BUXTON FESTIVAL
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GF Handel: Tamerlano, Buxton Festival, 17 July 2016
The 2016 Buxton Festival held from 8 – 24 July offered the choice of five operas> Three of these were fully staged - Beethoven’s Leonore, an early version of Fidelio, I Capuleti e I Montecchi by Bellini and Handel’s Tamerlano. In addition, Vivaldi’s La Sena Fesreggianti received a single performance as did The Golden Dragon by Peter Eötvös, the former in concert. Only able to attend one, the obvious choice for me was Handel. After a glorious morning’s drive through the varied Derbyshire countryside from Nottingham, we arrived in good time for a light lunch before again taking our seats in the small, elegant Buxton Opera House.
This was the fourth time I had seen this opera. The first was in Oxford in one of Welsh National Opera’s few disasters in English under the title Tamburlaine in 1982 set in a bare white-tied staging, without surtitles impossible to understand. The second was in Drottningholm, Sweden, in a baroque performance which revealed the true greatness of the opera. The third was in the Warden’s Garden in New College, Oxford in 2003 by New Chamber Opera, directed by Michael Burden which followed closely the original detailed stage instructions.
Tamerlano was the second of three of Handel’s greatest works, with Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Rodelinda, written in 1724-5, with librettist Nicolo Francesco Haym, for The Royal Academy of Music. This had been formed by subscription ‘by the Nobility’ in 1713 as ‘a project for erecting an academy at the Haymarket’ with the intention of ‘securing a constant stream of Operas to be composed by Handel and performed under his direction’. It lasted until 1728. Tamerlano was first given at the King’s Theatre on 31 October 1724. It is the least performed of these three operas; the other two has almost become part of the repertoire with recent, outstanding, productions at both Glyndebourne and New York Metropolitan, demonstrating them to be among the greatest of all operas for characterisation and complexity of plot. The characters are all flawed human beings with real conflicts of head and heart (well-suited to the ABA structure of da capo arias!). In Tamerlano there is little genuine romantic content, the characters being driven by political manipulation and thoughts of revenge.. Just as Giulio Cesare should be called Cleopatra and Rodelinda, Bertarido after their most important characters, so should Tamerlano be called Bajazet (pronounced ‘Buyazet’). Bajazet has been defeated and is held prisoner by Tamerlano but is allowed the freedom of the palace because Tamerlano wishes to marry his daughter Asteria. Asreria and the Greek Prince Andronico are in love. Lurking in the background is Irene betrothed to Tamerlano but not yet known to him, disguised as her own messenger (like Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare) accompanied by Leone. Bajazet is a manic depressive (sorry – bipolar) and his condition is worsened by Asteria appearing to accept Tamerlano’s hand without telling her father of her intention to stick a knife into him at their first embrace. Confused by the complexities of the plot, Bajazet takes poison and leaves the stage, leading to an otherwise conventional ending with Tamerlano paired with Irene and Andronico with Asreria.
The Buxton production was billed as a co-production between Buxton Festival and the English Consort, directed by Francis Matthews and conducted by Laurence Cummings, instead of its current Artistic Director Harry Bickett who usually draws a more incisive sound from this leading baroque ensemble. In a Festival booklet, the director explains his view that Tamerlano is a tyrant who strives to maintain a normal domestic life as a family man and art collector, as did many of the Nazi leaders in Germany. This may have been his intention but I can only report what I saw on the stage.
Although there was much to be enjoyed in the singing and the music, it has to said that the staging was a complete mess, showing very little feeling for the requirements of baroque opera in general and Handel in particular. The first mistake was to perform this three act opera with the only interval between Act 2 and Act 3 with not even a pause between the first two Acts. This, presumably for the convenience of the House Management, destroyed the overall balance of the three acts, showing no consideration for the audience. Furthermore, the conductor started Act 3 without giving the audience a chance to settle, as if he had a train to catch back to London after the performance. Secondly, the stage was filled with Victorian bric-a- brac surrounding a central pillar around which was wound a spiral staircase (the latest fashion in scenic design), giving the impression of being in a lighthouse. The costumes appeared to have come from a junk shop. The men were attired in tatty black suits, Tamerlano distinguished by a gold-lined dressing gown, except for Bajazet in a shabby beige suit depriving him of the dignity he strives to maintain. Asteria was dressed in a red dress covered by a full-length white over garment and Irene in white trousers with a black smock. A further failure to understand Handelian opera lay in the appointment of a ‘movement director’ whose job seemed to be to provide some completely inappropriate dance steps at points in the action. The singers should be static, conveying their meaning through the text and the music. Half-hearted attempts to send-up the text with patches of misplaced humor were not convincing.
After the interval things improved. As is often the case with directors who try to impose their own agenda, they run out of ideas and let the composer reassert himself. Handel won out in the end!
