AT THE STATUE OF VENUS (Royal Opera)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWs4LDHmnOc

Available until: 24^th November 2020

For Meet the Young Artists Week, the Royal Opera have produced three short works for solo female voice. None were written as operas – this is a song, though it is nearly half an hour long. They have all, though, been staged as operas and they work very well.

At the Statue of Venus is by Jake Heggie, who has also written a number of operas including Dead Man Walking. The libretto was written by Terence McNally, who also wrote the libretto for Dead Man Walking. Mr Heggie has also written plays, the books of musicals (including Kiss of the Spiderwoman and The Full Monty) and screenplays.

The song works very well as an opera. The situation is a very dramatic one and I like the way the character of Rose has been created through the music and the libretto. Operas can be about very dramatic situations which most people will never find themselves in, but At the Statue of Venus is a situation which most people can relate to. Rose has a blind date and she’s not really looking forward to it and she’s worried about her choice of outfit. I think she looks beautiful, but it’s such a natural thing to worry about. I haven’t been on a date yet, but I’m always worrying that I’m wearing the wrong clothes. I think who you are is more important than what you wear, but you can’t stop other people from judging you on your clothes.

Rose has arranged to meet her date at the statue of Venus, but there’s an unexpected issue with the statue (though the way it’s created, using yellow tape, creates a really striking image). Then she has to stand there and watch all the men coming towards her and panic that the ones she doesn’t like the look of might be her date.

Rose is sung by Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha from the Jette Parker Young Artists’ Programme. She is a very versatile singer as she has shown in the Royal Opera’s Juke Box 1 and 4/4 and she seems to have an especially good feeling for modern works. Ms Rangwanasha makes it so easy for me to follow the musical line and to make sense of it.

She is brilliant in At the Statue of Venus. Her voice is really beautiful, full and soaring, and she performs Rose’s stress and anxiety really well so we start to feel how she feels. I got really worried for her as the man could turn out to be anyone! Mark Packwood who is on the Royal Opera’s music staff accompanies her on the piano, showing us Rose’s anxieties even when she’s not singing.

At the Statue of Venus is mostly filmed in the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House, but we also see Rose making the journey there. I think that really helps to build everything up at the start and I like that she’s wearing her mask. The story isn’t about the coronavirus, but I think if these films are made available again in the future, we will be able to watch it and recognise the masks and know it was filmed during the pandemic and see how well the Royal Opera coped. I think it’s good to have records of what companies did to keep going despite the pandemic.