|
|
Chichivache
Posts: 128
The artiste formerly known as Gabrielle d’Estrées
|
 |
« Reply #1 on: 14:20:35, 26-11-2007 » |
|
Ah, Harpy, too late, too late! Got my balcony ticket for next Monday, chiz chiz. There were hardly any of the cheaper seats left (although I am in the front row!) but wouldn't have minded a seat with the toffs...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
wotthehell toujours gai archy
|
|
|
|
Ruth Elleson
|
|
« Reply #2 on: 14:32:26, 26-11-2007 » |
|
You could always go and see it again  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
|
|
|
|
harpy128
|
|
« Reply #3 on: 15:17:33, 26-11-2007 » |
|
Yes, I've already got mine as well, unfortunately, for tonight, in the gods.
Quite excited; surely nothing can go wrong on this one, famous last words?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ruth Elleson
|
|
« Reply #4 on: 15:28:58, 26-11-2007 » |
|
I would go pretty much anywhere to see any production by David McVicar  This time last year I hot-footed it up to Edinburgh and back on the overnight train, two days before moving house, just to see his Rosenkavalier. Of course I didn't know at the time that (a) Sarah Connolly would cancel, and (b) it would be bought up by the ENO and offered in London next Spring, thus providing a far less effortful means of seeing it for a London-dweller like me. I'm currently saving up for his Ring Cycle in Strasbourg in 2010. "Screw" opens tonight, of course, and I'd normally attend on the opening night but am going to the one London performance of "The Sacrifice" instead. I'm seeing "Screw" on Friday. And two other Britten operas next week |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
|
|
|
|
harpy128
|
|
« Reply #5 on: 18:17:23, 27-11-2007 » |
|
FWIW I thought this was splendid, apart from a couple of minor irritants, which weren't musical ones. Hope you all enjoy it.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #6 on: 12:13:48, 01-12-2007 » |
|
I wonder what the minor irritants were.....
Anyone else seen it yet? The reviews are very good.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
harpy128
|
|
« Reply #7 on: 14:10:01, 01-12-2007 » |
|
The main irritant for me was the fact that "servants" kept shifting scenery around in a distracting and unnecessary way during the orchestral passages - we came up with various theories about what this Meant, but I'd rather just have listened to the music. I also thought that the child abuse angle was spelled out in a more literal-minded way than necessary and that a couple of Hammer Horror style effects jarred. Musically though it was wonderful and the story telling was as lucid as it always is with McVicar.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 14:49:18, 01-12-2007 by harpy128 »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Chichivache
Posts: 128
The artiste formerly known as Gabrielle d’Estrées
|
|
« Reply #8 on: 01:29:01, 04-12-2007 » |
|
I was totally entranced - the hairs on the back of my neck went up several times. Totally, totally gripping. Can't remember an opera production which so enveloped me, pulled me in. I was on the edge of my seat all the way through. I rather thought it was a shame there had to be an interval, took the throttle off the tension - but I didn't read the synopsis, I didn't want them to give the game away! Excellent staging, lighting, direction. The orchestra - just 13 of them, I hadn't realised it was a chamber orchestra - absolutely superb. All the singers were stars, for me, clarity, projection, first-rate acting. I must single out Jacob Moriarty as Miles - so mature, convincing, innocently malevolent - watch out for him.
I didn't have any probs with the scene-shifting - there are 15 acts, after all, and someone 's gotta do it!
I've seen, in a fairly short time, ENO's Billy Budd, Death in Venice, and now this. I can't imagine that any of these productions could be surpassed for their synthesis of conducting, playing, singing and staging. I would cheerfully go and watch any of them again. I've been less than happy with some other operas at the Colly, but these have been quite superb. Well done ENO.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
wotthehell toujours gai archy
|
|
|
|
harpy128
|
|
« Reply #9 on: 15:14:19, 04-12-2007 » |
|
Glad you had your spine chilled, Chichivache. I saw the other Miles who was also amazing. I think Jacob Moriarty was in their recent Flute where all three boys were excellent so I would have been interested to see him too. I didn't have any probs with the scene-shifting - there are 15 acts, after all, and someone 's gotta do it!
