Stage: Nights at the opera

Glyndebourne Tour

Madama Butterfly

Glyndebourne is well known for creating exceptional new productions, for taking risks and pushing the boundaries of opera, and usually they do this to great effect. Sadly the first night of this new production missed the mark.

Shifting the time to the 1950s was pointless, and moving the first act to Goro’s down town Nagasaki bridal exchange stripped away Butterfly’s innocence and charm. Her arrival through a brick corridor bedecked with neons, too few neons to have real impact, lacked any magic and the weird attempt of cluttered officialdom on the set was lost in the wide expanses of the Glyndebourne stage.

A heady mix of classicism and decay, sexuality and oppression

The singing was however exactly what we have come to expect. Francesco Verna is not only a beautiful voice but an excellent actor too in the role of Sharpless. Matteo Lippi has a fine voice too and his shift from the acquisitive captain to infatuated lover is beautifully handled as his remorseful performance on his return.

One cannot hep feeling that the entire production, despite the excellent singing, is second division, and far from what we have come to expect.

14 October, Andrew Kay, 3 stars

Don Giovanni
Glyndebourne’s 2014 production of Mozart’s masterpiece shifted the time frame to a mid twentieth century Italy as perhaps depicted by de Chirico and populated by Fellini. A heady mix of classicism and decay, sexuality and oppression. Unlike the current Madama Butterfly this conceit works brilliantly, the dark tale, peppered of course with moments of real humour, is a disturbing moral story of greed, misogyny and unbridled lust and it sits well in the era, post-war, post-Mussolini and portrayed as a time of moral collapse.

Paul Brown’s magnificent set is a fine example of modern stage craft at its very best. Not dependent of technical wizardry but on fine ideas beautifully executed. Duncan Rock is stunning as the Don, his fine voice has real command and Brandon Cedel is a perfect match as his manservant.

Anthony Gregory is very fine too as Don Ottavio adding a sweetness to the darkness of the whole. Anna Maria Labin and Magdalena Molendowska were equally impressive in both their solo parts and the ensemble pieces and Bozidar Smiljanié makes an excellent Masetto all macho bluster and simplicity.

But the key to the productions success is that this is ensemble work at the very highest level, from design, cast, conductor & director to creat a performance that is compelling watching and listening.

15 October, Andrew Kay 5 stars