Opera Japonica/Archives/Letters from London 2003

The Royal Opera this month staged two new productions, the first of which was Olivier Tambosi's staging of Luisa Miller. The production is best forgotten. It appeared to be set in a dolls' house halfway up a cardboard mountain, and featured comic-book reactions by the chorus to every new twist in the plot. It was salvaged by Maurizio Benini's full-blooded conducting, and some memorable singing. Barbara Frittoli made a very fine job of the title role, singing with langorous, opulent tone, always commanding audience sympathy.

Marcelo Alvarez, whose reputation in this house has already been established in Hoffmann, Traviata and Rigoletto, sang a gorgeous Rodolfo; his 'Quando le sere al placido' made a bored audience suddenly sit up and take notice, but it was not only in this 'big number' that he made an impression. Carlo Guelfi's Miller was bluff and blowsy and not always focussed; Phillip Ens and Ferruccio Furlanetto made strong contributions as Wurm and Walther respectively. Sara Fulgoni made much of little as Federica, and young mezzo Tove Dahlberg is a name to watch - in the small role of Laura, she sang her tiny share of the music with great beauty.

The second of the new productions - an import from Geneva - was Ambroise Thomas's opera Hamlet, staged by the currently ubiquitous duo, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. The production has much to be said for it, as it made an almost credible evening of Thomas's second-rate interpretation of Shakespeare (it's something of a loose adaptation - when given in the version seen here, only two characters end up dead, as opposed to Shakespeare's eight casualties!). It also boasted Simon Keenlyside as a brooding and youthful Hamlet, and Robert Lloyd - who intends to retire after next season - as Claudius.

Perhaps the biggest selling-point was Natalie Dessay as Ophélie. Unbelievably this was her house debut; an event which was delayed due to a vocal crisis (she was supposed to sing Zerbinetta at the start of the season) from which she has now very fortunately recovered. Thomas wrote the character of Ophelie in a manner guaranteed to bring the house down, but it's another matter altogether to have it sung by an artist of Dessay's calibre. Yvonne Naef, who made a splash last season as Azucena, proved slightly miscast as Gertrude - the role seems to lie a little high for her. Markus Hollop (as the ghost of Hamlet's father) lacked focus, but then again, perhaps focus is not the first thing one looks for in a ghost. Louis Langree's conducting somehow managed to make musical sense of the vaguely ludicrous plot.

If not completely satisfying, the English National Opera's staging of Les Troyens à Carthage was a marked improvement on January's La prise de Troie. Richard Jones has directed both 'halves' of this production, but the company opted for different designers for the two component operas, in order to demonstrate the cultural differences between the Trojans and the Carthaginians. The second part has been entrusted to John McFarlane, whose abstract designs are unobtrusive yet memorable - and sometimes very beautiful. The Carthaginian landscape is suggested by a bare stage surrounded in poster-paint blue and burnt sienna; while during 'Nuit d'ivresse' the starlit sky literally descends around the lovers by means of some cleverly-lit gauzes. It is only in the final act that inspiration seems to be lacking, though I suppose a colourless stage is a valid reflection of the general mood at this point in the piece.

The singing was of mixed quality. Susan Parry's Didon started off a touch harshly, and I thought her final scene also failed to elicit the sympathy it should. She warmed in the middle act, and her singing in the love duet was quite beautiful. She also engages completely with the role; this is a dramatic and deeply emotional portrayal. Unfortunately in this most famous of set-pieces, John Daszak's Enée was not able to match her smoothness of tone (especially at the top of his voice). Daszak does not have the weight of voice which one hopes for in this role, and though he put great effort into the characterisation, it was not a memorable performance.

The smaller roles, on the other hand, were very strongly cast - in particular the Iopas of the young tenor Colin Lee, who has the ability to sing with great beauty with apparently no effort. Mezzo Anne Marie Gibbons stepped in for an indisposed Anna Burford as Anna - though her tone quality is very different from Burford's, she gave an engaging performance and I look forward to hearing her again. The orchestra seemed uninspired under Paul Daniel.

Towards the end of the month came something truly memorable - a revival of David Alden's 1996 production of Tristan und Isolde. The production itself, which was new to me, is somewhat abstract but never confusing; it seems mainly to support the action rather than reveal anything new about the opera. Susan Bullock has sung Isolde in Leeds (and in doing so, converted a previously Wagnerphobic friend of mine) - however, I had doubts about her ability to carry the role off in a house the size of the Coliseum. I also had doubts about David Rendall's decision to take on Tristan, if only in terms of stamina. In the event, both singers exceeded all expectations; Rendall's only significant fault was a slight 'beat' in the voice when singing piano; Bullock was radiant throughout, and always had the upper hand with the orchestra. Most remarkably, the English diction was impeccable - quite an achievement in Wagner. Jane Irwin made a notable company debut as Brangaene; Jonathan Summers was Kurwenal, and Matthew Best a sonorous Marke. Dietfried Bernet's conducting was thoroughly involving and made every phrase count. In both conducting and casting, this was streets ahead of anything else seen recently at the Coliseum.

Tristan is the last we shall see of the 'old' Coliseum; the season ends on June 8 so that the house can close for refurbishment. The company will perform at the Barbican during the autumn, though as yet no press release has been issued; the Barbican's own literature has mentioned stagings of Cosi fan tutte and The Rape of Lucretia. Meanwhile during June, the Royal Opera's season continues with Lohengrin and further performances of Die Zauberflöte, and the annual Holland Park summer season opens with Fidelio and Tosca.

© Ruth Elleson, 4 June 2003

I seem to have had spectacularly bad luck this month in terms of experiencing performances from visual or acoustic blindspots. One performance about which it is not worth going into detail is the acclaimed new production of Tristan und Isolde at Glyndebourne, sold out before public booking even opened; I was 'lucky' enough to pick up a standing ticket, and from my vantage point I discovered that the (wonderful) singers could barely be heard, let alone seen, thanks to the angled, almost tubular set, and director Nikolaus Lehnhoff's habit of placing the performers right at the back of the stage.

