Il Trovatore - Review

Royal Opera House, London

****

Music by Guiseppe Verdi

Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano

Conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti

Directed by Adele Thomas

Agnieszka Rehlis

Il Trovatore, one of  Verdi’s greatest compositions hails back to a golden age of fabulous  storytelling. By todays’ standards this yarn of passion, jealousy, a gypsy’s curse and suicide - not forgetting the misogyny - would not even make it past a first draft. But Cammarano’s lyrics and Verdi’s music lift this melodramatic narrative into an evening of beauty that is driven by a spectacular cast.

Michael Fabiano is Manrico, Aleksei Isaev is his rival in love, the Count di Luna. Rachel Willis-Sørensen sings the role of Leonora, the object or both men’s desires, while Agnieszka Rehlis sings Azucena. If you are familiar with the story, you will understand the interactions of those characters. If you’re new to the tale - just head to the Royal Opera House to discover them for yourselves - you won't be disappointed!

While Giacomo Sagripanti conducts magnificently and Adele Thomas’ direction is assured and perceptive, the curiously clad Chorus prove a dystopian distraction.

Playing on a handful of dates until March 22nd - and with the Anvil Chorus too, what’s not to love about this operatic treat?

Photo credit: Camilla Greenwell

Opera Locos - Review

Peacock Theatre, London

***

Opera Locos, conceived by the Spanish Yllana theatre company, comes to the Peacock Theatre following its successful Edinburgh Fringe run last summer. The show is a bizarre carnivalesque romp through opera’s greatest hits performed by a troupe of five avant-garde opera singers. The performers weave through a veritable top of the pops of opera from Verdi’s La Traviata to Mozart’s Queen of the Night Aria, interspersed with some more modern hits, and isloosely centred on emerging romances between the performers. The plot lines feel merely incidental to the music and are, at times, difficult to follow as they are swallowed by exaggerated comedy. The show also takes a surprisingly darker turn with one of the performers struggling with alcoholism and suicidal contemplation, a plot choice that, while potentially nodding to the tragedy of opera, seemed stark and out of place in such an eccentrically comedic show. The operatic performances are brilliant with truly high class singing, most notably a breathtaking Nessun Dorma, performed by Jesus Alvarez. However, the performers voices surprisingly failed to carry the modern classics, not quite awarding the same power to Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You as was given to Bizet’s Carmen.

The ‘jukebox opera’ style of Opera Locos is formatted to make opera more accessible for non-opera goers by veering away from the long and involved classics and providing recognisable tunes to get the whole audience on board. While this goal is largely successful, with the showreel of best hits keeping up a constant tempo, the ‘all over the place’ approach lacked the normal pathos and commitment to story from a regular opera. The high degree of forced audience participation, while fun, could also be off putting for those who might not be as familiar with La donne e mobile yet find themselves being encouraged to sing it into a microphone.

The staging was simple with limited use of set or props which allowed the performers to really take the fore. Tatiana De Sarabia’s costuming gave a fun hint to the Spanish origins of the group however, did also give the impression of a child who had gotten overexcited playing dress-up.

Audiences should still expect to be delighted by this outlandish opera-come-pantomime although should be advised to thoroughly suspend their expectations of reality or the normal running of a theatre show with regular spurts of lights on audience interaction and one (hopefully willing) audience member even being taken on stage for the final curtain call.

Runs until 11th May

Reviewed by Dina Gitlin-Leigh

Il Matrimonio Segreto - Review

Geffrye  Museum, London


*****


Written by Domenico Cimarosa
Directed by Max Hoehn

Chiara Vinci and Mark Bonney

The idea that opera can pop-up is delightful and Pop-Up Opera’s simple approach to the genre, even more so. It’s no wonder Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto, or The Secret Marriage, is his greatest masterpiece and it’s also no wonder that the cast and crew seemed so full of pride at their humble creation; it really was quite gorgeous and a giggle to behold.

With just musical director Berrak Dyer on accompanying piano, the cast take us through the story of Paolino and Carolina’s farcical attempts to gain acceptance of their marriage from Carolina’s father, Geronimo. Helpfully and hilariously captioned by Max Hoehn and Harry Percival, who must be terrific company down the pub if their puns are anything to go by, we are taken on a whirlwind of emotion as betrothals go awry and Aunt Fidalma tries to get her leg over. Tom Asher as the Count is adorably attached to his bicycle helmet and somehow just as adorable in his creepy lovelorn attempts to win the affections of Chiara Vinci’s Carolina. Peter Kirk as poor, poor Paolino plays the perfect pushover, blissfully unaware of Fidalma (the hysterical Vivien Conacher) and her instruction-manual inspired lustful lurches until they find themselves in a more than compromising position.

The whole beautiful bunch are in absolute harmony from their voices (which never failed to incite goosebumps despite the less than fabulous acoustics of the downstairs space at the eclectic Geffrye Museum) to the familiarity that supported a performance based on trust, scarce props and a few coloured (and strong!) chairs.

