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 […]
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.
Daughter. Liar. Wife. Thief. She has been running for so long, no one knows the real Marnie, least of all herself.
A world premiere opera from composer Nico Muhly, with a libretto by Nicholas Wright, Marnie is based on the novel by Winston Graham although alludes to the Hitchcock film. It examines the cost of freedom, the limitations of forgiveness and the impossibility of escaping the past, in Muhly’s explosive music that is direct and powerful.
This is one of the best productions of Rodelinda I’ve seen and the strong Welsh contingent gives it a real Celtic flavour and strength, it’s a three and half hour thumper of a piece and might run over, but for me it could have gone on twice as long and got me all the way home to Brighton in state of Handelian Bliss.
Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones gave us a real heroic Radamès, full and resounding and committed to the very end, he was wonderful although trapped behind his Gilbert and Sullivan epaulettes and wooed Latonia Moore’s Aida in the most convincing way, Morre was excellent, pure, fine and focused her humility and precision combined to give a fully engaging performance which help to it’s very last breath. What a debut! Her acting is a refined as her singing. Mezzo Michelle DeYoung was fine as Amneris although was dressed like a meringue in the first half and seemed uncomfortable with the clunky English translation but her cursing saw her open up and thrill the packed coliseum audience with her full throated wrath.
A tragic story of jealousy, vengeance and sacrifice, Rigoletto is one of Verdi’s most popular operas. Jonathan Miller’s much-loved ‘Mafia’ production makes a welcome return to the ENO stage, relocating the action to New York’s Little Italy in the 1950s with a tightly cut ‘ Mad men’ swagger to the costumes and Lloyd Wright interiors and Hooperesque night bar.
Considered to be one of the seminal operas of the twentieth century, Berg’s score creates a unique sound world that combines his lyrical gifts with powerful orchestral writing. A gritty exploration of sexual desire, it follows the downfall of the enigmatic Lulu, who shatters the lives of her many lovers as well as her own.
Lulu. Beautiful. Damaged. Seductive. Lethal. Lulu’s whoever you want her to be.
Mark Wigglesworth as conductor was an utter delight, he pulls and throws the music around the auditorium with all the playfulness and artfulness that it demands, with the orchestra raised up over the pit and part of the action, and with some of the players taking part in the staging this was a near perfect rendition of this deceptively simple music.
Set in an ever-so English 1930s seaside hotel, bleached white with privilege and wealth Jonathan Miller’s Marx Brothers-inspired song-and-dance Mikado is a popular hit with audiences of all ages. A distant picture of Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa is one of the only gentle echos of this operettas beginnings. The combination of Gilbert’s virtuosic wit, Sullivan’s memorable melodies and Miller’s hilarious antics is irresistible, this is the 14th outing but it still fizzles and gleams with energetic fun.
While not perfect this new ENO production is an exciting, challenging and interesting night out with quality singing and a sumptuous orchestral score, director Bieito has done bloody well to get so much out of this difficult Verdi epic.
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