The following week I found myself halfway behind a pillar at Covent Garden for Elijah Moshinsky's 1977 production of Lohengrin. It looks rather dates now anyway, there's nothing much to look at, and nobody really moves anywhere. A good cast helps, though, and while I am still very sorry to have missed the legendary all-star 1997 revival under Gergiev, there was some thrilling singing to be heard at the performance I attended a few weeks ago. Robert Dean Smith sang strongly and beautifully in the title role, and Melanie Diener created a lovely and sympathetic Elsa even though she seemed underpowered at times (though this could have been something to do with where I was sitting). Waltraud Meier's Ortrud was truly spectacular - it is by no means a seamless voice but she used it fearlessly, creating some hackle-raising drama at the top where the voice 'hollows out' - and she was partnered by an almost equally exciting Telramund in Sergei Leiferkus. René Pape has had a terribly hectic schedule, singing not only Heinrich I in this production but also King Marke in the Glyndebourne Tristan, but the exceptional warmth and intelligence of his singing do not appear to have suffered. Mark Elder conducted; needless to say it was a finely rounded performance.

The start of the Opera Holland Park season was marked by a new production of Fidelio, in a staging by Olivia Fuchs (known for her work with the conservatoires and the National Opera Studio). This proved a strong and successful opener, with particularly fine performances from Alan Oke (a Florestan who actually looked like he could have been locked away and starved), Conal Coad (Rocco) and Sarah Redgwick (a diamond-bright Marzelline). Yvonne Howard isn't an immediately obvious candidate for Leonore, but after some hairy moments during 'Abscheulicher!' she settled into the role and generated great sympathy and excitement. The one big disappointment in the casting was Nicholas Folwell's Pizarro - this fine singer was badly miscast and lacked both the vocal and the dramatic presence for the role.

The production, in modern dress, was simple and worked well; the orange-suited prisoners emerged from what looked almost small enough to be dog-kennels, and sang strongly. My only real criticism of the staging is of the finale, where the too-convenient jolly reunions of prisoners with long-lost spouses would not have been out of place in an amateur production. Peter Robinson conducted.

Holland Park's second opera of the year was a revival of James Robert Carson's production of Tosca, conducted by Philip Ellis. The 1940s-fascist setting could have been gimmicky, but wasn't - it was intelligent and well thought through. Christine Bunning's soprano can at times sound a little thin and harsh, but she really created a personality for Tosca, while Dominic Natoli was a vibrant if not dramatically perfect Cavaradossi. Roderick Earle's Scarpia was sung with menace, but he was in need of some kind of charm and allure. The performance I attended had its problems - the gunshots failed to sound, and Holland Park's famous resident peacocks, who had been as good as gold throughout Fidelio, squawked discordantly all evening - but it was an enjoyable evening, and an interesting take on a popular piece.

As part of the London Symphony Orchestra's American Opera Week, the long-awaited UK premiere of Andre Previn's 1998 opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, finally took place at the Barbican on 25th June under the baton of the composer. The performance retained much of the original American cast, and was lustrously-sung, but with little attention to the words (at least on behalf of the ladies). There were surtitles, but these were only visible to about half of the audience. Renee Fleming's timbre sounded more jazz-influenced than usual, caressing Previn's bluesy lines as Blanche. The excellent Rodney Gilfry had everything necessary for an effective Stanley - charisma, masculinity, voice, words - and even Tennessee Williams could have written the role of Mitch for Anthony Dean Griffey. The main British newcomer to the cast, Janice Watson, was a remarkable Stella. Vocally, she and Fleming could certainly have been sisters - after all, they have a very similar repertoire - but a little more contrast between the two voices might have made the overall musical palette a little more interesting.

The piece itself oozes atmosphere, but then so does the play, and I wasn't convinced that an operatic setting adds much. However, it has its moments - the highlight for me was Stella's haunting post-coital vocalise, an example of music overcoming the limitations of words.

Unfortunately the staging left much to be desired; though the small and dimly-lit stage gave the right impression of a stuffy, cramped one-bedroom flat, there were gimmicks which I could have done without. The ghost of Blanche's dead husband is constantly meandering around the stage, as, at one point, is the memory of the sailors that Blanche used to 'entertain' at the Hotel Flamingo. Above all, my bad luck with seating continued - it had originally been billed as a concert performance, and I, and everybody else who had booked seats at the front, therefore lost out on a decent view.

The other American opera in the LSO's themed week was not really an opera at all, but John Adams's 'nativity oratorio', El Niño. An eclectic combination of ancient and modern texts in both English and Spanish not only tell the story of the Nativity, but provide meditations upon it. In this respect it pays tribute to Bach's style of oratorio composition. The cast consists of two sides of Mary - in simple terms her purity (Dawn Upshaw) and her earthiness (Kirsti Harms) - plus a bass-baritone who sings everything from Joseph to Herod (Willard White, whose every word was audible in the Barbican's unforgiving acoustic). Adams's most arresting and original musical idea is his use of three solo countertenors in eerie harmony. There is also a film which runs throughout the whole piece, its main purpose being to set the Nativity within a contemporary context - but this I could have done without.

Like Streetcar, this very strong performance of El Niño was conducted by its composer, but also like Streetcar, the overall impression of the piece was lessened by the layout of the stage.

I cannot sign off without mentioning the outcome of the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, now in fact called the BBC Singer of the World in Cardiff. After much complaint in recent years about the diminishing coverage of this event on television, the free digital channel BBC4 showed all five heats in full, and I like most others watched the whole competition from the comfort of my own home and therefore - for once - had a full and unrestricted view of everything.
It seemed from the fourth heat that a win for the lustrous Chilean soprano Angela Marambio would be inevitable. However, her inappropriate choice of repertoire for the final put things back on level pegging, and right to the end it was anybody's race. The prize was eventually awarded to Finnish baritone Tommi Hakala, who had given a wonderful performance of Ford's aria from Falstaff, as well as a compelling 'Hai gia vinta la causa' (outshining fellow finalist Markus Werba who sang the same aria). The Song Prize, now judged via a separate competition, went to Irish soprano Ailish Tynan whose opera heat had been disappointing.

