Death in Venice - further thoughts

Having just seen Covent Garden's new production of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice, I referred to the ENO production in my review, which I saw before I had started this blog. I decided to look at the older production again on DVD. It was directed by Deborah Warner, with Edward Gardner conducting, and the DVD featured John Graham-Hall as von Aschenbach, Andrew Shore taking the multiple parts, Tim Mead as the Voice of Apollo, and Sam Zalvidar as Tadzio.

What I remembered of the ENO production was the wonderful use of lighting and the fluid screens and billowing curtains which set the various scenes with the minimum of fuss. The final image of Tadzio silhouetted against the great but also hazy disc of the sun was the culmination of these brilliant effects. I think the scene changing at Covent Garden was by comparison a little more intrusive. The Guardian's reviewer used the word 'earthbound' which seems apt.

I had forgotten the nuances of interpretation, which reflect a difference of approach by the two directors. It is not easy to make a direct comparison between John Graham-Hall's performance and Mark Padmore's, since the DVD provides close-ups impossible to attain by a member of the audience, so that the former's facial expressions are much easier to read; in terms of singing each is strong, though Padmore is more austere in bearing.

The focal point of interest is of course the relations between the ageing writer and the young boy. In Warner's reading, the boy is barely aware of the man's attention until the fateful moment when he smiles, whereas McVicar has directed his Tadzio to glance at von Aschenbach much earlier, though of course still enigmatically. Von Aschenbach's comment 'you notice when you are noticed' refers at the Coliseum to Tadzio's interaction with his playmates, whereas at Covent Garden it is a response to one of these glances of recognition and even challenge.

The choreography for Tadzio emphasises the different levels of awareness proposed in the two productions. Sam Zaldivar is less self-conscious in his boyhood, happy to accept the approbation of his playmates, grinning at their praise. There's a motif of him teasing his sisters, and he is exuberantly tossed in the air by his companions. By contrast Leo Dixon, a taller and more reserved youth, seems more introspective when alone, and more deliberately graceful in company. Zaldivar, even in the 'Games of Olympus' scene, is always dressed in shirt and knee-length trousers, whereas Dixon has more formal dress for meals, but a striped body swimsuit on the beach; for the 'Games of Olympus' he removes the top part of this suit (as do the other boys theirs). I thought at first that he was too tall for the part, but soon ceased to notice.

In general, then, McVicar's vision enters into the sensuous fascination which engulfs von Aschenbach  more directly than Warner's; she presents a more chaste version of the infatuation, reflected also in the climactic struggle between Dionysus and Apollo. Only three people are on stage for Warner - von Aschenbach, asleep and twisting in nightmare, and the two gods. At Covent Garden, the nightmare is visualised with Dionysus managing his revels, and Tadzio himself suddenly emerging from the bed (a motif shared with the emergence of swans in the Prince's bedroom in the final act of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake). As a counterpoint to the aesthetically refined games on the beach, and Tadzio's final dance as von Aschenbach dies, this is extremely powerful.

A further point of interest lies in the allusions to the impulses personified by the two gods. Though he does not sing until the last scene of the first act, Warner had Tim Mead occasionally but unobtrusively present on stage, usually when one of the seven characters sung by the baritone was influencing the action. Thus, for example, he was also preparing for a journey when the strange traveller first inspires von Aschenbach to go south; he was another person on the beach before it became clear that he would be the master of the games. This subtly underscores the point that many of the baritone characters may be seen as manifestations of the Dionysiac spirit which, in the direct appearance of the god in his nightmare, ultimately tempts von Aschenbach towards his final degradation. In McVicar's view, the seven characters are more clearly themselves; whereas Andrew Shore often removed a disguise - for example, the Elderly Fop's wig - or repeated a characteristic gesture at the conclusion of a part, Gerard Finley allowed the connections to be made through the music alone, where the rising tones convey a mocking inflection common to all the parts.

Watching both productions so closely together showed the great but differing strengths in each of them-  it is only a shame that there will be no recording of McVicar's production as I have seen it. Even if it is filmed in a revival, the casting will no doubt be different (the cast for ENO as filmed in 2012 was quite different from that in the original production several years earlier).

