Falstaff - Royal Opera House, 15 May 2012 (production premiere)
A star was born at Covent Garden last night. Poised and stately, his lean-muscled frame and liquid brown eyes drew every gaze his way. A frisson ran through the whole audience as each flick of his silky hair hinted at an impending intention to leave his mark on the stage.
Yes, Rupert the horse certainly saved the show.
Robert Carsen’s new production begins as a deliciously detailed farce where not a gesture, not a word lacks a purpose. Falstaff’s ancestral tweeds and oak panelling battle the formica and shiny suits of the Ford set as the decline of the aristocracy is set against the post-war rise of the middle class.
But then the opera’s tone changes, and Carsen’s concept can’t quite keep up. The equine intervention is a necessary distraction from the otherworldly improbabilities of the final act and their unwilling surrender to Carsen's ‘50s suburban setting.
Of course none of the humans could compete with the talented Rupert, but some came close. The magnificent beast in the title role was Ambrogio Maestri, whose manor-born portrayal has increased in girth and pith since I first saw him in Vienna four years ago. Switching between blustery parlando and elegantly spun lines he hinted at the noble lineage beneath the oafish exterior.
Falstaff himself was defiantly English, but I left unsure whether Carsen’s setting was Windsor, Berks or Windsor CT. Like some of the other ladies, Ana Maria Martinez’s perky and lyrically sung Alice Ford seemed more American than English - and her prairie-wide kitchen was a luxury native housewives could only dream of.
Audience favourite Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s fruity Mistress Quickly on the other hand could have stepped straight out of a Carry On film. So too could the hilarious double act of Alasdair Elliot (short) and Lukas Jakobski (tall), who turned Bardolph and Pistol's few lines of singing into finely-drawn lowlife characterisations.
Joel Prieto’s limply sung Fenton was a bit of a disappointment (really, ROH, I know you can’t find the Siegfrieds these days – but Fenton?). Amanda Forsythe’s charming Nannetta was some compensation.
Though scoreless, Daniele Gatti investigated every nook and cranny of Verdi’s score with a forensic thoroughness that matched Carsen’s eye for detail. It was a musicianly reading that hit the mark intellectually without ever quite sweeping you up and carrying you away, though his preference for dramatically effective over merely pretty singing was welcome.
production photos (above) Catherine Ashmore/Royal Opera House
curtain call photos (below) intermezzo.typepad.com
Were there some booing at the end?
********************************************
Intermezzo replies - I heard two boos (which may have emanated from the same person) when the production team took their bow. Most of the audience were extremely enthusiastic.
Posted by: Jaime | 16 May 2012 at 05:42 PM
I am very surprised to read there was any booing at all. The audience at the rehearsal all seemed very enthusiastic to me.
Posted by: Miriam | 16 May 2012 at 05:58 PM
The booing came from the Upper Slips/Amphi. Undeserved I thought.
Posted by: Justin Chapman | 16 May 2012 at 09:23 PM
It certainly looks thoroughly entertaining.
Posted by: Rose-Mary Hyslop | 17 May 2012 at 08:39 AM
I thought that the singing was no more than adequate - Maestri was excellent, but the production drained what energy there should have been. I also thought that Gatti toyed overmuch with tempi, and lost any sense of menace in Act 3. The laborious scene changes in the first half didn't help the story to flow, either. Disappointed.
Posted by: Mark Baker | 20 May 2012 at 02:44 AM
Overall pretty good - doesn't quite work as a production which most reviews have commented on.
We were in Marsala Zone before hand so saw the star of the show arrive with his entourage.
I saw from the program it is a co-production with La Scala - not sure what they will make of it all !
Posted by: amac | 20 May 2012 at 03:46 PM
I caught this on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. However the 1950's setting added nothing to my understanding of the piece and I thought it lost its way towards the end.
Posted by: Siggy | 21 May 2012 at 07:08 PM
Saw this on Friday thanks to the Telegraph deal.
Surprised there was no mention in the programme of this obvious influence - the set even looks the same as Act 3 Scene 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU
Posted by: Richard | 26 May 2012 at 09:40 AM
I was there on Friday too. I thought the production was charming and worked very well, apart from the Herne's Oak scene. Musically it was nothing more than competent; I found Gatti's reading too sterile and monotonous. My companion, who saw his first Falstaff ,remarked that it doesn't have any catchy music in it, and all I could say was, "it usually does, just not tonight".
As for the singers, apart from the excellent Maestri, it occurred to me that the entire casting was meticulously fine-tuned for... looks!! It was refreshing to see mother and daughter looking like mother and daughter, Fenton looking like a teenager etc. and everyone fitting so beautifully into the staging, but sadly none of the voices were particularly memorable.
Posted by: Nik | 28 May 2012 at 10:31 AM
I agree, with Nik. None of the voices were excellent but the tenor was certainly cute.
Posted by: Romano Endrighi | 28 May 2012 at 07:33 PM
I saw this yesterday and, even though the singing of many of the singers was not perfect (even Falstaff lost his breath a bit occasionally), somehow the whole thing clicked and the entire production felt very euphoric! Quite like a party, really. It made me forget myself (and my critical mind) and my worries at home. Pure escapism, I'd call it. A guy in the amphitheatre just couldn't stop himself giggling all the time, after he saw the horse on stage. It didn't help that the horse appears in the "outside the inn" scene that comes AFTER the break (and the boozing). Poor guy obviously hadn't read Intermezzo and he certainly hadn't seen that horse coming. It all added to the jolly atmosphere. All the audience was in a great mood. Rarely have I witnessed a ROH production that's amde people so childishly happy (maybe it's the brilliant weather too, but somehow I don't think so)... Does anyone else feel that this is a production set in the 50s and shown this May 2012, just for the sole purpose to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee? It seemed that way to me.
Posted by: Seagirl | 29 May 2012 at 10:15 AM