The production of Iolanta was basic and serviceable, until the last ten minutes.  Not much to excite times two in that respect, I suspect.

There was not a weak principal, and there were five characters who had solos.  The bass, Mikhail Svetlov, as Iolanta's father had a wonderful Russian sounding bass, although some of his deep, deep notes at the end sounded a bit forced. 

It hit me towards the end that the set up is the same as Rigoletto.  An overprotective father keeping his daughter in ignorance in an imprisoned environment.

The tenor, Peter Auty, had a nice voice, neither English vicar choral whiteness, Italian fire nor German heft.  It was light, but with considerable passion.  In his pebble specs, he had the disadvantage of making his first entrance with Mark Stone, with his fatal gift of making the average tenor look dumpy.  He was quite sweet, which is what the part calls for.  After all Iolanta falls for him without seeing what he looks like.

There were a lot of religious references in the text to light as God's first gift and so forth.  It was pointed out to me this was highly appropriate for the feast of the Transfiguration.

I would have been glad to have known a bit of the music first, as I got the impression it had more of the old Tchaikovsky Big Toons that I find in some of his operas.

A good night out.  I won't spoil the end as Ruth hasn't seen it yet.

I finally got to GIOCONDA this evening.  Peter Robinson gave a suave and italianate reading of the score, coaxing decent playing out of the orchestra (for a welcome change) - although he can't make the fiddles play in tune.  Gweneth-Ann Jeffers did well in "Suicido", but failed to bring that focus to the rest of the role... there's a lot of unburnt petrol in what she produces.  Olafur Sigardurson tended to blast as Barnaba, and although very audible, it was very samey throughout - the line gets quite chopped up.   I must confess to knowing Zaplechny personally, so I shall sadly pass over his performance.

But the production was the most wretched pile of bilge I've seen in years - it's this kind of thing that gets opera a bad name    Yes, there was a solution to the problem of the boats - but that's all there was.  Monotonous, clicheed, static, and relying on tired formulae which contribute nothing to the story-telling at all.  Under-directed performers tend to over-correct by adding too much and hamming it - and that's what happened.