The captions are awash with local references from referring to the room as “friends, Hoxtonians and countrymen”, to Elisetta’s declaration that she will inform “all of Shoreditch” that Carolina is a slapper, grounding the melodrama a little. As melodramatics is kind of what opera is all about though, we still find that the cast swoons (mostly the men), big bellies are embraced, solutions come in the form of tying people up and sending them to the nunnery and rolled “r”s are revelled in.

There is not one underwhelming performance in Pop Up Opera’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. Don't miss this fantastic troupe!

Currently touring the UK - click here for tour schedule

Reviewed by Heather Deacon

Photo credit: Richard Lakos (The Other Richard)

takis talks- Performance Designed

The musical Side Show that recently opened at London’s Southwark Playhouse, is another achievement for one of the most distinctive stage designers around. For several years now the reputation of takis (the lower case ‘t’ is deliberate) has acquired immense respect from theatre and opera producers alike. Having admired takis’ work for years, I am one of the few reviewers to have seen much of his work in both theatre and opera as well as a number of regional productions. 

Before Side Show opened, I spoke with takis to learn a little more about his designs for the show, as well as aspects of his other work, including In The Heights.

Side Show

JB:          I have to start with your distinctive name. Please enlighten me

takis:     Well, I am from Greece and it is a Greek name! It was there that my passion with the theatre commenced. I joined an amateur theatre over there and did a lot of work with them. Everything! Performing, choreographing, designing and from the age of 14 to 18 I spent one month a year in Italy doing ancient Greek drama, festivals and touring. That's how it all built up. Then when I was 16, I was like, "That's what I want to do, costumes and design!"

So I decided to study Fine Arts and Costumes in a very old fashioned academy in Bucharest, learnt Romanian and set off.

JB:          Is Side Show your first time back at the Southwark Playhouse since In The Heights?

takis:     Yes and designing the show has been a blessing and a challenge at the same time. A blessing, as the audience have an inclusive, immersive experience of a freak/vaudeville show and are able to observe closely the life journey of (the real life conjoined twins) Violet & Daisy Hilton played extraordinary by Laura Pitt-Pulford & Louise Dearman. On the other hand, having the audience that close you need to be as authentic as possible with the overall design and its details.

Designing real people and in our case ‘freaks’ has not been an easy task. My first challenge was the conjoining of the two sisters, we kept changing the device until Laura & Louise felt connected. We are not talking about only a simple costume connection, but something more anatomical. Their joining has an impact of how they move, dance and how both embodied the two sisters. After achieving the ‘connection’ we worked on how to make them look alike and how to create all the costumes around the achieved conjoined bodies. We had also to create the ‘freaks’, real people of the 1920s with physical abnormalities. The realisation of all the freaks (bearded lady, 3 leg man, pin cushion human, cannibal, lizard man, half man/half woman, tattooed lady, fortune teller/dolly dimple, dog boy) is based on each performer and period research. All the designs are driven by the physique and look of each performer. We experimented and tested ideas until each character came alive. To be fair, the only way we were able to achieve this was to have two extremely talented team members in Clare Amos (wardrobe supervisor) and Natasha Lawes (Wigs, Make up, Prosthetics & Tech-Fx Supervisor).

Moving to the set design; from the beginning we decided that the best configuration would be ‘in thrust’ which means the actual stage space is very limited. I had to create levels, entrances and exits and then, within that, incorporate 7 musicians & 14 cast members. I always design by responding to the actual architecture of the venue, making the space a friend rather than an enemy and I have tried to create a 1920s environment which can change from a freak show to a vaudeville stage.

With the metal structure, cladded with wooden plunks and lighting bulbs I tried to play with illusions, to exaggerate height and depth, create perspective compositions. All the wooden planks are connected but are taking different directions mirroring the characters of the 2 sisters. The metal, art deco circular shapes bring glimpses of the period style, but also illustrate the circles of life; from the full circle to the interrupted ones.

I am really proud of what we have achieved here.

Oliver!

JB:          Looking at some of your other work, tell me firstly about the Oliver! that you designed at Leicester’s Curve last year.

takis:     Well, I’d worked a lot with the director Paul Kerryson before, so I knew that we wanted to make sure that the understanding of the period was correct. We knew that it needed to be dark as well as brightly coloured.

We have the posh characters, so you want to help that number to really be strong, have silks. Then you have Fagin’s gang, the underground, where you have the ability to bring in a lot of textures and colours of the era. Then I will put some modern fabrics within that, some fabrics that you could question them if they are of the time, but as a feeling they will give you exactly that. I went with feelings and textures.

