THE ROYAL OPERA LIVE IN CONCERT****

 

By Imogen

Link: https://stream.roh.org.uk/packages/the-royal-opera-live-in-concert-1/videos/the-royal-opera-live-in-concert

Available until: 30 days’ time, I think it costs about £10 to watch but it’s worth it.

It is so amazing seeing the auditorium of the Royal Opera House again! I could really feel the tingly excitement as soon as the ROH orchestra started to play. The orchestra were in the front of the Stalls (they got rid of the seats) and the Chorus were up in the Circles and the singers were onstage. The orchestra was socially distant which means they got to have their own music stand. I hope it will be like that for my school orchestra, it always annoys me to sit next to inferior flautists and the trouble with being the best is that everyone is inferior. But it will be annoying having to turn the pages myself. The Chorus sounded great and my mum thinks she recognised Louise Armit who she really rates, she saw her at Glyndebourne in solo roles. She has really nice hair.

The concert was presented by Katie Derham who was a Strictly finalist despite dancing with Anton du Beke and not being on EastEnders. She interviewed some of the singers between songs. Antonio Pappano conducted and he and the orchestra moved easily between the different styles.

There were a few big arias in this concert and lots of random scenes. This was quite weird for a concert but it did make it feel like seeing an opera. Operas aren’t just one big aria after another, there are scenes in between.

It was actually like the ROH were telling lots of stories at once. Each item on the programme has its own story. Then there is the story created by the arias and scenes which the ROH chose, it’s quite a weird story because the scenes don’t fit together but if you look at the emotions in the arias and scenes and how they rise and fall it does kind of feel like a story.

The other story is the story of opera, starting with Mozart and finishing with Puccini. Obviously it’s not a complete story, Monteverdi and Handel come before Mozart, then there’s later stuff like Britten and Richard Strauss but they would probably have had to brought in extra singers to perform those composers. The singers they had are very versatile and they sing in lots of styles but not many singers can do every style. Besides Handel arias take forever and modern opera doesn’t have any good tunes. The opera extracts aren’t in order of when the operas were first performed but it’s not far off.

They started off with the Le nozze di Figaro overture which is one of my favourite operas. I think I was born to play the Countess but I don’t mind playing Susanna first or even Barbarina as long as I’m covering one of the big roles. After that Figaro appeared like you’d expect but it was Rossini’s Figaro singing Largo al factotum which made a good opening song. I couldn’t help thinking about how he couldn’t have worked in lockdown (was anyone else just dying from lack of hairdressers and beauticians?) so the aria made me think of Figaro coming out of lockdown and then getting overwhelmed by all the customers with hair down to their derrieres and beards down to their shoes. Vito was in very fine voice and a very fine black suit with a white bow tie. All the men were dressed the same but the women wore what they liked.

Aigul Akhmetshina wins my Best Dressed award, her off the shoulder floor length black dress was stunning and it was good for both her characters, it was posh and elegant enough for Cenerentola’s ballgown and the bare shoulders were good for Carmen who’s very flirtatious so I can imagine her showing a bit of skin. Aigul performed both styles of music really well. I think it’s really kind of Rossini and Bizet to write operas where mezzos get to be beautiful but it is a bit annoying that I’ll probably never sing Cenerentola as I think the character is made for me and Cendrillon just isn’t the same.

I really liked Charles Castonovo and Lisette Oropesa as Nemorino and Adina in Caro elisir from L’elisir d’amore. They put in lots of characterisation as well as singing really gorgeously and it was a good scene for social distancing. Lisette also sang Bellini and Massenet and really showed off how versatile she is. Kristine Opolais sang Song to the Moon from Rusalka in a really floaty and ethereal voice. Gerald Finley had lots of fun playing Iago and Scarpia, 2 really big villains from Otello and Tosca. He made his face and voice really evil in both roles and gave out a big sense of danger. Jette Parker Young Artist Filipe Manu fitted right in with some of the big stars of the opera world and so did Jeremy White who has been playing small roles at the ROH since forever and my mum says he’s always really good.

The only scene which I thought didn’t work was the last act of Carmen, it was a bit long and things don’t really get very dramatic till the end which didn’t work because you can’t strangle people if you’re socially distanced. I think they should just have done the end bit with Carmen and Don Jose and then had him pull a gun on her. But Aigul and Charles were sensational.

So I liked it, it was a great concert with mostly really good and interesting music choices and if you miss the ROH atmosphere you can buy 2 and a half hours of it for £10.