Coming up next month we have Semele, Pagliacci and Rusalka at Covent Garden, L'arlesiana and Werther at Holland Park, and some Mozart rarities at the Barbican. The Proms kick off on 18th July, with the first opera performance being King Priam on the 20th.

Domingo did more than just please the crowds - he delivered a committed performance and proved he still has 'it'. Focile's Nedda was sweet and feisty, though without a huge voice; Ataneli's prologue had massive sonorous tone, but his Tonio sometimes descended into caricature. Hvorostovsky was the smoothest and most alluring Silvio I've ever seen, though nobody really believed that Canio wouldn't have recognised his back view as he disappeared into the distance! Daniil Shtoda, the young Kirov tenor, made a very musical Beppe. Antonio Pappano gave a full-blooded Italian reading of the score, and what's more, once the circus subsided in the second scene, it became a very creditable and coherent dramatic performance from the entire company. It was a shame that the first act was so superficial.

The 'B-cast' - a term I generally object to, but the difference in ticket prices for the two casts made it perfectly clear that this was how the management viewed it - was also worth hearing. One of the main differences was that the audience for this cast were there for the opera's sake, and were therefore more settled and less intrusive. Dennis O'Neill's Canio had rough edges but had moments of genuine emotion (though less of the sobbing, please). Vassileva was underpowered but sang beautifully. Albert Mastromarino was replacing Leo Nucci as Tonio; he fluffed several notes in the prologue, and seemed generally tired and off-pitch. George Petean's Silvio and Shawn Mathey's Beppe were adequate. So, for the most part, was Domingo's conducting - though it was very obvious that it isn't his 'day job'.

Earlier in July came an experience of pure joy in the form of Handel's Semele, an opera which is being staged by a number of companies this season and next. Ruth Ann Swenson's evocation of blonde ambition was spot-on, and if she sounded a little thin in Act 1 she was dazzling in her two big Act 3 arias - 'Myself I shall adore' and 'No no. I'll take no less'. On the whole, though, she was outshone by the wonderful Stephanie Blythe in the double role of Juno and Ino, who had both the warm plangency for Ino's simple music and the fire-spitting for Juno's 'Hence, Iris, hence away'. The Iris, incidentally, was the company's young star, Sally Matthews, who made a lovely job of her one aria. In fact, she won the audience over before she had sung a note - this is a sumptuously staged and costumed production, and Iris draws the longest straw of all by getting to come on dressed as a rainbow. Kurt Streit was an even (if not terribly exciting) Jupiter, John Relyea has gravity as Cadmus and comic timing as Somnus, but Robin Blaze's Athamus had some intonation problems. Charles Mackerras brought life to the pit, with the orchestra (on modern instruments) playing in idiomatic style.

The season ended with two semi-staged performances of Rusalka, a showcase for Renee Fleming whose opulent tone is perfect for the title role. She made a lovely sound and characterised well, though she had a tendency to croon. (This was less pronounced in the second performance than the first.) She was also upstaged by Larissa Diadkova's Jezibaba and Eva Urbanova's Foreign Princess, both world-class performances. The men were less reliable; Sergei Larin's Prince had some good moments and some bad ones, and Franz Hawlata never managed to instil the Water Sprite with any real personality. Three of the company's Vilar Young Artists - Sally Matthews, Ailish Tynan and Tove Dahlberg - blended beautifully together as a playful trio of Wood Nymphs. As for the orchestra - well, these days we all know who to engage for the perfect Czech opera. It was indeed maestro Mackerras, and I went home after the performance feeling as though I had just heard the most beautiful music of my life.

Opera Holland Park is having a particularly good season, and this month I saw three fine performances. The first - Cilea's L'arlesiana - had a terrific cast led by Rosalind Plowright as Lucia and featuring such underrated singers as Sean Ruane, Vassily Savenko and Kate Ladner. The piece is far from perfect - the holes in the plot include the fact that the eponymous 'heroine' neither appears in the opera or is mentioned by name - but the staging was simple and evocative, and the opera was extremely effective because of the seriousness of the performance. It's all too easy to play verismo melodrama for laughs, and this cast didn't. In fact it was a heartstopping, exciting, driven performance with enough pace to make the audience forget to wonder what's going on, thanks in part to the conducting of Charles Peebles.

The next week I saw Werther, in a traditional but slightly stylised (in a chocolate-box sense) staging, with a cast that was mainly unfamiliar to me. Alison Kettlewell's Charlotte held the performance together, but she was measured rather than tortured, and was difficuly to connect with. Amos Christie was well-cast dramatically as Werther, and has a fine voice which he uses rather woodenly. With strong contributions from Victoria Joyce as Sophie, Richard Lloyd Morgan as the Bailiff, and Dominic Wheeler in the pit, this amounted to a performance which was enjoyable but lacked the dramatic edge to make it special.

Then came Lucia di Lammermoor, with the gorgeous French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels (Magda last year, Violetta the year before). She has everything needed for this role; a big and warm yet extremely agile voice, magnetism on stage, physical beauty, and the ability to portray extreme vulnerability. She created a tense atmosphere with 'Regnava nel silenzio' and was pinpoint-accurate in the cabaletta, and her mad scene was simply stunning. It is a shame that tenor Philippe Do was not up to the same standard; he is a remarkable singer, but should never have been cast in this role. The other main strength in the cast was the Enrico of Mark Stone, who sang with black tone and sonority. Jeremy Silver's conducting was highly atmospheric, though the orchestra were not always together.