Then of course with the main characters, I always want to meet them. I want to see, "Who do I have? What is interesting of them?" Sometimes they have incredible eyes, they have a nose which you want to exaggerate, or they have a bosom, or they have a waist. Each performer has something to give you that is good to know. Sometimes you have a conversation with them. Sometimes you have to design much earlier before you meet them, but still I do a lot of research per individual, who are these people?

JB:          Tell me more about the importance of costume in your work.

Takis:     In Bucharest we learned costume through art and through dance. Much like a choreographer will learn the dances of the period, so we understood how dress changes in society according to the movements that they made and how they danced and so on.

Then we opened up the garments to see the patterns, sometimes deconstructing them into something else. Having worked with the opera in Rome for many summers, while I was studying I learned scenic paint, costume making and many other skills. I know the basics and the tools and then I twist them to suit my needs.

JB:          Explain more about your work in opera.

takis:     Opera and ballet are on such grand scales! I did a world premiere of ballet with The Little Mermaid and it took a year to design it. The scale was enormous. The vision there, in Scandinavia, was something that we don’t have here. They're really up for exploring.

The brief that they gave me was, “takis, we want a design that will bring the classic ballet into the future". So I brought in 3D projections, floors moving up, moving down, things coming in, flying people, flying through the auditorium, things coming out. There were 12 full sets, moving floors, lifts.

JB:          That sounds spectacular - what was the budget that you had to work with for that?

takis:     I never asked!

This year in particular has been very opera-focussed for me too with an elegant Die Fledermaus at Holland Park this summer and currently the English Touring Opera’s production of Ulysses’ Homecoming and La Calisto.

We push these works to different areas, genres and feelings according to where they are performed and for which audience and why. As with musicals, the music leads you. That's what I love now more and more in musicals, opera and ballets - the stimulation is via the music.

In The Heights

JB:          Coming back to musical theatre I want to ask you about In The Heights. When you first put it together at Southwark, what were your thoughts about the show? 

takis:     I think when we heard the music, we all went, "Wow!". It is a fusion of different cultures. It hits you. It's something that moves you. It moves your body somehow.

The thing that comes out for In The Heights is the heat and the sexiness if you like, that is around there. Also, the values of friends and family are all these elements that are familiar to me because strangely enough, these Latin values are very close to Mediterranean values. We might not dance Latin, but it's these kind of things that sometimes make you respond by dance.

At Southwark we kind of brought the audience in the three sides and then I had to work with the floor and the wall. It's not a big space and we wanted to keep the key locations. Then I played with the lights of the subway, kind of taking us a different direction, different houses, different lines of like, if you like. We see the life of a society, but the life of differing individuals and how they take this cross between each other. That's kind of what's strung for it. We play with bold colours and then I just had the idea to put in fluorescence and of course Howard Hudson is an absolutely incredible lighting designer. We always work so well together.

JB:          And the transfer to the Kings Cross Theatre and sharing the venue itself with The Railway Children. That must have been a fascinating challenge from a design perspective?

takis:     Yes and you’ve driven the train there haven’t you? So you realise what the space is there! How we change between the two shows within one hour has been an amazing challenge. It was more of an engineering designing rather than designing for a show.

I had to work with platforms that are 2 meters square. We put in fills, where the trucks are and then we roll out a dance floor that brings it all together.

I feel happy that we managed to do it, in the sense of we all wanted the show to come back and it's so good that it's back, with all the Oliviers and everything that happened to it. We all have put our souls in that show. It is one of the shows that from day one, we were like, "Yeah". We were like kids, you know how you feel, no matter what age you are. We had this energy in all of us and I think that comes across to the audience.


Side Show plays at  the Southwark Playhouse until 3rd December
In The Heights plays at the Kings Cross Theatre until 8th January 2017

Die Fledermaus - Review

Opera Holland Park, London


****

by Johan Strauss II
Libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genee
Libretto translation by Alistair Beaton
Directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans

John Lofthouse, Peter Davoren and Susanna Hurrell 

There can truly be no finer night to visit Martin Lloyd-Evans' new production of Die Fledermaus than the hottest day of the year. As the sun set over the Opera Holland Park arena, West London's balmy climes proved a perfect ambience for this most barmy of operettas.

And make no mistake - the story of Die Fledermaus requires ones disbelief to be suspended beyond belief. It's a crackpot tale of the ultimate mate's revenge - involving more infidelity, cuckoldry and trousers around ankles than could fill a season of Whitehall farces. Amidst a risible plot of deception and frustrated assignations, the dated (but nonetheless mildly witty) humour of act one evaporates after the break - and the final act's nod to pantomime, with its references to Cameron, Johnson, Farage et al is already found to be woefully out of date by its omission of Theresa May! 

Alistair Beaton's 1994 translation may be a masterpiece of alliteration and assonance - but it really needed the wit of Jimmy Perry and David Croft to take a 19th century comedy classic and update it to something more than an episode of 'Allo 'Allo! and one that lasts for nigh on three hours at that!

