UK Theatre Network

La Wally is another first production by Opera Holland Park of a neglected work. Catalani’s piece is very much a preoccupation with German romanticism tempered with Italian sensibilities.

 Set in the Tyrol,  tomboyish Wally is celebrated in song by her friend  Walter (Alinka Kozari) for her  rock climbing skills and life saving antics.  Stromminger, Wally's father, encounters another group of hunters from the  nearby village of Sölden.  Hagenbach( Adrian Dwyer) son of Stromminger’s long held enemy leads the group, and a violent quarrel is provoked. Wally breaks this up and there is an instant attraction between her and Hagenbach. Love rival Gellner  (Stephen Gadd) notices the attraction and alerts Stromminger to this, who then beats Wally and insists she marry Gellner or be cast out. Wally refuses the match and is sent away.  

 Her fortunes inprove with the death of her father and she inherits  property. She returns to the town, wealthy but  naïvely ignorant of the consequences of her actions, and of the duplicity of other people.

The storyline is at times not made of strong dramatic stuff. Catalani’s beautiful score is what is most attractive about  the production.  Stephen Richardson plays Stromminger as a  pure bully.  Gweneth -Ann Jeffers is excellent as the brutalized,  tragic Wally. A difficult piece to stage, designer  Jamie Vartan created alpine scenes via a giant white tarpaulin manipulated with ropes and pulleys. This was  not always successful, but at  the  dramatic conclusion came into its own for its starkness  together with daring aerial artist display.
Catalani’s piece is a curious work, but the music is beautiful and definitely worth a look  to round off another  diverse season at Opera Holland Park.

July 29, August 3, 5, 10, 12 at 7.30pm
Opera Holland Park
http://www.operahollandpark.com/ 

Lindsay Posner's sexed up Rigoletto sees Mantua styled  as a Mafia Gomorrah with thuggish politicians,  handcuffs, lap-dancing and drugs.

Robert Poulton as Rigoletto struts through the philandering Duke of Mantuas court ( Jaewoo Kim) as the jester,  insulting all the cuckholded husbands.

His comeuppance is a curse issued by a vengeful,  father Count Monterone  played by William Robert Allenby. Genuinely terrified, Rigoletto attempts to protect his daughter Gilda (Julia Sporsen) at all costs from the amorous Duke.

There are many well observed touches in this production. A mobile set of shipping containers were used to create locations outside of the court. Red and black were used to dramatic effect for the colour palette.
An Italian style bar where the Duke goes romancing was complete with TV,football, wine,  and a nod to  Pavarotti before  the crowd pleaser -La donna è mobile .

Robert Poulton as Rigoletto was moving, with  strength, tone and emotion at the death of his daughter. Jaewoo Kim however  seemed more nice guy that lascivious seducer.

Those that saw last years production of Carmen will recall Julia Sporsen's performance as Michaela , and again as Gilda she is perfection.

With Stuart Stratford at the baton of the City of London Sinfonia, the evening doesn't disappoint.

Rigoletto
Opera Holland Park
July 26,28,30,Aug 2, 4,6,9,11,13

http://www.operahollandpark.com/

Premiered in 1917 La rondine (the Swallow) marked a return to composing for Puccini after health  problems and difficulties in his family life. Puccini is unrivalled for his depiction of love and tragedy through passion, and  Tom Hawkes production is perhaps the most romantic of Opera Holland Park's  2011 season.

Kate Ladner as Magda, the bohemian mistress of  Rambaldo has her fortune told to her by her poet friend Prunier (Hal Cazalet) at a party in her salon . Told she will fly away and meet her true love, this awakens memories of past loves, and also a restlessness to be free, perhaps a personalised sentiment of the composer.

Magda embarks on an adventure to the clubs of Paris, meets Ruggero (Seán Ruane) and  runs off to the Riveria. The romantic escapade ends when Ruggero gets permission to marry Magda, and she feels she cannot be a virtuous wife after all. Ladner plays Magda with delicacy, having  good chemistry with her maid Lisette, an energetic Hye-Youn Lee.

Designer  Peter Rice  has created a salon  with muted colours matched with bohemian pinks and mauves. The contrasts go further to a raucous Paris nightscene complete with Ballet Russe-esque characters, and then finally to a dazzling seaside promenade at the Côte d'Azur.

Because of the time in which it was written,  La rondine seems  to be almost experimental. The work  starts abruptly, with the most memorable aria Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (One for Room with a View fans) arriving almost before you are ready.  The motif is  then repeated throughout the rest of the plot , without leaving the satisfaction that this device has in other works.  The piece shows Puccini could still write a beautiful aria,  but suggests that his greatest opera writing years were behind him.

http://www.operahollandpark.com/

Director Liam Steel's  Le nozze di Figaro  at Opera Holland Park  is Upstairs Downstairs meets Feydeau farce.

