Jenůfa - Opera Holland Park, 15 June 2007
The most distraction you normally have to deal with at an opera house is coughing, and maybe the odd mobile phone. Tonight we had low flying jets, a randy peacock mewing away, the cheers of a victorious cricket team, and to top it all, a helicopter so loud it nearly drowned out the orchestra. That's outdoor opera for you.
Although Holland Park Opera has had a swanky refurb this season, it's really still just a canopy over a seating terrace with a makeshift stage in front. The wind whistles in through the open sides, and the setting sun dazzles before it sinks behind the trees.
But the atmosphere is so mellow these interruptions never really obtrude. The breeze brings in the scent of the herbs which grow beneath the potted olive trees around the auditorium. All of the comfy seats have plenty of legroom and a good view, and the fresh air keeps everyone awake. And whoever decided that drinks and food could be brought in deserves a medal.
This Jenůfa had some great reviews on its opening last week, and on tonight's hearing it deserves all of them. Janáček’s sometimes thoughtlessly brash orchestration can be hard for singers to lift themselves above, and the venue's bizarre acoustical properties can't have helped, but these obstacles were brushed aside by fine performances all round.
Anne Sophie Duprels in the title role anchored the drama and effortlessly negotiated every vocal corner, holding her own musically against the equally superb Kostelnička of Anne Mason. Tom Randle's Laca impressed too, as did Nuala Willis's Grandmother - not the most attractive sound, but entirely right for the role. What surprised me most was the almost uniformly high quality of the minor performances, Karolka, the Mayor and his wife particularly - something you really don't expect outside Covent Garden.
The conductor Stuart Stratford pulled an amazing full-throttle performance from the orchestra. The pace was kept high, and there wasn't a moment they flagged. The climactic final scenes had a terrific energy and drive. The lack of a pit here is a circumstance driven by necessity, but it coincidentally makes the instrumental sound so much more alive.
Janáček’s tightly constructed drama and clearly delineated characters don't require extensive chin-stroking interpretation, and director Olivia Fuchs wisely did without any extraneous cleverness, going for the simple direct approach, a plain low walled set fronting the crumbling stucco pillars of Holland House . On a practical note, the third act room set was too small, bunching up the characters when they needed room to breathe and leaving a huge swathe of empty stage, but otherwise it worked pretty well.
It was a shame that there were quite a few empty seats tonight - Holland Park is bargainaceously cheap by mainstream opera standards and this is really as fine a production as you could hope to see.
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