Death in Venice

by Benjamin Britten (libretto by Myfanwy Piper)

seen at Covent Garden on 6 December 2019

Richard Farnes conducted Mark Padmore as Gustav von Aschenbach and Gerald Finley as the seven characters who influence him, with Leo Dixon dancing the role of Tadzio, in David McVicar's new production of Britten's last opera, based on Thomas Mann's novella Der Tod in Venedig.

This work, the distillation of Britten's life-long fascination with the nature of artistic inspiration and its relation to the beauty of innocence exemplified in adolescent males, runs a number of risks: the subject matter; the episodic nature of the story; the intense interiority of the novella on which it is based (it has very little dialogue). Britten resorted to a generally austere orchestration, with log passages of expository or ruminative recitative on the part of von Aschenbach, while dramatising the enigma of Tadzio by making the role entirely silent, personified by a dancer. 

Peter Grimes

by Benjamin Britten

seen a the Royal Festival Hall on 30 November 2019

Edward Gardner conducted the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, with additional choirs, and with Stuart Skelton as Peter Grimes, Erin Wall as Ellen Orford and Roderick Williams as Captain Balstrode, in a semi-staged performance of Britten's great opera. The choir and soloists were not exactly in costume, but not formally dressed either; the men looked more homespun than the women. The soloists performed in front of the orchestra, in a line which made inter-action minimal, with a few barrels as props.

This meant that the music was the focus above all, and the result was splendidly powerful. The large choral presence made for an overwhelming town of gossips when their blood was up, and yet at times they sang with rapt quietness. The Sunday service in Act Three was particularly effective as everyone turned their backs on the audience and followed an associate conductor standing beside the organist. This muted the acoustic, emulated a church service, and showed in the starkest visual form how the township could be deliberately unaware of what was happening to the major characters. The terrifying result, of course, is that the townspeople, thinking themselves so morally superior, could leap to the worst conclusions when judging someone already seeming to be an outcast.

Akhnaten

by Philip Glass

seen by live streaming from the Metropolitan Opera New York on 23 November 2019

Having written two glowing reviews of Phelim McDermott's production (and having seen it already three times at the Coliseum) I was not sure that I would write about its transfer to the Met, though I was more than happy to see it yet again. However, there is more to say about this endlessly stimulating work.

In New York, once again Karen Kamensek conducted, Anthony Roth Costanzo sang Akhnaten, and Zachary James took the narrative part, and the set and costume designers Tom Pye and Kevin Pollard were credited. Newcomers were J'Nai Bridges as Nefertiti, Dísella Lárusdottír as Queen Tye, Aaron Blake as the High Priest of Amon, Richard Bernstein as Aye, and Will Liverman as Horemheb.

Orphée

by Philip Glass

seen at the London Coliseum on 20 November 2019

ENO are presenting four Orpeus related operas this season; this is the fourth that I have seen. Netia Jones directs and Geoffrey Paterson conducts Philip Glass's opera inspired by (and using the dialogue of) Jean Cocteau's 1950 film of the same name, with Nicholas Lester as Orphée, Sarah Tynan as Eurydice, Jennifer France as the Princess, Nicky Spence as Heurtebise and Anthony Gregory as Cégeste. The production, like the others in the series, is designed by Lizzie Clachan, with the costumes and video projections designed by the director.

Philip Glass chose to use all the dialogue from Cocteau's film; as I have not seen the film I cannot coment on whether the opera as staged closely reflects the film itself (I rather think some extraneous elements have been added, as there are some non-singing parts named as Glass himself, Cocteau and the photographer Lucien Clergue).

Orpheus and Eurydice

by Christoph Willibald Gluck

seen at the London Coliseum on 14 November 2019

ENO are presenting four Orpeus related operas this season; this is the third that I have seen. Wayne McGregor directs Alice Coote as Orpheus, Sarah Tynan as Eurydice and Soraya Mafi as Love in Hector Berlioz's version of Gluck's opera, with Harry Bicket conducting, and designs by Lizzie Clachan.

