Richard Strauss: Intermezzo, Garsington Opera at Wormesley, 7 July 2015.
Mary Dunleavy (Christine) & Mark Stone (Robert), Interemzzo
Mike Hoban
The choice
of operas at Garsington this year was Cosí
fan Tutte, Death in Venice or Richard Strauss’ close-to-reality domestic comedy Intermezzo. Cosí I have
seen so many times before that only the greatest cast would attract me again. Death in Venice I saw in Deborah
Warner’s fine production for ENO in 2007 with Ian Bostridge whereas I have not
seen Intermezzo since Glyndebourne
Touring brought it to Oxford in 1974. The choice was easy.
This year there was no rush and the weather was fine; we were able to arrive soon after the gardens were open to enjoy a bottle of champagne in the open air and to admire the beautiful Chiltern setting. No longer is Garsington Opera a pale imitation of Glyndebourne but it has established its own atmosphere and ambiance. Not replacing Glyndebourne, it now forms an equal part of the summer operatic calendar. Half an hour’s drive, rather than an uncertain two hours from Oxford, it is characterised by the immense friendliness and helpfulnessof the staff, welcoming visitors as guests. Motorised buggies ferry the elderly around from auditorium to restaurant in the interval and to the car park at the end, stopping off at the loos on the way. An expensive extravagance is the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Tent with a fantastic pre-ordered dinner impeccably served and timed to fit the interval without rush which competes with the opera as the main memory of the evening. This was the case last year: this year not!
Intermezzo is the eighth of Richard Strauss’ fifteen operas and follows three of his most substantial, der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos and die Frau ohne Schatten. All these three have librettos by Hugo von Hofmannsthal who refused to have anything to do with Intermezzo on the grounds that it was not a suitable subject for an opera. Styled as A Bourgeois Comedy with Symphonic interludes in Two Acts it is based on two incidents from the often stormy married life of Richard and his wife Pauline, ‘affectionately’ known as the hedgehog. The composer himself wrote the script. In one incident, Pauline finds in a suit pocket of her absent husband an affectionate note not intended for him, from a ‘Mitzi’ thanking for opera tickets and arranging an assignation. In the other, he misreads Pauline’s relationship with a young confidence trickster who attempts to borrow money from her. The resulting comedy is presented in eight short scenes in Act I and five in Act II. The scene changes are brilliantly executed under the-direction of Bruno Ravella and set design of Giles Cadle. One of the features of the Garsington Opera Pavilion is the very wide stage which is exploited fully by being divided into furnished sets opened up from behind panels thus minimising scene changes which are covered in the original by the orchestral interludes.
Thus in Act I we move from the dressing-room of the composer Storch, preparing to depart for Vienna, to a toboggan-run where his wife Christine encounters the impecunious Baron Lummer for whom, after several encounters[PS1] , she finds a bed-sit in the house of her notary. Back in the dining-room of her villa. after refusing Lummer a loan, Christine intercepts the letter from Mitzi, jumps to an immediate conclusion, contacts her notary and packs her bags to leave. The second Act opens with a game of cards involving a conductor Stroh, the intended recipient of Mitzi’s letter. Storch joins the party but is shocked by the arrival of a telegram from Christine. The remainder of the opera deals with a resolution of all the misunderstandings and an uneasy reconciliation[PS2] between Storch and his wife.
Three things impressed to make this performance memorable. First the stage management, with its multiple sets. Next the remarkable performance of Mary Dunleavy as Christine. On stage practically the whole time, she not only sings and acts dramatically in character but also has to busy herself on stage convincingly during most of the orchestral interludes. These are the third element. The playing under conductor Jac van Steen is of symphony orchestra standard, exceptional in summer opera accompaniments. This is not to say there were no other good performances, notably Mark Stone as Storch and Ailish Tynan as Christine’s worldly-wise maid Anna, humouring her employers in the tradition of a Susanna or a Despina. It was good to see an appearance of Anna Sideris, who has so impressed audiences of New Chamber Opera, in the role of Resi, Lummer’s young girl friend. The opera is sung in an English translation by Andrew Porter but the surtitles are necessary to follow the intricacies of the plot.