The singing was good. I pick out particularly recent graduate Marie Lys who was a charming Asteria. Catherine Hopper also impressed in the smaller role of Irene. The principal male roles, written for alto castrato, were played by countertenors Rupert Enticknap (Tamerlano) and Owen Willetts (Andronico), bass Robert Davies as Leone their go-between and tenor Paul Nilon (Bajazet). The climax of the opera is the suicide of Bajazet by taking poison. In the Drottningholm production he dies sitting in a chair facing the audience – one of the most dramatic scenes I have ever seen in opera; in Oxford he leaves the stage ‘tottering to retire’ as the original instructions require. Here Bajazet takes poison, leaves the stage but returns to die in his daughter’s arms in a moving, dramatic conclusion. Despite the handicap of his costume, Paul Nilon’s interpretation is impressive, particularly in Act 3.
The deficiencies in the production did little to spoil the enjoyment of another day at the Buxton Festival, brief though it had to be. We shall be back next year when the choice is Verdi, Macbeth, Mozart, Lucio Silla and Britten Albert Herring.
22 July 2016
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Giuseppe Verdi: Giovanna d’Arco, Buxton Opera House, 14 July 2015.
Having
survived chaotic traffic delays at the M1-M69 interchange to reach Nottingham for
bed and breakfast, I was able to make a long overdue first visit to the Buxton
Festival, albeit for a fleeting visit, to see just one opera, the ‘Early Verdi’
Giovanna d’Arco. After a comfortable
afternoon drive to Buxton we arrived in good time to consume a generous full
afternoon tea at No 6 The Square a convenient tea shop opposite the Opera
House.
The Buxton Festival has its roots as far back as 1936 but was restored to its present format in 1979. It is now established as a major summer cultural event of world-wide renown. While centred around the performance of three or four operas, the Festival contains much else of music, art, literature and politics over a period of more than two weeks in July. There is also a lively Fringe. This year the operas were Verdi, Giovanna d’Arco, Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor, Charpentier’s tear-jerker Louise (an opera I saw in the ruins of Munich just after the war with Hans Hotter and a chorus of buxom Bavarian wenches trying to emulate Parisian midinettes); the fourth opera was Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the English Concert.
The 900-seat Opera House was built in 1903. It was designed by Frank Matcham who also designed the London Coliseum, built one year later. It is a gem. The auditorium is in a warm deep blue, as was that of the Coliseum before the special atmosphere was ruined by changing it to red at the most recent redecoration. The seats are not fully padded but comfortable with leg-room. The whole ambience is one of elegance and welcome. Translations of the text are shown on screens either side of the stage so that one does not have to raise one’s eyes missing action on the stage as is usual.
Giovanna d’Arco is one of Verdi’s early operas, most of which deal with the struggles for independence of oppressed people, all symbolic of battles for Italian unification throwing off the influence of Austria. It is his seventh opera, first performed in 1845, between Nabucco (1842), his third, and Macbeth (1847) his tenth. The story of Joan of Arc is different from that told in England and France, being based on a version popularised by Schiller and used by Verdi’s librettist Solero. In the opera the three main characters are Giovanna, daughter of the shepherd Giacomo, and Carlo, uncrowned and later crowned king of France with whom she falls in love against the background of war between the English and the French. Giovanna is inspired by divine voices to rally the French against the English and to crown Carlo. However, Giacomo believes the angels to be devils and denounces his own daughter as a sorceress. Giovanna is condemned to be burnt at the stake but escapes to lead the troops in a final battle against the English. Reconciled with her father she succumbs to wounds sustained during the battle.
For me, the performance did not get off to a good start. The curtain rose on the set looking into the angle between two tall black walls. Giovanna is seen seated on the ground then moving to a prie-Dieu. She is wearing a calf-length blue dress and pinafore reminding us of Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to the extent that I expected to see a small dog and red shoes. Angels and demons appear in turn at the top of the walls. A demoralised Carlo arrives with members of his army. He seems to combine the lack of heart, brain and courage of Dorothy’s three companions from Oz until rallied by Giovanna, inspired by her visions. Her father, Giacomo overhearing her voices concludes she is possessed by devils and denounces her
In watching this one is conscious of two things. Yet once again (as in Glyndebourne’s Rape of Lucretia and so many recent WNO productions) the production is almost ruined by the lighting designer who I name and shame as Malcolm Rippeth. From where I was sitting the lighting is so dim on the lower stage that it is almost impossible to see what is going on. This is compounded in the last scene by a spotlight shining straight at the audience. The other problem is the small stage, crowded with three or four chorus members, it gives a feeling of claustrophobia despite a mirror set in one of the walls to give an illusion of space.