Gluck's opera is austere compared with the other two works that I have seen so far - only three characters, with a chorus and, under Wayne McGregor's supervision, fourteen dancers. The familiar story is enacted - Eurydice's death; Orpheus's descent into the Underworld at the encouragement this time of the god of Love; his ability to charm the spirits into letting him pass; the test by which he cannot look back at his wife while leading her out of Hades; and his failure and Eurydice's return to death. Somewhat surprisingly, the god of Love returns to console Orpheus by restoring Eurydice anyway, as (apparently) his heart was in the right place.

Così fan tutte

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Da Ponte

seen at Cadogan Hall on 6 November 2019

Ian Page conducted The Mozartists in a concert performance of Mozart's Così fan tutte with Ana Maria Labin as Firodiligi and Emily Edmonds as Dorabella, Matthew Swensen as Ferrando and Benjamin Appl as Guglielmo, Rebecca Bottone as Despina and Ricard Burkhard as Don Alfonso.

There are of course no distracting directorial interventions in a concert performance: here we have just the undiluted pleasure of Mozart's music performed by an excellent group of soloists and an orchestra currently dedicated to performing all Mozart's work in sequence 250 years after composition. Heard in such circumstances, with occasionally racy surtitles to clarify the story, it was an enjoyable evening, and refreshing after the unfortunate tussles between directorial and compositional interest too often witnessed nowadays (see my comments on two recent ENO productions).

Orpheus in the Underworld

by Jacques Offenbach

seen at the London Coliseum on 30 October 2019

ENO are presenting four Orpheus related operas this season; this is the second that I have seen. Sian Edwards conducts Ed Lyon as Orpheus and Mary Bevan as Eurydice, with Alex Otterburn as Pluto, Willard White as Jupiter and Lucia Lucas as Public Opinion in a production directed by Emma Rice and designed by Lizzie Clachan.

Offenbach's opera is a satirical response to the boring conventional dramas and operas of his and the preceding generations which were heavily reliant on sententious classical subjects and allusions. Originally written in two acts in 1858 and expanded to four in 1874, it became one of his greatest successes, and is of course the origin of the famous tun now associated with the can-can. The story certainly subverts the classic myth, with Orpheus and Eurydice detesting one another and Orpheus colluding with the plot engineered by Pluto (disguised as Aristaeus) to kill Eurydice. She in turn is at first happy to find that the shepherd she has been in love with is actually a god, though 'life' in Hades soon palls. In the meantime the gods on Olympus are mercilessly sent up as somnolent and self-indulgent hedonists eager for a thrilling distraction in Hades, while the mortals are trifled with in the denouement, Orpheus tricked by a thunderbolt from Jupiter into looking back at Eurydice, and she in turn handed of by the king of the gods to be a priestess of Bacchus.

The Mask of Orpheus

by Harrison Birtwhistle, libretto by Peter Zinovieff

seen at the London Coliseum on 29 October 2019

ENO are presenting four Orpheus related operas this season; this is the first that I have seen. Martyn Brabbins and James Henshaw conduct Peter Hoare as Orpheus the Man with Daniel Norman as Orpheus the Myth; Maria Fontanels-Simmons as Eurydice the Woman with Claire Barnett-Jones as Eurydice the Myth; James Cleverton as Aristaeus the Man with Simon Biley as Aristaeus the Myth; and Claron McFadden as the Oracle. There are also mime artists Matthew Smith, Alfa Marks and Leo Hedman representing Orpheus, Eurydice and Aristaeus respectively as 'Heroes'.

The opera is dense with allusion and patterning, as various versions of the Orpheus myth are presented and repeated intertwined with one another, and interrupted by three 'Passing Clouds' and three 'Allegorical Flowers' illustrating other myths of fateful death. Three acts, three main parts played by three people each, three Clouds, three Flowers; also three priests, three women and three furies - the idea of cyclical recurrence is very strong. The music is an astonishing mixture of percussion, wind and electronic, rising at times to shattering climaxes, and reducing at other moments to the buzzing of bees or the almost sub-aural murmuring of the sea. 

