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Richard Wagner: Das Ring des Nibelungen, Opera North, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 6, 7, 9, 11 June 2016.
Opera North’s concert version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle has been in preparation, one a year, starting in 2011. From April to July 2016, the complete cycle has been performed twice in Leeds and in Nottingham; still to come are performances in Salford, the Southbank Centre, London and in Gateshead. It is a magnificent triumph, totally gripping from first portentous E flat note to last, leaving little room for anything else to fill the mind for long after.
The Music Director and conductor is Richard Farnes with an augmented Opera North Orchestra of one hundred and ten, excluding nine anvils. The orchestra is arrayed across the centre of the concert hall stage in front of which the singers perform with rudimentary gestures portraying the actions of the characters. Behind the stage there are three large screens on which are projected a narrative of the story by Michael Birkett and translation of the sung words, more detailed than normal surtitles, by Simon Rees to whom great credit is due for making the whole proceedings understandable (even if not plausible). The words are seen against ever-changing mood-setting backgrounds of water (the Rhine, forests, mountains, fire and clouds). Unfortunately, the background occasionally rendered the words illegible requiring reading them from side monitors. But more could have been done to visualise the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla, Brünnhilde’s Rock and the final cataclysm. Responsible for the Concert Staging, Design Concept Lighting and Projection was Peter Mumford.
With minimal direction, the performance was pure Wagner, unadulterated by directorial encrustations – no bicycle for Mime (Toulouse), Marx and Engels masks for the Giants (Riga) or cinema setting for the Gibichung’s Hall showing ‘Siegfried’s journey to the Rhine (Stockholm) which we have learnt to have to tolerate. Instead we were able to concentrate on the psychology of the interrelationships which is Wagner’s genius. Such acting as there was was symbolic but had no consistent pattern – death was usually represented by turning the back, love was at a distance; there were no swords, spears or horn, not even a ring. The production was very much an Opera North repertory event with some singers singing several roles and several roles being sung by different singers in different operas.
So how did it work? Ranging the orchestra behind the singers was not entirely satisfactory and against Wagner’s wish to have it under the stage. The singers had to rely on three monitors suspended from the circle to follow the conductor. The result was that singers and orchestra seemed sometimes to be in competition with each other, putting undue strain on the former. The orchestral sound was glorious, ending each Act with a tremendous climax drawing thunderous applause. It is worthy of being judged by the highest standards and it has to be said that it did not match that of the great opera house orchestras. The enthusiasm of the brass was not always matched by its accuracy or precision. It was too much on one level, lacking delicacy when required: the Magic Fire Music surrounding Brünnhilde lacked magic; the same orchestral timbre accompanied the Woodbird leading Siegfried as it did in the forging of the sword which preceded it. There was very little weak singing, most of it was marvellous.
I review the highlights of each opera. I have tried to give a feel for the total experience, associations and all. The italicised headings taken together form a three limerick summary of the plot (originally published In Oxford Magazine.
The Music Director and conductor is Richard Farnes with an augmented Opera North Orchestra of one hundred and ten, excluding nine anvils. The orchestra is arrayed across the centre of the concert hall stage in front of which the singers perform with rudimentary gestures portraying the actions of the characters. Behind the stage there are three large screens on which are projected a narrative of the story by Michael Birkett and translation of the sung words, more detailed than normal surtitles, by Simon Rees to whom great credit is due for making the whole proceedings understandable (even if not plausible). The words are seen against ever-changing mood-setting backgrounds of water (the Rhine, forests, mountains, fire and clouds). Unfortunately, the background occasionally rendered the words illegible requiring reading them from side monitors. But more could have been done to visualise the Rainbow Bridge to Valhalla, Brünnhilde’s Rock and the final cataclysm. Responsible for the Concert Staging, Design Concept Lighting and Projection was Peter Mumford.