That being said......

The artistic values behind this production are really rather glorious. Ben Johnson and Susanna Hurrell are the married Von Eisenstein and Rosalinde, both desperately and futilely craving extra-marital fornication and they are both magnificent. Hurrell in particular with the gorgeous Hungarian Countess' Csárdás in act two. Peter Davoren's irresistibly adulterous tenor Alfred is another performance of vocal excellence - though the true honours of the night must go to the northern-tones of Jennifer France's Adele who makes sensational work of The Laughing Song.

Under John Rigby's baton the orchestra are magnificent - and for those reading this, who are unfamiliar with the piece, seek out the Die Fledermaus Waltz. You'll find that you've known it for years - and hearing it played with such finesse is truly a treat.

As ever, takis designs imaginatively. Set in the 1920's, his imagery is heavy on Art Deco and Mondrian, with some wonderful gowns for the ladies attending Count Orlofsky's ball - not least the feathered number put to good use by Didi Derrière in a brief moment of burlesque cabaret. Howard Hudson's lighting is similarly dreamy - taking on increasing force as the evening's natural light gradually fades. 

Die Fledermaus' libretto may be tedious - but its delivery at Opera Holland Park, in both style and performance is stunning.

In repertory until August 5

Carmen - Review

Soho Theatre, London

****

By Georges Bizet

In a new orchestration by Harry Blake

And a new English version and directed by Robin Norton-Hale

Flora McIntosh and Anthony Flaum

There is a simplistic charm to Carmen from Opera Up Close that see's Bizet's classic stripped down to a talented cast of nine and an orchestra reduced to the most elegant of quartets. One of the most popular works in the classical canon, Carmen makes for a great introduction for those just dipping a toe into the opera genre. With a musical score that alone could fill a Now That’s What I Call Classics compilation, the melodies are familiar and the story offers a parable that is, sadly, as timely today as at its 1875 premiere.

Set in Seville the plot tells of Carmen, a free-spirited and beautiful gypsy girl who turns the head of Don Jose, a locally garrisoned soldier. Jose, who has never known a woman's love, becomes smitten with Carmen, who in turn has seen her desires move away from the soldier, falling instead for the dashing matador Escamillio, Unable to control his jealousy, Jose brings the story to a violent, tragic conclusion.

Opera Up Close have split their company into two teams for the length of the run and on the night of this review, Flora McIntosh played Carmen whilst Anthony Flaum was the troubled young dragoon. They were both sensational in their sung roles, with McIntosh capturing Carmen's defiant spirit as well as delivering a deliciously luring Habanera (and to my non opera-savvy readers, if you think you don’t know that famous melody, just google it).

However, whilst McIntosh, who has more operatic talent in her little finger than this reviewer can even aspire to, offers a performance of technical genius, her Carmen is more MILF than irresistible provocateur and her required charm, that should be able to attract alpha-males like flies, doesn’t entirely convince.

Flaum is a perfectly cast delight. At first appropriately stilted and gauche, he evolves into smouldering jealousy. One can believe in his emotional, impressionable innocence and whilst Jose's behaviour abhors, Flaum offers a portrayal that explains his character's desperate flaws, without apologising for them.

Richard Immergluck is Escamillo, who with the opera's famous Toreador Song is gifted one of the most recognisable singing gigs ever. Again, notwithstanding sheer vocal excellence, Immergluck also doesn’t convince. From the outset, Escamillo requires a flamboyance in his appearance, marking him out as a testosterone infused stallion. As it is, Immergluck looks as if he has just stepped off a bus rather than out of the bullring and whilst towards the opera’s finale, where Carmen sports his chic bolero, defining her as the matador's lover, it is too little too late. 

Amongst the supporting company, Louisa Tee as local girl Micaela turns in some exceptional aria work and it has to be said that the entire cast are performers of the highest calibre. It makes such a refreshing change to a reviewer more acclimatised to musical theatre, to attend a musical performance in which not only are the actors un-mic'd, but their vocal work is so powerful and precise that they are crystal clear, even at the back of the auditorium.

On a modest budget, with a set that is more suggestive than detailed and fabulously lit by Joshua Pharo, Robin Norton-Hale's imaginative direction works a treat, even if her new translation occasionally grates for there is often something awkward when the contemporary English idiom is juxtaposed onto classic melodies.

A final word to musical director Berrak Dyer and her three fellow musicians Alyson Frazier, Alison Holford and Rosemary Hinton. These women are simply the best and their tireless work, is unmissable!


Runs until 19th September

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Review

Opera Holland Park, London


****

Music by Will Todd
Libretto by Maggie Gottlieb
Directed by Martin Duncan

Fflur Wyn and James Cleverton

Returning for a third (and now almost sold out) season Opera Holland Park’s take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a 70 minute jaunt through a classic tale that has been re-worked into an enchanting opera.

