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Author: Eric Page

BOOK REVIEW: Larrikin Yakka by Paul Freeman

Posted on by Eric Page

Larrikin Yakka

Paul Freeman

Australian photographer Paul Freeman has a new full colour very glossy photography book and he’s got a seriously good eye for a well-polished rough gent stripped down and buffed up.

His new large photo book Larrikin Yakka is an erotic delight. Larrikin is an Aussie term meaning “a mischievous young person, an uncultivated, rowdy but good hearted person.”  Just the type of gent you want sprawled with his tools out in full colour across your coffee table then.

Freemans’ photographs manage that contradictory queer state of being quality honest portraits of the men while also being superbly realised erotic fantasy images for the modern urban gay man.

Out Now! For more information or to learn some interesting stuff about the background to it’s publication see Paul Freeman’s website: 

To purchase online, click here:

Stand to attention with Mr Gay Wales!

Posted on by Eric Page

Gscene’s own Valleys boyo, Eric Page, catches up with the rather hunky Mr Gay Wales, Ben Brown, to see what’s occurring and how he won that lush sash!

Image: Maleshots.co.uk
Image: Maleshots.co.uk

Have you a St David’s Day message for us?
“Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus or Happy St David’s Day! Eat plenty of Welsh cakes, don’t skip leg day at the gym, drink a protein shake with extra peanut butter (my signature dish) and have a lot of beer.”

You served with 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh, why did you join?
“I joined the armed forces although I actually really wanted to be in the fire service. At 19 I was working in a clothes store and was on a public service course in college and I found out you had to be 21 to join the fire service. I said ‘sod this, I’m not working in retail for two more years’ so walked into the army careers office and enlisted. Whilst serving I learnt a hell of a lot, I was a fully trained soldier. I was taught the drills and skills necessary to be effective member of the Royal Welsh Battalion, one of the largest infantry regiments. I also learned about where my courage lay. Being part of a highly trained unit taught me discipline and values to live by and I still try to live by them. I was posted all over the world: Belgium, France, America, Cyprus, Africa and Afghanistan to name a few.

“Being gay in the army was challenging. I remember having to sneak my boyfriend onto the base on the weekends. Being gay in the army is difficult as many people have this stigma that people aren’t allowed to be gay in the forces. I want to raise awareness and let people know it’s okay. When people learned I was gay they were fine and it was all very relaxed.”

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You’ve been a pretty lush Mr Wales, why did you enter the competition?
“After leaving the army I was homeless and it was a tough time for me. My boyfriend finished with me, I was devastated and very down. I needed a push and some motivation to pull me through. I entered Mr Gay Wales to get me through this difficult time and to channel my negative energy into something positive and I also wanted to raise awareness about LGBT people in the armed forces. It can be tough for us, but it’s getting better. I wanted to help people struggling with it themselves in the army. Since then I’ve been honoured to be an ambassador for Shelter Cymru to raise awareness of homelessness. In Wales there’s over 16,000 homeless people.” 

I saw you marching with the army in your sash at Pride in Cardiff, how did that feel?
“Marching with the army at Cymru Pride was spectacular, it was the first time the armed forces marched in Wales Pride, it was a huge achievement and a right step for the armed forces. I hope they were as proud of me as I was of them.” 

Image: Maleshots.co.uk
Image: Maleshots.co.uk

How have your army mates been about you becoming a gay sex symbol and international representative of Gay Wales? 
“International sex symbol, Welsh hunk and now Gscene cover pin-up, that’s a new one! My army mates are very supportive of everything I’ve achieved. They’re very proud of Mr Gay Wales. When I won I had messages from my officers congratulating me and still get messages saying how well I’ve done after leaving the forces.”

What does being Welsh mean to you today?
“Being Welsh for me is all about being patriotic and proud of where I’m from – which is Wales NOT England, I’m not English. I’m Welsh and British, it’s an important distinction. When I start-up about it, my partner, who’s in Germany, says ‘oh you’re in the UK mood again’.”

