Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne

It was a delight to go to Glyndebourne to watch one of my favourite opera -Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos. The set design by Julia Müer was very effective. Act 1 was set in a modest stately home (contradiction in terms here?) looked a bit like Glyndebourne. Act 2. The end of Act 1 hinted at what might happen in Act 2 ... the bombed country home now turned into a sanitorium.

Kate Lindsey sang the role of the Composer, and surprisingly she returned on stage in a non-singing part. Zerbinatta was sung by Laura Claycomb - lots of vocal pyrotechnic and she carried her role in solo well. But when singing at her opposite Ariadne (Soile Isokoski) she seemed a bit less sympathetic. Prima Donna / Ariadne started out somewhat subdue, but by Act 2 she was well in command of the role. And it was a shame that Sergey Skorokhodov (Bacchus) was losing his voice soon after the opening phrases.

Vladimir Jurowski conducted the opening performance (to be his last season at this house). The LPO played wonderfully under his baton. And, despite of the slightly disappoint ending (Bacchus lost his voice), it was still a very good production.

Comments

Written On Skin at the Royal Opera

This was the first revival of George Benjamin's Written On Skin. As with contemporary operas, familiarity goes a long way in appreciating the work. In this revival, I found Christopher Purves's The Protector powerful and moving. Barbara Hannigan, who sang Agnès, was superb. The pure and slightly eerie tone of Iestyn Davies as The Boy completed the perfect cast.

Götterdämmerung at The Met

Carl Fillion's set design for The Ring at The Met caused a real stir at the premier. Though not having the luxury of seeing the whole Ring, I managed to get a ticket to see Götterdämmerung. Fabio Luisi at the helm of the large Met orchestra kept everything going. There was enough breathing space for the drama to unfold, and there were muscular moments that needed to punctuate the drama. Probably not as poised as Bernard Haitink at Covent Garden many years ago, or as gutsy as Antonio Pappano this season in the same house. But nonetheless very good. Deborah Voigt was a fine Brünhilde - as the role demands from beginning to end. Lars Cleveman was quite a believable Siegfried - youngish looking, jumps about, looking slightly naive on stage. Hans-Peter Köonig was OK - none of his phrases sent shiver down my spine as there was not enough evil. Back to the set. The rotating 'fingers' really worked (you can see them in this pic - sitting above the performers), especially...

Hänsel und Gretel at the Royal Opera

Having seen Hänsel und Gretel only a few months ago at Glyndebourne , I was looking forward to see how the Royal Opera will bring this fairytale opera to life. Christian Fenouillat pastoral set worked well. Like many operas with a small cast, he added a bounding box to reduce the size of the stage without losing perspective. Angelika Kirchschlager and Diana Damrau were believable Hänsel and Gretel respectively. Their stage acting (how they walked, jumped and cuddled) conveyed a real sense of innonance. Thomas Allen (their father) was on good form. The Dew Fairy (by Anita Watson) was fabulous with an orange duster and a yellow squirty spray cleaner. All in all, the creative team managed to strike a good balance between serious opera and fairytale. Colin Davis also did real justice to Humperdinck's lush Wagnerian score. It would be nice for this lovely work to remain in repertory around this time of the year to counter-balance the sickly sweek Nutcracker.

Diary of a Culture Hedonist

Search This Blog