With minimal direction, the performance was pure Wagner, unadulterated by directorial encrustations – no bicycle for Mime (Toulouse), Marx and Engels masks for the Giants (Riga) or cinema setting for the Gibichung’s Hall showing ‘Siegfried’s journey to the Rhine (Stockholm) which we have learnt to have to tolerate. Instead we were able to concentrate on the psychology of the interrelationships which is Wagner’s genius. Such acting as there was was symbolic but had no consistent pattern – death was usually represented by turning the back, love was at a distance; there were no swords, spears or horn, not even a ring. The production was very much an Opera North repertory event with some singers singing several roles and several roles being sung by different singers in different operas.
So how did it work? Ranging the orchestra behind the singers was not entirely satisfactory and against Wagner’s wish to have it under the stage. The singers had to rely on three monitors suspended from the circle to follow the conductor. The result was that singers and orchestra seemed sometimes to be in competition with each other, putting undue strain on the former. The orchestral sound was glorious, ending each Act with a tremendous climax drawing thunderous applause. It is worthy of being judged by the highest standards and it has to be said that it did not match that of the great opera house orchestras. The enthusiasm of the brass was not always matched by its accuracy or precision. It was too much on one level, lacking delicacy when required: the Magic Fire Music surrounding Brünnhilde lacked magic; the same orchestral timbre accompanied the Woodbird leading Siegfried as it did in the forging of the sword which preceded it. There was very little weak singing, most of it was marvellous.
I review the highlights of each opera. I have tried to give a feel for the total experience, associations and all. The italicised headings taken together form a three limerick summary of the plot (originally published In Oxford Magazine.
Das Rheingold
Cursed gold and a Ring nicked by gods, for building work paid two large bods
The short (two and a half hour) Prologue starts, as the Cycle ends, in the Rhine with three Rhinemaidens, elegantly and identically dressed in blue evening gowns, guarding a hoard of gold which is seized by the dwarf Alberich. He takes it off to Niebelheim where his brother Mime, master smith, forges the Ring and a magic helmet enabling invisibility or change of shape. Alberich and Mime are played throughout by Jo Pohlheim and Richard Roberts, setting the high standard of singing. Meanwhile the Gods, ruled by Wotan, married to Fricka who has three siblings, Froh, Freia and Donner, have a problem to pay for the construction of their castle Valhalla. The builders, the giants Fasolt and Fafner, hold Freia hostage while awaiting payment. Freia, sung by Giselle Allen, who goes on to sing a Valkyrie and Gutrune is the first sensational voice, followed by James Cresswell as Fasolt and Mats Almgren as Fafner in suits and red ties. Here Cresswell shines but Almgren comes to the top as Fafner the dragon and is supreme as Alberich’s son Hagen in Götterdämmerung. Hearing of the gold, Wotan, played by Michael Drueitt (the first of three), accompanied by Loge, the fixer god of fire (Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrkasse), set off to Niebelheim and trick Alberich out of the gold, but not before he has put a curse on it. The builders are paid but the curse comes into effect and Fafner kills Fasolt. The gods cross a rainbow bridge into their new home.
Die Walküre
To recover the Ring devised Wotan their King a game plan with very long odds.
His daughter, incestuous twin, bore Siegfried to bring the gold in.
Wotan has fathered the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde who are to parent a hero capable of winning back the gold from Fafner, now a dragon. They have become separated and Sieglinde has married Hunding who lives in a house with an ash tree in which the sword Nothung is buried up to the hilt. Siegmund turns up exhausted. He and Sieglinde fall instantly in love. When Hunding returns home, rules of hospitality decree that Siegmund can stay the night but must fight him in the morning. But Sieglinde drugs Hunding’s ovaltine and they escape, taking with them the sword. Siegmund is played by Mark Le Brocq (the god Froh in Rheingold) and Sieglinde by another young sensation Lee Bisset; James Cresswell (previously Fasolt) plays Hunding in another fine performance. Out in the forest a second Wotan (Robert Haywood) meets his wife Fricka, previously a supportive wife played by Yvonne Howard, now an implacable supporter of marriage vows, played by Susan Bickley. Hen-pecked and vacillating, Wotan allows Hunding to kill Siegmund, who breaks his sword on Wotan’s staff. At this point the Valkyrie Brünnhilde intervenes. The Valkyries are a group of warrior maidens, daughters of Erda the earth goddess, who transport bodies of dead heroes to Valhalla. Brünnhilde, head girl, is daughter of Wotan. She enters, complaining that her father and step-mother have been arguing again. She goes against her father’s orders and rescues the pregnant Sieglinde, sending her fleeing deeper into the forest carrying pieces of the broken sword, believing this to be Wotan’s intention. In this her first appearance Kelly Cae Hogan’s Brünnhilde is out-sung by Lee Bisset. (This whole scene reminds me of the 1990-1995 BBC sitcom Keeping up Appearances in which Patricia Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket strives to retain middle class values, brow-beating her long-suffering husband Richard.)
