Baugé
Glyndebourne - en - Anjou
JULIA HIGGINS, GEORGE STIRLING
Erstwhile Oxonians Julia and George
were sufficiently appreciative of a lively production of Le Nozze di Figaro last winter, by the touring Opéra de Baugé at
the Rose theatre in Kingston upon Thames, to seek out more at this year’s
summer festival in Baugé itself.
The Rose in Kingston is a new building with a layout based on that of the Elizabethan Rose Theatre in central London (though with roof and modern seating). It features a shallow thrust stage which can be a challenge for opera performances, but ingeniously resolved by the Opéra de Baugé company by ranging the orchestra vertically behind the open stage. Although posing some logistical problems, not least for the conductor, it was carried off brilliantly, with excellent performances from the cast, and the orchestra itself. We resolved to trace this small festival, and when we found it to be on our intended route into SW France this summer, tickets were sought and purchased.
Baugé-en-Anjou is a small town in the Loire valley a little to the east of Angers in France. With only around 4000 inhabitants it is a quiet place, though well endowed with restored and cared-for monuments dating back at least 1000 years. However for one week in August in recent years it has played host to an opera festival. This year’s programme comprised a full performance of Cosi fan tutte, and a double bill of Walton’s one act opera The Bear, and his Façade. After the performances, the bar in the nearby Brasserie du Chateau is probably as lively as at any time during the year, and thronged with young musicians from the cast and orchestra until late into the evening. In August we were enjoying their music and their company.
The founder of the Opéra de Baugé, John Grimmett, has a home in the town, and in 2003 the opening production – Britten’s Albert Herring - was played in a mobile theatre in the garden of his property “Les Capucins”. In subsequent years the number of productions increased to three a year and the audience figures have risen to some 3000 a year. Since 2012 the performances have been held in the Centre Culturel René d’Anjou. This is an excellent performing space cleverly built within some of the walls of the former Baugé prison adjacent to the Château. The evening format owes something to a rather more famous festival in southern England, starting at 6pm and breaking for dinner for 90 minutes. This can be taken in a small restaurant space next to the theatre, or by most people as a picnic in the nearby gardens of the Château or Hôtel Dieu. We chose the more formal option owing to our travelling status. Picnics can also be provided by the same caterers who are from a local restaurant. Judging by our dinners the picnics will be excellent but clearly most people bring their own.
Opéra de Baugé is a French not-for-profit organisation, whose funding comes 80% from ticket sales. It also clearly relies on a large group of volunteer helpers. The musicians are largely young judging from or own observation on stage (and afterwards in the bar). However the soloists while certainly young are more experienced, and not straight out of opera school. Their curricula vitae make interesting reading in the programme, and they are a very international bunch. The Cosi had three British males, whereas the three females were from Austria, Greece and the Philippines. The conductor Philip Hesketh also conducts several UK orchestras. His conducting was excellent with a good pace and the orchestra responded well. The soloists were occasionally a little rough round the edges but overall did justice to Mozart. The acting – especially of the three ladies - was very good indeed, and we have rarely seen Dorabella and Fiordiligi differentiated so well in their characters and responses to temptation.
Apart from one extraordinary quirk, the production was traditional, set in a convincing Mediterranean garden, and well-paced like the music. However there was throughout a background sound of birdsong, gentle but certainly evident. One can shut one’s eyes during a visually irritating piece of theatre but hardly one’s ears! Judging by the 2014 Figaro, and the Walton about which more below this was a one-off mistake, not to be repeated we hope.
[We subsequently have had some correspondence with the artistic director who writes that “In fact, the 7th soloist was a live canary. We had had one for our previous Cosi in 2005 (who was sadly eaten by our cat mid-way through the season) and wanted to repeat what had been a good experience. The canary did sing throughout, encouraged and inspired by the soloists but with great delicacy and was seen and not heard by the audience. This time, we inadvertently bought the Gigli of canaries. You might have noticed his colleagues sometimes putting a gold and black cover over his cage to dampen his enthusiasm. He obviously considered himself an important soloist and ensemble singer and, by the end of the season, was beginning to repeat the last phrases of other soloists with uncanny accuracy as to pitch and rhythm. I am very sorry to say that he will never trouble you again since he also fell victim to a predator (although not until after the season was over)”].
The libretto for The Bear is based on a short play by Chekhov. Basically it is a long quarrel between a recently widowed lady and a creditor of her dead husband. She is persisting in theatrical mourning despite her husband’s many infidelities, while the Bear, the creditor, who was a military colleague of her husband, needs the debt repaid urgently to avoid being gaoled for his own debts. The story is simple and clear and the production respected that. The three singers (there is also a lugubrious manservant) all acted and sang well and again the orchestra and conducting were excellent. As the lady becomes more and more furious and indeed challenges the Bear to a duel, the latter begins to admire her fighting spirit and declares his love for her. By the end, and it comes rapidly, she too is won over. As Peter Schofield wrote in his review of Opera Anywhere’s 2005 production in Oxford: “That’s it!”. The Bear is not often performed, but on this evidence we would go again if it comes our way.
Façade is so well known (in bits) that we found it hard to realise that we had never heard the whole thing. The two readers kept the rhythm and pace well, and the small chamber orchestra played well. The piece will never be one of our favourites but it was an interesting experience to hear the whole thing, and one of us at least does not regret the time. The French audience seemed to enjoy it all but we heard one say that he made no attempt to follow words, just let the music flow. We certainly could not follow most of the words ourselves but fortunately we were provided with the text in the programme.
The small casts sometimes doubled up on roles. Guglielmo turned up as the servant, Luka, in The Bear, and Don Alfonso went one better, giving us both the Bear, and reading in Façade!