Are all Welsh men as hot as you?
“In a nutshell, yes! But I doubt they’ll find a better Mr Gay Wales than me.”

Who’s your dream threesome?
“Ha ha, cheeky! Austin Wolf (don’t google him on the work computer) and Christian Bale.” 

What’s been good about the last year and what are you up to at the moment?
“My proudest moment was winning Mr Congeniality in the Mr Gay Europe competition. It was a massive confidence boost, I felt people actually looked up to me, and they would come to me if they have any issues which was very rewarding. I might not have won the competition but you don’t need a big title to be successful! One Direction only got third place in X-Factor and look at them now. My year’s been amazing. I’ve been so busy year this year, my work with Shelter Cymru as an ambassador is superb. I’ve got lot of trips planned and working hard at the gym and concentrating on my body ready for next year’s goal, to compete in Mr Leather.” 

Ben, you’re big, strong and beautiful with a killer smile – what gives you such hope and where can folk find out more about you?
“This smile is really getting me through and persistence gives me hope. When you’re down always think that it’s only going to be for a short period of time, be determined and fight through,” (he beams a big beautiful smile), “Ha ha, check my Instagram: mrgaywales_benjgram89. Be warned – I’m half naked.”

BOOK REVIEW: Straight Jacket by Matthew Todd

Posted on by Eric Page

Straight Jacket

By Matthew Todd

With an interesting foreword by John Grant this is a handbook for the Queers. Todd knows his stuff and his book is as readable as it is eminently sensible. I’d defy any LGBT person to read this book and not have an opportunity to reflect, learn something and give themselves an opportunity to be happier people.

Todd writes from his own experience and also from watching others and experiencing the communities and cultural changes that gay life has gone through over the last twenty years.

Part memoir, part sotto voice rant, he looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be – and if not, why not?

He addresses our ‘crisis of shame’ and offers compelling guidance on coping while shining a light on his and our problematic relationships with drugs and alcohol.

This is a courageous and life-affirming book, as engaging as it is challenging and Todd offers invaluable and more importantly practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues.

He states the LGBTQiNB communities need to acknowledge the importance of supporting all young people and suggests it’s time for older people to transform their experience and finally get the lives they really want.

An excellent and timely book. 

For more information or to buy the book, click here:

BOOK REVIEW: ‘A New Man’ by Charlie Kiss

Posted on by Eric Page

‘A New Man’

by Charlie Kiss

Imagine you are a proud lesbian and a feminist. You have the odd doubt about your sexuality but you understand how the male-dominated world works and are angry about it. You even go to prison to protest at the ultimate in male violence: nuclear weapons. Then one day, a shock realisation occurs that not only are you not a lesbian, but you are in fact, a man. Your world is turned upside down. This is Charlie’s story. 

This is the story of broken families, isolation and a total collapse & rebirth of identity. It’s inspirational showing us passion and activism from a committed lesbian, feminist, socialist, anti-nuclear campaigner.

Kiss never flinches from showing us their mental health struggles and the huge impact it had on them, and their loved ones. Then with care, consideration and remarkable honestly Kiss tells us how stopping medication, doing daily struggle led them to learning to live with the conflict of self-identity.

Charlie acknowledges that he is male, but this is repressed. As a lesbian feminist Charlie believes that he should fight against stereotypes but the repressed feelings keep resurfacing.  Kiss transitions. He is much happier, life stabilises. He then experiences life from a new perspective but there are surprises.

This personal narrative is an enlightening and interesting read, and the throb of political engagement,  fairness and the conviction of being able to change and build a better word is a fiery undercurrent to what can be a tender vulnerable tale, honest and soul baring.  It’s an enticing ambiguity, of fire and ice, with a happy ending.

