By Cal
Available until: Sunday 15th November 2020
A week after the Royal Ballet returned to the stage with a
number of extracts, it was the turn of the Royal Opera.
None of the four works performed are strictly operas. Two
were cantatas (though very different in style), one was a song with orchestra
and the other is rather difficult to classify, but I would say it’s more like a
song cycle than anything else. The cantatas and the song cycle have characters
but are not usually staged. The song is usually sung in concert with an
orchestra and is not characterised at all.
So it’s not really what you’d expect from the Royal Opera, but it was actually a very clever programme. Most operas are probably out of the question because they have large casts and personal contact. But the four works they chose told clear stories. The cantatas have characters. The song cycle offers great potential for the creation of a character. The song tells a clear story so there was the potential for a character there too. All four works were staged to an extent so if they weren’t operas to begin with, they certainly feel like operas now.
Each work has a different cast with up to three characters. The
orchestra aren’t socially distant and appear to be sitting in the pit as
normal. The string players are wearing masks. At least one of the conductors
wasn’t. I couldn’t see the wind players, though I did hear them. I very much
doubt they were making masks, but I’m sure the Royal Opera House did what they
could to keep everyone as safe as possible There were no shots of the audience,
but it’s clear from the applause that there are people there.
The first work is Handel’s cantata Apollo e Dafne.
It’s the only work for two singers, but it’s quite a good one for current times
because Dafne spends a lot of time trying to get away from Apollo so they were
mostly at least a metre apart. Jonathan McGovern plays Apollo and he’s been
given a very interesting costume. He looks like a superhero with codpiece. It
says a lot that he still manages to be dignified, but it is initially a bit of
a distraction from his extremely good singing. But I eventually got over that
and was able to focus on Jonathan’s excellent performance. He’s a really good
actor, clearly willing to do anything onstage, and very good at comedy.
The sweet singing of Jette Parker Young Artist Alexandra
Lowe as Daphne gives her an innocence which contrasts strongly with Apollo’s
brashness. She floats almost balletically around the stage while he gallops to
get her attention. The cantata translates to the stage very naturally. Movement
director Emma Woods has created two very different styles of movement for the
two characters and it works really well.
The story has the potential to be very dark, but Christian
Curnyn’s sensitive conducting and Adele Thomas’ humorous take on Apollo result
in a story which is lovely and fun.
The next work is Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: summer of
1915, common on the concert platform but not so much on the operatic stage.
But it works onstage. Patrick Milne’s conducting demonstrates both the
oppression and the beauty of summer. Director Antony McDonald keeps things
simple – he does just enough to give the impression of a character and a
situation, but not so much that we’re distracted from the music. The character
is sharing memories rather than creating a piece of drama which is happening at
that moment.
The song is seen as being the thoughts of a little boy, but
it is usually sung by a soprano. Here, the character is a woman, pushing a
pram. Now, there’s obviously no reason why a man shouldn’t wear a dress, sing
soprano and push a pram. I actually enjoy a bit of pram-pushing myself. There’s
also no reason why someone shouldn’t start off as a boy and grow up to be a
woman. But I think that would be too big a story to tell in a work like this so
I think we should accept the character is female and leave it at that. It was a
beautifully-characterised and haunting performance by Jette Parker Masabane
Cecilia Rangwanasha, who sings in a gorgeous, soaring soprano.
The third work is another cantata and while it is influenced
by the structure of Handel’s cantatas, it is a much later work. Benjamin
Britten’s Phaedra is his last ever vocal work and it really does seem to
belong on a stage. It is written for just one singer, but there are other
characters who play a role in this work and director Deborah Warner allows us
to see two of them in her vivid staging.
Christine Rice created the role of Ariadne in Harrison
Birtwistle’s opera The Minotaur in 2008. Twelve years later, she tangles
with the Minotaur again as Phaedra, Ariadne’s sister. She plays Phaedra in
modern clothes as a sad, lonely woman who probably really wants some attention
because who wouldn’t? Her husband is away a lot and she probably doesn’t see
many people besides her stepson, Hippolytus. Christine sang the music
gorgeously and although it’s a subject which many will find distasteful, I
found it impossible not to sympathise with Phaedra.
The Royal Ballet Principal Matthew Ball plays Hippolytus and
I can see the attraction, quite honestly. And if he makes a habit of wandering
round without a top on (and moving so beautifully too), I can’t really blame Phaedra
for looking. He’s her stepson so he’s not a relative and he’s presumably
over sixteen (it seems to be set in modern times so I’ll go with the current
age of consent) so it’s not indecent exactly, but it is messy and Phaedra has a
husband so she’s not exactly single.
Andres Presno from the Young Artists’ Programme appears in
the non-singing role of the Minotaur. His appearance seems symbolic, a monster
in Phaedra’s mind, though I really liked the costume.
Richard Hetherington’s conducting emphasises the tension,
but he also gives the characters time and space to express their feelings.
The final item on the programme was Frankenstein!, a
set of creepy children’s poems. It’s difficult to categorise the work, but composer
Heinz Karl Gruber calls it pan-demonium. Whatever you want to call it (and
perhaps ‘song cycle’ is a bit too respectable a description), it is brilliantly
performed by Allan Clayton, who was probably wearing a wig, but you never know.
I’ve seen some very interesting lockdown hair. His whole costume is brilliant.
Not what you’d expect to see on an opera house stage, but I call that a good
thing.
Director Richard Jones’ ideas were simple but very
theatrical and funny. Allan is joined onstage by actor Dawn Woolongong, whose
role is to bring props on and offstage and does this in a humerous way that
suits the music perfectly.
The songs are quite dark, but fun, quirky and full of humour.
Conductor Edmund Whitehead strongly brings out the humour in the music. It
really was a very amusing work and it’s great to end on something that makes us
smile. (I’ll be having serious words with my singing teacher about why he’s
never told me about this work – probably because I’d do a terrible job of
singing it, but I’d love to try!)
The entire cast and conductors took their curtain calls in
masks. I couldn’t quite decide if I was sad they had to do that or happy they’d
just done an actual performance. I think I’ll go with happy because this really
was great.
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