Don Pasquale

by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and Donizetti

seen at Covent Garden on 21 October 2019

Evelino Pidò conducts Bryn Terfel as Don Pasquale, Markus Werba as Doctor Malatesto, Ioan Hoteo as Ernesto and Olga Peretyatko as Norina in Damiono Michieletto's new production of Don Pasquale, designed by Paolo Fantin.

The opera presents a light-hearted view of the perennial conflict between age and youth, as the young lovers Ernesto and Norina, aided by their friend Doctor Malatesto, outwit Ernesto's tyrannous uncle Don Pasquale. The older man, rich and unmarried, is ripe for ridicule in the comic tradition, while Norina is the typical wily young woman, Ernesto the lovelorn dreamer, and Malatesta the catalyst for comic reversals of fortune.

Turandot

by Giacomo Puccini

seen by live streaming from The Metropolitan Opera New York on 12 October 2019

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Christine Goerke as Turandot, Yusif Eyvazov as Calàf, Eleonora Buratto as Liù and James Morris as Timur in a revival of Franco Zefffirelli's 1987 production of Puccini's last opera.  

The first thing to say is that of course it is both musically powerful and visually splendid. The Met orchestra under their new musical director delivers the score with an astonishing punch, rendering the gaudy splendour of the Imperial scenes almost overwhelming, but also providing a more sensitive accompaniment to the more intimate scenes of bewilderment and growing love. In this they are mtched by some great singing from the three principals Goerke (icily imperious and then troubled), Eyvazov (passionate and determined) and Buratto (hopelessly in love and self-sacrficial). Unending streams of chorus provide the necessary heft to complement the orchestral fireworks in the great set pieces in all three acts. The overall result is viscerally thrilling.

Agrippina

by George Frideric Handel

seen at Covent Garden on 11 October 2019

Barrie Kosky directs Joyce DiDonato in the title role with Franco Fagioli as Nerone (her son), Gianluca Buratto as the emperor Claudio (her husband), Iestyn Davies as Ottone, a Roman general, Lucy Crowe as Poppea, courted by Ottone, Nerone and Claudio, Andrea Mastroni as Pallante and Eric Jureas as Narciso, two freedmen servants of the emperor, and José Coca Loza as Lesbo, an imperial servant, in the Royal Opera's first production of Agrippina, with Maxim Emelyanychev conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

The opera, loosely based on historical fact, or gossip, as the case may be, and also reputed to mirror papal politics of the time of composition (1709, reveals Agrippina as a scheming and powerful woman determined to see her son Nerone nominated as Claudio's successor. She is married to Claudio, but Nerone is her son by a former husband. Nerone is portrayed as a weak-willed mother's boy, easily diverted from an attachment to the beautiful young Poppea by promises of power. Pallante and Narciso are putty in Agrippina's hands until they realisethey have been set against each other in identical terms. Poppea seems an easy victim too as Agrippina persuades her that the virtuous Ottone has abandoned her for political power - the very reverse of the truth. Poppea herself proves to be no mean schemer when she realises the truth, flirting with Nerone while Ottone is hidden in the room, and then with Claudio with both Ottone and Nerone hidden - bedroom farce as a counterpoint to Agrippina's more political machinations.

A Man of Good Hope

based on the book by Jonny Steinberg

seen at the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden on 1 May 2019

I'm placing this in the opera blog because it is presented in the studio theatre of Covent Garden, but it could equally be in the theatre blog, as it was first seen in London at the Young Vic. Isango Ensemble under their artistic director Mark Dornford May prepared the work with musical direction by Mandisi Dyantyis and Paulina Malefane.

A cast of actors, singers and musicians takes us through the twenty-year journey of Assad from war-torn Somalia in 1991 to South Africa in 2011 when he meets Jonny Steinberg who constructs the book from a long interview process. The story is horrifying, poignant, and often deeply disturbing: we start with the seven-year-old Assad witnessing the murder of his mother during the civil unrest in Somalia, and follow his refugee existence in various African countries as he builds fragile family relationships, all too often to see them collapse again as conflicting loyalties prove too strong, bureaucratic strictures damage them, or sheer prejudice leads to too much danger. 