Out Now

For more information or to buy this book see the publishers website

BOOK REVIEW: Natalie and Romaine by Diana Souhami

Posted on by Eric Page

Natalie and Romaine

The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks

Diana Souhami 

Natalie Barney,’the wild girl of Cincinnati’, and Romaine Brooks were both rich, American and grandly lesbian. Natalie and Romaine met in Paris in 1915 and their partnership lasted 52 years. They were both expatriates; unconventional, energetic, flamboyant and rich.

Natalie had numerous affairs with other women: Renée Vivien who nailed shut the windows of her apartment, drank eau de cologne and died of anorexia aged 30; and Dolly Wilde niece of Oscar, who ran up terrible phone bills and died of a drugs overdose. Her Friday afternoon salons in her Parisian house were for ‘introductions and culture’ and were frequented by Gertrude Stein, Colette, Radclyffe Hall and Edith Sitwell. Romaine achieved fame as an artist.

She painted her lovers including Gabriele d’Annunzio,and the ballerina Ida Rubinstein. Her relationship with Natalie was constant and together they threw up a liberating spirit of culture, style and candour. This wonderfully warm, witty and insightful biography into their lives is subtitled ‘Paris, Sappho and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brook’- it’s exactly that and and Souhami’s style is effortless and leads you into the narrative fully seduced.

Souhami’s eye for detail and her enormously kind and generous emotional insight gives us not just the facts of their existence, but the feeling, yearning, passions and desires of two perfectly fascinating and indomitable women with the world at their feet. It’s a hugely positive and fun depiction of the lives of these astonishing, passionate women.  Souhami’s prose and sharp humor captures the indomitable spirit of these two people but also their mystery and sensuality. It’ s a heady mix which is underscored by the seriously enjoyable detail which comes from the quality of  research.   I learned, laughed and found myself delighted by this pair of inspirational women.

Out now. 

For more info or to buy the book, or read about the many other excellent books including two excellent ones on Gluck and Edith Cavel,  Diana Souhami has written see her website here. 

FILM REVIEW: The Ice King by JAMES ERSKINE

Posted on by Eric Page

The Ice King

JAMES ERSKINE

John Curry transformed ice skating from a dated sport into an exalted art form. Coming out on the night of his Olympic win in 1976, he became the first openly gay Olympian in a time when homosexuality was not even fully legal. Toxic yet charming; rebellious yet elitist; emotionally aloof yet spectacularly needy; ferociously ambitious yet bent on self-destruction, this is a man forever on the run: from his father’s ghost, his country, and even his own self. Above all he was an artist and an athlete whose body time and time again –sometimes against his will– become a political battlefield.

Winner of Gold at Innsbruck Winter Olympics of 1976, and of that year’s World and European figure-skating championships, Curry then developed and staged professional ice dancing extravaganzas with a hand-picked troupe of world class skaters that worked ballet manoeuvres in with the sport’s competitive rigours creating a whole new spectacle which was successful.

Curry is filmed saying his father forbids him to attend ballet classes, but his father let him skate because that was “protected by the umbrella of ‘sport’.  Curry went on to become the best in the world and says that if he won every major completion and then took an Olympic Gold then no one would be able to tell him that what he did, and the way that he did it, was wrong! What a will.  He comes across like that in the film, which although hints at the daemons of depression and insecurity he harboured focuses mainly on his triumphs.  The film has a lovely narrative using his own handwritten letters to various people voiced over, with plumy gay charm by Freddie Fox.

Curry was worshiped by the British public, a star, every women was in love with him, some men were lucky enough to love him,  he  won the Sports Personality of the Year award, he appeared on every chat show and  Blue Peter, included in the film. The film briefly looks at his troubled relationship with his father but also with his supportive relationship with his Mother who was there for most of his triumphs and also supported him at the end, as he died of AIDS and became the first British celebrity to publicity acknowledge it and talk about it. Fearless to the end, he died as he lived, on his own terms.   The film, rather properly , concentrates on Curry the man, the skater and the champion, dwelling with some superb –and before unseen- footage of some of his famous and iconic skates, this is the man who skated at the Metropolitan Opera house and wowed them.