And so I come on to the BBC Proms, which this year include many more operas than usual. The first of the season was Tippett's King Priam on 20th July, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by David Atherton, and with a very classy cast led by David Wilson-Johnson in the title role with William Dazeley as Hector. Otherwise, the opera's strength was generated by its women - in the three major roles were Susan Parry (Helen), Elizabeth Connell (Hecuba) and Susan Bickley (Andromache). Possibly the best singing of the evening came from Christine Rice in the small roles of the Nurse and Serving Woman. One of the best things about the Proms is that you often find singers of this calibre in a comparative rarity.

I confess I had been very nervous about Elektra on 29th July, as the title role was sung by Gabriele Schnaut - a singer who I associate with harsh tone and excruciating intonation. I need not have worried. Schnaut took a few months off last year, and seems to have experienced a return to form as a result. Here was a performance with dramatic drive and determination from beginning to end; expressive both in voice and face, she used her massive instrument unfalteringly and was truly stunning. Most remarkably of all, she seemed to undergo a change in her appearance as the opera progressed; starting off gaunt and cold and (frankly) scary-looking, but becoming radiant and shining-eyed as her lifelong ambition is finally realized. I must add one serious caveat in that she still sings desperately flat some of the time - but hey, it used to be ALL of the time.

The other star turn was Felicity Palmer's Klytemnestra, a tour de force upon which I have already passed comment once this year. Janice Watson sang Chrysothemis beautifully but sometimes sounded under pressure at the top; Alan Held's Orest sang sturdily and conveyed great warmth in his facial expressions, and John Treleavan's Aegisth was more than adequate for his small amount of music. The casting of the lesser roles was more patchy; the Maids were extremely good but the Trainbearer and Servants were below par. Under Donald Runnicles the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra gave a forceful and effective performance, never letting the pace slip.

Next month Sir Colin Davis repeats his monumental Troyens at the Proms, with most of the cast from his concerts and recording in December 2000. Other operatic Proms highlights in August will include Glyndebourne Festival Opera's Die Fledermaus; La voix humane and Perséphoné in a double bill starring Dame Felicity Lott; and in a further addition to the Berlioz bicentenary celebrations, a performance of Benvenuto Cellini.

August

Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera: Mariusz Kwiecien as the Count and Graeme Danby as Antonio

Photo: Mike Hoban

The hottest British summer since records began is now drawing to a close, having claimed various human and technical casualties along the way. The August 6 performance of Verdi's Stiffelio at Holland Park was halted midway through Act 1 when veteran baritone John Rawnsley, heavily costumed as Stankar, fainted from the heat during his duet with Lina. He suffered no serious harm, but it was deemed best to continue the performance without him - a decision which led to a masterclass in how to make the best of an unfortunate situation. Bass-baritone Keel Watson, who was singing the smaller role of Jorg, sight-read parts of Stankar's part from the side of the stage, between appearances in his own role. Nobody actually stood in on stage, meaning that Raffaele (Nicholas Ransley) was required to challenge an invisible opponent to a duel.

In the title role, Geraint Dodd was compelling if a little dry of voice. But had it not been for Mr Rawnsley's illness, the evening's talking-point would have been the talent of Katarina Jovanovic, a soprano who consistently impressed me during her time at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but who I was hearing in a professional context for the first time. Jovanovic did an extraordinary job of Verdi's extremes of melodic and dynamic range, performing with total commitment and exciting vocal colours.

Sunday, August 10 was the hottest day, with temperatures in London topping 38ºC, and the crowd that turned up to the Proms performance of Poulenc's La voix humaine and Stravinsky's Perséphone gave thanks for the relatively new air conditioning system in the Royal Albert Hall. The Stravinsky was accomplished, but completely overshadowed by Dame Felicity Lott's riveting performance of the Poulenc. Lott's fragile, feverishly neurotic interpretation - she seemed exhausted at the end - and her easy command of the French language made this one-woman show an uncomfortably memorable experience.

Le nozze di Figaro: Sarah Fox as Susanna and Mariusz Kwiecien as the Count

Photo: Mike Hoban

On Tuesday August 12, a performance of Le nozze di Figaro was delayed when the heat caused railway tracks to buckle a few miles north of Glyndebourne, just south of a train from London which was on its way to the venue carrying several members of the orchestra (and a good proportion of the audience). The performance got underway twenty minutes later than planned.

Daniel Farncombe's staging was original and visually attractive, with the set consisting of transparent white gauze walls affording a certain sense of privileged voyeurism. Richard Hudson's monochrome designs increased the frostiness between the Almavivas, but didn't do much to create warmth elsewhere. Among the vocal cast I was disappointed only by Ruth Ziesak's Countess, who sounded thin and sharp. Sarah Fox was a vivacious Susanna, Christopher Maltman a witty Figaro, and Mariusz Kwiecien a big-voiced and lascivious Count. Linda Tuvas, a name that was new to me, was a treat as Cherubino - small, impish, with an air of dishevelled mischief and a clear and incisive treatment of the words, and Claire Ormshaw made much of her small opportunity as Barbarina.

The Glyndebourne management are ever-conscious of the need to get much of their audience back to London by public transport, and there were rumours that the two supposedly dispensable arias - Marcellina's and Bartolo's - would be cut to compensate for the late start. They weren't, although Mark Wigglesworth seemed to rush through the entire piece at an alarming rate, and I think they shaved a good five minutes off the supper interval! Afterwards, the London train service from Lewes was still out of action, and somebody was thoughtful enough to divert the chartered bus service (invaluable to non-drivers like myself) to the next operational station up the line. We were all back in London well before midnight.

Le nozze di Figaro: Sarah Fox as Susanna, Mariusz Kwiecien as the Count, and John Graham-Hall as Don Basilio

Photo: Mike Hoban

The first of two Berlioz operas at this year's BBC Proms was Benvenuto Cellini, given in concert on 17th August, in determinedly 'classical' style (Roger Norrington was the conductor, and many of the cast are known specifically for their work in the Baroque and/or bel canto repertoire). It was a vigorous performance, headed by Bruce Ford in the title role, and the vivacious Laura Claycomb as his beloved Teresa - both small-voiced vocal exhibitionists. It sounded terrific from my position at the front of the Royal Albert Hall, but I suspected that this force and clarity may have been lost somewhat towards the back of the 6,000-seat venue, particularly as the soloists were positioned behind the orchestra. Even so, it had terrific energy and deserved a much bigger audience than it got.