Intermezzo (1924) is the third of the five summer operas to deal with marriage through the ages. With The Rape of Lucretia (509 BC) and Poliuto (257), it comes closest to what for most people is the reality of married life!
©
25 July 201 [PS1]
[PS2]
This year there was no rush and the weather was fine; we were able to arrive soon after the gardens were open to enjoy a bottle of champagne in the open air and to admire the beautiful Chiltern setting. No longer is Garsington Opera a pale imitation of Glyndebourne but it has established its own atmosphere and ambiance. Not replacing Glyndebourne, it now forms an equal part of the summer operatic calendar. Half an hour’s drive, rather than an uncertain two hours from Oxford, it is characterised by the immense friendliness and helpfulnessof the staff, welcoming visitors as guests. Motorised buggies ferry the elderly around from auditorium to restaurant in the interval and to the car park at the end, stopping off at the loos on the way. An expensive extravagance is the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Tent with a fantastic pre-ordered dinner impeccably served and timed to fit the interval without rush which competes with the opera as the main memory of the evening. This was the case last year: this year not!
Intermezzo is the eighth of Richard Strauss’ fifteen operas and follows three of his most substantial, der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos and die Frau ohne Schatten. All these three have librettos by Hugo von Hofmannsthal who refused to have anything to do with Intermezzo on the grounds that it was not a suitable subject for an opera. Styled as A Bourgeois Comedy with Symphonic interludes in Two Acts it is based on two incidents from the often stormy married life of Richard and his wife Pauline, ‘affectionately’ known as the hedgehog. The composer himself wrote the script. In one incident, Pauline finds in a suit pocket of her absent husband an affectionate note not intended for him, from a ‘Mitzi’ thanking for opera tickets and arranging an assignation. In the other, he misreads Pauline’s relationship with a young confidence trickster who attempts to borrow money from her. The resulting comedy is presented in eight short scenes in Act I and five in Act II. The scene changes are brilliantly executed under the-direction of Bruno Ravella and set design of Giles Cadle. One of the features of the Garsington Opera Pavilion is the very wide stage which is exploited fully by being divided into furnished sets opened up from behind panels thus minimising scene changes which are covered in the original by the orchestral interludes.
Thus in Act I we move from the dressing-room of the composer Storch, preparing to depart for Vienna, to a toboggan-run where his wife Christine encounters the impecunious Baron Lummer for whom, after several encounters[PS1] , she finds a bed-sit in the house of her notary. Back in the dining-room of her villa. after refusing Lummer a loan, Christine intercepts the letter from Mitzi, jumps to an immediate conclusion, contacts her notary and packs her bags to leave. The second Act opens with a game of cards involving a conductor Stroh, the intended recipient of Mitzi’s letter. Storch joins the party but is shocked by the arrival of a telegram from Christine. The remainder of the opera deals with a resolution of all the misunderstandings and an uneasy reconciliation[PS2] between Storch and his wife.
Three things impressed to make this performance memorable. First the stage management, with its multiple sets. Next the remarkable performance of Mary Dunleavy as Christine. On stage practically the whole time, she not only sings and acts dramatically in character but also has to busy herself on stage convincingly during most of the orchestral interludes. These are the third element. The playing under conductor Jac van Steen is of symphony orchestra standard, exceptional in summer opera accompaniments. This is not to say there were no other good performances, notably Mark Stone as Storch and Ailish Tynan as Christine’s worldly-wise maid Anna, humouring her employers in the tradition of a Susanna or a Despina. It was good to see an appearance of Anna Sideris, who has so impressed audiences of New Chamber Opera, in the role of Resi, Lummer’s young girl friend. The opera is sung in an English translation by Andrew Porter but the surtitles are necessary to follow the intricacies of the plot.
Intermezzo (1924) is the third of the five summer operas to deal with marriage through the ages. With The Rape of Lucretia (509 BC) and Poliuto (257), it comes closest to what for most people is the reality of married life!
©
25 July 201 [PS1]
[PS2]