Tosca from the Met at Bolden Cineworld

The Metropolitan Opera relay as I have reported on all my visits provides an all round better experience than elsewhere because oft the ability to watch scenery being dismantled and moved around as well as the excellent live interviews with performers and technicians. On this occasion there was a bonus watching the former great conductor James Levine who had been with the Met for decades in rehearsal for Falstaff after his absence for over two years. He had retired after 50 years as a professional musician because of intense back pain. He was operated successfully to stop the pain but fortunately eh then ha d a much more damaging fall which rendered him into a wheelchair with almost no lower limb control however we physic therapy, hard work and a lot of support from family, friends and members of the public he is able to conduct again and watching the rehearsal we witnessed his intense professionalism and control. I had not planned to watch Falstaff because a comic opera is not my cup of tea despite is great ensemble singing. However I may go because just out of appreciate for his courage and determination and which I am sure will proving a great emotional experience for the audience as well as for him.

I have experienced a performance of Tosca from the Met before viewed on TV via their on line subscription player and was therefore aware of the story and that the opera contains a great Aria two by the male lead and one by Tosca in each of the three acts.

Tosca is played by Patricia Racette a mature substantial figure who although miss cast as the young innocent Madam Butterfly in Puccini’s Opera (which was one of my first experience of the Met relay back in 2009) has the emotional power and intensity in her singing which moved me to tears. As Tosca she had to give a sustained emotional force throughout, first a jealous woman threatened by what appears to be her lover’s attraction to another woman he had seen enter the church where he is suppose to be painting a Madonna and then fuelled by the evil commander of the French forces occupying Rome, who gives the impression that the woman has gone off with the lover to his secretary cottage in the grounds of the church.

There are strong chords between Tosca and the les Vepres Siciliennes, in that opera concerns an occupying power and a resistance movement in this instance led by Angelotti who we see escaping from prison, the Castel, del Angelo in Rome and which I have visited. He is hidden first in the church where he makes use of the meal left for the painter by the Sacriston. It emerges that woman who has come to pray had no interest in the painter but had come to leave clothing in the chapel, a dress and a fan so he could leave the city dressed as a woman with the fan hiding his features.

Unfortunately the alarm is sounded before the escape plan can be effected so the artist painter takes Angelloti to his cottage, mentioning that there is a well with half way down a passage to small cave. In the rush he leaves the fan which belonged to the sister and has the family crest. This is found by the ruthless governor Scarpia played by the Baritone George Gagnidre to brilliant effect. He persuades Tosca to go off in search of her alleged miscreant lover followed by one of his men who sees where the artist is located but when they arrive the escaped prisoner cannot be found so they arrest the painter played by the great tenor Roberto Alagna who I last saw in the Met Carmen and who is playing this role in the Christmas New Year production at the ROH which I will experiencing in person in the New Year and where the tickets arrived last week.

I felt his voice has become stronger and richer than previously although it may be more to do with the nature of the two roles and his two arias brought the house down as they say such was his emotional power. Scarpia then has Tosca also brought to the palace where he is seen being entertained by three women to commercial virtue and where he plots to use the situation of power to possess Tosca. He openly sings that his interest is only one of lust and that once achieved he likes to move on, rather like former President Kennedy who got a headache if he did not have sex with a new woman everyday. In this instance Scarpia preferred situation where he took women against their will and in Tosca is his best challenge to date because of her spiritual strength she sings in the Cathedral choir as well as commitment to one man and intolerance of unfaithfulness. He ensure she is a witness to the torturing of her lover and then offers them freedom if she accepts his lust. He explains to that the lover will be shot but this will be a fake as the guns will fire blanks and he tells his henchman to undertake a similar execution to a previous occasion. What Tosca does not know is that the previous execution was also a fatal one presented as a fake to get his way with someone else.

She yields up the hiding place to the despair of her lover. Angelotti is reported to have committed suicide rather than be captured.

