THE FAIRY QUEEN (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-esDHd6CPc&list=PLpmwWuIh57wY66Jq06IauzKw_EU_iFGAs

Available until: 30^th August, 5pm

The Fairy Queen is quite difficult to classify. The music was written by Henry Purcell as incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and was played between the scenes. The score includes songs, but the singers don’t really have consistent characters or tell a story of their own. Many people call it a semi-opera, which probably also makes it a semi-play, but there is also dancing so is it also partly a ballet? Semi means half so I think if you include ballet, it’s a trient-opera, play and ballet. I’ve watched and I’m still not sure what I’d say it is.

Glyndebourne performs the play (more or less) as it was intended to be performed. The music frames scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, introducing all the characters and their storylines, with the roles played mostly by actors, with a couple of roles taken by singers. Shakespeare’s text has been abridged, but the story still seems clear to me. I think it would be clear to someone who didn’t know the play too.

It is very good, but even with parts of the play cut out, it still seems like a very long evening, though I suppose it’s only two and a half hours and a lot of operas are longer. It is very interesting to hear the music and the play performed together as it was intended to be and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to watch Glyndebourne’s production, but I do wonder if it’s the best way to perform it nowadays. Act 5 lasts almost an hour and after the Mechanicals’ play, there are song and dance sequences which aren’t usually part of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – though it does fit into the story because it just means the lovers watch more performances after the Mechanicals’ play.

The two pieces – the play and the opera – have similar themes, but it is difficult to see them as being part of the same performance. It’s a bit like watching two (very good) performances at once and switching between the two and it was quite a strange feeling, though I’m sure that’s my fault for not being clever enough to put the two together in my mind. It’s a bit like watching two TV series and watching an episode of each every day, which feels completely normal if you really are watching two TV series, but it’s not something I expect to feel with a single live staged performance.

It is possible to perform The Fairy Queen as an opera without the play. English National Opera did a production about twenty years ago (before I was born). The singers became the characters in the opera. They were given names and acted out the story, which was based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though I don’t think there was any text from the play. My mum really liked it and she says it’s one of her favourite ENO productions.

William Christie conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who sound truly beautiful. Despite the slight strangeness of moving between play and opera, it really was always really lovely to hear the music.

Director Jonathan Kent has some good and original ideas, but I don’t think I really like the scenes with all the rabbits making babies. I didn’t find it very funny and Megan was very shocked. Most of us know that this kind of thing is very important in the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and is referred to several times, but I think it is nicer to hint at it in a delicate way than to enact it in front of everyone. I think there would be less laughter and more objections if the human characters started doing that and I don’t really think that putting people in rabbit costumes really makes it any more respectable. I didn’t mind the fig leaves, though - but it would have been terrible if they’d fallen off.

Paul Brown’s set has big ornate windows on all sides and I thought that worked really well as they could either represent the inside or the outside of the building. Of course, when they’re lost in the wood, the windows wouldn’t really be visible, but it works as a sign that the lovers are outside civilisation and outside everything they know. I really like the red clouds and flying horse too.

The costumes were surprising at the beginning, probably more typical of Shakespeare’s time than most of the costumes I’ve seen recently, but they still surprised me a bit. I wasn’t surprised when they wore less cumbersome clothing for running about in the woods. The costumes for Pyramus and Thisbe are magnificent and very clever. I also like the way they used the Rondeau from Henry Purcell’s Abdelazar suite.

The acting seemed more mannered than many productions. I found I wasn’t getting quite so involved in the characters’ emotions, but the actors really brought out the poetry in the lines.

William Gaunt is a stately Theseus, dealing calmly with Terrence Hardiman’s angry Egeus and the headstrong lovers. Oliver Kieran-Jones and Oliver le Seur are an ardent Lysander and a predatory Demetrius, while Helen Bradbury’s Helena is surprisingly likeable. She’s initially rather droopy, but then she becomes more passionate. I’ve never thought about it before, but maybe the time in the woods makes Helena into more Demetrius’ type. Susannah Wise seems sweet and gentle as Hermia and her anger comes from hurt and bewilderment.

Joseph Millson and Sally Dexter have very strong chemistry as Oberon and Titania. Oberon is calm and commanding and Titania was very aware of her femininity and she isn’t shy of using it. They move around the stage easily, unbothered by the large wings on their backs. Jotham Annan was a very sweet and cheeky Puck. I think he means well and actually seems to feel guilty and upset about his mistake. I’m a little bit surprised Oberon and Titania didn’t want to adopt him (though Taliesin Knight was a lovely Changeling Boy).

The Mechanicals are a lot of fun. I’m so used to female Quinces, it actually seemed quite strange at first to see a male one, but Paul McCleary is very good. Desmond Barrit’s Welsh Bottom has a big personality and Shakespeare sounds lovely in a Welsh accent. The Mechanicals speak in prose, but Bottom has such a musical accent, it makes it seems as though his lines are in verse too – and Desmons Barrit is also a singer, as is Robert Burt, who plays the role of Flute. It’s interesting to see a Flute who is so masculine in appearance and manner and clearly not the obvious fit for Thisbe. I haven’t seen that before, but it does work with Flute’s lines. The excellent character actor Roger Sloman makes sure Starveling doesn’t fade into the background in this production.

The singers are really good, with Lucy Crowe and Carolyn Sampson particularly standing out, singing beautifully and acting out the songs very well. I’m sure I heard counter tenors too, but they don’t seem to be credited so maybe they were sopranos. Whoever they were, they were very good.

The dancers performed Kim Brandstrup’s choreography beautifully and it was especially nice to see Tommy Franzen whom Cal reviewed in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. The singers produce stately old-fashioned dances while the dancers offer something more contemporary.

It was a really great performance, but is it really an opera? I’m still not sure.