THE ROYAL OPERA CHRISTMAS CONCERT (Royal Opera)*****

By Louise

Link: The Royal Opera Christmas Concert - Royal Opera House Stream (roh.org.uk)

Available until: 17^th January 2021

The Royal Opera hoped to perform their concert to a live audience. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible, but they still performed and recorded the concert. It is very beautiful and uplifting. The Christmas tree from the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker towers over the singers and sets a festive scene. I have seen it lots of times, but it is still awe-inspiring!

It is a little bit confusing as all the singers wear pyjamas for the performances but most of the time, it’s actually not as strange as it seems. It makes sense with Hansel and Gretel as they are siblings at home together so it’s not surprising for them to be in their pyjamas. Pamina was kidnapped so she could easily have been in her pyjamas too. The group in La bohѐme might think it’s really ironic to go out in their nightclothes. It is more surprising with the other characters, but it doesn’t do any harm and the nightclothes are lovely.

Baritone Roderick Williams is the host and he is really good. He is relaxed, friendly and warm. Mark Wigglesworth conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in extracts from a number of different operas not just in different styles but with different moods.

The concert features lots of Royal Opera regulars. Most of them are current or former members of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. I think the only ones who aren’t are Sophie Bevan, Roderick Williams and Jeremy White, but Mr White has sung with the Royal Opera every year since 1991 and his agent says he’s a permanent member of the Royal Opera company. Mr Williams and Ms Bevan are regulars with the Royal Opera so there is a sort of family feel.

The works used all have a Christmas connection. There are two operas with stories that have been used as pantomimes, another opera with scenes set at Christmas time, some Christmas carols and another opera which is so much like a pantomime that my mum was in a production of it which was a sort of opera-pantomime hybrid.

It is usual in concerts of opera excerpts to start off with an overture and the Royal Opera chose the overture to La Cenerentola. Rossini’s overtures are a good way of starting any concert and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House played it really well, but it would have been really nice to see Cenerentola as she’s the heroine of one of the most popular pantomimes. There is one mezzo in the concert, Hanna Hipp, but although she has sung Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, she does mostly sing the higher mezzo roles so maybe Cenerentola wouldn’t have felt right for her. I’m sure she’d still have made it brilliant, but opera singers have specific repertoire.

But we did get to see Ms Hipp in the next item on the programme when she played Hansel to Sophie Bevan’s Gretel. Ms Hipp is wonderfully mischievous in a boyish way and it made me smile to watch her. She is also really good at movement and her voice is absolutely gorgeous. Ms Bevan’s voice is a bit heavier than most Gretels, but she has a beautiful voice. Her Gretel starts off as quite stroppy and bossy and later gets scared. Ms Bevan shows the change in her mood really well. Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha is really lovely and serene as the Sandman.

The next opera is La bohѐme and the scene performed is the Café Momus scene in Act 2, which takes place on Christmas Eve. The Royal Opera Chorus are in this and everybody is socially distant, but I didn’t realise for ages because it all looks so natural. Alexandra Lowe is a vocally outstanding Musetta. She’s very funny and I think there’s something appealing about her. I did get a little bit shocked because the chemistry between her and Germán E. Alcántara’s Marcello was really, really strong! Maybe it’s a good thing they aren’t allowed to touch! But they do make a really good couple and Mr Alcántara sings so well and he puts so much humour in as Marcello is slowly won over against his will. Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and David Butt Philip are much quieter and very sweet as Mimì and Rodolfo.

Roderick Williams sings a Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is really nice to hear some Christmas music in this concert, especially one that is written to be performed with an orchestra. It is really lovely. There are some carols I don’t really know and some I know very well so it’s interesting musically and it also made me feel Christmassy, even though it’s Boxing Day now. Mr Williams is really good at communicating the words and his performance is really sincere and the effect is special and magical.

The last item on the programme is selections from Die Zauberflöte. There is no Queen of the Night, and Tamino and Pamina never meet (though Sophie Bevan’s gentle Pamina was looking at Papageno so tenderly in ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’, I did wonder if there might be a plot twist!), but the chosen arias and duets are very enjoyable (the only one I really missed is Pamina’s ‘Ach ich fühl’s’, which I know Ms Bevan can sing radiantly). Though even if Pamina did like Papageno at first, I think she would have trouble resisting Tamino considering how romantically Filip Manu sings both his arias. Ross Ramgobin is an amiable Papageno, hilarious in his first aria and really sad in his third (he didn’t sing his second). He and Alexandra Lowe’s very excited Papagena are really adorable in their duet and they manage amazingly well to make the lack of physical contact convincing.

As an encore, the cast and chorus sing arrangements of two carols, The Holly and the Ivy and Ding Dong Merrily on High (which suits opera singers especially well). Even though it was Boxing Day, I still found myself getting excited about Christmas (which will be better next year. I’m sure it will).