Will Todd and Maggie Gottlieb have taken the best of Lewis Carroll’s story and distilled it into words and music that include some delicious nods to blues and soul, as well as the most ingenious of stagings.

Ushered in through a gap in the woods, (so kids’ vivid imaginations are fired up right from the start!) the audience are invited to promenade around Holland Park’s Yucca Lawn as the opera’s different scenes are played out on 4 separate performance spaces set amongst the Lawn’s trees. Leslie Travers’ designs are simple yet vivid - the Mad Hatter’s sloping tea-table is a work of genius as is the singing “drink me” bottle, with Maud Millar giving life to an entertaining aria. 

Fflur Wyn is Alice and she captures the attention of her enthralled crowd. Never once patronising, her Alice defines curiosity and decency in a way that children will easily recognise.

Other gems in a cast that is excellent throughout include James Cleverton’s Rabbit and Robert Burt’s suitably worn down modern-day dad, doubling up later as the Red Queen, axe ever at the ready. Keel Watson’s lugubrious baritone offers up a shisha smoking caterpillar whose big number is the Wonderland Blues, but be warned: the show is un mic’d and whilst it is a credit to the performers’ classical training that so much of the vocal performance is clear, there is a drawback. Sit too near the orchestra (who also promenade from set to set along with the audience) and you may find the music drowning out the words. I (along with my guests, 4 year old Layla and her father) missed all of Watson’s blues work and there were moments elsewhere of voices not being heard over the orchestra – so as you wander, think carefully about where you position your cushion. Matthew Waldren conducts his roving 11 piece orchestra perfectly and even if at times the lyrics become inaudible, Todd’s melodies and the on-stage action, more than hold one’s attention.

Whilst Layla wasn’t bored (just), much of Gottlieb’s caustic wit passed her by and the show will be best enjoyed by children aged 6-7 upwards. That being said, in an era saturated with CGI’d Disney animation and streamed electronic stimulation, for kids to be given a glimpse of opera, set amongst the trees and with performers and musicians weaving around and amongst them, can only make for a wondrous show. Opera Holland Park’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a classy summer treat.

Runs until 1st August 2015

Ruddigore - Review

King's Head Theatre, London 

****

Music by Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by W. S. Gilbert
Directed by John Savournin

John Savournin

Charles Court Opera are one of the leading small companies, known for their innovative approach and described as “the masters of Gilbert & Sullivan in small places”. For their 10th Anniversary, the company have chosen the lesser known tenth of fourteen comic operas by Gilbert & Sullivan. In 1887 Ruddigore initially struggled following the huge success of The Mikado, but after a few re-writes and a re-spelt title (from the original Ruddygore) it was to triumph.

Ruddigore, or The Witch's Curse, has an unbelievable plot. A centuries old witch’s curse on the Baronetcy of Ruddigore condemns the eldest sons to commit a crime everyday on pain of death. Heirs understandably try to find ways around this, or abscond, with perilous and confusing results all round, driving fiancées to madness and bridesmaids to despair. 

It all makes for a fabulous frolic, executed at the King’s Head Theatre with fine singing, acting and an unrelenting energy. Gilbert’s loquacious lyrics are performed at a breakneck pace, yet the skill of John Savournin’s direction and indeed his performance as Sir Despard Murgatroyd is such that every word is savoured and heard and whats more, that it all seems so ridiculously plausible.

The Bridesmaids’ constant and very funny refrain ‘Hail the Bridegroom, Hail the Bride’ is a memorable air, made all the more remarkable by Susanna Buckle and Andrea Tweedale effectively emulating a chorus of 22 voices, whilst Cassandra McCowan makes more sense of Mad Margaret than is often to be found in Ruddigore productions.

The compact company of just eight sound tremendous, with both acts' finales sung with a gorgeous musicality and a remarkable attention to detail. David Eaton as Musical Director, accompanies with great dexterity and detail throughout as Philip Aiden’s choreography keeps the cast on their toes admirably and literally, given the speed at which they move and sing. James Perkins’ seaside pier design atmospherically enhanced by Nicholas Holdridge’s lighting becomes hysterically effective when we are introduced to the ghostly ancestors.

It is profoundly re-assuring to see that in 2014 the spirit of Gilbert & Sullivan is more than alive and well in London’s off-West End. With sparkling melodies, glorious singing and rich characterisation, The King’s Head's Ruddigore makes for a delightful evening of meticulously crafted madness.

Runs to 14th March 2015

Guest reviewer Catherine Françoise

The Mikado - Review

Charing Cross Theatre, London

***

Music by Arthur Sullivan

Libretto by W.S. Gilbert

Directed by Thom Southerland

Leigh Coggins

It may not be a Christmas show, but there is still a seasonally comforting familiarity to the Gilbert and Sullivan gems that make up The Mikado. The comic opera's timeless wit alongside melodies hard wired into every educated English-person, make for a show that one cannot help but smile throughout. Thom Southerland has set the 19th century work firmly in the roaring 20's, with flappers and jazz-hands making it a Thoroughly Modern Mikado. Whilst the costumes may bizarrely range from spats and bowlers through to kimonos and a Juan Peron lookalike Mikado, everyone looks sumptuous.