Act Three begins with the famous Ride of the Valkyries in a performance which must be one of the best ever. Instead of being dressed uniformly in breastplate and helmet, each of the eight is dressed individually in black evening dress of their own choosing so that each is individually characterised. Their voices are matched in power; the text tells us they are discussing the relative merits of their horses. Brünnhilde arrives, seeking their support to shelter her from Wotan’s anger. Scared of him they refuse and she is left to face him alone. In a long duet she pleads and they argue. In the end he concedes that she will be confined in sleep surrounded by a ring of fire until rescued by a fearless hero. This is almost too much for Wotan’s voice which showed serious signs of strain in competing with the orchestra. He just made it! Brünnhilde began to go from strength to strength.
Act Three begins with the famous Ride of the Valkyries in a performance which must be one of the best ever. Instead of being dressed uniformly in breastplate and helmet, each of the eight is dressed individually in black evening dress of their own choosing so that each is individually characterised. Their voices are matched in power; the text tells us they are discussing the relative merits of their horses. Brünnhilde arrives, seeking their support to shelter her from Wotan’s anger. Scared of him they refuse and she is left to face him alone. In a long duet she pleads and they argue. In the end he concedes that she will be confined in sleep surrounded by a ring of fire until rescued by a fearless hero. This is almost too much for Wotan’s voice which showed serious signs of strain in competing with the orchestra. He just made it! Brünnhilde began to go from strength to strength.
Siegfried
But, with recycled sword, he, himself grabbed the hoard then, fearless, his true love did win.
.
Sieglinde has died in childbirth. Her son Siegfried is now a tearaway teenager in a one-parent foster home, with Mime as father. Now Mime as well as Wotan hope that Siegfried will win the gold and Ring from Fafner for them. Béla Perencz is the third and best Wotan, now in the guise of The Wanderer. Siegfried is performed here by Lars Cleveman. Act One contains a long confrontation between Mime and Wanderer in which the story so far is summarised in the form of questions and answers for the benefit of those who were unable to attend the first two nights. Mime then attempts to forge together the broken pieces of Nothung but his skills lie with soft metals like gold, rather than steel. Exasperated, Siegfried takes over and exultantly mends the sword. In Act Two, all, joined by Alberich, converge on Fafner’s cave, the three adults each hoping to gain the hoard. A meeting between Mime and Alberich shows a change in their relationship since Niebelheim. Mime is no longer the obedient brother but is asserting his own right to the gold. Siegfried slays the dragon, getting blood on the hand which enables him to hear the words of the Woodbird, sweetly sung by Jeni Bern (also a Rhinemaiden) and also to hear the murderous thoughts of Mime, instead of his words, leading Siegfried to kill him. The Woodbird leads Siegfried to Brünnhilde’s rock where he penetrates the ring of fire and awakens her. The opera ends with a prolonged love duet, a high point of the cycle. On this occasion, sadly, Siegfried struggled to be a worthy vocal partner.
Götterdämmerung
Deceived, through his quaffing drugged wine, bereaved, by an evil design, she chose to expire on his funeral pyre … The Ring ended up in the Rhine.
.