Read the New York Times review from 1984 here

The film follows his life in American, the fun of Fire Island in the late 1970’s with some heart-warming archive film of the ‘gays back then’ and one lingering sand covered photo of his perfect bubble butt, but it always comes back to the ice. It’s where Curry burned the brightest, where his searing flame of genius roared the loudest and one of the most touching parts of the film is part of the only known recording of his ice dance ‘Moon Skate,” a solo set to the slow movement of Ravel’s G Major Concerto, a reflective, melancholy, cathartic piece which show him at his breath-taking astonishing best.

Uncompromising, a little waspish, funny and charming, utterly vulnerable, stronger than an Ox, fast, lithe and inspiring, camp, sensual and a rejecter of received butch ways of sport and skating,   John Curry is one of the LGBTQ heroes who should be held up and venerated and this film goes a  long way to restoring him not just to public acclaim, but to international recognition for his transformative aspect on sport, on the winter Olympics and on younger gay skaters and sportsmen who needed a role model.

You can’t argue with an Olympic Gold medal, he was the best in the world, arguably still is one of the best male skaters in the world and his legacy lives on.

On UK Wide release today

For more info, to check cinema release dates or to book tickets or download on iTunes see the website here.

BOOK REVIEW: The Trial of Roger Casement by Fionnuala Doran

Posted on by Eric Page

The Trial of Roger Casement

Fionnuala Doran

The life of Roger Casement: celebrated humanitarian and condemned Irish revolutionary is given this sparkling graphic novel treatment by artist and author Doran. We don’t hear much about Casement in England (for some reason…..shame perhaps?)  but he’s a true hero in Ireland and his outing all but sealed his horrible fate.

Casement was knighted by King George V for his humanitarian work in Africa and South America. Five years later, he was hanged for treason. The book charts the events that led a man renowned for his compassion to the noose. Doran’s absorbing narrative explores Casement’s downfall, from his efforts to secure German backing for an independent Ireland to his disastrous return home and subsequent arrest.

Based on his true life story; condemned as a revolutionary, imprisoned in the Tower of London (this was the 20th century!!) his sexuality exposed by the circulation of his private journals, and on his final day in the courtroom, he delivered a brave, impassioned speech that still resonates.

This graffic novel is a lovely labour of love but if you’re not too familiar with the times and history of struggle of Casements’ time then it would really be worth a little extra research, perhaps from an Irish author, then you’d get the full benefit of Doran’s precise narrative.

Out now £12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publishers  website.

OPERA REVIEW: Iolanthe @ENO

Posted on by Eric Page

Iolanthe 

English National Opera

This all new production of Iolanthe has a different director Cal McCrystal from the ENO G&S smash hit Pirates of Penzance, but looks like being as huge a success as that was. McCrystal – who is newish to opera – plays it straight, proper Gilbert and Sullivan and this is a wise mood as its viciously lampooning of privilege and morals works just as well today as it did then and needs no modern tweaks or wink-wink additions. McCrystal directs a production that embraces the chaotic physical comedy and irreverence that are his hallmarks. His is a sharp knife peeling away the daftness of British Society and romantic tomfoolery to allow us to laugh as it’s fatuousness but still keep respect. It’s a carefully measured slaughter of sacred cows and hardly puts a foot wrong, with very little updating it’s right on the button;  a sad reflection of how little the British institutions actually change..

Iolanthe is a brilliantly funny, satirical fantasy, revealing a typically Gilbert & Sullivan topsy-turvy worldview. Phyllis and Strephon wish to marry, but as Phyllis is a ward of court she requires the Lord Chancellor’s permission. The Lord Chancellor, however, wants her for himself.

This is wonderfully, carefully, beautifully done with an irreverent attention to detail which will charm Operetta buffs and enough slack, wild and wondrous charms which will seduce the G&S fans and even tease in folks who (might think they) like neither with its exuberance fun and silly ditties.