Aside from costumes however there is an all-pervading air of budgetary restraint. This most clever of scores has been economically re-arranged for two pianos and notwithstanding the excellent ivory tinkling of Dean Austin and Noam Galperin, there is a timbre and a texture to Sullivan's tunes that is lost in the reduction. Vocally too and with no-one mic'd, there is an apparent gulf in ability between the actors who have an operatic background and those more usually reliant upon amplification. That Matthew Crowe's delightfully foppish Nanki-Poo is occasionally inaudible (and this from a front row seat) is unforgivable. Likewise Hugh Osborne's Ko-Ko is a treat of a characterisation, but far too often his tuneful voice lacks projection. Mark Heenehan however brings just the right amount of blustering buffoonery to the title role.

The performing excellence of this production lies with its women. Rebecca Caine's Katisha is a masterclass. Her vampish, vulnerable and (sometimes) baddy is a flawless display of perfection in her craft, her voice filling the auditorium and her presence, alongside hilarious poise and facial expression, stealing every scene. Credit too to Leigh Coggins whose Yum-Yum also belies a career history in opera and whose voice often soars (delightfully) above those of her singing partners.

There are moments of sweet genius in this Mikado. Make sure to sit near the front and revel in some wonderful songs you've known since childhood.

The Gershwins' Porgy And Bess - Review

Open Air Theatre, London

****

By George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin
Book Adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks 
Musical Score Adapted by Diedre L. Murray
Directed by Timothy Sheader

Nicola Hughes and Rufus Bonds Jr on opening night

The amphitheatre at Regents Park is dominated by a massive backdrop of beautifully buckled burnished copper. As the sun goes down and passions rise in Timothy Sheader’s inspired take on this North Carolina fable, the design reflects the light. lending its metallic nuances to the palette. Gold becomes red, becoming moonlit pale or a terrifying stormy blue. Katrina Lindsay’s stage design is breathtaking before the band have even struck up.

Sheader sets out a bold stall in the Overture. In a solo routine Bess emerges, clad only in a slip and in a lithe sensuous dance, slides into a sizzling red dress slit to the hips. Truly one of London’s Leading Ladies, Nicola Hughes owns the stage in a performance that defines her character’s complex combination of iressistible sexual magnetism with profound vulnerability.

If Hughes represents the best of British, then she is well matched against the trio of trans-atlantic talent, flown in under the UK-USA Equity deal, whose characters vie for Bess’ attentions. Cedric Neal reprises the coke peddling Sporting Life from his Broadway performance two years ago. His elegant peacocked flamboyance defining the fatally attractive evil of the drugs he supplies. In a show crammed with The American Songbook greats, Neal’s act two opener, It Ain’t Necesssarily So takes this most familiar of numbers and makes it sizzle with a thrilling interpretation. Phillip Boykin, also over from the States, nails the muscular menace of Crown. A man as large as his booming baritone, Boykin imbues Crown with the purest of dark violence. Rufus Bonds Jr completes the set of imports, starring as Porgy. Bond gives a pathos and a power to the role that makes our hearts bleed for his crippled character. His voice and presence is inspirational, defining goodness as he craves a shaft of Bess’ love to light his crippled world. Against three such stunning performers, Hughes more than rises to the challenge. “Frailty, thy name is Bess” could define her character, desperate to be a good woman, but unable to sustain a loving commitment or resist her addictions.

The company work is flawless. Sharon D Clarke’s Mariah is a performance of wisdom and presence. Golda Rosheuvel’s Serena is a role of subtle humility, yet when this actress mourns her husband with My Man’s Gone Now, her voice as if from nowhere, fills the open-air space, tingling spines. A nod too to Jade Ewen’s Clara, the diminutive Sugababe who masters the show’s signature Summertime, with a perfectly weighted poise.

Amidst such a classy company, the use of ramshackle tables and chairs as improvised scene-setters is a distraction. Excellent performers demand an excellence in staging and the frequent shifting of tacky furniture suggests low-budget fringe rather than a production that frames world-class talent. It also remains a disappointment that a show, so steeped in the troubled, racist, tenement history of America’s South plays to a London audience that is overwhelmingly white. It deserves packed houses that reflect a broader cross-section of the capital’s melting pot.

David Shrubsole coaxes a jazz-infused delight from his lavishly furnished 15-piece band and with few finer companies in town, The Open Air Theatre’s Porgy And Bess is unmissably incisive and thrillingly provocative.

