{"id":2544,"date":"2017-11-22T15:35:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2017-11-22T15:47:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T14:47:30","slug":"little-but-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2544","title":{"rendered":"Little but Moving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life is too short to waste time on boring performances. This is especially clear to opera house directors, who not infrequently have trouble filling the hall for shows of works from outside a narrow canon \u2013 but after all, they would like to put on something more than just La Traviata<\/em> alternating with Die Zauberfl\u00f6te<\/em>. Opera North has decided to do something about this, finding a solution tempting not only to novices, but to discriminating connoisseurs as well. Thirteen years ago, it offered a season under the slogan Eight Little Greats<\/em>: eight short operas staged by two directors, David Pountney and Christopher Alden, in collaboration with one stage designer, the now late Johan Engels, under the baton of three conductors \u2013 Martin Andr\u00e9, David Parry and James Holmes. While the shows came in pairs, tickets were sold for individual titles \u2013 and that, at half price. It was possible to leave during the intermission or appear only during the interval. Not counting I Pagliacci<\/em>, only rare works were presented at that time, among others Rachmaninov\u2019s Francesca da Rimini <\/em>and Zemlinsky\u2019s The Dwarf<\/em>. The endeavour ended in partial success: the level of the stagings turned out to be uneven, and the individual compositions \u2013 despite their modest dimensions \u2013 too hermetic and inaccessible to convince undecided parties to fritter away an evening in the company of Les Troyens<\/em> or Die Meistersinger von N\u00fcrnberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Opera North has drawn conclusions from that previous lesson and returned to the Little Greats<\/em> idea in 2017, but on slightly different premises. This time, there were six titles, including three from the warhorse repertoire (Cavalleria rusticana<\/em>, I Pagliacci<\/em> and L\u2019enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges<\/em>), but combined in classic double-bills. It is another matter that the combinations sometimes turned out to be surprising; besides that, the \u2018road shows\u2019 were comprised of different elements from the premi\u00e8re shows in Leeds. The common denominator was, once again, the stage designer \u2013 Charles Edwards, who in the case of I Pagliacci<\/em> took responsibility for the entirety of the staging. All told, five stage directors were engaged, and four conductors, including Anthony Kraus, who led L\u2019enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges <\/em>alternating with Martin Andr\u00e9, a veteran of the 2004 series. Ravel\u2019s lyric fantasy was the only work that audiences could go to separately, as part of a family matin\u00e9e at the opera.<\/p>\n

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I Pagliacci<\/em>. Richard Burkhard (Tonio) and Peter Auty (Canio) Photo: Tristram Kenton.<\/p>\n

When I looked at the program of Opera North\u2019s autumn season, what I noticed above all was Destiny (Osud) \u2013<\/em> a very rarely-performed opera by Jan\u00e1\u010dek that I knew only from recordings. In Nottingham, where the Little Greats<\/em> series ended up at the beginning of November, it was paired with the one-act L’enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges<\/em>, presenting in one evening both of the productions directed by Annabel Arden. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to travel to the capital of the East Midlands \u2013 the temptation to see and hear these two pearls at the local Theatre Royal, one of the most beautiful Victorian theatres in the Isles, where the world premi\u00e8re of Agatha Christie\u2019s legendary The Mousetrap <\/em>took place in 1952, turned out to be irresistible. Since I was supposed to come to Nottingham a day early anyway, I decided to go to Cavalleria rusticana <\/em>and I Pagliacci<\/em>, presented in a pair as usual, except in reverse order. In this case, I was motivated by curiosity about how Polish stage director Karolina Sofulak had managed with Mascagni\u2019s opera, since she had made the quite bold decision to shift this gory tale from Sicily to the realities of the boorish Polish People\u2019s Republic. Now I regret having forgone the two remaining elements of the series: Leonard Bernstein\u2019s gloomy \u2018musical\u2019 Trouble in Tahiti<\/em> and the comic opera Trial by Jury<\/em>, one of the first fruits of the collaboration between W.\u00a0S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, two of the greatest theater stars of Queen Victoria\u2019s era.<\/p>\n