Overall this was a happy find. We will certainly be looking to return in future and recommend anyone who might be in the area next summer to consult the website www.operadebauge.fr . There is a whisper of a return to the Capucins gardens for at least one production.
29 August 2015
The Rose in Kingston is a new building with a layout based on that of the Elizabethan Rose Theatre in central London (though with roof and modern seating). It features a shallow thrust stage which can be a challenge for opera performances, but ingeniously resolved by the Opéra de Baugé company by ranging the orchestra vertically behind the open stage. Although posing some logistical problems, not least for the conductor, it was carried off brilliantly, with excellent performances from the cast, and the orchestra itself. We resolved to trace this small festival, and when we found it to be on our intended route into SW France this summer, tickets were sought and purchased.
Baugé-en-Anjou is a small town in the Loire valley a little to the east of Angers in France. With only around 4000 inhabitants it is a quiet place, though well endowed with restored and cared-for monuments dating back at least 1000 years. However for one week in August in recent years it has played host to an opera festival. This year’s programme comprised a full performance of Cosi fan tutte, and a double bill of Walton’s one act opera The Bear, and his Façade. After the performances, the bar in the nearby Brasserie du Chateau is probably as lively as at any time during the year, and thronged with young musicians from the cast and orchestra until late into the evening. In August we were enjoying their music and their company.
The founder of the Opéra de Baugé, John Grimmett, has a home in the town, and in 2003 the opening production – Britten’s Albert Herring - was played in a mobile theatre in the garden of his property “Les Capucins”. In subsequent years the number of productions increased to three a year and the audience figures have risen to some 3000 a year. Since 2012 the performances have been held in the Centre Culturel René d’Anjou. This is an excellent performing space cleverly built within some of the walls of the former Baugé prison adjacent to the Château. The evening format owes something to a rather more famous festival in southern England, starting at 6pm and breaking for dinner for 90 minutes. This can be taken in a small restaurant space next to the theatre, or by most people as a picnic in the nearby gardens of the Château or Hôtel Dieu. We chose the more formal option owing to our travelling status. Picnics can also be provided by the same caterers who are from a local restaurant. Judging by our dinners the picnics will be excellent but clearly most people bring their own.
Opéra de Baugé is a French not-for-profit organisation, whose funding comes 80% from ticket sales. It also clearly relies on a large group of volunteer helpers. The musicians are largely young judging from or own observation on stage (and afterwards in the bar). However the soloists while certainly young are more experienced, and not straight out of opera school. Their curricula vitae make interesting reading in the programme, and they are a very international bunch. The Cosi had three British males, whereas the three females were from Austria, Greece and the Philippines. The conductor Philip Hesketh also conducts several UK orchestras. His conducting was excellent with a good pace and the orchestra responded well. The soloists were occasionally a little rough round the edges but overall did justice to Mozart. The acting – especially of the three ladies - was very good indeed, and we have rarely seen Dorabella and Fiordiligi differentiated so well in their characters and responses to temptation.
Apart from one extraordinary quirk, the production was traditional, set in a convincing Mediterranean garden, and well-paced like the music. However there was throughout a background sound of birdsong, gentle but certainly evident. One can shut one’s eyes during a visually irritating piece of theatre but hardly one’s ears! Judging by the 2014 Figaro, and the Walton about which more below this was a one-off mistake, not to be repeated we hope.
[We subsequently have had some correspondence with the artistic director who writes that “In fact, the 7th soloist was a live canary. We had had one for our previous Cosi in 2005 (who was sadly eaten by our cat mid-way through the season) and wanted to repeat what had been a good experience. The canary did sing throughout, encouraged and inspired by the soloists but with great delicacy and was seen and not heard by the audience. This time, we inadvertently bought the Gigli of canaries. You might have noticed his colleagues sometimes putting a gold and black cover over his cage to dampen his enthusiasm. He obviously considered himself an important soloist and ensemble singer and, by the end of the season, was beginning to repeat the last phrases of other soloists with uncanny accuracy as to pitch and rhythm. I am very sorry to say that he will never trouble you again since he also fell victim to a predator (although not until after the season was over)”].
The libretto for The Bear is based on a short play by Chekhov. Basically it is a long quarrel between a recently widowed lady and a creditor of her dead husband. She is persisting in theatrical mourning despite her husband’s many infidelities, while the Bear, the creditor, who was a military colleague of her husband, needs the debt repaid urgently to avoid being gaoled for his own debts. The story is simple and clear and the production respected that. The three singers (there is also a lugubrious manservant) all acted and sang well and again the orchestra and conducting were excellent. As the lady becomes more and more furious and indeed challenges the Bear to a duel, the latter begins to admire her fighting spirit and declares his love for her. By the end, and it comes rapidly, she too is won over. As Peter Schofield wrote in his review of Opera Anywhere’s 2005 production in Oxford: “That’s it!”. The Bear is not often performed, but on this evidence we would go again if it comes our way.
Façade is so well known (in bits) that we found it hard to realise that we had never heard the whole thing. The two readers kept the rhythm and pace well, and the small chamber orchestra played well. The piece will never be one of our favourites but it was an interesting experience to hear the whole thing, and one of us at least does not regret the time. The French audience seemed to enjoy it all but we heard one say that he made no attempt to follow words, just let the music flow. We certainly could not follow most of the words ourselves but fortunately we were provided with the text in the programme.
The small casts sometimes doubled up on roles. Guglielmo turned up as the servant, Luka, in The Bear, and Don Alfonso went one better, giving us both the Bear, and reading in Façade!
Overall this was a happy find. We will certainly be looking to return in future and recommend anyone who might be in the area next summer to consult the website www.operadebauge.fr . There is a whisper of a return to the Capucins gardens for at least one production.
29 August 2015