After Scarpia signs the release warrant Tosca chances on a knife and stabs the lecher to death. She visits the jail as requested earlier and explains what is to happen to her lover and that he must pretend to be dead and not move until the soldiers leave. To her horror she finds that he has been killed and this coincides with the discovery of the body of Scarpia. Rather than face capture she throws herself off the battlements to her death. This proved to be one of the great operas an amazingly I then discovered there is to be a performance locally at the Sunderland Empire next April

Verdi Les Vepres Siciliannes

It is time to devote writing to recent cultural experiences of considerable merit and first a great discovery in Grand Opera, Les Vepres Sicilliennes by Verdi from the Royal Opera House London broadcast live at 17,45 on Monday November 4^th at the Cineworld Bolden at a cost of £10,89, In addition to the petrol travel cost, a coffee at McDonalds beforehand £1.19 and a cherry ice cream during one of the intervals £2.20, the overall expenditure if one includes meals cooked at home would at no more come to £25 whereas to have travelled to London with overnight accommodation and cost of a best seat in the house ticket, assuming gaining all the best deals by booking in advance the cost would have been no less than £250 and likely to have been significantly more. So while it would be great to hear my favourite works in all the great Opera Houses of the World once. This is the life as it is claimed.

The opera is rarely performed which I do not understand why given it overwhelming beauty and intensity written for the Paris Opera House with its first performance in 1855. Whereas I have always been disappointed that Carmen is sung in French and not Spanish the land where it is set. This opera is best sung in French instead of the Italian, or Sicilian which is the basis for the story based on a situation in the that country as it was then in 1282 and its capital Palermo.

What the Director of the Royal Opera House performances has done is to set the Opera not in 1285 Palermo but 1855 Paris which makes more poignant the struggle of the Sicillennes against the brutal occupiers of their country who regarded any local woman, whether she was married or not as a prize to be used as they wanted, ironically in this instance the occupying power was France with the opera created within the Age of Revolutions.

　

The first two and final two acts are of 70 minutes with the third performed by a corps des ballet in Paris but in this production there are important ballet sequences throughout the five acts, notable with the overture and introduction in which the ruthless French commander of the Island rapes a young woman, in this instance a member of the ballet and where the ballet master feels driven from his homeland by his experience.

Jean Procida was a young doctor in the original performance and he is played by an outstanding young baritone Erwin Schrott from Uruguay who looks younger than his 41 years and is the life partner of the great Russian soprano Anna Netrebeko with whom they have a son. Procida was already a Patriot and it his leadership return which is eagerly awaited by those who still nurture their home of a Sicily freed from French rule.

One of these is Helene played by a the French Soprano Lianna Haroutoinian, a mature woman of ample size playing a young girl who is devastated by the death of her brother, another patriot at the hands of the Island ruler Guy de Montfort, and intent on revenge with her suitor the young Henry played the similarly mature and amble American tenor Bryn Hymel so this couple is well suited in terms of age and physique which is always desirable these days when portraying an attraction both loving and or sexual.

Unaware that Henry is his son or Monfont his father, the ruler is interested in Henry who is imprisoned for his anti French interests and ruler offers him a role in the country if eh keeps away from Helene In the second Act which follows on quickly from the first Procida return home determined to lea a revolution but finds he majority of people either too frightened or too complacent to support and he relies on a few patriots, including Henry and Helene who he meets upon landing.

The way the story is told is to combine aspect of the original location of Sicily with the Paris Opera House with the tiered side of the Opera house an integral part of the set and used for the chorus of occupying soldiers with the Siciliennes, peasants attired form the chorus on stage there are also reflecting mirrors when the dancers appear.

The trio plan to launch an uprising during a festival celebrating the marriage of young Siciliennes and Henry swears to kill Monfort to avenge the brother of Helene whose skull she holds and in return she gives the love from he seeks.

Just before the festivities and uprising the ruler‘s men arrive bringing an invitation for Henry to attend a ball and after he refuses he arrested and dragged off. Procida arrives too late to intervene and too late to stop some of the soldiers carrying of the Sicilliennes would be brides and some of the wives and mothers for their own pleasure. Procida and Helene determine to gate crash the ball in an effort to save Henry more than the Sicilian women and they berate the menfolk for allowing this to happen without resistance.

It was at this point that the first long interval occurred for 35 mins with after around 20 an interview with the Musical director from the bar restaurant where staff are clearing the tables from those who had booked to take one of their courses at this point.