Charles Edwards spared no effort to ensure that audiences remembered the Little Greats<\/em> as \u2013 appearances notwithstanding \u2013 a coherent series, combined into a whole with numerous, sometimes very ingenious inside allusions. His I Pagliacci<\/em> plays out in the rehearsal room of a contemporary theatre, on the walls of which hang the designs of the scenery and costumes for all six shows. The frustrated Tonio \u2013 the stage designer and, at the same time, director\u2019s assistant \u2013 spreads out a mockup of Cavalleria rusticana<\/em> on the table. The face of the clock from which the Child tore off the pendulum in Ravel\u2019s one-act opera materializes as a symbol of the passage of time in Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s opera. A shabby upright piano wanders from the studio of composer \u017divn\u00fd to the room of the unruly Child, in which all of the objects damaged by the Child will shortly come to life. The director of the troupe from I Pagliacci<\/em> sings the prologue against the background of a curtain with a group picture of the artists, which appears as an immutable prop in all of the shows in the series.<\/p>\n

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Cavalleria rusticana<\/em>. Phillip Rhodes (Alfio) and Katie Bray (Lola) with the Chorus of Opera North. Photo: Robert Workman.<\/p>\n

Of the two double-bills I saw in Nottingham, in theatrical terms Destiny<\/em> paired with L’enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges<\/em> came out decidedly better. In Ravel\u2019s fantasy, Annabel Arden\u2019s vivid directorial imagination gained worthy support from both the stage designer and from Theo Clinkard, who was responsible for the stage movement. This is probably the first staging of this opera that I know of in which the contrast between the claustrophobic atmosphere of the child\u2019s room and the seductive horror of the garden bathed in moonlight was so intelligently brought out. The excellently-directed singing actors provoked the audience to attacks of spasmodic laughter: it is difficult to keep a straight face at the sight of the Teapot with a vigorously erect spout between its legs, or the Tree Frog in pitifully stretched-out green stockings; it is even harder to forget the flirtations of the Tom Cat and the Female Cat, maintained in the poetic language of Pink Panther cartoons. Arden had a bit worse of a time with Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s Osud<\/em>, which is in large measure the fault of the composer, who also co-authored the libretto \u2013 it is difficult to believe that almost parallel to Jen\u016ffa<\/em>, he was creating an opera so dramaturgically incoherent and pretentious in terms of the text. Fortunately, it is not lacking in flashes of true musical genius, brought out by the stage director in Act\u00a0I, which was played with bravado and at times gave one the impression of watching a Ji\u0159\u00ed Menzel film. The next two, however, dragged on mercilessly \u2013 the introduction of completely baseless allusions to Communist Czechoslovakia in the last one only made things worse.<\/p>\n

I treated I Pagliacci<\/em> in Edwards\u2019 staging rather as an intelligent introduction to the remaining parts of Little Greats<\/em> than as an innovative attempt to reinterpret the work. Shifting the action to contemporary realities spoiled nothing, but neither did it bring anything particularly new into the story of the bored Nedda, the crazy-jealous Canio and the vengeful, humiliated Tonio. The most interesting things took place in the third plane \u2013 among the blas\u00e9 stage workers, killing time reading newspapers and munching on sandwiches, the distracted choristers and the talkative director\u2019s assistants. Edwards skillfully plays out the details: for instance in the prologue, when the disheveled director walks onto the proscenium with coffee in a paper cup and the shopping in a plastic bag from Sainsbury\u2019s hypermarket. All in all, it was a decent show, consistently planned-out and executed with a bit of a conspiratorial wink, which cannot be said of the deadly-serious Cavalleria rusticana<\/em> in Sofulak\u2019s staging. I don\u2019t know how my English professional colleagues took it \u2013 at times, I had the impression I was watching Bryll\u2019s Christmas Carol Night<\/em>, and not a verismo opera. I found the gigantic fiberboard cross in the middle of the stage and the little red Fiat with Skierniewice registration plates that replaced Alfio\u2019s wagon somehow bearable. I couldn\u2019t stand Santuzza characterized as Maja Komorowska, or Mamma Lucia selling kie\u0142basa<\/em> on ration cards in a shop with yawningly empty shelves, lit up by a red-and-white neon sign reading \u2018Sklep Lucyna\u2019 [\u2018Lucyna Shop\u2019 \u2013 in Polish!]. Maybe I am not objective. It is not out of the question that my fellow countrymen and -women abroad get away with such ideas.<\/p>\n