It is against these odds that, from near the end of Act 1, Verdi, the singers and musicians triumph, once one has accepted the small scale nature of the production with the Buxton Festival Chorus of twenty-four and the Northern Chamber Orchestra of forty-four players. The Director is the vastly experienced veteran Verdi specialist Elijah Moshinski. Against the background of chorus and orchestra depicting the battles and supernatural appearances, the drama is played out between the three principals, Giovanna, portrayed by Australian soprano Kate Ladner, Carlo by tenor Ben Johnson and Giacomo by baritone Devid Cecconi. They all produced some fine moments but one remembers best the love duet between Giovanna and Carlo and the most moving final duet of reconciliation and forgiveness between father and daughter. Outstanding was the commanding voice and presence of Cecconi. Johnson, the tenor, rapidly making a name as a Lieder singer after winning the audience prize at Cardiff Singer of the World in 2013, has yet to learn how to act. Ladner has a good voice but is a little uneven in delivery.
This first visit to Buxton certainly gave an appetite for a more extended visit next year.
19 July 2015
The Buxton Festival has its roots as far back as 1936 but was restored to its present format in 1979. It is now established as a major summer cultural event of world-wide renown. While centred around the performance of three or four operas, the Festival contains much else of music, art, literature and politics over a period of more than two weeks in July. There is also a lively Fringe. This year the operas were Verdi, Giovanna d’Arco, Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor, Charpentier’s tear-jerker Louise (an opera I saw in the ruins of Munich just after the war with Hans Hotter and a chorus of buxom Bavarian wenches trying to emulate Parisian midinettes); the fourth opera was Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the English Concert.
The 900-seat Opera House was built in 1903. It was designed by Frank Matcham who also designed the London Coliseum, built one year later. It is a gem. The auditorium is in a warm deep blue, as was that of the Coliseum before the special atmosphere was ruined by changing it to red at the most recent redecoration. The seats are not fully padded but comfortable with leg-room. The whole ambience is one of elegance and welcome. Translations of the text are shown on screens either side of the stage so that one does not have to raise one’s eyes missing action on the stage as is usual.
Giovanna d’Arco is one of Verdi’s early operas, most of which deal with the struggles for independence of oppressed people, all symbolic of battles for Italian unification throwing off the influence of Austria. It is his seventh opera, first performed in 1845, between Nabucco (1842), his third, and Macbeth (1847) his tenth. The story of Joan of Arc is different from that told in England and France, being based on a version popularised by Schiller and used by Verdi’s librettist Solero. In the opera the three main characters are Giovanna, daughter of the shepherd Giacomo, and Carlo, uncrowned and later crowned king of France with whom she falls in love against the background of war between the English and the French. Giovanna is inspired by divine voices to rally the French against the English and to crown Carlo. However, Giacomo believes the angels to be devils and denounces his own daughter as a sorceress. Giovanna is condemned to be burnt at the stake but escapes to lead the troops in a final battle against the English. Reconciled with her father she succumbs to wounds sustained during the battle.
For me, the performance did not get off to a good start. The curtain rose on the set looking into the angle between two tall black walls. Giovanna is seen seated on the ground then moving to a prie-Dieu. She is wearing a calf-length blue dress and pinafore reminding us of Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to the extent that I expected to see a small dog and red shoes. Angels and demons appear in turn at the top of the walls. A demoralised Carlo arrives with members of his army. He seems to combine the lack of heart, brain and courage of Dorothy’s three companions from Oz until rallied by Giovanna, inspired by her visions. Her father, Giacomo overhearing her voices concludes she is possessed by devils and denounces her
In watching this one is conscious of two things. Yet once again (as in Glyndebourne’s Rape of Lucretia and so many recent WNO productions) the production is almost ruined by the lighting designer who I name and shame as Malcolm Rippeth. From where I was sitting the lighting is so dim on the lower stage that it is almost impossible to see what is going on. This is compounded in the last scene by a spotlight shining straight at the audience. The other problem is the small stage, crowded with three or four chorus members, it gives a feeling of claustrophobia despite a mirror set in one of the walls to give an illusion of space.
It is against these odds that, from near the end of Act 1, Verdi, the singers and musicians triumph, once one has accepted the small scale nature of the production with the Buxton Festival Chorus of twenty-four and the Northern Chamber Orchestra of forty-four players. The Director is the vastly experienced veteran Verdi specialist Elijah Moshinski. Against the background of chorus and orchestra depicting the battles and supernatural appearances, the drama is played out between the three principals, Giovanna, portrayed by Australian soprano Kate Ladner, Carlo by tenor Ben Johnson and Giacomo by baritone Devid Cecconi. They all produced some fine moments but one remembers best the love duet between Giovanna and Carlo and the most moving final duet of reconciliation and forgiveness between father and daughter. Outstanding was the commanding voice and presence of Cecconi. Johnson, the tenor, rapidly making a name as a Lieder singer after winning the audience prize at Cardiff Singer of the World in 2013, has yet to learn how to act. Ladner has a good voice but is a little uneven in delivery.
This first visit to Buxton certainly gave an appetite for a more extended visit next year.
19 July 2015