Billy Budd

by Benjamin Britten, libretto by E.M.Forster and Eric Crozier after Melville

seen at Covent Garden on 29 April 2019

Deborah Warner's production, designed by Michael Levine, seen also in Rome and Madrid, has its first showing at the Royal Opera, with Ivor Bolton conducting Toby Spence as Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, Jacques Imbrailo as Abe Seaman Billy Budd and Brindley Sherratt as Master-at-Arms John Claggart. This production uses Britten's revised two-act version, rather than the original four-act of the score. At three hours fifty minutes it is still lengthy by modern standards, but there is little that could be further cut.

In a Prologue the elderly Captain Vere looks back on a crisis that took place under his command in 1797, when nerves were jittery after mutinies at Spithead and at the Nore. The two acts of the opera relate the story. An eager young sailor, Billy Budd, is press-ganged onto the HMS Indomitable, where he is generally well-liked, though he arouses the ire of the martinet Master-at-Arms who becomes determined to destroy him. Billy's naivety protects him from a clandestine attempt to suborn him to mutiny, but unfortunately he is reduced to stammering incoherently under stress and so is unable to defend himself when accused before the Captain by Claggart. Instead he lashes out and kills Claggart with a blow to the temple. The Captain feels he has no choice but to let a court martial find Billy guilty of striking a superior officer, for which the penalty is death, and so the popular sailor is hanged from the yard-arm. In an Epilogue, the Captain tries to reconcile the paradox that he was unable to save a basically good and innocent man; he can only take comfort from the idea that Billy nonetheless blessed him.

Faust

by Charles-Francois Gounod, libretto Jules Barbier and Michel Carré

seen at Covent Garden on 11 April 2019

Dan Ettinger conducted this revival of David McVicar's 2004 production of Gounod's Faust with Michael Fabiano in the title role, Erwin Schrott as Méphistophélès and Mandy Fredrich as Marguerite - standing in for an indisposed Irina Lungu who in turn was replacing Diana Damrau. 

McVicar and designer Charles Edwards set their production in the heyday of the grand opera tradition, the Second Empire in France, rather than in the late middle ages. The result is that the dubious sexual politics of the time, and the casual exploitation of the poor woman by the rich dilettante, brings the often sentimentalised theme of Faust's seduction of Marguerite out of the quaint past into more recent and troubling times - it is the end of the Second Empire, with the Franco-Prussian War looming to the Marguerite's soldier brother away, and bring him back embittered and powerless to protect or avenge his sister. Faust and the Devil are invariably in expensive evening dress for much of this sorry tale, while Marguerite clearly lives in one of the working-class, not to say slum, areas of Paris. The point is hammered home even more sharply in the Witches' Sabbath sequence which becomes a parody of the tradition in the Paris Opera House of Jockey Club members turning up late in a performance to ogle the obligatory ballet dancers before going back-stage to demand (and pay for) their favours.

It's a clever conceit, well thought out with the fragment of an ornate proscenium arch on one side of the stage, and some gothic arches enclosing organ pipes on the other, providing constant visual reminders of the unhealthy mix of hedonism and religiosity surrounding much high-class 19th century hypocrisy. The danger is that the depiction of the Devil can be somewhat trivialised, and Erwin Schrott sometimes looked more of a melodramatic or pantomime villain than the embodiment of eternal corruption and evil.

Michael Fabiano sang lyrically in the great passionate outbursts of finer feeling, and was excellently complemented by the darker tones of Erwin Schrott as his nemesis. Mandy Fredrich, brought in at extremely short notice for this first night of the current revival, had a pure and clear voice ideal for the naivety of Marguerite, though perhaps lacking the strength to do full justice to the space of Covent Garden. The supporting cast and chorus were good, but the overall experience lacked the ultimate pitch of excitement that a truly great performance would create. It might be that first-night nerves were a bit further rattled by the emergency cast change.

