Busman’s
Holiday – Opera Virgins
Georges Bizet: Carmen, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 22 December, 2013,
I am often asked what opera I would recommend for those who have never visited an opera house – ‘opera virgins’ – and whose operatic experience has been confined to the privacy of home with the aid of CDs or DVDs or, these days, on visits to the cinema. The question prompts many off the cuff suggestions but it is worth considering which operas best convey to the uninitiated the sources of operatic pleasure and a desire to repeat the experience.
The essence of opera is the conveying of emotion and drama through the thrill of unamplified human voices soaring over an orchestral accompaniment. It appeals primarily to the heart and, although the greatest operas appeal also to the head, it is the heart which comes first in the development of operatic taste. This rules out, for a first experience, most of seventeenth and eighteenth century opera, including Mozart but with the possible exception of L’Incoronazione di Poppea Also ruled out are much of Verdi but includes Rigoletto, Aida and Un Ballo in Maschera. Wagner is for advanced tastes, except possibly for Lohengrin or Der Fliegende Holländer. Puccini is a contender with Tosca, Turandot and La Bohème and one can think of several bel canto operas, Lucia di Lammermoor for one.
Most opera lovers will remember their first encounter with live opera. Mine was Gounod’s Faust seen at the Harrow Odeon in the mid-1940’s with the then struggling Carl Rosa Company. It was a rough and tumble affair, just giving a hint of pleasures to come. I have also introduced others to live opera – a bizarre selection. A couple more interested in the cachet of a Glyndebourne invitation than in opera had to endure many hours of Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong, while I took a friend to see Turandot in Lyon – not Turandot by Puccini but by Busoni in a production in which had the heroine requiring spectacles to read out the riddles! Another young acquaintance became hooked after seeing Anna Bolena ‘Live from The Met’ followed by a first live theatre experience of WNO’s Roberto Devereux My second opera was Carmen, again the Carl Rosa Opera, but this production has left no impression. Nevertheless Carmen emerges as the ideal opera for the opera virgin, first for its continuously inventive flow of exciting music supporting a strong story involving infatuation, sex and violence. However Carmen is not for those below the age of consent – some years ago I had sitting in the row behind me an embarrassed mother, trying to quieten a child who was continually asking ‘Why is that lady doing that?’ ‘What are they singing about now?’
The above reflections were stimulated by a family Christmas outing to the Royal Opera House. This introduced a new family member to live opera. Fortuitously on offer was the revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2006 production of Carmen which indeed proved an ideal initiation.
The gypsy girl Carmen, working in a cigarette factory, uses her seductive charms on an innocent corporal Don José, to allow her to escape from arrest over a cat-fight with a fellow worker. Don José, after serving a sentence for letting her go, seeks out Carmen but torn between love and duty is forced to desert and follow Carmen and her band of smugglers into the mountains. Her feelings for him now turned to contempt, Carmen takes up with toreador Escamillo while Don José returns home to a dying mother, prompted by his childhood sweetheart Michaëla, who braves the mountain journey alone to collect him. Don José returns to Seville where he finds Carmen waiting outside a bullring where Escamillo is fighting and stabs her to death as the crowds emerge.
The performance was conducted by Daniel Oren. The orchestra struck up the overture with great enthusiasm but completely undisciplined. The conductor eventually gained control. The simple set served as the setting for a square in Seville, a tavern, the mountains and outside the bullring each distinguished by cleverly designed props. After a scene-setting chorus, Michaëla, sung on this occasion by Verónica Cangemi appears in search of Don José. She sang very charmingly in her difficult role as a foil for Carmen. The tension mounts with the arrival of the cigarette girls and reaches a climax with the fight. Carmen was sung by Georgian Anita Rachvelishvili, alternating with our own Christine Rice and Italian Anna Caterina Antonacci. It is rare to find a convincing Carmen, inhabiting the role rather than just play acting but Rachvelishvili shows real Mediterranean temperament. Different players display Carmen’s allure in different ways, some by thrusting bosoms, some by swaying hips, some, as on this occasion, by revealing thighs. Her voice also suits the part, Don José was sung by renowned tenor Roberto Alagna who gave authority to the whole performance. His interpretation made José less of a wimp than usual, particularly in his confrontation with Escamillo in the mountains. The latter was played in appropriate macho style by Vito Priante.
The chorus also played its part well, the stage not overcrowded as often at the Met, so that the different sections of the crowd could be distinguished but, as ever, one longed for the orchestral and vocal sound of the Welsh National Opera.
This was a thoroughly traditional production with great attention to detail in the minor characters, without gimmicks. With lunch in the ROH Crush Room, pudding in the interval, this introduction to Carmen proved an unbeatable initiation into the joy of Opera.
PETER SCHOFIELD
3 January 2014.
.
