The Fairy Queen, Glyndebourne, July 2012

A  Midsummer Night’s Dream as Gesamtkunstwerk, with actors, singers, and dancers in Purcell’s remarkable semi-opera, is given here in an eclectic production by Jonathan Kent combining the seventeenth century with modern times — linked of course by the fairies.

Titania, changeling, fairies, all images Richard Hubert Smith

It all starts in a Restoration drawing room with a Restoration version of Shakespeare. His play within a play is extended by musical interludes and four musical masques, the one before the long interval showing the delights of sensual love. This involves giant bunnies having it off every which way, including reversing roles in a pantomime that would confuse the children. But there is a pantomime spirit about the whole thing, including the way Finbar Lynch plays Oberon, and when conductor Laurence Cummings appeared for curtain calls at the end his bunny tail and huge white feet reflected the great enthusiasm and energy he had already shown in the orchestra pit, producing a lively performance from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

The lovers united by fairy magic

Anyone who has been to the Globe Theatre will be used to hearing bits of music and dance with the plays, but here it entirely takes over from time to time, and Kim Brandstrup’s imaginative choreography was a joy to watch. That is the one thing I would happily have seen more of, but on the other hand anything more in this production would surely tip it over the top. As it is, Paul Brown’s designs gave me more than I bargained for, and when the seasons came on towards the end, Autumn looked like a Mayan god. It was almost too much. That was followed by the best vocal performance of the evening by bass David Soar as Winter — he was super.

Puck and fairies

Other fine performances were given by actors Jotham Annan as Puck and Penny Downie as Titania. Annan’s lithe body made it look as if he could transport himself anywhere in the forest, and Penny Downie gave a rendering of Titania that reminded me of the quality Judi Dench brought to the role in a recent production. The Rude Mechanicals are cleaners whose abrupt appearance in the seventeenth century drawing room was something of a coup de theâtre, but this production was not short of such sudden theatrical changes in costume.

The double wedding

So many changes, so little time, but this is not a short work, so be prepared for laughter and confusion.

There will be a cinema screening on Sunday, July 22, and performances continue until August 26 — for details click here.

Radamisto, English National Opera, ENO at the London Coliseum, October 2010

On 27^th April 1720, a month before his sixtieth birthday, King George I attended the opera with his son the Prince of Wales. They’d only recently reunited after not speaking to one another for three years, so this was just the right opera to see. The king, Farasmane and his son Radamisto are in dire danger of losing their lives to the crazily emotional actions of a tyrant, Tiridate, king of Armenia, whose wife is Radamisto’s sister — the names are those of historical figures, but the personalities are not. Moreover Handel wrote this opera for the newly created Royal Academy of Music, whose directors favoured stories of love defeating the naked ambition of a ruthless conqueror.

Zenobia begs Radamisto to kill her

The young queens, Zenobia wife of Radamisto, and Polissena wife of Tiridate, are vital characters in the plot, both beautifully sung by Christine Rice and Sophie Bevan. Radamisto was sung by a woman in the original production, but here we had American counter-tenor Lawrence Zazzo who was excellent, and I do prefer such roles to be sung by a man rather than a woman. The other two male singers were superb too. Ryan McKinny sang very strongly as Tiridate, with fine stage presence and excellent diction, and Henry Waddington gave an equally wonderful performance in the much smaller bass role of King Farasmane. The one other character, Tigrane — an ally of Tiridate — was also very well sung by Ailish Tynan. A further role for Tiridate’s brother was cut from Handel’s revised version, which was performed here. Tigrane is infatuated with Tiridate’s wife Polissena, and acts as something of a unifying force, while Tiridate, who’s insanely in love with Radamisto’s wife Zenobia, is purely destructive, “From the hands of those I slaughter I will snatch a victor’s crown”.

Tiridate and Radamisto, all images ENO/ Clive Barda

The trouble with this opera is the weak ending. It builds up to an impossible situation, when suddenly Tiridate’s wife enters to say that his troops are abandoning him, so he admits having behaved very badly and thanks his erstwhile enemies for their kind understanding. Not a brilliant ending, but the music is wonderful and Laurence Cummings conducted with huge enthusiasm and excellent control of the proceedings. Musically this was a real treat.

Radamisto is not often performed, and the first twentieth century revival in Britain was not until 1960. The performance attracted strong applause, as did the new production by David Alden — a joint production with the Santa Fe Opera — apart from objections from a few audience members at the end. I didn’t understand the objections, so I asked one man what he didn’t like about it, to which I got the response that he didn’t like anything about the production. Did he not like the lighting by Rick Fisher? I thought it was wonderful. Did he not like the designs by Gideon Davy? I thought the Eastern style costumes were lovely, particularly Tiridate’s, and as for the late Ottoman white suit for Tigrane, that was obviously meant to be deliberately anachronistic. And the sets? I thought they were super. It’s a colourful production, easy on the eye, and the occasional body pierced by arrows is a reminder that while this family feud goes on, a lot of people die. Not a bad lesson, and remember that this opera’s opening night was witnessed by the future King George II with his music loving father George I, at the conclusion of one of their feuds. Handel had been Kapellmeister to George when he was Elector of Hanover, but then moved to London, so it must have felt like a family reunited when George became King of Britain.

Performances continue until November 4 — click here for more details.