Eventually, the heatwave passed - in time for the marathon Prom of the season, which took place on the August Bank Holiday. This was a complete concert performance of Les troyens. On the podium was Sir Colin Davis, whose performances of this work at the Barbican in December 2000 are still fresh in the memory. This Prom virtually recreated that occasion by reuniting Davis, the London Symphony Orchestra and most of the original soloists.

The bulk of the dramatic impact of Berlioz's magnum opus is concentrated in the first two acts, in the capable hands of Petra Lang's thrilling Cassandre. Vocally, there was a weakness at the top of the voice which I hadn't noticed before, suggesting she might not have been on top form, but she was ceaselessly compelling in her prophecies of doom. She was ably assisted by William Dazeley's Chorèbe and a number of ENO's young artists in the smaller roles.

If the drama is in Part One, the music is at its best in Part Two, when we moved to the Carthaginian court of Michelle de Young's Didon. De Young is a striking figure on the concert platform and knows how to command an audience; she sounded lovely, although I did feel that she never quite plumbed the full emotional depths of the character. Her relationship with Ben Heppner's Enée (vocally gleaming, though with some unfortunate cracks appearing in the voice towards the end) also occasionally bordered on the superficial. Sara Mingardo's subtle and insightful Anna was a true asset to the cast, and the luxury casting of the opera's two light-lyric tenors (Kenneth Tarver as Iopas, Toby Spence as Hylas) provided sheer musical beauty. The London Symphony Chorus made a powerful sound, though having heard it done by the ENO (for all the production's faults) I did miss the resonance of a professional opera chorus, and the instrumental playing evoked grandeur and tragedy in equal measures.

A rather different take on the same legend provides the next opera at this year's Proms, in the form of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, followed on Saturday September 6 by a complete English National Opera concert performance of War and Peace, and the following day by a BBC Symphony Orchestra performance of Oedipus Rex (with a cast including Robert Gambill and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. The guest soloist at the Last Night of the Proms the next weekend is Angela Gheorghiu, who will perform a number of operatic arias. I shall be reviewing these next month, along with the start of ENO's residency at the Barbican (Cosi fan tutte and Thaïs). My visits to the Royal Opera begin a couple of weeks into the new season, so with luck I may catch Boris Godunov in time to review it in September.

September

Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House: John Tomlinson in the title role

Photo: Clive Barda

Two days before the English National Opera's monumental performance of War and Peace at the Proms came the sad news of the loss of one of Britain's brightest opera stars, the soprano Susan Chilcott, who died of cancer aged just 40. It was particularly poignant because at the fully-staged premiere of the ENO production in 2001, Chilcott should have sung Natasha, but had been forced to withdraw to undergo treatment for her illness. In tribute, ENO Musical Director Paul Daniel dedicated the Prom performance to her.

The Prom performance was semi-staged, in that the principals were fully-costumed and had a proper stage area on the platform in front of the orchestra, with the black-clad chorus singing from choir seats, and it reinforced ENO's estimable reputation for epic Russian opera. The principal cast was mostly as it had been in 2001, with the extraordinary Simon Keenlyside as Andrei and John Daszak as Pierre. Catrin Wyn Davies was a simple, ingenuous Natasha and her sister Sonya was sung by the company's rising young mezzo, Stephanie Marshall. The two great historical cameos of the War section provided another opportunity for Willard White (Kutuzov) and Peter Sidhom (Napoleon) to try to humanise the two characters put across by Prokofiev rather like imposing life-size oil paintings. The ever-versatile John Graham-Hall was perfect as the dissolute Anatole, and the vast numbers of smaller roles were cast mainly from company strength.

In charge of the orchestra and chorus, Paul Daniel managed to find the sweeping gravitas which his interpretation two years ago had lacked, and the chorus gave their absolute best.

Boris Godunov: Sergei Larin as the pretender Dmitry and Olga Borodina as Marina Mnishek

Photo: Clive Barda

Still on the theme of big Russian opera, my first visit of the new season to the Royal Opera House was to take in the opening night of Boris Godunov - a performance which took some time to wake up. Semyon Bychkov generally took firm and effective control of the orchestra, and John Tomlinson was gripping in the title role (better, I thought, in his moments of private torment than in the public scenes), but his surroundings were inconsistent to say the least. Nicolas Dvigoubsky's set, with its incomplete archway and swinging pendulum, is striking, but director Irina Brown (reviving Andrei Tarkovsky's production) has problems with making people move convincingly. In the first and last scenes the chorus are subjected to a series of peasant dances, and the spectre of the dead Tsarevich wanders aimlessly about, lit in green.

John Tomlinson as Boris Godunov with Tove Dahlberg as Fyodor

Photo: Clive Barda

Presumably this was why the chorus looked and sounded almost bored at first, and there were times when their timing was seriously at odds with that of the orchestra. There were also several weaknesses in the smaller roles; Vladimir Matorin barked his way through Varlaam's scene with little sense of comic timing, and Ailish Tynan and Tove Dahlberg (Xenia and Fyodor) were very charming but not always audible. Sergei Larin's loss of voice led to the unexpected pleasure of Vladimir Galuzin's Otrepiev/Dmitry, though unfortunately the last-minute nature of the substitution meant that he was able only to sing the role, with Larin acting. The house compounded the problem by placing Galuzin in the pit where he could not easily be heard (why not by the proscenium arch?)

Thank heaven for the Polish act, which really got things going thanks to Olga Borodina's voluptuous Marina and Sergei Leiferkus's icy-cold Rangoni; despite Tomlinson's towering performance it will be this scene which lasts in my memory.