There is not enough space to go into the complexities of the plot of Götterdämmerung, the above summary will have to suffice. The opera opens with three Norns, also daughters of the fecund Erda. They again summarise what has gone before but more obscurely than in Siegfried. The hero leaves Brünnhilde in search of further adventure down the Rhine. He meets Hagen, son of Alberich, full of hate, Gunther, prince of the Gibichungs, his half-brother, and Gutrune, Gunther’s sister, who falls for Siegfried. Siegfried is given a potion causing him to forget Brünnhilde, fall in love with Gutrune and assist Gunther into marriage with the ex-valkyrie. In interludes the Valkyrie Waltraute comes to plead with her sister: Can Daddy have his Ring back? He’s been impossible to live with since he lost it – and Siegfried encounters the Rhinemaidens, during a hunt, who tell him that he will die if he does not give them the Ring (now in his possession). He is killed by Hagen. Brünnhilde has the last words, ordering a funeral pyre for Siegfried. She and her horse join him. The fire engulfs Valhalla, while below the Rhine rises up and the Rhinemaidens claim the Ring from the drowning Hagen, its last victim.
There are no weak links in the singing. Lee Bisset (Sieglinde) stands out among the Norns. Giselle Allen (Freia, Gerhilde) is a sympathetic Gutrune, Andrew Foster-Williams (Donner) a nasty Gunther and Mats Almgren (Fafner) a really evil Hagen. Heather Shipp sang Waltraute. Mati Turi, the second, better, Siegfried, gave a very subtle performance, conveying the surprised satisfaction of a young man who suddenly finds he has it all, gold, a ring and the love of an older woman. Above all, Kelly Cae Hughes completes her first full Ring Cycle in magnificent form as a new Brünnhilde.
There are no weak links in the singing. Lee Bisset (Sieglinde) stands out among the Norns. Giselle Allen (Freia, Gerhilde) is a sympathetic Gutrune, Andrew Foster-Williams (Donner) a nasty Gunther and Mats Almgren (Fafner) a really evil Hagen. Heather Shipp sang Waltraute. Mati Turi, the second, better, Siegfried, gave a very subtle performance, conveying the surprised satisfaction of a young man who suddenly finds he has it all, gold, a ring and the love of an older woman. Above all, Kelly Cae Hughes completes her first full Ring Cycle in magnificent form as a new Brünnhilde.
So, emerging from a week’s total immersion in The Ring, which included a half-day seminar at the University and the cover to cover study of the 160-page hardback programme book edited by Stuart Leeks, what are the enduring impressions? First the singers. Outstanding by any standard were Lee Bisset as Sieglinde and as Third Norn, Mats Almgren as Fafner and as Hagen, Kelly Cae Hogan as Brünnhilde and, collectively, the eight individual Valkyries. Other singers impressed almost as much. I list them in order of their appearance: James Cresswell as Fasolt and as Hunding, Giselle Allen as Freia and later as Gutrune, Susan Bickley as the second Fricka in Walküre, Richard Roberts as Mime in Siegfried (as much as for his acting), Béla Perencz as The Wanderer and Mati Turi, the second Siegfried. (The multi-casting gave the impression of each singer in turn assuming the Tarnhelm!) Next, the orchestral climaxes are still ringing in my ears, justifying the concluding standing ovation (not, for once, prompted by the discomfort of the seats). Finally, the story telling, easy to follow from the projected text and translation, giving continuity to the theme of the cycle as the story of The Ring.
There is nothing like it!
© PETER SCHOFIELD
16 June 2016
There is nothing like it!
© PETER SCHOFIELD
16 June 2016
*********
Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier, Opera North, Theatre Royal, Nottingham, 9 March 2016.
It has been a long time since a visit to the opera has been such a satisfying experience. Opera North’s production of Andrea Chénier both vocally and in staging is on a par the best of operas seen elsewhere in recent years, including high definitions transmissions of the New York Metropolitan.