It is in the act that the rule receives a letter written by the woman he abducted and raped when he first arrived on the island to say that her son Henry was his child. She had now died. Monfort is overjoyed at the news although sad that he had remained unaware of the existence of his son. During the ballet which takes place at the ball, Procida and Helene are horrified when they and their friends are exposed by Henry who is unwilling to be responsible for the death of his father however much he hates the man. His friends are horrified by this betrayal and scene wends in dramatic fashion as it appears the revels are all shot with the exception of Henry. Helene and Procida are in fact imprisoned before execution which is the scene at the commencement of fourth act after a further local interval, During the first I had enjoyed a scoop of cherry ice cream but stayed in place for the second apart from a comfort break. I think it was in the second break that a short film was shown on the creation of the ballet sequences.

Henry obtains a pass to try and explain to Helene the reason for his betrayal and to regain her love and to die with her. He is able to save her and Procida by accepting Monfort as his father who arranges their marriage which will mark a new relationship between the French and the Sicilliennes. Helene is then advised by Procida that he has arranged for an uprising and massacre of the French one she marries Henry and the bells ring out their joy. She rejects Henry at the last moment to avoid the bloodshed but Monfont seeing the unhappiness of the son and sensing that Helene also loves the young man orders the marriage to take place and for the bells to commence to ring. The Opera ends suddenly rather than dramatically without the massacre being shown.

The Sicilian Vespers (Italian: Vespri siciliani Sicilian: Vespiri siciliani) is the name given to the successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out on the Easter of 1282 against the rule of the French/Capetian king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks, three thousand French men and women were slain by the rebels and the government of King Charles lost control of the island. It was the beginning of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. The rebellion commenced with the bells sounding for the vespers as the crown turned on the French after a man had been murdered for attempting to protect his wife from sexual advances.

Les Troyens

I found  experiencing the epic Opera Les Troyens by Berlioz on Saturday evening January 5th 2013 exhausting  although with a five o’clock scheduled start I was prepared for a long session. I was not mistaken. As if the cinema management knew  we were to have a long sitting they kept us standing outside until a few minutes before the scheduled beginning of preliminaries. As on my last visit I had booked an aisle seat to one side knowing that I would not have a stranger next to me in what had been a fairly full cinema theatre. In this instance there was a whole row vacant adjacent so I was able to move to the centre  theatre which added to the enjoyment of the experience.

I had no advance knowledge of the story or the music other than knowing of Berlioz from the Symphony Fantastique, a record of which I thought I possessed but did not find so am listening to a performance on You Tube from August of 2011  Society des Concerto du Conservatoire, André Cluytens conducting at a BBC Promenade Concert, Other known pieces are his Romeo and Juliet and Harold en Italie. I also knew he had created an opera on Benvenuto Cellini and La Damnation de Faust which includes an appearance of Helen of Troy.

In the second interval we learn that the male lead Bryan Hymel as Aeneas, the Trojan military leader had appeared in one of the rare production at Convent Garden in June and July of 2013 and that he was only recruited to this production at the last minute after the house tenor Marcello Girordano pulled out of a role which tenors find difficult because of the sustained singing and range required, a fate which fell the great Placido Domingo previously. Hymel had only a two hour rehearsal of his role before the performance just before the New Year and this made his performance even more remarkable.

This was said to only be the second time the Opera has been performed  at Metropolitan because of requirements with a dozen lead singers, a huge chorus of 120 and a full corps des ballet with lead dancers and other extras such as children who play young Trojans.

After reading the available information I find from photos that the Covent Garden production appears better staged and was available to hear live at the time. Even better I have now discovered the full opera is available on Youtube in a production from Paris and as a consequence I abandoned  the intention to go an watch Quartet this afternoon, decided listen and  watch again parts of the whole opera with Quartet rescheduled for next week as long as there are showings during the day. I had also forgotten that I am going see Les Misérables,, the film on Friday morning.