Runs until 23rd August 2014 

Handel Furioso

Arcola Theatre, London

*****

Music by George Frideric Handel

Directed by Max Hoehn

Robyn Allegra Parton and Anna Starushkevych

Currently playing in London’s Dalston is one of the finest set of performances to be found on London's fringe. As part of the Arcola’s "Grimeborn Festival" the Isle of Noise are performing their Handel Furioso, a love story that they have created, fused from a selection of George Frideric Handel's duets, arias and orchestral works.

Isle of Noise is a deceptively modest title for this company, a name that suggests cacophony rather than the sublime harmonies that await. A cast of two, supported by the 8 piece Sounds Baroque Ensemble, perform, in one act, a 75 minute series of 16 separate pieces. Their story is simple, introducing us to a young boy and girl and following them through courtship, matrimony, an estranged separation and finally and enchantingly, a reconciliation in their old age before the boy (now elderly and grey-haired) dies in the (now old) woman's arms.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Starushkevych plays the Boy, whilst Robyn Allegra Parton is the soprano Girl. As would be expected the staging is modest, but English surtitles are thoughtfully projected onto a moon suspended over the stage.

The singing is exquisite. My knowledge fails me in offering a structured operatic critique of these women's talents, so all I can report is that their voices are close to perfection, with both range and faultless tone deployed in a moving combination of strength and sensitivity.  Their acting is similarly excellent, as the love story unfolds and their performances and appearances age in line with their characters.

Julian Perkins conducts from the harpsichord and his ensemble, complete with William Carter on theorbo (a remarkably incongruous and oversized 16th century lute), provide an accompaniment that exceeds one's expectations for an evening of Handel.

Only in London until the weekend and then followed by a short tour, these ten talented and disciplined performers provide a rare glimpse of excellence. Their's is an eclectic take on Handel's work and if the era or the genre appeal, then this show should not be missed.

Runs until August 31st then on tour

Choral Greats

Kenwood House, London

****

Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra

Conductor - Roderick Dunk

Hurrah! Classical concerts are back where they belong at Kenwood House, in the grounds of this beautiful 18^th century mansion, tucked away on a corner of Hampstead Heath. The venue’s layout has been shaken up a bit and where once orchestras played from across the other side of the House’s ornamental lake, the whole event now takes place on the Estate’s sprawling lawns that stretch down to the lakeside, with video screens and well balanced amplification ensuring that everyone can see and hear what’s going on.

The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the baton of Roderick Dunk got the evening’s celebration of Choral Greats underway with O Fortuna! from Orff’s Carmina Burana. It’s one of the most recognisable pieces of classical melody (and if that name, or any others in this review, mean nothing to you, YouTube them and all will come flooding back) and Dunk’s wonderful symphonic sound, including Orff’s majestic gong to introduce the vocal power of the 100-strong Royal Choral Society, made for a thrilling start to the nights entertainment.

The programme listed an ambitious selection of 25 items and the selection was unashamedly populist. Whilst the bias was clearly towards choral and opera, if the evening had been called Classical Greats, (with the second half treats of Elgar’s Nimrod and Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra not usually found on Choral programmes) no one would really have cared. The event was not one for cultural snobs, but rather a glorious choice of some of the most famous and beautiful classical music written. And judging by the number of young children present in the audience, (well, who can resist fireworks) the evening may just possibly have been an introduction too, to a time when music was written to be performed by nearly 200 skilled individuals in perfect harmony.

A night of Choral Greats would not be complete without a spot of Carmen and soprano Janet Mooney’s Habanera hit the spot as the rain fell on the enchanted throng enjoying her arias. Other beautiful solos included a spine-tingling Nessun Dorma from Alun Rhys-Jenkins and a sparkling O mio babbino caro, sung by sister soprano, Fiona Murphy.

As the second half unfolded, the first Kenwood classical concert of the season, evolved into the Last Night Of The Proms. Mooney returned to the stage, clad Britannia-like in a Union Jack cape seeing the evening off with a flourish of Elgar, Parry and Arne. By this point whilst the downpour might have been torrential, spirits were anything other than dampened and the flag-waving sing-alongs of Jerusalem, Rule Britannia with a firework festooned finale of Land Of Hope And Glory celebrated the patriotic beauty of these works in the grounds of one of England’s most beautiful houses.

On Friday August 30^th, Live By The Lake will be screening the movie Singin In The Rain, accompanied again by the RPCO. Last night, an audience of several thousand were deliriously singing in the rain, for real. T’was a wonderful occasion, welcome back! 

The full programme of Live By The Lake runs until September 1st and can be accessed here.

Wozzeck

Coliseum , London

****

Composer: Alban Berg

Director: Carrie Cracknell

This review was first published in The Public Reviews

Leigh Melrose and Sara Jakubiak

Wozzeck marks Cracknell’s directorial debut for the ENO at the Coliseum, and this talented young woman arrives with some panache. First performed in Berlin in 1925, it was in 1988 that Berg’s demanding work was last tackled by the ENO and with a talented cast and creative team, Cracknell weaves a gripping but agonising hold over us during the heavily stylised 90 minutes that the interval-free production runs.

