By Cal
Available until: 9th May
The last two years at the ROH are hardly what the Jette Parker Young Artists would have expected and hoped for. There has been very limited opportunity to work alongside seasoned professionals or to play roles in large-scale, well-known operas, and we can’t dismiss the impact of the absence of the audience: not just the instant positive feedback but the energy they give the singers throughout the performance, just by being there.
But while there have been very definite negatives, there have also been a few positives. The Young Artists have taken leading roles in a number of digital productions which have been available for anyone with internet access and a few pounds to spare. I’m not sure they’d have had these opportunities in a normal year.
The Seven Deadly Sins has been given a very modern retelling by director Isabelle Kettle with smartphones, laptops and selfies. The central character of Anna 1 even has her own Instagram page, though this seems to have had limited success. Only a few updates were made and while the wording and pictures are exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from an Instagram user, it isn’t actually that illuminating and adds little to the main story. It might have been more effective if the updates had continued throughout the opera, but perhaps it was given up due to limited interest in the page, or perhaps unwelcome interests from non-opera fans. The comments posted on the pictures might have been perfectly innocent, but they did make me wonder what kind of page I’d find myself on if I visited their profiles!
The opera works well with a modern update in a time when we have become so obsessed with appearance. So many people have slothfully scrolled their social media feeds, envying others their perfect photos sometimes to the point of wrath, but still able to take pride in our own photos, avariciously seeking a rise in our online social status and gluttonously guzzling large quantities of alcohol, while exploring lust with as many new people as possible.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of the seven deadly sins are a lot of fun and I would say they are really positive in small doses. We all need our downtime; envy of others can serve as inspiration and the release of wrath in moderation to those that deserve it can be really effective and even helpful. We need enough pride in our appearance to ensure we are reasonably clean and tidy; knowing the value of our possessions plays an important role in our appreciation of them, and alcohol (and food) is, for many people, an important part of social bonding. Most people want intimacy and there are many different ways this can be achieved. But like most things, too much of these ‘sins’ can get you into trouble.
The opera focuses on Anna 1, who is played by an opera singer, and Anna 2, who is played by a dancer. Anna 1 speaks of Anna 2 as her sister, but her family seem to see them as one person. The family are like a strict superego, putting pressure on Anna. The adorable Anna 2 is like the pleasure-seeking id, loving every minute at first but becoming gradually sucked into the darkness. Anna 1 is the ego (in the psychological sense, not the colloquial) and tries to create a balance between them, trying to control Anna 2’s excesses and prevent the Family from taking over.
Julia Cheng’s choreography is beautiful and conductor Michael Papadopolous brings out the haunting quality of Kurt Weill’s music which has a modern feel but is very accessible. Stephanie Wake-Edwards is a tense Anna 1, tightly controlled and yet with no control of anything that matters, her singing rich and full of nuance. Jonadette Carpio is an adorable Anna 2 and she shows the tragedy of her character’s decline. Filipe Manu as Anna’s father, Blaise Malaba as her bass-voiced mother and Egor Zhuravskii and Dominic Sedgwick as her brothers form a menacing chorus of pressure and demands. In many ways, The Seven Deadly Sins feels more like a cautionary tale than an opera you immerse yourself in emotionally, but the story is gripping and there are some great performances.
Like most short operas, The Seven Deadly Sins is too short for a whole evening, but it has no natural operatic pairing, no Cav to it’s Pag (though I believe it was actually paired with Pag and others as part of Opera North’s Eight Little Greats season). The ROH have paired it with another short Weill and Brecht collaboration: Mahagonny Songspiel, a kind of early short draft of their later opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. It is perhaps not the most natural pairing and is unlikely to take off in a Cav & Pag way, but it is very interesting to see this original short version.
I never thought that I’d see a football match at the Royal Opera House (at least, not unless they did a production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie). The seats in the Stalls have been removed and replaced with grass and the opera opens with the male characters kicking the ball to one another. Later, they’re joined by female characters in elaborate dresses. By the end, I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s quite fun.
The singers from The Seven Deadly Sins return to the stage alongside another Jette Parker Young Artists, Kseniia Nikolaieva. The two mezzos are sumptuously-voiced and perfectly capture the exaggerated nature of their characters, posing, pouting and pulling faces. The men give very enjoyable renditions of their songs and provide some very amusing moments. We complain about the modern world and there is a lot wrong with it, but there is one positive. While seeing a man singing in his underwear remains a reason to snigger, there is no longer anything particularly odd about a man singing in a dress.
Even if you’re not really a Kurt Weill fan, these
productions are really interesting and it’s great to see just how versatile
these young singers are.
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