Georges Bizet: Carmen, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 22 December, 2013,
I am often asked what opera I would recommend for those who have never visited an opera house – ‘opera virgins’ – and whose operatic experience has been confined to the privacy of home with the aid of CDs or DVDs or, these days, on visits to the cinema. The question prompts many off the cuff suggestions but it is worth considering which operas best convey to the uninitiated the sources of operatic pleasure and a desire to repeat the experience.
The essence of opera is the conveying of emotion and drama through the thrill of unamplified human voices soaring over an orchestral accompaniment. It appeals primarily to the heart and, although the greatest operas appeal also to the head, it is the heart which comes first in the development of operatic taste. This rules out, for a first experience, most of seventeenth and eighteenth century opera, including Mozart but with the possible exception of L’Incoronazione di Poppea Also ruled out are much of Verdi but includes Rigoletto, Aida and Un Ballo in Maschera. Wagner is for advanced tastes, except possibly for Lohengrin or Der Fliegende Holländer. Puccini is a contender with Tosca, Turandot and La Bohème and one can think of several bel canto operas, Lucia di Lammermoor for one.
Most opera lovers will remember their first encounter with live opera. Mine was Gounod’s Faust seen at the Harrow Odeon in the mid-1940’s with the then struggling Carl Rosa Company. It was a rough and tumble affair, just giving a hint of pleasures to come. I have also introduced others to live opera – a bizarre selection. A couple more interested in the cachet of a Glyndebourne invitation than in opera had to endure many hours of Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong, while I took a friend to see Turandot in Lyon – not Turandot by Puccini but by Busoni in a production in which had the heroine requiring spectacles to read out the riddles! Another young acquaintance became hooked after seeing Anna Bolena ‘Live from The Met’ followed by a first live theatre experience of WNO’s Roberto Devereux My second opera was Carmen, again the Carl Rosa Opera, but this production has left no impression. Nevertheless Carmen emerges as the ideal opera for the opera virgin, first for its continuously inventive flow of exciting music supporting a strong story involving infatuation, sex and violence. However Carmen is not for those below the age of consent – some years ago I had sitting in the row behind me an embarrassed mother, trying to quieten a child who was continually asking ‘Why is that lady doing that?’ ‘What are they singing about now?’
The above reflections were stimulated by a family Christmas outing to the Royal Opera House. This introduced a new family member to live opera. Fortuitously on offer was the revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2006 production of Carmen which indeed proved an ideal initiation.
The gypsy girl Carmen, working in a cigarette factory, uses her seductive charms on an innocent corporal Don José, to allow her to escape from arrest over a cat-fight with a fellow worker. Don José, after serving a sentence for letting her go, seeks out Carmen but torn between love and duty is forced to desert and follow Carmen and her band of smugglers into the mountains. Her feelings for him now turned to contempt, Carmen takes up with toreador Escamillo while Don José returns home to a dying mother, prompted by his childhood sweetheart Michaëla, who braves the mountain journey alone to collect him. Don José returns to Seville where he finds Carmen waiting outside a bullring where Escamillo is fighting and stabs her to death as the crowds emerge.
The performance was conducted by Daniel Oren. The orchestra struck up the overture with great enthusiasm but completely undisciplined. The conductor eventually gained control. The simple set served as the setting for a square in Seville, a tavern, the mountains and outside the bullring each distinguished by cleverly designed props. After a scene-setting chorus, Michaëla, sung on this occasion by Verónica Cangemi appears in search of Don José. She sang very charmingly in her difficult role as a foil for Carmen. The tension mounts with the arrival of the cigarette girls and reaches a climax with the fight. Carmen was sung by Georgian Anita Rachvelishvili, alternating with our own Christine Rice and Italian Anna Caterina Antonacci. It is rare to find a convincing Carmen, inhabiting the role rather than just play acting but Rachvelishvili shows real Mediterranean temperament. Different players display Carmen’s allure in different ways, some by thrusting bosoms, some by swaying hips, some, as on this occasion, by revealing thighs. Her voice also suits the part, Don José was sung by renowned tenor Roberto Alagna who gave authority to the whole performance. His interpretation made José less of a wimp than usual, particularly in his confrontation with Escamillo in the mountains. The latter was played in appropriate macho style by Vito Priante.
The chorus also played its part well, the stage not overcrowded as often at the Met, so that the different sections of the crowd could be distinguished but, as ever, one longed for the orchestral and vocal sound of the Welsh National Opera.
This was a thoroughly traditional production with great attention to detail in the minor characters, without gimmicks. With lunch in the ROH Crush Room, pudding in the interval, this introduction to Carmen proved an unbeatable initiation into the joy of Opera.
PETER SCHOFIELD
3 January 2014.
.