This is classy deconstructiveness, done with such a deft touch and perfect sense of comedic timing that it feels oddly amateur at some points and I need to qualify that by saying in the best possible way – like watching folk you know well do something you love. It’s charm and engaging plotting gives you the feeling that you’re watching something wonderful unfold, full of bumps and offsides, raised eyebrows and sotto voice grumblings, it’s a rather stylish piece of pantomime theatre and the Victorians would have loved it. The audience loved the double entendres – all from the original text unchanged apart from the way that time and contemporary culture has filthified their meaning.

As vulgar in parts as it is romantic in others it doesn’t miss a beat and with so much to get though that’s impressive. Timothy Henty keeps the ENO orchestra on a tight leash and they plough through the score giving it just the right amount of earnest smoothness needed with some extra oomph’s when the staging requires it.   Sullivan’s carful and beautiful musical parodies are given the gentle sincerity required and the orchestra kept form and energy till the last note.

The Chorus, dressed with love  are a constant riot of fairy and lords, clashing and dashing, dancing and prancing, singing and joyfulness are lovely, each and every one of them. Each year there is a production from the ENO which makes me utterly adore the chorus and their work in Iolanthe is flawless.  Choreographer Lizzi Gee is to be commended on her robust sprightly work with them.

You know you are in for a treat and in a safe pair of hands when Andrew Shore’s Lord Chancellor walks on stage and he gets to bounce, dance, do his verbal pyrotechnics and even floats at one point, whatever he does he brings laughter pouring out. His skill is impressive and his voice supports the intricate and demonic words set with such brilliance by Gilbert, although he spoke as much as sang his lines, but all with effortless ease. Shore never lets us forget this is supposed to be fun. Yvonne Howard as Queen of the Fairies gives a wonderful counterpoint, part Valkyrie, part Tinkerbelle her voice warm and resonant giving passion to the role. Marcus Farnsworth’s superbly passionate but on point Strephon was excellent -a heartthrob we could believe in and Ellie Laugharne’s Phyllis was a delight, her conniving charisma convincing as her voice. They did a clog tap dance dressed as Dresden shepherd & shepherdess whilst singing – a piece of ENO magic I’ll not forget in a while.

Never overpowering the singing the comedy in this opera is laid on creamy thick but with such a lightness of touch and perfect comedic timing that it takes the whole thing up a step. Richard Leeming get a Tarantino style beating time and time again as the Lord Chancellor’s Page but his dynamic dancing and very funny face brought forth roars of laughter and Barnaby Rea gives an excellent and handsome Private Willis his profound voice rolling around the auditorium. Ben Johnson and Ben McAteer as Earls Tolloller and Mountararat respectively wrap each other up in tender adoration with a touching (and caressing)  public-school bromance, which gives a delightfully layered gay twist to this lords & fairies tale there’s even a perfectly judged epic Star Wars reference which works so very, very well and elicited delightful giggles from the audience.

Phew, well done ENO on such a superb evenings entertainment.

You can read the full synopsis here

The sets from the late lamented Paul Brown, all painted back drop and stylised Victoriana are a triumph and bring some laughter along with them, Browns sense of Britishness was perfect and yet he still manages to infuse a modern sense to everything we see. There’s some superb big resounding theatrical moments with the entrance of the lords and the destruction of the Arcadian landscape by the industrial revolution and slapstick daftness down in a beautiful House of Lords, all Pugin high gothic carved wood and red velvet. Delightfully silly stuff and given the perfect flush of lighting from Tim Mitchell with flashes of period references. Actor Clive Mantle is lovely as the Monty Pythonesque high Victorian music hall Captain Shaw, a well-known fireman of his day, mentioned in his text and brought to life by McCrystal as the MC of the evening who intervenes to douse the fairy’s magical fire at a few hilarious points.

It’s simply lovely working on many levels a work of art and as charming to watch as it is beautiful to listen to.

If you’ve not thought about going to see a Gilbert & Sullivan work before then this is the one to go see, it’s selling fast, not surprisingly so book now.

