RSS

Contact us

Friday 9 January 2009

Undiluted pleasure

Hansel und Gretel
Glyndebourne

La bohème
Royal Opera House

La bohème, in John Copley’s well-tested production at Covent Garden (this is its 21st revival), evokes a far less real world, in which spirits are higher the poorer you are, half-finished works are cheerfully used for firewood, and at the drop of a key you launch into an intoxicating aria and find yourself passionately in love. Puccini’s own brand of sorcery, often derided, now increasingly and rightly respected and adored, remains mysterious in a way Humperdinck’s isn’t. The pain that Puccini portrays in the incomparable Third Act of this masterpiece is not less genuine than any in a Verdi opera, it’s just that Puccini has somehow given us permission to be thoroughly upset but to get over it very quickly. In this production I wanted, badly, to be more upset.

Though the cast was fairly strong the bawling of Roberto Aronico and the hardening tones of Cristina Gallardo Domas made their characters’ plight less immediate than it often is with less accomplished singers. Despite Copley’s own admirable return to supervise the revival, there is an element of routine which is almost unavoidable but fatal if what you want is an evening of highly wrought lyric drama and not a series of greatest hits. The evening I went there was no evidence, I admit, that what I wanted was what most of the rest of the audience had come for.

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