Opera! July 2015 was my month of three operas. Unless you’re Eric the Phantom (of the Opera), this probably sounds a touch excessive. It did to me, too, when I looked at the diary and saw what I had done.
But they were all just a touch odd. And very different.
Opera USP
Opera overwhelms me. I laugh, I cry, I sit on the edge of my seat at the drama. And there’s always a chance I will be exalted into out-of-the body bliss by the beauty of the music. The sheer power of an orchestra and chorus going quiet is tingle-up-the-spine time. I find opera mysterious, dangerous, sometimes almost threatening.
Opera 1
La Locandiera, Warden’s Garden, New College, Oxford
Sometimes, it’s not so intense, though. La Locandiera (roughly the Lady Who Runs the Inn) is an all but forgotten opera by Salieri. That’s the composer whom Pushkin and Peter Shaffer cast as Mozart’s Nemesis. In fact, he seems to have been rather helpful to the Mozart family after Wolfgang’s death. With a text by Goldoni, it is, as you’d expect, a farce and has some pithy things to say about stupid aristocrats, overbearing suitors and clever women.
There is no doubt whose opera it is, and the lady
In the Warden’s garden, with spot-on comic timing from singers who inhabit the baroque with nonchalant ease – and augmented from time to time to time by a visiting song thrush – it was pure magic.
Opera 2
Turandot, Bregenz Festival
At the other end of the scale was the spectacular open-air production of Puccini’s masterpiece in the giant amphitheatre on the shores of Lake Constance. The action takes place on an island, built to contain stage and massive set, on the lake itself.
The sheer size of the undertaking, not to mention the interpolation of wind and waves — and, on the night we went, lashing rain as well — demands amplification. It was a surreal experience. Tiny figures moved about the distant stage. But when you looked at the screens dotted about the open-air theatre, you could see them in in all their make-up and finery, acting their socks off, while Puccini’s big harmonies filled the great bowl. Strange, scary and memorable.
Opera 3
Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Glyndebourne
This is almost the strangest opera of the lot — in one way purest Mozart, with his wonderful dance between the orchestra and the singers, fantastic vitality, sense of character and irreverent humour. Ostensibly it is the story of a gallant young nobleman (Belmonte) rescuing his beloved Konstanze from incarceration in a Pasha’s Harem, with a side order of brilliantly funny servants.
BUT, right from the start, the young gallant is a bit of a twerp. Yet his beloved is clearly altogether a more complex, self-aware and conflicted character. Shades of Goldoni-Salieri, there.
And then we see Pasha Selim. And he, not callow Belmonte, is a Man of the Enlightenment, moderate, thoughtful, generous, tender to his family. The Works.
And Mozart doesn’t let him sing. Not a note.
Sheikh Power
From a twenty-first century perspective, Selim is the hero, no question. You even find out that he only became a Pasha after his Christian father was cruelly dispossessed by Belmonte’s own brutal papa. When Konstanze decides to leave with Belmonte, Selim allows it but warns her darkly that she may come to regret it if the boy turns out to resemble his father.
So does Selim tempt Konstanze, notwithstanding his harem habit?
Well, that depends on the production. I’d say, from the music, that he does. It’s in the orchestra as much as what she sings. But then I’m a romantic novelist in whom the Sheikh hero is probably hard-wired. In the Austrian Court, with Turkish invaders at the gates of Vienna only a hundred years before, it must have been unthinkable. And Mozart? He was very young when he wrote Seraglio. I think Konstanze probably got away from him.
And where did this Glyndebourne production come down? Well, what do you think?
I loved this article. Mozart’s my favourite, although I find Die Entführung (apart from its rousing finale) only one step up from Idomeneo. On the other hand, that is one ravishing photograph!
Thank you Christina.
I see what you mean about Entführung. Well, he was very young when he composed it (25?) and, although he interfered lots with the libretto, I don’t think he’d really focused on the fact that the hero was really pretty feeble and didn’t actually do much. Given that Vienna had been besieged by the Turks in recent history, it would be inconceivable to present the Basha as a romantic hero – yet he’s definitely an Enlightenment Man.
So glad you like the photograph. All I can say is that it is does justice both to the principals and the production. Not much doubt that Costanze was seriously tempted. And who could blame her?
How wonderful! Sounds like a huge feast. I haven’t seen much opera. Had a spate when I was in theatre and we mingled with the opera chorus in Buxton who were doing Lucia di Lammermoor. We went to see it and I definitely got those chills. It’s quite different live. I went to a few more after that but lost the habit. Though I love the Othello opera movie – brilliant direction as well as singing.
Not surprised you share the chills, Lizzie. Quite often I actually shake before the curtain goes up!
I’m a bit limited in my tastes – v. cautious about anything after 1800, frankly – and am not a huge film buff. Though I did like the strange Joe Losey version of Don Giovanni, which was genuinely menacing, I thought.
But the chills are definitely to do with live music, live performers. Maybe it’s partly the risk that, at any moment, it could all go horribly wrong?
Oh dear, Jenny, this makes me feel like a complete uneducated rustic. Just as I always do when I confess to not ‘getting’ opera, to looks of disbelief from friends who share your passion. I have sat through hundreds, and hated most of them. (Cringes in shame).) I have been to Glyndebourne, where I saw two one-act operas, and the production values were amazing, so I had plenty to look at. And I would willingly be dragged to Verona. I’d love to see the spectacle. But the music? Sorry!
Think it’s chemistry, Jenny. My partner is a bit iffy about opera too – it has to have a good, clear story and not too much fannying about, plus real tunes, which wipes out most of the baroque, which I really love. He can’t be doing with Monteverdi and even Handel takes serious negotiation. Mostly I go on my own or with friends.
Me, I can’t take classical ballet. The dancers look so ethereal and then you hear their damned point shoes clopping about like little ponies. Shoots the fantasy right out of the window.
Lucky you! They all sound fascinating in completely different ways. I love all Mozart’s operas, though, for me, it’s not easy to suspend one’s disbelief for ‘Entfuhrung’, though, maybe, a really good, inventive production might do it.
I’ve only recently discovered the Opera live film – terrific value and it’s like having front seats in the stalls. I saw the Barber of Seville from Glyndebourne a few weeks ago and it was most enjoyable.
Well, I suspended disbelief all right for this production. BUT that meant that it didn’t – and couldn’t – have a happy ending. The comedy was ace, though, and so was the conflicted heroine.