La Forza del Destino

by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave

seen by live streaming from Covent Garden on 7 April 2019

(This was actually a repeat screening of the live event from 2 April)

Antonio Pappano conducted Anna Netrebko as Donna Leonora, Jonas Kaufmann as Don Alvaro and Ludovic Tézier as Don Carol di Vargas, with Robert Lloyd as the Marquis of Calatrava, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Padre Guardiano and Alessandro Corbelli as Fra Melitone in Cristof Loy's new production first seen in Amsterdam, with designs by Christian Schmidt.

This is a long and gloomy opera, in which the best intentions of the would-be lovers Donna Leonora and Don Alvaro go woefully astray, not helped by the vicious code of honour espoused by Donna Leonora's father, the Marquis of Calatrava, who curses her as he lies dying from an accidental gunshot wound, and her brother Don Carlo, almost psychopathic in his pursuit of vengeance, who is determined to kill both the lovers. The Force of Destiny ensnares them all, and the pious assurances of the Padre who has protected Donna Leonora as an anonymous hermit and Don Alvaro as a monk (unbeknownst to each other until the last moment) are, to say the least, of ambivalent consolation.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by Benjamin Britten

(libretto by the composer and Peter Pears from Shakespeare's play)

seen at the Silk Street Theatre on 27 February 2019

Dominic Wheeler conducts Martin Lloyd-Evans's production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as a showcase for their Opera Course. Oberon was sung by Collin Shay, Tytania by Zoe Drummond, Helena by Alexandra Lowe, Hermia by Carmen Artaza, Lysander by Felipe Manu, Demetrius by Benson Wilson and Bottom by Christian Valle; Puck (a non-singing part) was taken by Matthew Dixon. Apart from Oberon, the roles were taken by other singers for two of the four performances. The production was designed by Ruari Murchson and lit by Mark Jonathan.

Akhnaten

by Philip Glass

seen at the Coliseum on 21 February 2019

This is a revival of ENO's 2016 production directed by Phelim McDermott, again conducted by Karen Kamensek, and with five of the original principals reprising their roles - Anthony Roth Costanzo as Akhnaten, Rebecca Bottone as Queen Tye (his mother), Zachary James as the Scribe, James Cleverton as the courtier Horemheb and Colin Judson as the High Priest of Amun. The newcomers are Katie Stevenson as Queen Nefertiti and Keel Watson as her father Aye.

In 2016 I saw the production twice, firstly from a side seat in the dress circle, and secondly more centrally in order to appreciate the stage design and choreography from a more satisfactory viewpoint; see my review from March 2016 for more details. 

Kát'a Kabanová

by Leoš Janáček

seen at Covent Garden on 9 February 2019

Edward Gardner conducts Amanda Majski as Kát'a, Susan Bickley as her mother-in-law Kabanicha, Andrew Staples as her husband Tichon and Pavel Černoch as her lover Boris in a new production (only the second at Covent Garden) directed by Richard Jones and designed by Anthony McDonald.

Leoš Janáček based his 1922 opera on a play called The Thunderstorm by the 19th-century Russian dramatist Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. It concerns the idealistic and unhappy Kát'a, trapped in an unsatisfactory marriage with Tichon Kabanov (though each claims to love the other), and living in the Kabanov household with Tichon's incredibly vicious and domineering mother known as Kabanicha (a diminutive of the family name). 

The Queen of Spades

by Piotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky from a story by Pushkin

seen by live streaming from Covent Garden on 22 January 2019

Stefan Herheim directs and Antonio Pappano conducts a new production of Tchaikovsky's 1893 opera based on a story about gambling by Alexander Pushkin, with Sergey Polyakov as Gherman, Vladimir Stoyanov as Prince Yeletsky, Felicity Palmer as the Countess and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Liza. The production is designed by Philipp Fürhoffer.

The original story, which concerns the greed of the soldier Herman who is determined to wrest the secret of winning at cards from an old Countess, is here complicated by adding details of a love story in which two characters, Gherman (the Herman figure) and Prince Yelestsky (newly introduced in the opera version) both love Liza, the young companion of the Countess in the story, promoted to being her granddaughter in the opera.