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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > Boris Good Enough at ENO?
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Author Topic: Boris Good Enough at ENO?  (Read 161 times)
martle
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« on: 18:57:35, 16-11-2008 »
Anyone going to this? I'm going on Wednesday, I've just discovered, thanks to a friend's birthday.
I see they're doing the interval-free 7-scene version (hooray) and that Edward Gardener is talking up the bells he's had imported especially. This will be my first live Boris, and I'm excited and kinda scared too.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1 on: 20:44:41, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: martle on 18:57:35, 16-11-2008
Anyone going to this? I'm going on Wednesday, I've just discovered, thanks to a friend's birthday.

I'm also going on Wednesday Smiley  Where are you sitting?  We are slumming it in the Balcony for £10 quid.  Maybe catch you for a quick Stolichnaya before the off?  Smiley   I guess you'll be skedaddling for the train shortly after Boris cops it?  I have some Russian friends coming too.

I may have a spare ticket if anyone is interested?

Quote from: martle on 18:57:35, 16-11-2008
I see they're doing the interval-free 7-scene version (hooray)

Thumbs-down from me!  Only half the bleedin' opera, innit?!  This version cuts all that skulduggery by Papal agents trying to scuttle the Orthodox Church and establish Lithuanian control.   More than an hour of music missing, harrumph!!

Here's my mate Ksenia Vyaznikova as Marina Mnishek, being advised by Cardinal Rangoni...

She's the anti-heroine in the DSCH-edition version (he assembled all the Musorgsky material into one fully playable and logical version) - but she doesn't appear AT ALL in the so-called "original Musorgsky version" (yeah, like hell it is, considering it was never performed??)  Shocked  Shocked

BTW, at the end of the DSCH-edited version, both of Tsar Boris's children, Ksenia and Fyodor are still alive at the end, cowering in the bedroom as their father's voice shouts to them from the "other side"...  then Fyodor "appears in his father's robes".


At Helikon Opera, that stage direction was interpreted as this...  in a BORIS which had otherwise been set entirely in the C16th....
« Last Edit: 20:47:56, 16-11-2008 by Reiner Torheit » Logged
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #2 on: 20:46:34, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: martle on 18:57:35, 16-11-2008
I'm excited and kinda scared too.

Martle - just wanted to say how much this one sentence alone made me want to see the opera! Unfortunately I'm a bit too far north...
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #3 on: 21:23:39, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 20:44:41, 16-11-2008
We are slumming it in the Balcony for £10 quid. 

Loud whisper overheard in the Coliseum balcony half way through Act I of Boris Godunov, circa 1982:

"God these seats are SEVERE!"
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Daniel
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« Reply #4 on: 21:29:08, 16-11-2008 »
I hope they've sorted out the slippery stage by the time you see it.  Grin

And excited and scared at the opera sounds like money well spent. Hope you are and it is.  Smiley
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #5 on: 21:39:53, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: Daniel on 21:29:08, 16-11-2008
And excited and scared at the opera sounds like money well spent.

The whole £10 quid, y'mean? Smiley

Quote from: perfect wagnerite on 21:23:39, 16-11-2008
Loud whisper overheard in the Coliseum balcony half way through Act I of Boris Godunov, circa 1982:

"God these seats are SEVERE!"

Have they got any more bearable since the rebuild?  I've not been up there since then.  It all began when I said to some friends "yeah, but even the credit-crunched can afford ten quid for this, surely?", and then suddenly there we all were Smiley   But I'm battle-hardened - I've sat through PARSIFAL up there!  A partially-inflated travel cushion is a handy piece of kit Smiley
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #6 on: 21:47:24, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 21:39:53, 16-11-2008
I've sat through PARSIFAL up there! 

So have I.  Conducted by Reginald Goodall.  Twice.  So there.  Wink
« Last Edit: 21:50:20, 16-11-2008 by perfect wagnerite » Logged
At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
martle
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« Reply #7 on: 22:07:01, 16-11-2008 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 20:44:41, 16-11-2008
Quote from: martle on 18:57:35, 16-11-2008
Anyone going to this? I'm going on Wednesday, I've just discovered, thanks to a friend's birthday.

I'm also going on Wednesday Smiley  Where are you sitting? 

Don't know yet, Reiner. It's all a bit last minute. I'll look for you and the Russians, though. I usually carry the vodka in my bag and nip at it during the performance (of anything, I mean).  Wink
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Lady_DoverHyphenSole
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« Reply #8 on: 08:51:03, 17-11-2008 »
I'm going on Friday, so will be interested to read people's opinions beforehand.

Shortly after the refurbished Coliseum opened, we sat in the balcony. Never again - the seats are upright, not very padded and have very little legroom (no laughing matter for Lord_DHS at 6'2).

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will try to enforce the "no admittance until a suitable pause" rule, because at Partenope a few weeks ago they were still letting people into the auditorium FORTY MINUTES into Act 1.  Angry Shocked
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #9 on: 09:46:23, 17-11-2008 »
Quote from: Lady_DoverHyphenSole on 08:51:03, 17-11-2008
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will try to enforce the "no admittance until a suitable pause" rule, because at Partenope a few weeks ago they were still letting people into the auditorium FORTY MINUTES into Act 1.  Angry Shocked

aaah, that would never have been allowed in the days when the much-missed Edward Butcher was House Manager!!

Quote from: perfect wagnerite on 21:47:24, 16-11-2008

So have I.  Conducted by Reginald Goodall.  Twice.  So there.  Wink

Warren Ellsworth, or Siegfried Jerusalem?  Smiley
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #10 on: 09:52:05, 17-11-2008 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 09:46:23, 17-11-2008
Quote from: Lady_DoverHyphenSole on 08:51:03, 17-11-2008
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will try to enforce the "no admittance until a suitable pause" rule, because at Partenope a few weeks ago they were still letting people into the auditorium FORTY MINUTES into Act 1.  Angry Shocked

aaah, that would never have been allowed in the days when the much-missed Edward Butcher was House Manager!!

Quote from: perfect wagnerite on 21:47:24, 16-11-2008

So have I.  Conducted by Reginald Goodall.  Twice.  So there.  Wink

Warren Ellsworth, or Siegfried Jerusalem?  Smiley

Both.  Jerusalem on the opening night, Ellsworth later in the run.  I also saw Ellsworth in the WNO Parsifal that Goodall was slated to conduct, but from which he withdrew through ill-health.

I thought Warren Ellsworth was a terrific singer - sometimes raw in tone and manner but fantastically committed, someone who really brought Parsifal to life.  Very sadly missed.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #11 on: 12:06:10, 17-11-2008 »
Quote from: perfect wagnerite on 09:52:05, 17-11-2008
I thought Warren Ellsworth was a terrific singer - sometimes raw in tone and manner but fantastically committed, someone who really brought Parsifal to life.  Very sadly missed.

Yes, he was exceptionally good when on form and in health - very good in that Parsifal (I saw Jerusalem from the Stalls, and Ellsworth from the Balcony).  Sadly he suffered from poor health all his career, and died in his early 40s Sad
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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