Diary of a Culture Hedonist

Now how often does one get to hear Ligeti's "joke" Poème symphonique? It came about recently at the British Library. Or rather, it was performed in the old British Library reading room. 100 metronomes arranged neatly on a platform, lit, and poised to commence. After a short introduction, a small team of museum staff flicked the metronomes and the performance started. It was a cacophony of sound echoed by the reading room's unique acoustic. It's strangely mesmerizing and hypnotic. From time to time, some metronomes came together into unison, and then dissipated. It had an organic quality to it. If one ever wondered, it took about 25 minutes until the last remaining metronome on Largo came to a stop. It was fun!

This was a great revival of the 2004 Richard Jones production of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District for the Royal Opera. The production hadn't aged and felt relevant. Eva-Maria Westbroek was a fantastic Katerina - taking the lead in this credible and crazy story of a small Soviet town. Brandon Jovanovich's portrayal of Sergey was cool and boyish, complimenting the lead. I loved John Tomlinson's boorish Boris - no doubt he enjoyed being mischievous, stomping around and terrorizing everyone on stage! This probably wasn't Pappano's native territory - but he brought the subtle ironies in the score out, helped by the farting extra brass section in the boxes. What if Shostakovoch wrote more operas? We would never know.

ENO brought a lot of fun to this production of Iolanthe, with witty costumes and stage designs (Paul Brown). All the roles were well cast and the chorus did the Lords proud!

Janáček's From the House of the Dead was not going to be an "easy listening" piece. The drama was intense and claustrophobic - perhaps that's intentional. Unlike Káťa Kabanová or Jenůfa where there was a greater story arc, The House was more choppy - including two plays within the opera. All in all a very intense evening.

Carmen, but not as I knew it. The fast paced overture lured me into a false sense of security - Bizet's Carmen. That security was shattered when the drama began. There was a single staircase on stage, nothing else - no props, no backdrops, nada. Dialogues were replaced by a French monologue of the drama told in third person tense. Vocally the singers were very good. Anna Goryachova was an energetic and alluring Carmen. Francesco Meli was a straight acting Don Jose. The boys made a great sound and the main chorus was punchy. The choreography took advantage of the stair case with lots of creative movements. Now, the music. Indeed much scholarly work went into this production of Carmen - focusing on music that was genuinely written by Bizet (and not Ernest Guiraud). In practice, while many of the big arias, duets and choruses were intact, there was less music then what we were used to. In the interest of authenticity I could live with that. The production was a different mat...

Malin Byström (Salome) was amazing - from the serene high-born princess to the (almost) flesh eating monster in the space of two hours. Great acting. Great voice. One can overlook the non-dance of the seven veils. The true star of the evening.

It was great to see the return of this fabulous production of Cavalleria Rusticana. Bryan Hymel (Turiddu) and Elīna Garanča (Santuzza) made the perfect pair for this verismo opera. The Royal Opera's chorus is getting punchier and more focused. What not to like?