I was late setting off on Saturday and stopped in Shields to collect a second supply of ink cartridges only to find there was only three blacks left so got the rest of the five (one replacement) in colours. I therefore left myself only a few minutes spare  to get some food and the ticket before the scheduled start. I  went straight to the Asda  sandwich deal counter  parking nearby and found among the few items left a smoked salmon and cheese sandwich marked down from £2 to £1. It was delicious although eaten on the hoof as I walked from the supermarket to the cinema and attempted to obtain the ticket from the automated machine only to be told to go to the ticket counter where I discovered the problem was having booked two events at the same time.

My only knowledge of the Opera was from its title The Trojans a subject which  been covered in our popular and high culture in a variety of ways with Troy and Brad Pitt 2004 and Helen of Troy back in 1966 and who will forget Elizabeth Taylor as Helen in the 1967 production of Dr Faustus with Richard Burton, and which they also performed on stage at the Oxford Playhouse. I went in search of the programme but as I did not find I assume I did not see. I did see Marlowe’s Dr Faustus at Stratford Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986and a production of Faust based on Goethe’s version at the Theatre Royal Newcastle.

The story of the Trojan wars has featured in a number of Operas Troilus and Cressida by William Walton and I have seen the William Shakespeare Play performed by the RSC, Sam Mendes, directed at the Theatre Royal with David Troughton as Hector and Ralph Fiennes as Troilus ( Alfred Burke was Nestor). The Belle Heléne by Offenbach, Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, King Priam by Michael Tippet and Achilles by Gay are other operatic versions. There are various poems and plays created by Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and I am sure I have seen RSC little productions of the  Trojan Women and Electra but this  may be false memory. There were three radio plays in 1998 with Paul Scholfield and a TV mini series in 2003.

There was also the extraordinary Tantalus with nine plays  which I saw over three days at the Theatre Royal and where I then acquired the script. (My search also discovered the programme from the Earls Court performance of AIDA sponsored by the Prince’s Trust and where he attended a performance with his then wife, Diana on 28th  June 1988.  Attended on Saturday 2nd July seats R 23 -27 although we quickly moved  to overlook the stage from the side!)

Now to this extraordinary five act Opera Les Troyens. There is no memorable music such as from Aida, Madam Butterfly or Carmen but I am left with a sense of great emotional and at times passionate intensity, and extraordinary chorus work. The five acts into three sessions with the first two acts some 90 mins forming an opera on its own and where the principal singers take their bows.  The first two acts cover the finding of the Trojan horse left by the departing Athenians after the years of siege and the city’s destruction after they misguidedly take into the City. The star of this two act opera is Deborah Voight as Cassandra who forecasts what happens and commits suicide with other Trojan women after  Aeneas has been persuaded  to lead the male army away to fight another day

I had not heard Deborah sing before but knew the name from the publicity over her firing from Covent Garden because of her excessive weight  and her decision to use  surgery to almost half her size. She gives an outstanding performance which was appropriately recognised at the closure of the second Act She has attempted to persuade her father King Priam and her fiancée Coroebus played by another known name Dwaine Croft who has sung some 25 roles at Met and whose brother Robert is the more well known Internationally, not to bring the horse into the city, Both perish as a consequence. The sequence where she persuades other Trojan women not to yield to the Athenians but die with her is most moving. Prior to this Aeneas the warrior is persuaded by the ghost of Hector to flee the city before the Athenians exit the Horse and to found a new Empire of Trojans in Italy.

I stayed for the first part of the interval where Voight is interviewed and then hastily went over to McDonalds to enjoy a 99p chicken burger and £1 20 or thereabouts  good cup of coffee, returning for an interview with the Met‘s new conductor Fabio Luiso. I would not have survived otherwise.

The third and fourth acts combined are even longer  and the Met production last well over an hour and a half with at last half an hour of dancing which for once impressed me greatly although led one member of the audience to comment about padding during the next interval.
The people of Tyre fled to North Africa and the city of Carthage and seven years late under the leadership of the Queen Dido, (played by Susan Graham), still mourning the murder of her husband. Graham also played Dido at the Théátre du Chátelet  in the performance I am listening to at this moment.

