Tag Archives: pappano

A Fidelio in two halves

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I have long been of the opinion that Beethoven’s Fidelio is structurally flawed.  The first and second acts are so different intone and dramatic intensity that it never seems quite to hang together.  Tobias Kratzer obviously shares this view but being smarter than me finds a way to leverage it.  For his production at the Royal Opera House in 2020 he takes the two acts and effectively makes the second a commentary on the first.  It’s worth quoting his own words:

Like no other opera, Beethoven’s Fidelio falls into two unequal halves.  Act I is a historical melodrama on freedom and love in the post-Revolutionary era.  Act II is a political essay on the responsibility of the individual in the face of the silent majority, a musical plea for active empathy.

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De-exoticising Aida

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Robert Carsen’s production of Verdi’s Aida seen at Covent Garden in 2022 is a very good example of what Carsen can do.  In this case it’s to strip out elements he considers non-essential and focus on the essentials of the drama.  In the rather good “extra” feature on the video recording Carsen summarises it as focussing “on the story not the place”.

1.amnerisradames

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Dalila as Ice Princess

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Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila had a rather rocky road to start with.  In Paris at the time of its composition (1876) it was considered to be too Wagnerian and more oratorio than opera; both accusations having some merit.  It finally premiered in Weimar in 1877 but it didn’t hit the Paris stage until 1890 and even then it wasn’t at Opéra de Paris.  In some ways it’s odd because essentially all the elements of grand opera are there including plenty of ballet and spectacle and a plot from an approved source!

1.soldiersandjews

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McVicar’s Figaro revived

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Back in 2015 I reviewed a 2006 recording from the Royal Opera House of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro directed by David McVicar.  It’s very good and has a super starry cast; Finley, Persson, Röschmann, Schrott, Shaham.  There’s even a cameo by Philip Langridge as Basilio.  So, when I saw that a new recording of the same production, made in 2022 with a young and less obviously starry cast, had been released I was in two minds whether to bother.  I’m glad I did.

1.figarosusanna

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Boris in the Garden

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No, not a pandemic piss-up at No.10 but a newly released recording of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov recorded at Covent Garden in 2016.  Funnily enough I remember Bryn Terfel, who plays the Tsar, alluding to learning the role during his Koerner Hall recital in April of that year.

1.murder

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A convincing Rigoletto

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Oliver Mears’ production of Verdi’s Rigoletto recorded at Covent Garden in 2021 looks and feels like the work of a British theatre director.  There’s nothing particularly weird about it.  The Personenregie is careful and precise and the emphasis is on text and story telling.  The opera house element perhaps comes into play in the rather impressive visuals including an extremely dramatic storm scene.

1.venus

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Lyrical Walküre

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The thing that struck me most about the Royal Opera House’s 2018 recording of Wagner’s Die Walküre is how lyrical it is.  It’s not without excitement in the appropriate places, far from it, but there’s such lovely singing.  Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde is tender and poetic and the combo of Stuart Skelton and Emily Magee as the twin lovers is really good.  Throw in a nuanced Wotan from John Lundgren and a typically elegant performance from Sarah Connolly as Fricka and it’s really a pleasure to listen to.  Ain Anger is not so lyrical as Hunding but it’s a fine menacing performance.  Antonio Pappano and the house orchestra are equally fine.

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The other ROH La Bohème

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A couple of week’s ago I reviewed the recording of the 2020 revival of Richard Jones’ production of La Bohème at Covent Garden.  I said in that review that I wanted to get hold of the original first run recording, which I have done, albeit on DVD rather than Blu-ray.   Comparing them was really very interesting.

1.garret

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“Live” from Covent Garden

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If you didn’t catch it live last night there’s a really lovely concert up on the Royal Opera House Youtube channel which should be available for a couple of weeks.  Tony Pappano is at the piano with Louise Alder singing Britten, Strauss and Handel, Toby Spence with some Butterworth plus Gerald Finley with Finzi, Turnage and Britten.  The boys finish off with the Pearl Fishers duet.  Along the way, Morgen is sung by Louise and danced quite beautifully to choreography by Wayne McGregor by Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales.  It’s weird, and even eerie, to see a concert from a large empty theatre but there we are.  Highly recommended.

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Król Roger

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Karel Szymanowski’s 1924 opera Król Roger is surely the only opera in Polish in anything like the standard rep.  Maybe that’s one reason it’s not performed all that often because it’s really rather good and Kasper Holten’s 2015 production at Covent Garden makes a pretty good case for it.  The story is set in 12th century Sicily, though as we shall see , that really doesn’t matter.  The Church is complaining to the king about a heretical prophet, the Shepherd, who is leading people astray with a strange doctrine of Love and Nature.  Roger’s queen is much taken with the Shepherd and helps protect him.  The king, who is clearly battling demons rooted in a bloody past, vacillates.  Eventually he’s persuaded and the opera closes with Roger singing an ecstatic hymn to the rising sun.

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