Le nozze or The Marriage of Figaro continues the characters story  from The Barber of Seville. The Countess Rosina, beautifully sung by Elizabeth Llewellyn  joins forces with her maid Susanna to outwit her womanising husband.

 Count Almaviva ( George von Bergen) wants to reinstate droit du seigneur, a noble mans right to have the wedding night with any new bride. His current desire is Susanna who is about to marry Figaro(Matthew Hargreaves), now head of Almaviva's staff.

Designed by Emma Wee,  the action  is now set  in an Edwardian house  complete with dancing maids. Also part of the fun includes hiding the amorous page Cherubino (Hannah Pedley) to avoid the Count's wrath, and discovering that the  woman the Count wants Figaro to marry instead of Susanna is actually his mother.

This  production sees Susanna  taken on gamely by Jane Harrington who replaced Claire Meghnagi at very short notice. But this last minute change doesn't show. With exquisite harpischord,  Mozart's score was performed by the City of London Sinfonia  under the baton of  Matthew Willis. The production  seemed an appropriate choice as opposed to the more rarely performed works that make up part of their program.

Written as an adaptation of an 1860s Alsace love story,  L’amico Fritz is the tale of a wealthy bachelor Fritz (Eric Margiore) and his determination to avoid the married state.

 It’s Fritz’s birthday, and his friends and adoring staff are ready to celebrate. There seems to be no end to his good deeds, helping orphans such as talented violinist Beppe (Patricia Orr) or providing dowries requested by  matchmaking Rabbi (David Stephenson ). Though Fritz is happy to help, he  has no wish to change his bachelor ways, that is until he meets  an old friends daughter Suzel
( Anna Leese).

 This work is Pietro Mascagni’s follow up to earlier  success with Cavalleria Rusticana, and also a  departure. When  first performed L’amico  did respectably well, but by then Puccini was on the scene and attracting lots of attention with good plots and great drama.

 Opera Holland Park's revival  for this sweet if somewhat flimsy love story works well within its defined terms.  Director Annilese Miskimmon’s  decision to set it in the 1950s gave an anchor to the story. Designer Nicky Shaw followed this by creating  a Mad Men style office complete with bosom heaving secretaries, then taking us to white picket fence country side. The change of scenery shows Fritz fall in love completely with Suzel.

Much is made of folding the set into a house with full complement of carpenters a drilling a roof on in situ. The audience applauded, but it seemed to be a time filler.

Orchestration was tight and well conducted by Stuart Stratford to deliver a faultless performance of a dreamy, romantic score. 

All leads were in good voice with Anna Leese’s Suzel just innocent enough responses hooking the reluctant  Fritz. Leese and Eric Margiore were nicely paired but there was not quite enough  charisma portrayed to believe all his staff were falling over themselves to be with him. Margiore’s Fritz seemed oblivious to all the admiration.

Throughout the Second and Third acts we witness Fritz’s internal struggles against romance, but as he has no other obstacles to surmount,  the inevitable outcome does not make the plot very memorable.

This revival is charming and entertaining, perfect for a summers eve, but may explain why productions of it are a rarity.

 June 10, 15, 17, 21, 23, 25 at 8pm.
www.operahollandpark.com

The latest work at Opera Holland Park  Francesca da Rimini,  is a challenging piece. Like Debussy’s  Pelleas and Melisande  it seems there are no real memorable duets that linger with Riccardo Zandonai’s work. Also like the aforementioned opera, they share a somewhat similar storyline where the heroine falls in love with the brother  of her husband and both come to tragic ends. It’s a familiar sense of déjà vu.

 

The opera is based on the life of the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna who in appeasement of peace between the Malatesta family affirms the agreement by marrying his daughter Francesca (Cheryl Barker ) to the Malatestan heir,  Giovanni (Jeffrey Black) .

Giovanni being deformed has a proxy stand in his place -his handsome brother, Paolo(Julian Gavin ) . Naturally Paolo and Francesca fall in love but she realises the morning after the wedding day she has been duped. During the war with a neighbouring family,  Francesca and Paolo fall in love, helped along by a passion for reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere.

It is only when the youngest brother Malaetestino(Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts)  tells Giovanni of their affair, that he finds them and kills them both.

 It’s difficult to see chemistry and contrast between the cast. While Barker’s voice quality is lovely, her  physicality does not suggest she is the  naïve pawn. Gavin’s Paolo is sung with a depth of feeling but again it’s an unlikely pair.  Lloyd Roberts as Malaetestino is in fine voice but as he is  the most strapping of the three brothers it’s hard to see him as the ‘small perverted child’ Francesca calls him when he makes his own advances to her.  