The English National Opera Cosi fan tutte at the Barbican Theatre: Victoria Simmonds as Dorabella

Photo: Bill Rafferty

After their Prom, and with their Coliseum home under redevelopment, ENO moved into the Barbican for their reduced Autumn season, beginning with a new production by Samuel West of Cosi fan tutte. The company's previous staging of this opera was only a year old and there was not much wrong with it - I presume the reason for another new production was occasioned principally by the size of the Barbican Theatre's stage. It is a simple, fairly minimalist staging, relying much on lighting effects, and it is generally effective and often beautiful. The only gimmick is that the sisters work out the identities of their new lovers long before the end; a useful tool for giving a new emotional slant to the second act, but one which makes nonsense of the final scene.

Cosi fan tutte: Andrew Shore as Don Alfonso and Alison Roddy as Despina

Photo: Bill Rafferty

The opera served as a showcase for several of the company's junior artists, along with the more experienced Mary Plazas (singing her first Fiordiligi, having sung Dorabella in last year's production) and Andrew Shore, once again singing the role of Don Alfonso. Shore is ideal in this role - his comic timing and stage presence leave one in no doubt as to who is in charge of proceedings. In a small cast with no really weak links, Victoria Simmonds’s vivacious Dorabella was particularly notable; Colin Lee and Toby Stafford-Allen reacted well with one another as Ferrando and Guglielmo (Lee's two arias were sung particularly beautifully) and Alison Roddy's hard-bitten cynic of a Despina has a wonderful comic gift which often makes one forget her tendency towards shrillness. Plazas was occasionally put under pressure by Fiordiligi's music - the end of 'Come scoglio' was less than controlled - but she held the audience in rapt attention with her lovely rendition of 'Per pietà', and given her tiny stature, she did an excellent job of conveying the grand scale of Fiordiligi's emotions. There was no chorus - 'Bella vita militar' was instrumental and played from a recording offstage - and conductor Mark Wigglesworth's tempi worked well for all the singers. An enjoyable evening.

Cosi fan tutte: Victoria Simmonds as Dorabella and Toby Stafford-Allen as Guglielmo

Photo: Bill Rafferty

Next door in the Barbican Hall, the ENO mounted Massenet's Thaïs in two original-language concert performances. The company has come in for much criticism for this 'new' language policy, which will also apply to I Capuleti e I Montecchi in October, but it is not the first time it has been done (I'm thinking back to La Gioconda in 2000) and I see no problem with the policy as long as it is restricted to concert performances.

Thaïs featured in the title role the captivating American soprano Elizabeth Futral in her ENO debut. She proved easily able to portray her character's eventual piety as easily as her initial allure, and her only vocal failing was a tendency to go slightly sharp. Richard Zeller, another company debutant, was an authoritative and determined Athanaël, thrilling in his soul-searching in Act 3, and Paul Charles Clarke was a nicely devil-may-care Nicias, with the ever-reliable Clive Bayley as Palémon. The smaller roles as usual came from within the company, and were all strongly performed. Emmanuel Joël conducted very much in the French style; Barry Griffiths had the audience spellbound with his account of the Méditation.

Next month I will be looking back at the Royal Opera's Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, and - for the first time - Handel's Orlando. ENO's Barbican season continues with I Capuleti e I Montecchi, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra collaborates with Opera Rara for a performance of Mercadante's Emma d'Antiochia.

October

Orlando at the Royal Opera: the set for Act III

Photo: Bill Cooper

There have been several memorable technical disasters on the stage of the Royal Opera House since it reopened for business after the refurbishment. On October 1, during the interval of Don Giovanni, part of the set collapsed during a scene change, damaging the stage and injuring a stage hand. It was up to the cast to make the best of what was left - unable to use most of the stage, they were forced to perform the second act in front of the curtain. To be absolutely honest, I thought that the enforced simplicity of this particular Act 2 did it a great favour, relieving it of the gimmicks of Francesca Zambello's staging - and I went home in no doubt that I had seen a whole opera.

Don Giovanni at the The Royal Opera House: Nuccia Focile as Donna Elvira, Anna Netrebko as Donna Anna and Ian Bostridge as Don Ottavio

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

The vocal performances throughout the evening were mixed. Gerald Finley's account of the title role was beautifully sung and adequately acted, but he lacked either the stage presence of Bryn Terfel or the sexy allure of Simon Keenlyside (these being Finley's two predecessors in this production). As Donna Anna, the talented Tamar Iveri was a late replacement for an ailing Alexandra van der Weth, and is clearly not as much at home in this repertoire as in Verdi. Robert Lloyd sounded a mite underpowered as the Commendatore, and Ian Bostridge's Ottavio was quite bizarre, with seemingly no continuity between registers. Rebecca Evans and Darren Jeffery repeated last year's successful partnership as Zerlina and Masetto, and Nuccia Focile was a brittle, vocally brilliant Elvira. Erwin Schrott's Leporello stole the show with a huge voice, affable charm and perfect comic timing.

Don Giovanni: Robert Lloyd as the Commendatore and Gerald Finley in the title role

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

The first of two casts in the Royal Opera's first revival of Madama Butterfly featured the attractive Chinese soprano Liping Zhang in the title role. Zhang is a charming and emotionally engaging actress, the first Cio-Cio-San in several years to reduce me to tears, but vocally she was less convincing with slightly shapeless phrasing and a tendency to sing flat. Marcus Haddock was her serviceable, ardent Pinkerton, to whom the audience responded well. Thomas Allen's Sharpless (luxury casting!) was a carefully-judged emotional portrait, though I got the distinct impression he was not at his vocal best; Nancy Fabiola Herrera gave strong support as Suzuki.

The conductor was Kirill Petrenko - a Russian whose name was new to me, but whose full-blooded conducting hit the mark. The austere Caurier/Leiser production - on its first revival already after just six months - is effectively a blank canvas. Some find it inadequate; I find it heightens the effect of the drama by throwing its intensity into relief.

Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera: Liping Zhang as Madama Butterfly, Thomas Allen as Sharples, and Luke Scott as Sorrow

Photo: Bill Cooper

The Royal Opera's only new production of the month was Handel's Orlando, a comparative rarity which contains some of Handel's most original music including a striking trio for two soprani and alto. The opera was cast in accordance with the current fashion - a mezzo in the title role, and a countertenor as the secondary male character. On this occasion I felt that the roles would have been better reversed. Alice Coote sang Orlando with warm tone and impressive agility, but was short on heroism both vocally and dramatically, sometimes even becoming inaudible.

Mehta, as Medoro, gave a compelling all-round performance from the start (I'm told that Mehta scored a huge success in the title role when Coote fell ill later in the run). The only other truly consistent performance came from Jonathan Lemalu, the young Samoan with the meteorically-rising career, who made his house debut as a charismatic Zoroastro. As Angelica, Barbara Bonney's phrasing was sloppy and I really got the impression that she wasn't happy in the repertoire. Camilla Tilling, in the soubrette role of Dorinda, seemed nervous to begin with - she was really quite drastically sharp - but by the middle act she had settled into a winning comic performance.

Francisco Negrin's production, with designs by Anthony Baker, was hardly original. Was it my imagination or did this staging steal a few ideas from ENO's string of successful Handel productions? Orlando is a problematic opera - the plot is really over by the second interval, and not a lot was done to keep things going.

Orlando: Jonathan Lemalu as Zoroastro and Alice Coote as Orlando

Photo: Bill Cooper

The English National Opera's short season at the Barbican continued this month with concert performances of I Capuleti e i Montecchi under the baton of bel canto maestro Richard Bonynge. Sarah Connolly's Romeo, with the singers usual balance of emotional commitment and faultless tone, was excellent - she has previously sung the role at NYCO. Company debutante Dina Kuznetsova was less successful as Giulietta; though she sang prettily and got all the words across, there was just something bland about her performance. Things cannot have been made any easier for either of the singers by the fact that Bonynge's wife Dame Joan Sutherland, arguably the greatest bel canto singer in living memory, was sitting in the fourth row of the stalls. Bonynge's conducting was masterful, and the chorus clearly relished the opportunity to sing in Italian. An enjoyable evening.

My three trips to Covent Garden this month left me in need of that something special which those performances lacked, and on October 17, in the modest setting of Richmond Theatre, I found it. I had been at the same venue two days earlier for a patchy Ariodante on the first night of English Touring Opera's current tour, but it paled in comparison to the company's terrific Turn of the Screw. The atmosphere was as creepy as it should be; we see Miles and Flora gradually adopting the behaviour of the ghosts, and in the children's every action we see their preoccupation with death. A terrific young cast, headed by Emma Gane's Governess and Christopher Steele's Quint, made for a far more compelling ensemble than anything I've seen in a major house recently.

Next month the Royal Opera will stage a new production of Aida, while at the Barbican the ENO will revive The Rape of Lucretia and conclude their preparatory Ring Cycle with concert performances of Götterdämmerung. Handel's Serse (with Anne Sofie von Otter) and Barber's Vanessa (with Christine Brewer and Susan Graham) will also be performed at the Barbican as part of the venue's Great Performers Series.

© Ruth Elleson, 30 October 03

November

Robert Wilson's new production of Aida at Covent Garden: Carlo Colombara as Ramfis

Photo: Clive Barda

In many traditional stagings of Verdi's Aida, especially the ubiquitous arena-style productions, the emphasis is put almost entirely on the big chorus scenes of the first two acts. Despite being one of the composer's last works, the human side of things tends to be neglected in favour of the Nabucco/Ernani treatment, and it is easy to lose sight of what an intimate, focused little family tragedy is hiding behind all the glitz and pyramids.

Norma Fantini as Aida and Mark S Doss as Amonasro

Photo: Clive Barda

So let's give the Royal Opera a bit of credit where credit's due. Robert Wilson's new production is staged against a background of abstract shapes, and the characters move in inexplicable Japanese Noh style. There is basically nothing to look at, and it throws the music into relief, enhancing the delicacy of Verdi's scoring in a way that I have not experienced in any other production. Coupled with this, Antonio Pappano's conducting was wonderful, teasing expression out of parts of the score which I'd always seen as pure bombast.

The singing was so-so. Norma Fantini, whose Aida I would have heard four years ago had she not been ill, sang with voluptuous tone but was often flat. Johan Botha - a big-guns style Radames - was ardent of tone but was not permitted by the production to be interesting. Ildiko Komlosi's Amneris lacked juice in her lower register, which seemed almost detached from the rest of her voice. Mark S Doss's Amonasro was virtually inaudible.

Norma Fantini as Aida and Johan Botha as Radames

Photo: Clive Barda

But the worst thing about the production is Wilson's desire to create such a sense of distance, both between characters and between stage and audience, that there is no room for humanity or empathy. A rotund tenor who just stands and sings is an operatic cliché to begin with, but when he also waves his arms around for no reason other than to satisfy the director, it just becomes laughable. Because there was no opportunity for emotional engagement, it was an extremely frustrating and unsatisfactory experience.

Aida at the Royal Opera: Ildiko Komlosi as Amneris, Johan Botha as Radames (right) and Carlo Colombara as Ramfis (left)

Photo: Clive Barda

Off to the Barbican again for some long-awaited Wagnerian closure, with the final instalment of the English National Opera's preparatory semi-staged Ring der Nibelungen. We saw the first three operas in the cycle a year ago, and Götterdämmerung (given under its English title, Twilight of the Gods) seemed an excessively long time in coming.

There were problems. Jeremy Sams's genius seems to have let him down in this final quarter; his English translation, usually witty, sounded clunky. But the good news is, musical matters are improving. The cycle's greatest vocal weakness - Kathleen Broderick's Brünnhilde - sang better than I have ever heard her, even if she really did sound as though she was saving her energies for the end. The new Siegfried, Richard Berkeley-Steele, was also a pleasure to hear - a real English Heldentenor with vocal power, good intonation (something which seems to be the exception rather than the rule lately) and no signs of strain. The bass Gidon Saks was a towering, black-voiced Hagen, though he oversang in the first act and (therefore?) was unable to muster up his customary level of expression. The return of Alberich was welcome as it was a reminder that Andrew Shore's genius does not only lie in comedy. Sara Fulgoni sang Waltraute with a wonderfully rich tone, but with few audible words.