The exiles from Tyre have prospered and now two events in quick succession are to significantly change fortunes. Aeneas, his son and his men have sought sanctuary from the storms at the sea the city’s harbour and bring various gifts of treasure to the Queen to beg her indulgence. These she accepts and offers the hospitality of her city and its people. However the good  times are dramatically broken with the news that the Barbarians,  the Numideans have declared war and are approaching the city having destroyed outposts. The city is short of arms  and Aeneas offers his men to fight alongside placing his son in the care of Dido. The son is traditionally played by a young soprano whose name in this instance I am yet to find but who  performance was impressive.

As a consequence of the alliance the enemy is defeated and the ballet is part of the celebrations as well as the couple falling in love and with great on stage passion as clearly Dido has great personal  admiration for the young tenor Bryan Hymel aged 33.  His voice is ideal for a role which as mentioned defeats many established tenors. L learned that Graham and Hymel have sung together before when he was only 24 and they instantly took to each other and this is clear in the performance and after their Act 4 interview. On stage the problem, of their romance is that Dido neglects her leadership which cause her adviser Narbal, played by Kwangchul Youn justified concern at the commencement of Act 4

In the second and shorter interval I slipped out at quickly for an ice cream, a single scup without toppings and cherry based  which was very good although steep at £2,60 and worth about £1 less.

The final Act 5 lasts one hour and I find Aeneas about to make his way to Italy despite his love for Dido because of the appearance of Hector, Priam, Coroebus and Cassandra demanding and urging him to fulfil his destiny. When Dido finds out she curses him wishes his failure and damnation. When his fleet sets off she is so angry and distraught she orders the creation of a pyre of everything which reminds her of him and the Trojans. She prophesises that her fate will be remembered and that a future general Hannibal will destroy Italy and revenge her in so doing. She stabs herself to death with the sword of Aeneas and in that moment has a vision of the destruction of Carthage by Rome. The curse on Aeneas is echoed by all the Carthaginians witnessing the death of their Queen.

An opera to be considered great has to be more than a great spectacle or giving the audience their money’s worth in terms of length and number of principal artists. This not a  great opera which I suspect means it is the main reason why it is not performed more frequently. However there were some I was there great singing by the principals. The experience  will be memorable although I do not anticipate I will  view again or purchase a recording.

This was not so for the modern opera Satyagraha where I  purchased a CD recording. It was shown last night on Sky Arts and I recorded to view at a later date.

AIDA 1989 2009 and 2012

I have experienced the Opera AIDA, live, three times although twice via a cinema relay from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2009 and Saturday 16th December 2012. The other occasion was a large arena production at Earls Court in the 1980’s where we were so far from the stage at the back of the stalls that we quickly moved to the side with a view over looking the huge set from one side.

In 2009 I wrote  that “Yesterday I had one of the great cultural experiences of a lifetime, visually stunning, musical perfection and I still have the tingles from the rich power of the Metropolitan Opera House New York production  of Aida, relayed to the Tyneside Film Theatre in HD.

Then today I bought a subscription to the Library of previous productions, some 200, and watched the original production of Aida in 1989 with Dolora Zajick playing the same role as Princess Amneris as she had two decades later, yesterday.“

Now to these experiences I can add the 2012 production from the Met, viewed at the Cineworld Bolden at half the cost of that charged in Newcastle.

As a young man I had purchased an extended Play 45 record of the Rome Opera Chorus with the Triumphant march from Aida and after the mass audience performance at Earls Court had come to regard the opera as a spectacle with great interaction between powerful singers and a large chorus. It had taken  several decades to appreciate that this is a masterpiece for soloists and primarily a tragic triangle between two women and the man they  love.

This was a point well made by the new conductor at the Met Fabio Luisio in one of several interviews before and during the latest production which had two similar looking women with extraordinarily moving and powerful voices, the worldly experienced Russian Mezzo Soprano, Olga Borodina as the Princess and the mysterious Liudmyla Monastryrska in her debut role  outside the Latvian Opera House in the Ukraine, where she had toiled as a lead for many years unrecognised until now by the rest of the operatic world. Nothing appears to be published about this woman except that she had kept in contact with her singing teacher who was now ninety two. She needed the help of an interpreter for her brief interview..

