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Thursday 4 December 2008

Visual fuss

Ariadne auf Naxos
Royal Opera House

The Pilgrim’s Progress
Sadler’s Wells

Unfortunately, clear though this all is, Loy’s production throws an expensive blanket over it — a vexing one, too, when the set is so elaborate that after the 40 minutes of the Prologue we have not only an interval of the same length, but then apologies, too, because they still haven’t managed to move the damned thing, so a further 15-minute wait. No denying that the home of the patron is expensively tasteless, but that impression can be created by simpler means. The chief source of pleasure in this revival is the elegant, flowing, restrained playing of the orchestra under Sir Mark Elder, but with so much visual fuss you might easily neglect to listen. The Composer, a glorious role, is well taken by Kristine Jepson, though she will learn more about it after some more performances. There was on the opening night a lack of the sense that everyone on stage knew the production so well that they could free themselves from specific instructions.

That feeling didn’t really evaporate after the eventual rise of the curtain on Ariadne, since all eyes and ears were on the reshaped Deborah Voigt, who must have been acutely aware of it, and seemed self-conscious. Her voice was in much better condition than when I heard her recently, but her interpretation wasn’t inward, and Gillian Keith’s punk Zerbinetta stole the show easily. Robert Dean Smith is a tenor whom you can rely on not to let you down if you have medium expectations, but more than that I can’t truthfully report, but Bacchus must be every tenor’s least favourite role.

At Sadler’s Wells the Philharmonia Orchestra mounted two semi-staged performances of Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. The cast list was an amazingly starry one, with the quite magnificent Roderick Williams in the title role, and Matthew Rose, already a great singer and artist, as the Evangelist and in a couple of smaller roles. The Pilgrim was clad in a period costume, with a horribly heavy-looking burden on his back, and there was a scattering of costumes for the other performers, but many wore contemporary clothes. Some acted, some hardly did. It all worked well, under the enthusiastic direction of Richard Hickox.

More articles from: Michael Tanner | this section

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