 

 

The staging never quite creates the sense of their world. Two battlements are constantly moving to show a fortress under attack and Francesca’s boudoir within. There are significant gaps of time between scene changes  that somehow seem just not right.
There are some great touches such as lighted torches held aloft moving back and forth to suggest a siege and a rain of flaming arrows. The depth of the female chorus singing was lovely, but this seems not enough. After all the effort to get to the tragic end,  Giovanni despatches  Paolo and Francesca so quickly that one feels somehow cheated.

 

Phillip Thomas leads the  City of London Sinfonia for Francesca da Rimini till August 13^th

 

July 30, August 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13

A  summers eve, an innovative setting and first-class singing - the scene is set for Stephen Barlow's production of Don Giovanni at Opera Holland Park.

Mozart's cautionary tale of a lothario that gets his just desserts never fails to entertain, and provides the operatic challenges for the sopranos through to the glossier tones of the Bass Baritones.

There are the distinctive string flourishes, lovely harpsichord interludes and beautiful arias that are as fresh under the conducting hands of Robert Dean as they must have been on first performance in 1787.

Nicholas Garrett as Don Giovanni performs a wily and obsessed character. He is driven by the notches on his bedpost. The action is focussed on a seduction that goes horribly wrong. Don Giovanni, dressed for masquerade in his attempt to seduce Donna Anna (Ana James), ends up killing her father, and a subplot of vengenance ensues. Meanwhile, Giovanni brushing off his crime tries to spirit away Zerlina  on her wedding day ( Claire Wild), but fails as his former conquest Donna Elvira ( Laura Mitchell) catches him out.

Yannis Thavoris has put together a production style all 1870s. The women wear bustles, silks and diamonds, the men velvet smoking coats and dressing gowns.  Using dark panelled benches, he is able to transport us from a public house, to a stately home within seconds.

The ultimate damnation scene for Don Giovanni has an innovative twist which to avoid spoilers encourages an interesting entry point for the ghost to test Giovanni's character. The happy ending sung with great gusto,  Garrett mock booed as a pantomine villian at his curtain call, all cast greeted with hearty applause-  yes, a definite crowd pleaser.

Don Giovanni

June 28, 30, July 2, 4 (matinee), 6, 8, 10, 12, 14

Always a favourite, bold, brassy, colourful, Bizet sure knew he was doing, and so do the team at Opera Holland Park with their latest offering in their summer season.

The popularity of this opera endures because of the striking characters, wonderful chorus sections and of course the music. The first act and second acts contain some of the most famous pieces, the women leaving the tobacco factory, Carmen and love, and the tavern at Lillias Pastia's.

So its a lot to live up to - there have been so many productions.

Tara Venditti takes this role by the scruff of the neck. She is fiesty, she sings wonderfully and she imbues everything that Sean Ruane's Don José  desperately tries  to resist.  Ruane demonstrates the mad and murderous jealousy Don José  can't control. Julia Sporsen as Micaela performed with great delicacy, and was very much an audience favourite.  David Stephenson as Escamillo the bullfighter was dignified and simply delightful.

A minimal yet functional set does not invade your concentration and works perfectly, with lovely touches of colour and pomp in the fourth act.

A strong chorus lead by Hannah Pedley as Mercédès  provides the depth and richness that Bizet intended. Sevillian urchins sprawl and dart around the stage emulating a bullfight, the changing of the guards, the procession of the    Toreadors and first class perfomances City of London Sinfonia conducted by Matthew Willis.

Simply Wonderful.

Opera Holland Park

June 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19

A mysterious girl weeping in a forest, an older prince lost while hunting, this is the story of Pelléas et Mélisande. The atmosphere couldn't be more perfect for this production of Debussy's tragedy of fairytale adapted from a Maeterlinck play written in the 1890s.

There are some lovely performances here Anne Sophie Duprels as Mélisande to Palle Knudsen's childlike lover Pelléas  complement each other as their fates play out.

Alan Opie as Golaud displays the right of menace mixed with despair as the  cuckolded husband.

There are however competing and some what confusing  interests within this staging.

The wonderful City of London Sinfonia is deftly conducted Brad Cohen, but the score does not deliver a memorable solo or chorus piece. I suspect  this because of the trend in early 20th century music to have many waves of sound instead of following traditional opera formats.

The look of the land of Allemonde reminded me of an Edina Monsoon quip 'Surfaces darling, surfaces.'