The Opera is set in ancient Egypt as information reaches the court that the Ethiopians have invaded the country and Radamés, a favoured soldier, is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the army to drive out the enemy. The complication is that he in is love with Aida the Ethiopian slave assistant of the Princess  Amneris, the King’s daughter and heir, while the Princess is in love with him. The Princess urges her father to appoint Radames to defend the nation although she has suspicions that  her slave is also in love with her hero.

In addition to the three live performances I have also been fortunate to view via a Met Internet Subscription the 1989 production when the Princess was also played by Dolora Zajick, American by birth and who came to international attention as a top level performer with this role when in her late thirties and her voice with its power and range had fully developed. Then she also looked the passionate and jealous young woman so that in 2009, approaching her sixtieth year with the operatic frame to match, the first reaction was to be concerned at a portrayal of what is written in the libretto as a young Princes, especially if one did not know that she has sung the role to acclaim in a score of productions and some 250 performances and that it remains as strong and yet beautiful with a remarkable range. Her solo performances are breathtaking and rightly received the greatest applause in both performances experiences and applause which broke out in the cinema which is something I have not previously experienced since my childhood.

For the 2009 production the part of Radamés was played  by Johan Botha, a South African leading tenor who  has the build to match AIDA and Amneris and who then 54 was regarded as one of the great tenors of the present generation. However he cannot be compared with the 1989 production where the part was played by Placido Domingo then 50 and one of the most well known and loved tenor in the world, especially since the death of Pavarotti. Domingo has sung 128 roles, more than any other tenor, and opened the Metropolitan season 21 times, four more than Caruso.  In 1989 Aprile Millo played Aida when she was only 39 and proved she had a voice to match that of Domingo and Krajick and all three had a suburb dramatic presence which is often lacking in the productions which tour provincial theatres. The 2009 performance of Aida was played by Violeta Urmane, Urmanaviciute, a Lithuanian  aged 48.

Because of being the same generation the physical frames of the three singers connected in terms of passion and anguish  with its triangle of affections and conflict over nationality. What both sets of lead singers are able to accomplish is to make their performances so convincing that it should make young people rethink their attitudes to the older generation and their relationships. However having been excited and impressed by the performances of 2009 they were eclipsed by those of 1989 so I went to the Cineworld questioning if I was going to be disappointed.

In the present production the part of Radamés, the appointed army commander, is played by Roberto Alagna a man approaching his sixtieth year but who looks ten years younger with an extremely passionate and tender tenor voice. Used to powerful singers in the title role he was booed by some when he performed the role at La Scala Milan in 2006 and to the horror of the management he walked off the stage not to reappear. After the death of his first wife he married the great soprano Angela Gheorghiu but their relations became stormy to the extent that she refused to perform with him in the 2009 Metropolitan Production of Carmen which I also saw live and in truth felt he had  been miscast. The marriage has continued after separation and contrary to the audience reaction in Rome I thought he brought an important new dimension to the role and one which echoed the approach of the conductor. It has become more an opera of two parts

The second act tends to be that for which the reputation of the opera became established because of its visual spectacle. There is a vast cast of several hundred deployed to great effect. In addition to the Chorus there are about 100 individuals used  to represent the successful army and then the prisoners of War.  There are also dancers and animals in this instance horses specially trained to cope with the loud music, the singing and the marching. The tall, vast and cavernous stage at the Metropolitan is changed several times with scenery, weapons and uniforms which fill 17 pantechnicons. There are 150 stage hands required and the advantage of the relayed Met productions is that cameras show what happens in the two 30  minutes intervals. There are also some 40 to 50 make up artists and dressers also required, plus the stage management team and the full orchestra. Ticket sales account for half the production costs so on going private sponsorship and donations becomes essential as there is no public funding as in the UK.

Back to story and with Radames off to lead the army consecrated by the High Priest Ramfis at the Isis Temple  Aida is torn between anxiety for him and for her father the Ethiopian King, a fact which is unknown to the Egyptians.

In the first part of the second Act the Princess, having grown more suspicious of Aida tests by saying that Radamés has been killed and as a consequence Aida reveals her position, but hides her distress on learning that her people have been  defeated.

