Music
More than a yard of tickets to the Proms!
Erotically charged Tosca at Covent Garden from the Royal Opera; the core singing trio worked well together: Amanda Echalaz (Tosca), Massimo Giordano (Cavaradossi) and Michael Volle (Scarpia) are all “emerging talents” and playing characters of very similar ages to their own. The result was a dramatically credible performance with more subtle characterisations than is usually the case with a more blockbuster cast. A benefit of the now ubiquitous surtitles is to be able to follow the development of the plot in detail, line by line, as Puccini’s chilling melodrama unfolds.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra at full strength gave us an intense and detailed account of Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome as the opening piece in their programme Ravel’s Obsession with Spain conducted by Enrique Mazzola at the Festival Hall as part of the Southbank Centre’s festival The Rest is Noise. This performance of Respighi’s multi-layered impressionist piece was the shining star of tonight’s concert.
Fountains of Rome, premiered in 1915, sits clearly in the time frame where music reacted with impressionism against the symphonic tradition, maybe (suggests the programme note) also as a reaction against the horrors of World War One. The result tonight was like enjoying a box of Belgian chocolates, each exquisite image rendered with fiery intensity. A benefit of attending the concert and seeing the orchestra was to realise there is also a part for the organ!
Read more: Ravel’s Obsession with Spain - London Philharmonic / Enrique Mazzola
The Mikado at ENO was delicate but tear-jerkingly funny, despite still the most ridiculous story line in all opera. Jonathan Miller’s renowned and now venerable production places the action in a fashionable nineteen-thirties hotel but the verbal and music satire thrive in the transposition. ENO's production has become a National Treasure just as much as a major National Trust property.
The fabulous thing about this production is that it is so light, fresh and delicate. My generation were (over) exposed to G&S in school and professional productions but, although well thought of at the time, these pandered to the toe-tapping aspects of the music and their stagings were lumbering in comparison. This production plays the humour absolutely deadpan straight and is murderously effective for that.
Fine, fine music from the pit. Antonio Pappano letting the music breathe and giving the singers space to sing beautifully. Measured performances from the principal singers in Act 1 - Götterdämmerung is long and demanding.
But boy is this production emphasising the gloom and the sorrow. The end of the world is nigh almost before Siegfried has left Brünnhilde’s rock. The dawn on the same rock was pretty drab too. Siegfried’s usually glorious Act 1 duet with Brünnhilde was sunny but it didn’t set me alight with their joy. Siegfried’s journey down the Rhine (at last a transition where the production tried harder than video clouds) was literal, perhaps with echoes of the skeletal glass architecture of Frankfurt am Main railway station, but the video was a gloomy black and white affair, hardly a glorious journey after a night of heroic passion. Indeed Siegfried in this production seems very much a victim of events rather than the hero above all heroes.
The Valkyrie Waltraute turns up and the gloom gets monumental. Brünnhilde still in black. So much for the Prologue and Act 1. The setting is very much symbolic but to my mind doesn’t hang together. The Gibichung hall resembles the skeleton cube Tarnhelm and the transition video emphasises that. But Brünnhilde’s rock uses the same imagery, maybe a staging necessity but it’s just confusing and certainly not clarifying.
But the music and singing are fantastic with no signs of the dodgy ensemble on the previous night. If it was a problem with a video relay of the conductor then it had been fixed.
At last a charming and relevant setting! Act 2 was a good modern setting where the images on stage clearly added to the literal understanding of the music drama. A stylish forest, a reasonable dragon plus great interpretations from the singers and supportive music from the pit.
Act 1 had been nicely pacey, even fast, which is the first time I’ve felt that in this cycle but unfortunately the brass in particular had problems maintaining ensemble. Maybe some video failed and there was a problem with seeing the conductor?
Nice action with a physically suitable actor as Siegfried grows up. He transforms in to the bear he has been hunting and then the singer Siegfried (Stefan Vinke) appears in the style of 21st century “bear”. But actually so what: the growing up was good but I didn’t see how this little piece of extra symbolism adds to my understanding of Wagner’s epic; or maybe it’s an example of misleading symbolism where none was intended. Stefan Vinke’s singing was wonderful: listening with my eyes closed he was naive, powerful and subtle.
Wotan the Wanderer (Bryn Terfel) appears in scene 2, very much the world-weary wanderer, but also very much Bryn Terfel playing the part very well but it would be difficult to say he personified Wotan the Wanderer.
