under that criteria.  I don't understand German in the way I do Italian/French and I've only seen Fidelio once - and that was on DVD.  I do know Florestan's aria 'Gott! Welch dunkel hier' reasonably well...but more of that later. So a visit to see this was definitely on the agenda.  What tipped the balance for me was ENO's introduction of their Secret Seat scheme, where you pay £20 up front with no idea of where you will be seated until a couple of days before the performance when your seat will be confirmed.  Suitably intrigued and up for a gamble I booked 'secret seats' for Fidelio, Die Fledermaus and Peter Grimes.  Thankfully in the case of Fidelio, the gamble paid off very nicely with a front row seat in the Dress Circle - a ticket normally costing £94!  Not bad.  However looking around the auditorium I couldn't help but notice an abundance of empty seats.  This is a shame and I do hope ENO is not about to go the way of New York City Opera who seem to be on their last legs.

The production by Calixto Bieito is new to ENO, although will be familiar to international opera goers and YouTube fans as it was premièred in Munich in 2010.  I'll say upfront that I haven't watched any of the available clips as none seem to come with English subtitles, and given my unfamiliarity with the work, I do need them.  So, I came to this performance as fresh as I could and with no preconceptions other than knowing the basic outline of the story.

I have to say that I found the standing set (pictured above) stunning.  The picture doesn't really do it justice and I also have to give kudos to the lighting designer Tim Mitchell for making what could have been a stark and ugly set, quite beautiful at times.

Apart from occasionally clambering around the set, the singers were mostly confined in front of the mad-made monolith but they made the most of the restrictions.  I must admit that if I was coming to this completely ignorant of the story, I would probably have no idea what was happening - and to me that is a failure.  I shouldn't need to have to read essays by the director before I watch a piece of theatre - they should be able to convey the story effectively without me having to refer to the programme to see what on earth they are getting at.  There is also much mention of a 'fresh vision' and 'challenging assumptions' which is all very well if you are dealing with people who know the opera inside out and are open to being challenged whilst still understanding the original.  But what if you are dealing with people (like me) who have very little previous knowledge of the opera and are therefore left totally confused by this production.

Ironically I felt that this did work as a piece of theatre, but not as an opera - the two felt quite disconnected.  Let me explain a little.  For me, the ideal opera performance is one where acting and singing combine to produce an almost seamless work - one where you almost don't notice the acting or the singing as separate entities.  In my experience that fusion very rarely happens and the balance nearly always tips to one side or the other - either the music/singing wins out, or the acting/theatrical aspects do.  I have been lucky enough to witness those rare performances where you almost forget that someone is singing, so wrapped up in the drama have I been.  But those are rare exceptions - and this performance came no where close alas.

The most annoying part of the performance came with the arrival of Don Fernando, bizarrely costumed here in full wig and 17/18 Century get up - as opposed to the rest of the cast in current workaday clothes.  Why?  I would almost have preferred the Munich version where he was some sort of Joker figure.  And then of course he goes and shoots Florestan - which I admit came as a bit of a surprise.  The first word of out my mouth was  'b........'  I'll leave you do deduct what that might have been. It just didn't work for me as played here.    I have subsequently looked up the Munich version to see how they played it and frankly it was much better done, the reactions of the singer playing Don Fernando 'sold' the idea - but not in the ENO version I'm afraid.

I'd be interested to know if Bieto directed this revival and approved of the tweaks to the original. Subsequent viewing of clips of the Munich original has revealed some significant differences in addition to the one noted above.

As to the singing, I would say that overall it was of a very high standard given the challenges of some very physical aspects to the production.  Stuart Skelton was impressive as Florestan and his first utterance of 'God, the darkest hour' was in no way inferior to a Certain Other Tenor's outstanding version.  I did feel however, that he tired a little towards the end.  Beethoven's challenging writing no doubt, but also a very hectic schedule alternating Fidelio and Peter Grimes - neither easy sings. But Skelton has a beautiful strong voice and I'm looking forward to his performance in the ENO Peter Grimes in February.

Emma Bell as Fidelio/Leonore was his equal although I found her lower register less reliable and beautiful than her steely top where I felt she came into her own.  Very nicely acted too if not entirely convincing as a bloke.

So, for me a game of two halves.  The music and singing was beautiful but the production failed for me personally in that I didn't get the emotional 'punch' that I'm always looking for in opera.  However, what it has done is made me more eager to experience another production of Fidelio - there are so many interpretations of this story that could be done, both traditional and non-traditional.  I hope I get to see one soon.