Just last week The Old Man and me did potter off to The Opera at the
Hall for Cornwall in Truro ... which by the way is due to close this
summer for at least 20 months whilst being redeveloped into a bigger and
better venue ... they do say.
Where will us West Cornwall opera folks get to see an opera in the meantime?
But I do digress. English Touring Operanever fail. They are a great company that do save our opera-going bacon. This time we attended their version of two of Puccini's short operas: the dramatic and moving "Il Tabarro" (The Cloak) set aboard a barge on the Seine ... and the comic "Gianni Schicchi".
Despite viral throats having struck some of the singers, I was duly moved by the tragic Il Tabarro with its minimal, rusty iron, dockside setting.
But Gianni Schicchi did steal the evening. Everything about this ETO production - sets, costumes, singing, movement, acting were as ensemble, sharp, and knockout as can be. Stylised, yes, but it triumphed. The audience laughed out loud - and not just polite titters. Really - if you get a chance to see this version of a comic tale of scoundrel scam vs. rampant greed, you must give it a go. You've got till June!
No... I don't mean cutlery when I write "women with knives"... but a long lost phrase in my head to do with plots in opera. The English Touring Opera production of "Iphigenie en Tauride" provides "women with knives" in spades ... and axes... with its opening scene of human sacrifice on the shores of Tauride. The orchestra plays an overture whilst ladies dressed in impressive butcher aprons of bloodied white subdue their struggling but unseen captive and wield knives and axes, draining blood into bowls and through grills and chopping up various bits (again unseen but inferred) and thrusting them into sacks. Members of the Truro audience were heard complaining about the gore in the ice cream queue during the interval. But... naturally... I thought they did it rather well.
I think if I had any complaints about the violence it would be the inaccuracy of the torture of Orestes's friend Pylades, whose suffering as mimed by his tormentors would have deprived him of enough body parts to prevent his participation in the rest of the opera. In the spirit of crime review I must say... "If you are gonna show violence... make it relevant. You went a little over the top there, boys." And in the main the violence of this production is relevant I think. Gluck based his opera on the play by Euripedes in which the saved sacrificial victim, Iphigenie, is made a priestess by her saviour Diana and as such doomed to sacrifice any foreigner who steps on to the shores of the tyrant king Thoas. What follows is a catalogue of family disaster, culminating in Iphigenie finding herself about to sacrifice her own brother, Orestes. Labelled a tragedy and a melodrama, the company's own programme notes point to the Euripedes work as an anti-war drama. And my word, seen from that point of view it do fit in with the spirit and geography of the times.
I can't praise English Touring Opera highly enough. This is the third year we have managed to see one of their productions. Their sets and designs are necessarily stripped down but work well given that, with us, they manage just two consecutive night in the theatre with a different performance each evening. Well that's a triumph of packing if nothing else. But above all the performances are smooth, the productions brave and the singing and orchestral work are good. I have to single out Catherine Carby as Iphigenie in this one: warm and singing beautifully. If you live far from metropolitan delights and miss an evening at the opera... you must look out for ETO.
I just wish we got a sample from their autumn tour as well ... but we never do.
It's time for me to creep out of my wintry shell and kick a best foot forward into the night. I've booked tickets for the opera, the opera what visits Truro's Hall for Cornwall that is. So thank heavens for the English Touring Opera and its annual visit to the HFC. Two nights only, a different production each night, bless them.
Seats are popular for their Mozart's "Don Giovanni" on March 15th but we have opted for the considerably less well known "Iphigenie En Tauride" by Gluck... on the basis we don't know it and we might never get the chance to see it again. A risky policy this one... but when the walking frame looms... why not give it a whirl. So we are off in a few weeks time to sample the fleshpots of Truro. Erm...
I'd have liked to share a sample video with you but there isn't one. So let me just quote the blurb/plot: "Vampire-like villains and human sacrifice form a bloodthirsty backdrop to this timeless tale from Greek myth. A brother and sister are thrown together at the end of the Trojan War, and find their path to redemption. One of the most refined and perfect of operas, from a composer who influenced future generations from Mozart to Wagner..." Oh la-di-da says I. Better put my best frock on.
For one night only as they say... but I have my tickets in my sticky little hand for we rarely get a chance to nip out for an opera. So - at Truro's Hall For Cornwall... which sadly be not a theatre but.... a Hall really. The English Touring Opera and Donizetti's The Wild Man of the West Indies - now rarely performed - for whichever reason we shall soon find out.
Mar 18th. 7.30pm.
And Tuesday 17th is their production of Puccini's "La Boheme". But we thought we'd take a chance on something we have never seen before. Cos we are adventurous like that.
Adventurous... but nowhere to go! And we did enjoy the ETO's production of "Paul Bunyan" last year, so I'm up for this one too.
I am happy to tell you that the evening spent with the English Touring Opera's production of Britten and Auden's "Paul Bunyan" was very enjoyable. The opera itself is light, accessible and enjoyable. The performances are good and wholehearted.... and the production design.... with the challenge of being on a small "touring" scale... is ingenious.
I find I am still singing bits to meself several days later....
The only blow was to find the theatre half empty. (What no student groups from Truro College, or the Dartington contingent at Tremough? Not to mention any local school specialising in the arts? Shame.)
And then the audience what be there... us included... do seem to manage an average age of 70. An awful lot of sticks, frames and slow processing. And there be a splendid gentleman who re-enters in the nick of time for curtain-up, loudly and clearly regaling us with the news that he has "found his glasses". Then - when he eventually arrives at his seat - he proceeds to thank us all as he settles in. Even the conductor.... arms outstretched in the pit... do manage a smile.
But....Blimey... I do feel old.
Don't look now... The Old Man do promise me a night out.
Will I know how to function somewhere outside my own house? In the evening as well? Not sure.
The choice of entertainment be The Old Man's, mind. For some reason he is absolutely determined to see English Touring Opera's "Paul Bunyan" - a Britten opera with libretto by Auden.
It's a one-night only performance and it's on next Tuesday 11th March 2014 at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro. (Monday is "Magic Flute"... so "touring" be the operative word here, I think.)
I am not sure about this choice and do screw me face up a bit. Though I have come round to liking Britten, I admit. Anyway, The Old Man have limbered up by dredging out an old boxed set of the opera (vinyl.. not dvds) and bombarding me with it...
....and the trailer looks good.
Maybe I could quite like it after all.
