Diary of a Culture Hedonist

We were greeted with a drum rotate at the start of the opera - scenes introducing the characters from the opera. José Fardilha starred in the title role with a lot of subtlety (not just portraying an elderly gentleman), and at time he was able to eek out some sympathy from the audience - just a little. Norina (Erin Morley) and Ernesto (Josh Lovell) were fantastic with their well matched voice and superb acting. Morley's coloraturas were spellbindingly good. Huw Montague Rendall's Malatesta was fun and well matched.  The rotating drum allowed for fast-paced scene changes and intrigues throughout. Ben Glassberg adopted a fairly brisk tempo for the whole opera with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment responding to his every nuance. Great night.

Stéphanie d’Oustrac starred in this one act / single cast Poulenc opera. The minimalist stage (Caroline Ginet) consisted of a tilting platform with an old fashioned dial telephone. But that's all it took for the drama to unfold. d’Oustrac was able to draw us into her conversation, expressing the challenging feelings of frustration, anxiety, disappointment and dare we say hope? A superb performance it was.

The “relief” from La Voix Humaine  was this witty rendition of Les Mamelles de Tirésias . Elsa Benoit was Thérèse. Her annoyance and tantrum in front of her husband (played by Régis Mengus) was fun yet provocative. The floating mamellles were delightful. The best part was the appearance of the 40,049 babies on stage! All in all it was surreal, as Apollinaire / Poulenc intended.

Didn't quite know what to expect at Don't call him Mr Mari Kita . Julian Wong was the main star of the show (saw hime in Fag Hag a few weeks ago). This was a great telling of the composer Zubir Said who wrote the Singapore national anthem when the nation came into being. But also a story of trials and tribulations, as well as a dose of racial history of the city-state. Didn't know Shaw Brothers had a Malay-language film studio for which Zubir Said wrote many songs.  The instrumental rendition of Majulah Singapura was moving. While I didn't understand any Bahasa Melayu, the fun as well as the poignancy of the songs were not lost on me. I gather several friends got a little teary listing to Semoga Bahagia at the end. If you didn’t see the show, you can still hear the songs on Spotify . 

A revival of David Alden's direction of Lohengrin . Not sure if I still liked the slanted stage set and the slightly military costumes (Gideon Davey), but the movements and direction (revival director was Peter Relton) were great.  Jennifer Davis carried Elsa well, with urgency. Brandon Jovanovich's heroic Lohengrin moved the drama through most of the opera - but he sounded slightly tired towards the end of Act III. Otrud was sung by Anna Smirnova who was superb in the role - with grit, conviction and presence. Her steely tone would be great for Brünhilde one day. The orchestra and chorus were fantastic throughout, given some tricky positions (brass sections in balcony boxes) and on a whole Jakub Hruša held it all well together.

Stuck abroad I am, and opera houses shuttered. What to do?   Over the past month I watched three operas on OperaVision (on YouTube) that were all unusual and very interesting.    La Voix humaine   by Poulenc. It's a one act - one soprano opera. Kudos to Opera Zuid's creativity in rehearsing, staging and broadcasting during lock down. Talar Dekrmanjian as Elle was amazing, carrying the story and drama all on her own with just a few props. The austere colours from the orchestra (scored for a chamber orchestra) further heightened the edgy story.    L’Heure espagnole   was in the second half of this double bill. Romie Estèves was Concepción - capturing sexual frustration perfectly. The orchestra did a fine job in bringing out the nuances from Ravel's score.      I have seen many productions of  Der fliegende Holländer , but this was the first time where a real ship was on set and the stage was physically at the dock side. Almas Švilpa sang the title role with torment and hope,