Abstract, white and all sharp or cylindrical lines, pieces of set required a great deal of moving about by a chorus that remains mute, carries cushions and mimes sheeplike behaviour.

It's a shame that the chorus had a no opportunity to sing on stage,  I suspect more of an issue with Debussy than the team behind the production.

The only completed Debussy Opera and considered an important milestone in 20th century music - bear this in mind when watching this production.

Opera Holland Park

June 1, 3, 9, 11, 16 at 7.30pm

Tosca’s Kiss

Tosca at The Richmond Theatre,

http://www.ambassadortickets.com/789/659/Richmond/Richmond-Theatre/Tosca

 

Korn/Ferry Opera Holland Park’s Tosca feels like an original production –an amazing feat considering how well known this classic piece is. So good is this production that even minor characters are compelling, delivering brushstroke after brushstroke to the final masterpiece. As the unwashed bar man of the neon-lit trattoria leers at Tosca with his pustulant lower lip and lanky jaw, Scarpia toys with her, as he does his food—and the tension builds to devastating effect.

This same barman and Scarpia’s thugs watch with evident enjoyment through the strips of butchery plastic at an unseen room in which Mario (Tosca’s lover) is being beaten. Such was the potency of this excellent support that these thugs (played by Benjamin Segal, Henry Grant Kerswell and Duncan Rock) that they earned some pantomime boos when they took their bows. Wearing Fedora hat’s and smart 60’s suits, they menace and skulk around their leader, the bigotto, Scarpia.

The set locates us with rich detail in 1960s Italy, in a deserted Piazza outside a chapel, the walls papered over with posters and bills for both rebel political parties and Scarpia himself. Tosca’s face adorns the walls as the famous Opera singer: La Voce ‘68. Every detail of this production has been intricately developed. With each stroke Stephen Barlow, director, improves on and reinvents this well-worn story of passion, blackmail and death.

This Italy is corrupt, redolent with intrigue—Scarpia’s Mafioso helping him to ‘sharpen his lust’ even as he maintains a respectable political image. What this production does particularly well (due in no small part to Paul Garrett’s powerhouse performance as Scarpia), is to make it plausible that this charismatic character could command both the respect of the populace and the rebel's hatred. In fact, the contrast with the iconic image on the posters and the scheming villain pacing the stage is far more marked than in productions where he is played as a one dimensional ogre, devoid of such appeal. There is some steaming sexual tension between Scarpia and Floria Tosca as he taunts her with the possibility of Mario’s death, or earlier on, as he manipulates Tosca into betraying Mario through her jealousy. There is a moment in Act 1 where she bursts into tears—having been told by Scarpia that her lover Mario has flitted off to conduct an affair with the Marchesa Attavanti (whose portrait he has painted massively across the Piazza floor). Of course this is a lie, as Mario is really helping Attavanti’s brother Cesare Angelotti (played by Paul Reeves) who is an escaped rebel, to hide from the police. She falls into Scarpia’s arms in despair and he hesitates, frozen. As he slides a lecherous hand down her body the sexual frisson is palpable. This production has a filmic quality and cries out for the big screen. It would be great to see it on at a large cinema chain as with the recent collaboration between Odeon cinemas and Glyndebourne.

This opera’s enduring appeal comes from its flesh and blood characters who are filled with the irrational furies of love—but never before have I seen these qualities exploited so well. Puccini’s fabulous music and the witty dialogue are enlivened by a set of leads who tussle with their roles and pour emotion into a score dripping with the violence of passion.

Seán Ruane as Mario Cavaradossi is excellent—looking rather like a young Van Morrison (circa The Last Waltz) in his flares and bright orange shirt. He sings the famous aria, E lucevan le stele, beautifully. The relationship between him and Tosca is believable and loaded with warmth—the two leads are bravely unrestrained in getting to grips with each other in their scenes together.

Tosca herself, played with exquisite precision by Amanda Echalaz, has a purity of tone roughened only by real emotion during the torture scenes. Act III is heart stopping. It is real agony watching Tosca and Mario sing about the life they will have after going through the ‘farcical’ execution, and knowing that Scarpia never intended her to obtain freedom for Mario. ‘Fall down at once,’ she tells him, to which he jokes, ‘Like Tosca on stage’. Even after the hired thug douses the car with petrol, Tosca believes in her lover’s ability to cheat death. When Tosca emolliates herself, standing atop the car in which her lover Mario has just been shot, the piece has a fittingly iconic end.

Spoil yourself to this production of Tosca—it will put the heart back in you—just as great art should.



Catch it at the Richmond Theatre until March 1. To book call 08700606651, or go to www.ricmondtheatre.net

For more information about the production go to: www.operahollandpark.com