Tamerlano - Royal Opera House, 5 March 2010 (opening night)
No, it's not a Leningrad FC relic. It's the opening image of the of the Royal Opera House's new Tamerlano, and it hangs around (literally) until the end.
***** LOTS more on next page *****
Continue reading "Tamerlano at the Royal Opera House in photos" »
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Deprived of the opportunity to afford Placido Domingo a warm hand on his entrance, the audience at tonight's Covent Garden Tamerlano premiere applauded the next best thing. The scenery.
The first object of ovation was Act 1's rather fetching life-size model elephant (above). That's a real lady on top, the very talented Renata Pokupic, who sang the part of Irene brilliantly. But not brilliantly enough to outclass a lump of wood on castors in the audience's ovatory affections.
We had to wait for Act 3, a long three hours, until another inanimate object was wheeled out (literally) to a big hand. That lucky piece of furniture was a sort of rolling catwalk transporting mezzo Christianne Stotijn, the dashing but vocally uneven Tamerlano (below).
I could sort of understand the elephant. You don't see one of those every day. Not in WC2 anyway. But a trolley?
Granted the spare, static production made for a dull four-and-a-half hours. It needed a Placido-sized personality to fill the empty, oversized sets - and none of the cast came close to matching up.
A clap-happy contingent in the audience were eager to puncture the boredom by ritual ovation of every aria - good, bad or (mostly) indifferent. I could just about tolerate that. But scenery-applauding? Really. Handel's opera has lasted over 300 years. Even the greatest opera production would be lucky to last a tenth of that time. Singers take many years to perfect their craft. Props are knocked up in a few days then scrapped when they're done with. Did some members of tonight's audience really pay £200 just to clap a lump of wood? I hope not.
(More words and pictures tomorrow. Maybe.)
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News emerged earlier today that Plácido Domingo needs surgery which will keep him out of action for most if not all of the rest of the season.
The LA Times says he has already undergone a procedure in Tokyo after suffering abdominal pain, and is travelling to New York for a further operation. It's not clear how serious the problem is, but then with a patient Plácido's age (69), any surgical procedure is serious, so we have to hope all goes well.
On a practical note, this means he's out of the imminent Covent Garden Tamerlano - even though the website hasn't, at the time of writing, been updated.
Kurt Streit, who was originally scheduled for two dates only, will take Plácido's place on the remaining five nights. The Royal Opera House, who I understand only found out about it late today, the same as everyone else, will contact ticket buyers shortly. A press release issued at 8pm this evening says
"Although it is not customary Royal Opera House policy, in recognition of the withdrawal of such an exceptional artist in a rarely-performed opera, we will be contacting all ticket holders with details of a 20% credit note".
Plácido's dates sold out instantly; Kurt Streit's had been selling slowly, so it's fair to assume most of those with Plácido tickets bought them for one reason only. 20% credit doesn't sound like much, but it's hard to see what else they could do in the circumstances, and it's certainly more generous than the big fat zero usually on offer when stars cancel.
They haven't commented on Friday night's planned Plácido Domingo in Conversation. But I think unless they can manage a video link to his hospital bedside (and Plácido is the one singer you wouldn't put it past to try) it's fair to assume it's off.
And although his spokesman hopes he'll only be off for six weeks, doubt must be cast over his Simon Boccanegra later in the season too.
More news tomorrow, I hope.
Meanwhile, I can't offer Plácido any medical advice, but I do know a good clown doctor.
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Booking for Covent Garden's Winter Season (December to March) starts today for Friends, and 20 October for all you other people.
Not much is massively tempting, though the first of Plácido Domingo's appearances this season is a must-see. He's already sung in Madrid - and been immortalised on DVD
Also worth catching - if there are any tickets left - is Plácido 'In Conversation' in the Linbury Studio on 26 February.
Kirill Petrenko is the conductor for Der Rosenkavalier, a dust down for the 1984 John Schlesinger production. A promising cast is headed by Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Lucy Crowe and Thomas Allen.
Andris Nelsons makes his Royal Opera House debut in December conducting an even more ancient production, John Copley's 1974 La bohème, with Maurizio Benini and Paul Wynne Griffiths substituting in January. Though once should be enough for anyone. Mix'n'match casting includes Piotr Beczala, Hibla Gerzmava and Christopher Maltman. Yards of curtain fabric, acres of creaking boards, smocks akimbo, and even a spot of artistic nudity not mentioned on the ticket (in case you're taking granny).
