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Thursday 4 December 2008

Visual fuss

Ariadne auf Naxos
Royal Opera House

The Pilgrim’s Progress
Sadler’s Wells

Though there is no question of its being a satisfactory drama, there is far too much good music here for it to languish as it does for decades between outings. It contains a great deal of noble and some blazing music. Too much, one could feel. This disgusting world is perfunctorily portrayed, and though we are all familiar with it, for the purposes of this work some more prolonged and penetrating depiction is required, which the brief ‘sinful’ episodes don’t begin to achieve. And the amplified and booming voice of Gidon Saks as Apollyon was imposing without being faintly alarming. Andrew Kennedy’s Lord Lechery sounded reasonably plausible, but didn’t look it. And Mesdames Bubble and Wanton failed to make any impression. The last thing Williams could command in music is an erotic tone, however hard he might have tried, and whatever the energies of his private life may have been. But I don’t want to do this piece down, because for anyone who responds to the glow of the Fifth Symphony there is quite enough more of the same kind of thing, but inspiredly diversified, to make for a largely enthralling evening.

More articles from: Michael Tanner | this section

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