Plays until April 9

For more info or to book tickets see the ENO website here

English National Opera

St Martins Lane

London

THEATRE REVIEW: Spamalot @Eastbourne

Posted on by Eric Page

Spamalot

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

Funnier than the Black Death & lovingly ripped off from the hugely successful 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this spammier than ever production is full of misfit knights, killer rabbits, dancing nuns and ferocious Frenchmen.

This is a gleefully silly and highly polished production of Spamalot from Selladoor Productions clip clops with the aid of some African Swallow imported coconut shells into the delightfully comfortable Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne this week.

It’s a perfectly scored homage to musicals in general with much ruthless deconstructing and adoring echoing and has maintained a very close following of the original theatrical production along with the films from Monty Python.  Its draft, a little crude, wonderfully familiar, endlessly strange and done with a warm and engaging humour which drawn the audience in instantly with laughter and then leads them and the cast around its merry way.  There’s plenty for the hard-core Python fan, one of whom I had with me and he was very pleased at all the references and wink winks, nudge nudges at their classic scenes.

Director Daniel Buckroyd keeps everything tight with just enough space for some fun mucking about by the cast, the set is panto level silly with some wonderfully knowing gags, the costumes are fun, the sequined nuns a real delight and the dancing is sharp and tight. The choreography from Ashely Nottingham was excellent and gave the show the huge jazz handed musical underpinning it needs to succeed as a song and dance show as well as a silly comedy show. A hard act to balance but one done with real style and panache by this talented cast.

The plot and narrative bounce around as much as the cast, its part Camelot, part Holy Grail, wholly daft but also with an almost coherent hero’s journey narrative which gives away quite how much Eric Idol loves musicals deep down.   The cast shines one and all, Bob Harms King Arthur is the triumph of self-delusion and lurches from disaster to mishap with perfect timing,  with Rhys Owen as his sidekick and perfect not-so-straight- man. Owen is lovely, funny, touching and sweet and milks the laughs.   Sarah Harlington does starlet with a real brilliant shine as Lady of the Lake, her voice soaring, her comedy timing as sharp as her nails and with a glamour that every musical needs, she nailed it, time and time again.

The rest of the ensemble cast do excellently and there’s not a misstep apparent, singing and dancing their way with committed abandon. The staging is worth a mention too as it pulls off some fun effects, the entrance of the lady of the lake is handled very well and there’s plenty of silly goings on with the set as with the story.

It’s a charming production with a superbly talented cast done with energy and charm and presented in a warm and comfortable theatre with reasonable ticket prices and a very cheap bar, with free parking just outside, now what could be better than that!

You can get there and back, drink and have good seats for half the price of a Brighton night out.  The Devonshire Park Theatre gives not just seriously good value for money but also a seriously entertain show with Spamalot and id’ recommend this silly, daft show. You’ll leave singing the tunes and feeling very jolly indeed even if your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries.

Plays until  Saturday, February 10

Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne

For more info or to book tickets see their website here

 

 

 

OPERA REVIEW: Satyagraha @ENO

Posted on by Eric Page

Satyagraha

ENO

First staged in 2007, Phelim McDermott’s highly acclaimed, spectacularly theatrical production is a visual feast following the early life of Gandhi in South Africa and his non-violent campaigning against segregation and racism and named after his word for Non-violence (for which there is no word in any language in the whole word, which is worth noting.) This opera by Phillip Glass is formed of three mains segments each taking a long and visually dreamlike look at Gandhi’s life but also at the people who inspired, helped, supported and worked with him. Tolstoy, Tagore and Martin Luther King guide the three sections of the work and also the development and maturity of both the principals of Satyagraha as a non-violent form of resistance and also its musical principals as presented by Glass.

They are not always easy to tease out in direct personality but the overall effect, and one that mounts throughout this work is of a progression of cooperative thought and action towards a better world, facing struggle with dignity and numbers and always choosing the non-violent path. The music mirrors and echoes this tension between aggression and non-violent movement and action.  It often made no sense to me at all, not helped by it being sung in Sanskrit and there are no surtitles, but this adds to the dreamlike and ritualistic properties of the night. I abandoned myself to it, was lifted by it and was in the moment of its momentum. Various text is projected onto the stage for this production and becomes a filmatic part of the action.