The English National Opera Götterdämmerung at the Barbican: Liane Keegan as the First Norn

Photo: Bill Rafferty

Robert Poulton was an adequate Gunther; Claire Weston a disappointing Gutrune, though to her credit she does sound as if she has done a lot of work to tone down the wobbly vibrato and shrillness which have afflicted her in her career to date. The Norns were slightly underpowered, the Rhinemaidens delightful. But the orchestra, under Paul Daniel, surpassed themselves - the Funeral March was particularly memorable, with thunderous timpani and the sorrowful Siegmund theme sighing regretfully from the cor anglais.

Götterdämmerung: Andrew Shore as Alberich (behind) and Gidon Saks as Hagen

Photo: Bill Rafferty

Handel's Serse has been a frequent choice in London lately, having been staged at ENO, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and most recently, by Les Arts Florissants as part of the Barbican's Great Performers Series. The fact that one of the most striking performances of the evening came from a minor role (Silvia Tro Santafé as Amastre) is testament to the overall strength of the cast, which also included a vocally brilliant Atalanta from Sandrine Piau and a wonderful comic turn by Antonio Abete as Elviro. If anything the only weakness was Elisabeth Norberg-Schultz's Romilda, who meant well but was vocally a touch monochrome. But the highlight - and the main selling-point of the performance - was Anne Sofie von Otter's assumption of the title role. The tallest in the cast by a head, von Otter brought assurance and swagger to the egotistical king as well as absolute vocal confidence and virtuosity. William Christie conducted with full involvement.

The opera scene appears to have entered a period of hibernation - in fact the next two months offer only two productions at Covent Garden (Lucia di Lammermoor and Sweeney Todd, the latter an import from Chicago which should act as a display of the company's versatility) and a couple of concert performances including Peter Grimes with the LSO. Cecilia Bartoli will give a recital of Salieri's music on December 22nd.

December

Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House: Marcelo Alvarez as Edgardo in the Act III finale

Photo: Bill Cooper

December's opera scene in London was sparse at best. The Royal Opera made its first venture into music theatre with one of the most operatic of all musicals - Sweeney Todd - but I will not be seeing this until early January. With the Coliseum still closed for business, I found myself in the unusual position of having only one opera to see in the entire month.

Unfortunately, Christof Loy's new production of Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden had little to recommend it. The whole affair was set on a virtually bare stage, beneath a very ugly lighting rig, and the costumes were a mish-mash of periods and ideas. The wedding party of Act 3 became, inexplicably, an orgy. I say inexplicably because it could not even be justified by the current fashion for shock tactics. It wasn't shocking - it was out of place and laughable.

Fortunately there was strength in the casting, though the company was lucky to have a soprano to sing the title role at all. With cancellations from both the original singer (Alexandra von der Weth) and the first choice of replacement, the role was eventually shared between Andrea Rost and Li Ping Zhang. I heard Zhang, whose acting was sympathetic and whose vocal performance was limpid and agile. There was perhaps a certain lack of pizzazz in the Mad Scene - but she can certainly sing it (and more comfortably than her signature role of Cio-Cio-San). Anthony Michaels-Moore was a well-rounded Enrico, but the star was Marcelo Alvarez as Edgardo. It takes a pretty special tenor to come on for the final scene after the soprano has brought the house down, and do an even better job - but he did. His voice is lush and ringing, he has the looks of a rugged romantic hero, and he doesn't overact. Divine.

The orchestration returned to Donizetti's original version, with the 'flute part' in the Mad Scene spine-chillingly played on the glass harmonica. The effect was remarkable. It assisted Evelino Pidò in eliciting a brittle if beautiful performance from the orchestra, loaded with nervous energy.

I could have reported on Cecilia Bartoli's recital of Salieri arias at the Barbican, had the singer not cancelled the performance at one day's notice. We are told that the performance will be rescheduled; I hope to be able to report on this recital at some point in the future.

So, what to say about 2003? There have been some excellent shows - the Royal Opera's Elektra and the English National Opera's Tristan und Isolde are two which immediately come to mind. However, the Royal Opera in particular also seems to have produced more than its usual quota of turkeys (Luisa Miller, Aida, Lucia etc.), some missed opportunities (the musically ravishing Rusalka which was only afforded a concert performance) and a horribly overpriced celebrity circus (Pagliacci). Off the beaten track, Opera Holland Park had a particularly impressive season in which L'arlesiana and Fidelio were the best of the bunch.

2004 brings greater prospects, with the reopening of the restored Coliseum, and in April, the unveiling of Raymond Gubbay's new permanent opera company at the Savoy Theatre. It remains to be seen whether the city needs another opera house within five minutes' walk of the two established ones, but it seems that it will be filling a niche in the market by presenting nothing but popular repertoire, in English. One advantage I anticipate is that I will never again have to wait for the right show to come along before I take a first-timer to an opera.

But first, the year kicks off with Sweeney Todd at Covent Garden, and concert performances of Peter Grimes at the Barbican to mark the start of the London Symphony Orchestra's centenary year.

© Ruth Elleson, 6 January 2004

Ruth Elleson is London's youngest opera critic. An Internet pioneer, she posted her first reviews on the net at the age of 19. Originally from the historic city of Durham in the north of England, she moved to London after university at York. She now attends up to 200 opera and concert performances a year, A frequent visitor to the conservatoires and vocal competitions, she has an unrivalled knowledge of upcoming vocal talent. A singer in her own right, Ruth performs as a mezzo-soprano in the professional five-voice choir of the Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch.

See the current Letter from London and also Letters from London 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004