Giordano’s opera hailed as a masterpiece of the verismo (a term disowned by the composer) concerns a fictionalised account of the life and death of the French poet André Chénier who lived from 1762 to 1794, leading up to and during the French Revolution and his execution very shortly before the end of the Terror which followed it. The opera is in four Acts. The first set just before the Revolution, is set during a party, held in defiance of growing unrest in Paris, at Contessa di Coigny’s Château, with an already mutinous staff led by Carlo Gérard. At the party Chénier is asked to read his latest verse but scandalises his audience for its support of the poor. However, it attracts the attention of the third main character, the Contessa’s daughter Maddalena (also loved by Gérard) who finds herself attracted both to the poet and to his ideas. During the party the servants walk out but the Contessa insists the party continues. Act II jumps forward to the height of the Terror in Paris in June 1794. It creates an atmosphere of fear and suspicion with Chénier and Maddalena under cover, she seeking him out with the assistance of her companion Bersi, dissembling as a supporter of the revolution. The lovers are united but are forced to part again when Gérard arrives and, not at first recognising Chénier, duels with him and is wounded. Recognising Chénier, Gérard warns him he is wanted by the Prosecutor, tells him to find Maddalena and escape. Act III a month later opens with a vain attempt to collect money for the revolutionary cause. Chénier has been arrested. Maddalena comes to plead with Gérard. At first he tries to force himself on her but she offers to yield in exchange for Chénier’s freedom. He has a change of heart and agrees to do what he can. In vain: Chénier is condemned by the jury. In Act IV, set in prison awaiting execution, Maddalena manages to exchange places with another condemned. They go together to the guillotine.
This is a complex plot, involving many small roles, all clearly depicted contributing to the clarity of the performance, notably Robert Pickavance as Gérards’s downtrodden father, Anna Dennis as Bersi, Philip Rhodes as Roucher, who takes care of Maddalena. The only false note is the costume of the Contessa; an exaggeratedly wide skirt open at the front in which Fiona Kimm cavorts in a manner lacking the dignity of her status. The three principal roles are played by Dutch soprano Annemarie Kremer as Maddalena, baritone Robert Hayward as Gérard and Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas as Chénier well-matched in their demanding solos, duets and ensembles, an international cast of the highest calibre. They were excellently supported by the orchestra, conducted by Oliver von Dohnányi.
But the greatest credit must go to the Director Annabel Arden and her team. From the first we notice the work of the Lighting Designer Peter Mumford, putting to shame many recent experiences where the lighting has been abysmal. The set and costume designs are by Joanna Parker.
The opening blue curtain covered with snatches of poetry rises to reveal the Contessa’s salon already with signs of staff unrest and creating the atmosphere of the bourgeoisie defiantly facing up to impending doom. This and the second act are pure verismo. Act II in particular summons up the atmosphere of distrust and suspicion of the police state. Like all great works of art this opera has universal associations. One is reminded of the German Democratic Republic and even of present day Syria. (Thank goodness we did not get a director who insulted the audience’s intelligence by such a modern setting.) On a lighter note, the fund-raiser suggests the modern method of texting the amount to a given phone number. The setting of the French Revolution stands for any situation where down-trodden masses rise in revolt against their oppressors. There are baddies on both sides: those advocating extreme violence in overthrowing he existing situations and those advocating violent repression while the goodies see the arguments on both sides and are caught in the middle. In the opera both Chenier, from the bourgeois side, and ultimately Gérard on the revolutionary side.
This production is a major triumph for Opera North who have spared no effort in reviving this opera. This extends to the production of a programme with extensive essays on all aspects on the real Chénier, the opera and the historical background. The whole event brings great credit to General Director of Opera North Richard Mantle and gratitude for the support of Terry and Liz Bramall.
14 March 2016
*****
Leoš Janáček: Jenufa, Opera North, Theatre Royal, Nottingham, 18 November 2015.
I have remarked before that there is something about the operas of Janáček which makes them impervious to the whims of directors. I have never seen a bad production. The nearest I have come to it is a production of Kát’a Kabanová set in a railway station. Jenufa I have seen almost as many times as čCosí fan Tutte, all of them shattering experiences. The best was Glyndebourne in 1989 with Roberta Alexander in the title role but with Anya Silja (long-time lover of Wieland Wagner following her debut as Senta as a twenty-year old in 1960) in the principal role, known by its Czech name as the Kostelnička or village sacristan, Jenufa’s stepmother. Opera North’s 1995 production, directed by Tom Cairns, seen in Nottingham in November 2015 was no exception.