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L\u2019enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges<\/em>. Quirijn de Lang (Tom Cat), Wallis Giunta (Child) and Katie Bray (Female Cat). Photo: Tristram Kenton.<\/p>\n

Let us drop a curtain of silence on the unfortunate vision of Mascagni\u2019s opera and focus on the biggest trump card of Opera North\u2019s autumn season: the phenomenal work of the entire ensemble, the commitment of the soloists, the ideal preparation of the chorus and orchestra. The latter came out much better under the baton of Martin Andr\u00e9 than in the Cav<\/em>\/Pag<\/em> tandem led by Tobias Ringborg, which does not change the fact that both evenings were well able to satisfy not only a novice, but a spoiled opera connoisseur as well. The star of I Pagliacci <\/em>was Richard Burkhard, a velvety-voiced, extraordinarily expressive Tonio who turned out the next day to be an equally convincing Lhotsk\u00fd in Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s Osud<\/em>. The otherwise superb Elin Pritchard (Nedda) and Peter Auty \u2013 a Canio with a \u2018short\u2019 top register, but sufficiently conscious of his role to bring the audience to its knees with his interpretation of the famous aria \u2018Vesti la giubba\u2019 \u2013 paled a bit in comparison with Burkhard. Silvio in the person of Rhodes was charming rather in his musicality than in the beauty of his voice \u2013 as in the later Cavalleria rusticana<\/em>, where he portrayed the role of the betrayed Alfio. In Mascagni\u2019s one-act opera, the front runners were the two ladies: Giselle Allen (Santuzza), a superb actress gifted with a dense soprano spinto <\/em>rich in overtones, and Katie Bray (Lola) \u2013 a mezzo-soprano bringing to mind associations with the voice of the young Janet Baker, dark and shimmering like liquid gold. Both of them, furthermore, appeared the next day: the former as\u00a0M\u00edla in Osud<\/em>, and the latter in the triple role of the Louis XV Chair, Female Cat and Owl in L\u2019enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges. <\/em>Very young, but already showered with awards and sought-after by the managers of the world\u2019s opera houses, Wallis Giunta turned out to be the Child of my dreams \u2013 sufficiently boyish in manner, but at the same time, wonderfully fresh in the purely vocal sense. It would take a long time to mention all of the soloists who appeared during these two evenings. So I will just mention two more veterans: the wonderful Britten tenor John Graham-Hall, who made me laugh until I cried in Ravel\u2019s fantasy (as the Teapot, Arithmetic and Tree Frog) and moved me to even more abundant tears in the role of \u017divn\u00fd; and Rosalind Plowright, who again disappointed me as Mamma Lucia, but on the other hand completely seduced me as the demonic\u00a0M\u00edla\u2019s Mother, superb in terms of character and voice, in Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s opera. I don\u2019t understand why this great singer \u2018flees\u2019 into mezzo-soprano and contralto roles, since she still has at her disposal a deep dramatic soprano with characteristic sound, brilliant in less physically demanding parts that are, on the other hand, much more difficult in terms of expression.<\/p>\n

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Osud<\/em>. Giselle Allen (M\u00edla) and Rosalind Plowright (M\u00edla\u2019s Mother). Photo: Alastair Muir.<\/p>\n

I was at four of the six shows in the Little Greats<\/em> series. Little shows, but deeply moving. I admit that I was also moved by the attitude of Karolina Sofulak: a stage director who was the only one to break out of the production team and demolish the coherent concept of the whole. And after all, Tonio in I Pagliacci <\/em>took such tender care of the little red Fiat model that was to play a taxi after the intermission in her Cavalleria rusticana\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Translated by: Karol Thornton-Remiszewski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is too short to waste time on boring performances. This is especially clear to opera house directors, who not infrequently have trouble filling the hall for shows of works from outside a narrow canon \u2013 but after all, they would like to put on something more than just La Traviata alternating with Die Zauberfl\u00f6te. … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-2544","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2552,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}