Last year's disappointing Robert Lepage production of The Rake's Progress makes a swift and brilliantly-cast return. Toby Spence (the best Tom Rakewell in town - he was made for this role) is joined by Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen, and Stephanie Blythe as Baba the Turk. Lovely Ingo Metzmacher conducts and tickets are a bit cheaper than usual, with a top price of £110.
Even cheaper, with a top price of £50, is Prokofiev's The Gambler. Covent Garden take a step into ENO territory with a new English language production by Richard Jones. The cast includes Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson, Jurgita Adamonyte and Kurt Streit, and Pappano conducts. No doubt intended to draw in a new audience, as is a half day education event An Introduction to Opera on 20 February.
It's hard to make Mozart dull, but Jonathan Miller's painfully misguided assault on Così Fan Tutte does the trick. Not half as happening as it thinks it is, and it's doubtful if Charles Castronovo, Troy Cook, Sally Matthews and Nino Surgaladze can salvage it. Julia Jones waves the baton for female conductors.
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Tamerlano - Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater, Munich, 24 March 2008
Munich normally sticks to the tried and tested team of David Alden and Ivor Bolton for its much-praised Handel operas. For their new Tamerlano, they stuck with Bolton for the conducting, but brought in Pierre Audi to direct, in a production first aired in Sweden.
I wouldn't dare go so far as to say Handel can be boring. But let's just say, in Handel's more diffuse or less than riveting moments, Alden's ability to expound clearly on a point or whip the attention back to the story comes in handy. Here, in Audi's austere yet surprisingly opaque production, even the bare bones of the story suffer.
The defeated Bajazet and his daughter Asteria are captured and held by Tamerlano, who decides he'd rather marry Asteria than his betrothed, Irene. But Asteria and Tamerlano's ally, Andronico, are secretly in love. Asteria's continual refusals prompt Tamerlano to order that she is raped by his slaves. So Bajazet commits suicide, Andronico offers to kill himself too, Tamerlano sees the error of his ways, and all pair off happily, Andronico with Asteria, Tamerlano with Irene.
In Audi's bleak setting, breeched and corseted figures skid around some sort of efficiently-burgled Nordic ballroom. The obligations imposed by defeat and captivity aren't addressed. Bajazet and Asteria seem any other members of this odd society. Courtly manners are everything. There's nothing to suggest Tamerlano's whims are actually enforceable demands. His threats of death and torture seem merely absurd posturing.
When a solitary chair is eventually planted on the bare floorboards, it becomes a beacon of hope for some real action that never materialises. Despite an inordinate amount of rolling and crawling round the floor, there is fundamentally little more to look at than a concert performance. The demands of the da capo arias must be met musically alone - there is nothing in the staging to reinforce the repetition and development.
It's hugely to the credit of the singers, and the reliably refined conducting of Ivor Bolton, that they manage to drag anything out of this torpor. David Daniels played Tamerlano with a piratical twinkle and a bundle of energy, more of an impetuous commander than a ruthless villain, but such were the limits of the production.
John Mark Ainsley had the fearlessness to infuse even the most rapid of coloratura with an astonishing range of expression. His decrepit elderly Bajazet was so physically convincing I could see the surprise in the faces of some audience members as he bounded around like any normal 40-something at the curtain call. This production's Unterhosemoment came in his death scene - a simple touch which underlined Bajazet's age and frailty and so magnified Tamerlano's cruelty. Another few ideas like that would have shaped the production quite differently.
Sarah Fox's Asteria got some of the most beautiful arias in the opera, Se non mi vuol amar and Cor di padre, delivered in a silvery-pure ribbon of liquid sound. Needs to watch how low she bows in a tight corset though >>>>>
Maite Beaumont's voice, deep and velvety as a pint of Guinness, is almost a shock on first hearing. Her Irene had plenty of wit, spirit and defiance, and in Par che mi nasca in seno an arrestingly ample tone coupled with meticulous phrasing.
Mary-Ellen Nesi's Andronico, handsome in looks and voice, and Vito Priante's resonant Leone rounded off the blindingly brilliant cast. It's rare that I can find absolutely nothing to carp about on the musical side, but that's how it was. I don't really do CDs, but I'd buy one of this performance in a heartbeat. It's just a tragedy that it was let down by such a lacklustre production - which led to one of the oddest ovations I've ever heard - mouse-quiet applause as the curtain descended, fading rapidly to silence, then a cup winners' ovation as the singers and conductor came back on. It was no more than they deserved.
Here's a 'behind the scenes' video produced by the Staatsoper, featuring interviews with David Daniels and Ivor Bolton and a few music clips:
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