Satyagraha is instilled with theatrical flair by the award-winning director designer partnership of Improbable’s Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch and they weave an utterly transfixing account of this complex life with its bare and simple meaning and vision. The use of puppets and silt walking actors and dancers, simplistic repetitive props which writhe and transform into battling giants or huge disturbing animals, the suggestions of city and oppressive oligarchies with a sneering, menacing almost Terry Gillingham surrealist edge is impressive and convincing. The constant feeling of both stillness and movement is kept in a contradictory balance at the heart of the action. It’s not an easy thing to write about or to digest as fact, it’s all metaphor, shadow, suggestion and oddness, but the overall effect is beautiful, although sometimes unsettlingly so.

The music is pure Glass, but with luscious space in this opera for the singers and rather than regulate them to supporting roles, Glass has presented them out front, in full parity with the music and sometimes even guiding it, I was impressed by the subtle and often convoluted ways in which the singers and the music met at repeated moments of joint emotional clarity and I felt convinced again that there was a deeper level to the often mechanical and empirical dissections of Glass’s music. The first time I watched this opera, I learned to love Glass, this revival gave me added warmth and depth, and it’s still superb.

Toby Spence portrayal of Gandhi is humble and convincing, it doesn’t matter that he’s singing in Sanskrit, he’s gentle, soft and compelling and carries the work on his immensely dignified shoulders and his lyrical tenor voice.

Charlotte Beament as Ghandi’s secretary Miss Schlesen was astonishing too, her voice rising up into the highest ranges and is generous with a sharp ethereal edge to the combined singing, I was enchanted by her.

Anna-Clare Monk excelled with her polished top soprano giving graceful dull diligence to the role of Mrs Naidoo. Stephanie Marshall’s mezzo contrasts and flows with a lyrical richness that enchanted as Kasturbai, and the wonderfully formidable Sarah Pring reprises her role of Mrs Alexander and her Ninja umbrella. The ENO chorus work hard venting their contempt and rage or offering supreme almost angelic support they are triumphant in their clear and mesmerising voice.

Laren Kamensek very familiar with Glass and the ENO orchestra from her wonderful control of Akhnaten conducted with pure mathematical precision allowing the music to delicately & relentlessly unfold like an ancient origami secret box and the orchestra were like a ruthless finely oiled machine from the first note to the last, that’s a terrifically impressive pit.  They deserved the rapturous applause they received.

Act two is spectacular. Visually it’s astonishing, blending and weaving itself with an endless sense of movement, representing the public support for Gandhi in the printed press. I was transfixed as the second part rose to its crescendo and with the projections, movement of actors, changing lighting effects and full of force of voice and music from the singers at the front of the stage. This was opera at its best.

The third act is a slow wind down, with a few highlights from the ever delightful chorus but a lot of very, very slow progressions and acting, after the intense  brilliant heat of the second section it made me impatient and I had to check myself and relax, breath and keep myself calm and remind myself of its meditative meaning. I reminded myself a few times…..then a few times more.  It’s a long trek though and even with its meditative central theme and endlessly repeated arpeggios the third act is a little too long for me, with Mr Glass’s infinite variations.

Book now it’s a superb night, utterly divine; but invest a little to really enjoy it with just the slightest bit of reading up on the synopsis and ideas behind this Opera, and then with a little knowledge let yourself in for a wonderful night of quite unforgettable entertainment. You’ll may even leave humming a theme, it stayed with us all the way home. You will be both thrilled and stilled by this superb ENO production.

Until February 27, 2018

English National Opera, 

London Coliseum, St Martins Lane, London

Running time: 3hrs 15mins

For full details or to book tickets 020 7845 9300 or see the ENO website here:

 

 

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