RSS

Contact us

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Moving and magical

Roberto Alagna
Barbican

Simon Boccanegra
Royal Opera House

The Merry Widow
Coliseum

The somewhat nondescript singing we had from Ferruccio Furlanetto as Fiesco, Lucio Gallo as Simon, and Marco Vratogna as the proto-Iago figure Paolo gave us a different drama from, say, the great Strehler–Abbado one which guested at Covent Garden in 1976. This was a more abstract matter of political and personal enmities interlocking. Nor was Anja Harteros, who is possessed of a remarkable voice but not much personality, anyway on this occasion, any more than the object around which various affections raged. Marcus Haddock, her lover and eventual successor to Simon, was, as I’ve suggested, another pallid presence. Over this terse and intense work, nonetheless, the weariness of a world of futile hostility and pointless ambition hung oppressively, and the loss of some small degree of light and shade wasn’t so important.

I went to the sixth performance of ENO’s The Merry Widow, and though it was no great shakes, at least the conducting of Oliver von Dohnanyi was suave and urbane, and would have provided an excellent support for more suitable singers. Amanda Roocroft’s Hanna was first-rate in one respect: she gave the character the jarring vulgarity which it should possess, while most Widows are too busy being ironic and romantic to incorporate that key feature. Unfortunately, though, Roocroft’s voice is losing its warmth at an alarming rate, and she wasn’t able to stir us with the Vilja-Song, or melt us when Hanna melts into Danilo’s arms. I saw the second Danilo, Philip O’Brien, who sang well but acted awkwardly. Far too much of the production tugged Lehár’s brilliantly sleazy concoction towards G and S, and the most characterful parts of the evening were given us by performers for whom that pair are the Platonic form of operetta. Far too much dialogue in proportion to the singing, too. I was grateful for the surtitles, since the singing was in Pontevedrian, though some of the cast, though never Roocroft, seemed to lapse occasionally into English.

More articles from: Michael Tanner | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved