I booked two tickets from ENO recently, within minutes of each other. Two emails arrived instantly. ne envelope, for Death in Venice, arrived two days later, but no second envelope (Kismet).
I was wondering whether any member would be going to
Kismet. It's the sort of thing that would make the old guard on the R3 board ballistic. I'd love to know what you think of it.
Well folks, I'm prepared to own up to having gone to this production last night (ducks behind sofa!) and, as promised, here's a brief review. I'll also post some links to reviews, which have been uniformly dreadful!!
In many respects, I agreed with the critics – cheesy, very cheesy production with lots of laughs and a fair degree of camp humour. You can certainly notice the effects of Kit Hesketh-Harvey, who had a hand in tweaking the dialogue. What disappointed me most was the ‘lavish’ production…where was it? This was a minimalist production put out by a cash-strapped company with simple sets and one ‘clever’ idea – the garden where the Caliph meets Marsinah takes place within a giant hanging floral wreath. Kismet is a kitsch, exotic piece and it needs a lavish set.
Why was the theatre barely half-full? I’ve never been able to get to the bar or cloakroom so easily! And this was on a Saturday night – I dread to think what houses have been like in the middle of the week. I’m also sure that it’s not because of the dreadful reviews either – the ENO don’t give ticket refunds. There are 18 performances scheduled, which is a lot more than other productions staged by the ENO or Royal Opera, but I also suspect that ticket prices put people off. I paid over £50 for a seat in the Upper Circle; £83 in the stalls.
Where I disagree with the critics is over the issue of whether
Kismet should be staged given the current situation in Baghdad. Of course it should. We don’t stop reading
Arabian Nights tales or listening to
Scheherazade, well I don't, as that’s precisely what Kismet is - an Arabian Nights style entertainment.
Performances? I found the singing good. The music, of course, was a delight – it was rather fun playing ‘spot the Borodin’ amongst the score. Yes, there was a mixture of ‘opera voices’ and ‘theatre singers’, but that wasn’t a problem. All voices were amplified (some reviews lead you to think it was just Michael Ball) and needed to be, although the balance wasn’t always right. Sarah Tynan rightly stole the show with ‘This is my Beloved’ and the ‘new star’ Alfie Boe, although he doesn’t have much stage charisma, possesses a lovely, light tenor – I can imagine him as a very good Fenton or Nemorino. Graeme Danby, also a regular ENO performer, was the Wazir and although a strongish bass-baritone, his speaking voice, accent and camp manner kept reminding me of ‘Roger, the dentist’ from the BBC’s sit-com ‘My Family’ – not a menacing wazir at all!! From the world of musical theatre, we had Faith Prince as Lalume and Michael Ball as The Poet/ Hajj. Now, Ball sang the songs very well; it’s a pleasant voice, he has bags of stage charisma, although his acting is limited – this is very much cheeky chappie Michael Ball dressed as an Arab singing a bit and telling some dreadful one-liners. The Times comment about Syd James and Frankie Howerd was apt. Still, he sang well enough BUT he’s not got the bass-baritone voice needed for the part. Had he been singing the role of the caliph, I wouldn’t have had a problem, but the role of the Poet needs a voice with more depth. It was ironic then that, as the court poet Omar Khayyam, was had Donald Maxwell, who has sung the role of The Poet/Hajj on record before, but last night, apart from being given ‘The Sands of Time’ to open the show, Omar’s is a spoken role!
The bottom line – did I enjoy it? Yes, I did. I watched most of the show with a smile on my face, there was good singing, enjoyable performances and I liked the humour. Should this be at ENO? Not convinced.
Anyone else going to admit they've been?!