The story is drawn from Buchner’s Woyzeck, the troubling story of a young soldier of fragile mind and susceptible to paranoia who is bullied by his Captain, the army doctor and his Drum Major who then cuckolds him with Marie, his common law wife and the mother of a young boy. His struggles with his mental health and the abuse he suffers inevitably has tragic consequences.

Leigh Melrose is Wozzeck. Beautifully baritoned he displays a well-performed flawed grasp on reality from the outset. It is hard to watch him knowing that each challenge he encounters or humiliation he suffers is adding to the provocation that will unleash his final acts of slaughter. American Sara Jakubiak another ENO debutante is Marie, a perfect soprano , who notwithstanding her character’s lifestyle, still evokes our sympathy in her difficult relationship with Wozzeck.

Tom Scutt’s set design is as imaginative as it is convincing. Marie’s cramped flat set above the noisy pub suggests the poverty that she and Wozzeck endure and in the climactic finale, is home to some hauntingly visceral imagery. None more so than Harry Polden as her young son, donning his schoolboy rucksack and heading out into the world. Cracknell bleakly indicating that this cycle of violent abusive behaviour is only destined to continue.

Photo: Alastair Muir

Verdi's A Masked Ball (or Ballo)

King's Head Theatre, London

*****

New english version by Adam Spreadbury-Maher

New piano versio by Luca Tieppo



Becca Marriott

Opera Up Close’s production of Ballo, a new interpretation of Verdi’s A Masked Ball, (in Italian Un Ballo in Maschera) is brought bang up to date, with the action translated from 18th century Stockholm, to today’s London, specifically the North Circular Road near Wembley and to a large eponymous Swedish owned furniture store to be found there, complete with distinctive blue and yellow branding and product names so obscure that the word Ballo could just as easily refer to their latest sofa range. In this production however, Ballo is the name of the store.

The satire that underlies this work is cleverly crafted. To take the grand setting of a classic opera and reduce it to the mundanity of a suburban furniture store has echoes of the genius that underpinned The Office television series in which a minute examination of the humdrum routines of daily ordinary working life provided a rich seam of comedy. Where Ballo entertains even further is in the sheer breathtaking abilities of its performers.

The scope of this production is wonderfully and sensibly compacted to fit the tight constraints of the meltingly warm Kings Head performance space. Ben Woodward on keyboards provides the only musical accompaniment and it is a credit to his remarkable ability that he matches and leads the singers perfectly.

The original tale is set in the court of King Riccardo and tells of the love that grows between him and Amelia, the wife of his close friend Renato.  Also present in Riccardo’s court are his loyal fop Oscar, Tom, a courtier with a lurking grievance and astrologer Ulrica. These characters have evolved into the furniture store Manager (Riccardo) and various other jobs around the shop and warehouse, with Amelia employed as a checkout girl. The staging is simple using desks and occasionally, flat-pack furniture. With a planned tryst in the store car park at midnight being cleverly suggested with bulkhead lights and brilliant floodlights this production’s attention to detail on what is clearly is a tiny budget, is remarkable.

But it is the vocal performances of this company that astound. There is not a weak moment between them, rather numerous instances of excellence. Martin Milne’s immaculate male soprano sports an impressive budgie-smuggling costume bulge for the final scene that is at odds with his evident talent amongst the eye-wateringly highest of octaves. Dickon Gough’s resonantly baritone Tom is a modest part beautifully delivered, his testosterone fuelled voice emphasising almost every word with a vicious relish. When he mistakenly accuses Riccardo and Amelia of having been dogging in the car park, the anticipation with which he savours spreading such malicious gossip around the store is almost palpable. Ulrica, a customer service telephonist who moonlights during office hours providing a premium-rate telephone astrology line shows Olivia Barry at her accomplished best.

The triangle of betrayed friends and lovers is completed with Edward Hughes’ Riccardo, Becca Marriott as his paramour and Christopher Jacklin as her husband. Hughes has the swagger of Matt Lucas and the voice of a tenor angel. Marriott’s arias are frequently spine-tingling whilst Jacklin’s classy portrayal of a man emotionally betrayed by friend and wife is initially heart-rending, evolving into chilling as he plots his murderous revenge.

The libretto is a new translation by Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Luca Tieppo’s arrangement of the score has blended in some nods to ABBA for the final masked ball scene at the store party.

This is not a show for prudish purists. On the other hand, if you are new to the concept of opera or broad minded enough to enjoy a ridiculously talented cast pushing the boundaries of taste and acceptability, whilst singing their hearts out, then Ballo is a must see.


Runs to 25 May