putting it mildly
Tim Ashley in the Guardian Unlimited writes:
When Hansel and Gretel are out of the house, their parents (Thomas Allen and Elizabeth Connell) prepare to have sex on one of the children’s beds, and we recognise the potential for deeply inappropriate behaviour lurking behind this family’s facade.
And speaking of deeply inappropriate behaviour, is Anja Silja starring in “The Katia Ricciarelli Story?”
Carsen’s much more hit and miss, in my opinion – some shows seem very tight and disciplined, others (the Rosenkav, great in parts, and Hoffmann) a bit diffuse. Jones I haven’t seen do a half-cock show yet, and clearly the H&J amazed some of us, left others cold.
Is there something buried in your remark that I’m missing, La Cieca? How’s the hot tooth?
I thought Jones’ ‘L’Heure espagnole’ was a travesty. OK, the humour of the libretto is not that subtle, but the music is. He turned it (yet again) into a brash 70s sitcom. His obsession with big-patterned wallpaper is a bit tedious and the showgirls at the end, though decorative, were otiose. That final habanera is such sexy, spinetingling music that there was no need for irrelevant sequins and plumes.
The Schicchi was better, but it was pretty damn obvious. Not a piece I’m fond of, however – apart from the bits for the lovers.
Another thing that’s just occurred to me is how bewilderingly different Jones’s Royal Opera Rheingold was from the one he’d done for Scottish Opera a few years earlier (I never saw the SO Walkuere, done when Janeybabes was at the brief peak of her career, though Eaglen and R Jones are not two names that go naturally together). Not even Kupfer in his Berlin/Barcelona Ring after Bayreuth cared to reinvent himself in quite that way (ie the later Rings were pale shadows of the Bayreuth triumph).
Thackeray Gnomey, I’m going to do a Mrs Gundryggia and say you break my heart by not caring for Gianni Schicchi. But then I don’t care much for L’heure as a theatre piece, and I thought he saved it (didn’t think much of Christine Rice in it, though). Bryn sticking a fag in the bust of Dante was pretty sublime – and of course the connections (working boy vs the bourgeoisie in both operas) weren’t made too obvious.
For Gianni Schicchi, my all-time favourite comic opera newly-minted, I still prefer Annabel Arden’s Glyndebourne show. The Met staging got laughs but was coarse and undisciplined by comparison (though Corbelli with his Harpo gookies was sublime in both).
Regie, the Dante bit was the highlight of the production, I agree, but I really disliked all the ‘formation’ movement by the relatives. Elena Zilio was the best thing in it – she was a tough old posh Italian bird to the tips of her fingernails, but everyone else was mugging like crazy.
I can’t think why the ROH is pushing Christine Rice so hard. She’s probably a good Flora or Ines.
I was actually just thinking that I’m not that crazy about comic opera (as opposed to operetta) in general apart from the Ariadne prologue and L’Heure. The teapot and teacup in L’Enfant et les sortileges also make me laugh. I don’t even like Falstaff, and I am a big Verdi fan. Rossini’s comic music is usually much funnier than what’s going on stage, and a apart from a couple of moments of Mariandel, most of the broad comedy in Rosenkavalier is a bit of a bore. In things like Elisir they’re all bloody psychotic.
And Parsifal doesn’t exactly have me rolling in the aisles either.
After I’d been wondering what all the fuss was about,Christine Rice went and astonished me in The Minotaur. You could say that’s because I don’t know the music, but the sound she made was surprisingly good, and she looked superb – a real icon of a Cretan princess.
As for mugging, did you SEE the Met production?
I think Gianni is ripe for mugging, but it still makes me laugh out loud, which is more than I can say for any of the others usually. Jones’s Pag had me rolling about too, and what I think was his first stage hit, the play Too Clever By Half, made me fall off my seat. Ditto the Alsatian on the black and white set in A Flea In Her Ear.
Christine Rice is a pretty woman with a nice voice, but there are plenty of more exciting mezzos around, I would have thought.
I must confess I didn’t see the Minotaur … I once saw Birtwistle make an amazingly pompous speech at a concert and it put me off him for life! … Well, that and the fact that he doesn’t like to write tunes. The last new opera I saw at the ROH was Un re in ascolto, I think, but I rather like Berio. Still, at least the Minotaur had Amanda Echalaz and Johan Reuter in it.
There’s a German (Kupfer? Someone like that) DVD of Schicchi available from Premiere Opera with Duesing and Dernesch which is well worth a look, although the anti-Regie ists would hate it. It comes with a Barbara Daniels Tabarro and a Gallardo/Dernesch Angelica, both of which are well worth seeing.
I’ve only found it at Premiere, though, so the usual caveats about ordering it aged 20 and receiving it as a granddad apply.