The plot centres around a mill, the property of Števa Burya, whose half-brother Laca has been disinherited. Laca loves Jenufa but she has been made pregnant by Števa who is the conscripted into the army and goes off to war. The Kostelnička hides Jenufa away during her pregnancy for fear of the shame it will bring to her office. When Števa returns, announcing his engagement to the Mayor’s daughter Karolka, the Kostelnička smothers the new-born baby consigning the body to an ice bound lake. In spring the ice melts revealing the body just as the wedding is about to take place. The Kostelnička confesses all. Karolka is upset and refuses to marry. The only good to come out of it is that Jenufa is finally united with Laca. (It occurs to me while writing this is that it could be an episode from a Czech Eastenders.)
Opera North sang in English. There is always hot debate about the best language to sing this composer outside the Czech Republic. On one hand it is ridiculous to sing parrot-like the words of a language of which one has no speaking knowledge. However, the rhythm of the words in Czech fit so closely to the rhythm of the music. This was particularly apparent in this performance in which the clarity of the diction emphasised the misfit. English is not the only language which has this problem. The last time I saw Jenufa was in Budapest sung in Czech with Hungarian surtitles.
In this production there was a single, two-level set, the rear upper part covered.. The beginning of the first Act should set the scene of a close-knit community centred on the mill. In the best productions this is represented by a mill-wheel whose turning is mirrored in the orchestra. Neither audibly nor visually was this apparent. Thus a dimension of psychological motivation was absent. Instead there was a curtain representing billowing clouds, effective in its way but not what’s in the score. Nevertheless the characterisation of the performers to some extent made up for this. Daniel Norman as Števa was not without charm disguising his boorish nature and David Butt Phillip sang exceptionally well as a dignified Laca. Elizabeth Sikora gave a good performance in the background role of Grandmother Buryjovka (grandmother to the two boys and to Jenufa). Jenufa, played by the Swedish soprano Ylva Kihlberg, was disappointing. Although of good voice. Her acting failed to match and her impact was carried by the production. However, the whole was dominated by Susan Bickley as the Kostelnička who adds this to her many other distinguished roles. A very fine performance indeed.
As usual with this composer we left the theatre totally shattered. On this occasion it was mainly due to the opera, though the performance and particularly the role of Bickley contributed.
25 November 2015
*****
The plot centres around a mill, the property of Števa Burya, whose half-brother Laca has been disinherited. Laca loves Jenufa but she has been made pregnant by Števa who is the conscripted into the army and goes off to war. The Kostelnička hides Jenufa away during her pregnancy for fear of the shame it will bring to her office. When Števa returns, announcing his engagement to the Mayor’s daughter Karolka, the Kostelnička smothers the new-born baby consigning the body to an ice bound lake. In spring the ice melts revealing the body just as the wedding is about to take place. The Kostelnička confesses all. Karolka is upset and refuses to marry. The only good to come out of it is that Jenufa is finally united with Laca. (It occurs to me while writing this is that it could be an episode from a Czech Eastenders.)
Opera North sang in English. There is always hot debate about the best language to sing this composer outside the Czech Republic. On one hand it is ridiculous to sing parrot-like the words of a language of which one has no speaking knowledge. However, the rhythm of the words in Czech fit so closely to the rhythm of the music. This was particularly apparent in this performance in which the clarity of the diction emphasised the misfit. English is not the only language which has this problem. The last time I saw Jenufa was in Budapest sung in Czech with Hungarian surtitles.
In this production there was a single, two-level set, the rear upper part covered.. The beginning of the first Act should set the scene of a close-knit community centred on the mill. In the best productions this is represented by a mill-wheel whose turning is mirrored in the orchestra. Neither audibly nor visually was this apparent. Thus a dimension of psychological motivation was absent. Instead there was a curtain representing billowing clouds, effective in its way but not what’s in the score. Nevertheless the characterisation of the performers to some extent made up for this. Daniel Norman as Števa was not without charm disguising his boorish nature and David Butt Phillip sang exceptionally well as a dignified Laca. Elizabeth Sikora gave a good performance in the background role of Grandmother Buryjovka (grandmother to the two boys and to Jenufa). Jenufa, played by the Swedish soprano Ylva Kihlberg, was disappointing. Although of good voice. Her acting failed to match and her impact was carried by the production. However, the whole was dominated by Susan Bickley as the Kostelnička who adds this to her many other distinguished roles. A very fine performance indeed.
