RSS

Contact us

Sunday 7 September 2008

Three in the park

La Gioconda; Pulcinella; Iolanta
Opera Holland Park

On a hot fine evening in London there can’t be anywhere more delightful for an opera-lover than Opera Holland Park, which is now so comfortable, and has such high standards of performance, that to see a rarely performed work there is in all respects at least as enjoyable as it would be anywhere. The admirable policy of mixing conventional fare with rather out-of-the-way things seems to work well, since I get a strong impression that many of the audience go for the experience of being there, rather as one used to go to ‘the pictures’ once or twice a week, and hope something decent was on. I have hardly ever seen an empty seat.

This year there are two rarities, one of them a neglected near-masterpiece, the other a not sufficiently neglected piece of abject rubbish. It has actually taken OHP’s inspired production of Tchaikovsky’s last opera Iolanta to convince me that it is a near-masterpiece, because no recording or performance I have heard or seen before has approached this level of conviction and intensity, with acting and singing to match, while Stuart Stratford’s conducting is magnificent. It’s no good pretending that the music is all good, and both Richard Taruskin and David Brown, whom one might have hoped would spring to its defence, give it the thumbs down. Yet the long stretches of fine and rather uncharacteristic Tchaikovsky are too moving to miss. The tale of a blind princess brought up in ignorance of her disability, and only coming to awareness of it, and to its cure, thanks to a persistent wooer — in opera, as nowhere else, it’s amazing what love can do — must have been appealing partly because it enabled him to explore new ground. The dark opening, taking us into the impoverished sensory and emotional world of the Princess, and the enchanting song and chorus of her companions which follow, are potent and poignant. Then, as nearly always in Tchaikovsky’s operas, dramatic and musical progress get out of synch, so that the finest passages aren’t necessarily the most important dramatic cruces. And there is some padding, hardly required in a one-act opera that lasts for an hour and 40 minutes. But then there is only a handful of operas which are virtually uncuttable — I’d have thought Iolanta’s best chance of permanent survival would be a 20-minute pruning.

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