I'm not convinced anyone had to do some of it - some of the time they just seemed to be adjusting the angle of sofas etc which didn't really seem essential. Nonetheless I'd love to go again, but can't fit it in  Shame the run wasn't longer. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #10 on: 16:55:21, 05-12-2007 » |
|
Jacob Moriarty (and the other one) has sung Miles in at least one other production. He looked incredibly young. I'm so jealous of these children who are in professional opera almost from birth - I'd love to have done that.
Very good production on the whole. I've just posted a bit on the Good Morning thread in the Other Place, because somebody else had. I thought Timothy Robinson's Quint was stunningly good. I've always liked him - characterful voice - but he doesn't always get a good press. Rebecca Evans's diction was of the Andrew Kennedy school of word distortion. I liked Ann Murray very much as Mrs Grose.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #11 on: 14:55:49, 06-12-2007 » |
|
In Albert Herring, incidentally, I thought it was interesting that when the production had the courage not to do anything during the orchestral interludes (except change scenery behind the curtain), the audience talked all the way through the first one until they noticed a few people saying "Sssh" rather loudly. So much for knowledgeable London audiences! It was only music, no pictures, so didn't count, obviously.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ruth Elleson
|
|
« Reply #12 on: 15:35:22, 06-12-2007 » |
|
In Albert Herring, incidentally, I thought it was interesting that when the production had the courage not to do anything during the orchestral interludes (except change scenery behind the curtain), the audience talked all the way through the first one until they noticed a few people saying "Sssh" rather loudly. So much for knowledgeable London audiences! It was only music, no pictures, so didn't count, obviously.
Sadler's Wells audiences can be like that, Mary. I haven't been to any dance shows there - which are, of course, SW's bread and butter - so I don't know how well-behaved/knowledgeable those audiences are. But many of the SW opera audiences I've been part of have been more reminiscent of a provincial theatre audience than a London opera audience. I didn't expect this at a Britten opera, though - it seems to happen mainly at very popular shows. It wasn't the case at "The Sacrifice". On a recentish WNO tour (2004 perhaps?) I saw Eugene Onegin (twice), Madama Butterfly and Hansel and Gretel. At Butterfly I was sitting adjacent to a party of teenagers who talked and messed about during the performance; at Hansel and Gretel I was in front of a group of ageing ladies who unwrapped and ate sweets throughout, and whose conversation actually included the line "What a jolly sing-song we'll have on the coach on the way home!"  I seem to recall similar disturbances at Opera North's Traviata a few years earlier. I feared for the Onegin audience, but they were perfectly behaved; so were the audiences at Tamerlano, Leonore, Beatrice et Benedict, Cheryomushki, Peter Grimes, La voix humaine, Katya Kabanova, The Haunted Manor, King Roger and Ubu Rex, to name the majority of the operas I have seen there in the past decade. I do wish, at least, that SW wouldn't sell noise-making snacks. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #13 on: 15:46:05, 06-12-2007 » |
|
In Albert Herring, incidentally, I thought it was interesting that when the production had the courage not to do anything during the orchestral interludes (except change scenery behind the curtain), the audience talked all the way through the first one until they noticed a few people saying "Sssh" rather loudly. So much for knowledgeable London audiences! It was only music, no pictures, so didn't count, obviously.
Would that have been the First Circle on Tuesday, Mary? I hasten to add that I neither a talker nor a shusher be, but was quite grateful for the firm shushers on that occasion. It seemed to do the trick. I wish I had known you were there. It would have been lovely to meet you particularly at a Britten occasion. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 15:48:26, 06-12-2007 by George Garnett »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ruth Elleson
|
|
« Reply #14 on: 15:48:49, 06-12-2007 » |
|
It may very well have been going on in the First Circle too, but I was in the Second Circle and there was certainly plenty of talking and shushing going on up there.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
|
|
|
|