As usual with this composer we left the theatre totally shattered. On this occasion it was mainly due to the opera, though the performance and particularly the role of Bickley contributed.
25 November 2015
*****
Claudio Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea, Opera North, Theatre Royal Nottingham, 29 November 2014.
The Coronation of Poppea
Opera North’s production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea
James Laing as Nerone and Sandra Piques Eddy as Poppea
Musical Director Laurence Cummings, Director Tim Albery, Set and Costume Designer Hannah Clark, Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth.
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
L’Incoronazione di Poppea, usually ascribed to Monteverdi, though others, unknown, are believed to have a hand in it, is the first truly great opera which must be listed among the top ten ever. It is a tragi-comedy, partially based on historical events, recounting how Poppea, discarding her lover Ottone, sets out to marry the Emperor Nerone, displacing the current Empress Ottavia who is exiled following a plot to kill Poppea by Ottone and his new love Drusilla. Poppea is cared for by a faithful but disapproving Nurse. The philosopher Seneca, adviser to Nerone, is forced to suicide for siding with Ottavia. A pair of innocent lovers Valletto and Damigella continually get in the way but are often dropped, as in the production reviewed here. The story is presented as a wager between the gods Fortune, Virtue and Love. Love is triumphant and the opera ends – should end – with Poppea and Nerone in a public ceremony, confirming their love in an affirmation of its pleasures.
This opera is best produced as it is written as an unashamedly amoral story, written for the Venice Carnival. Unfortunately few modern directors can leave it alone, tinkering with it in a futile attempt to find some moral point or adopt some attitude on the sexual politics. Thus we have the opera ending with Poppea alone on the stage in a red robe or changing clothes with Octavia before the latter’s exile, presaging her own downfall or Ottavia departing to exile carrying two large suitcases or playing the whole thing for laughs, making nothing of Ottavia’s dignity shown in her last long aria. Such productions evade the real problem for the Director – to set the right balance between true love and triumphalism in Poppea.
Unquestionably, the truest production I have seen is that of Michael Geliot for Welsh National Opera in 1980, seen in Oxford with Helen Field’s Poppea dressed only in a body stocking, of which I wrote in The Enjoyment of Opera: ‘The Coronation of Poppea (1980) - not the insensitive send-up of 1998, which totally missed the subtlety of this great tragicomedy, but the deliciously uninhibited version of 1980 by Michael Geliot with the modesty of many members of the cast only protected by a gauze curtain covering the proscenium; with Helen Field and Arthur Davies’.
The Opera North production was directed by Tim Albery under the musical direction of Laurence Cummings. The music was played on stage by period instruments – violins, theorbos, gamba, Lyre, harp and harpsichords - directed from the keyboard. That it was played in modern dress with simple staging (in what appeared to be an empty swimming pool) was neither here nor there (acceptable economies), though more contrast between gods and mortals would[PS1] have been welcome. The cast was uniformly good. Nerone and Poppea were played by James Laing and a sexy Sandra Piques Eddy who from the start established an atmosphere of eroticism; Drusilla and Ottone, played by Katherine Manley and Christopher Ainslie, were a well-matched pair. In the smaller roles, Fiona Kimm as Arnalta the nurse stood out as did James Cresswell as Seneca. Emilie Renard as Amore flitted in and out as if a puppeteer controlling he action. The only slight disappointment was Catharine Hopper as Ottavia who failed to establish the tragedic element of the opera, largely, I believe, because her part was heavily cut. Also she ended up dead, historically correct but dramatically wrong. The final scene was, as so often, completely messed up, although deliciously sung. The duet started with the lovers at each end of a long table, alone on stage, gradually moving together ending in an embrace – no sign of a coronation.
To sum up, this was a most enjoyable production in spite of some directorial foibles. The air of eroticism was sustained. But it was a very genteel eroticism, not at all what Monteverdi had in mind, I suspect!
1 December 2014
[PS1]