There is then the Triumphant March scene famous all over world because of its spectacle  with the climax when the prisoners are brought in and Aida sees her father, the king, in shackles. The Egyptian king offers Radamés anything he wishes so he pleads for the freedom for the slaves who are allowed to return home with the exception of Aida and her father who has said the King had died. The Egyptian King then throws the proverbial spanner in the works by giving Aida to Radamés in marriage, a gift which cannot be refused and which is to the great pleasure of Princess Amneris.

While there are half hour intervals between the first two acts, the changes between the third and fourth acts are made with the audience remaining in their seats. A feature of all Met Relays is that during the relays the lead singers are interviewed, by Renée Fleming, her  a lead soprano at the Opera house, followed by periods of 15 and 20 minutes where the audience can view the scene changers, followed by further interviews, in this instance a look at museum pieces of former productions of AIDA and a look at future productions in this 12 event relay season.

The final two acts are in major contrast to the second, concentrating on the relationship between the trio.  Amneris goes to Temple to pray until dawn and thus is in a position to overhear when Radamés and Aida meet in secret and he is persuaded by her to run away together after she has met up with her father and persuades her to try and find out the battle plans because his countryman have risen up and invaded once more to free their King and his daughter and gain revenge for the defeat and plundering of their country. Radamés, not aware of this aspect suggests they travel in a different  direction from the Egyptian army, unaware what he is doing as a consequence.

As soon as Radamés reveals the route plan, Aida‘s father reveals himself and he and his daughter beg Radamés to flee with them. He is horrified at having unwittingly given away the battle route information and when confronted by Amneris who has summoned the High Priest, he surrenders to their judgement. Their decision is for him to be entombed in the vaults below the temple, and this constitutes the final act after Amneris pleads with him to give up Aida and she will plead with her father to save him.  When he refuses she turns away from him, momentarily.

In the tomb Radamés finds that Aida having learned of the verdict has not accompanied her father and hidden in the tomb to wait for him. She explains that they will face death together in each other’s arms.

Meanwhile above them and unaware that the couple are together, the Princess is beyond consolation for having given Radamés over to the judgement of the Priests. While everything beforehand was outstanding it is the dramatic singing of the last act which for me  has taken operatic singing go a new height. There have been few  cultural experiences of a similar impact in my life, hearing traditional jazz first time in a Soho cellar,  hearing Verdi’s Requiem Mass at a Royal Albert Hall promenade season both when seventeen years old.  There have been other magical moments from the Live Aid Concert, to  the stage musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, to the Bruce Springsteen concerts and to hearing Louis Armstrong playing half a century ago at the Davis Theatre in Croydon. I suspect that it was only from the accumulation of these and more general life experience emotional highs and lows than one can appreciate the magnificence of the voices and their emotional intensity.

“Then to be able to experience the original production using the same set and costumes and libretto added an even greater dimension to the experience. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity and to now be able to experience more,” was how I the writing in 2009.

It is therefore against this benchmark that I most judge the latest production Borodina is good but no one can approach the emotional intensity of Zajick. I will need to experience the performance of the 1989 and 2009 roles of Aida again to compare with that of Liudmyla whose voice I thought matched that of Olga. For my Christmas present to myself  I have purchased the two DVDs which have become available together with the 2008 performance of Madam Butterfly.  Stefan Kocán was the priest, George Gagnidze played father and Miklos  Sebestyén the King.

It is because of the use of the camera close up that one is able to judge the emotional expressions which adds to the appreciation of singing where the exceptional artists are able to communicate emotional intensity through the voice as well as their technical abilities. Not therefore as good of  the performances of 1998 and 2009 but a very good experience.

Rigoletto

It is also time to write of my experience of watching a live relay at the Bolden Cineworld of Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto from the Royal Opera House, London, and the 497th performance on Tuesday 12 April 2012 at 7.15. I was unfamiliar with the story or the production in the packed theatre although I overheard a conversation warning that it was raunchy.

In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.

The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with  loose women who  are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.

The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church.  The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court.  Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.

From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood.  Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto.  Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in  the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.

In the one scene second Act Rigoletto returns to the Palace believing it is the Duke who the most likely to have taken his daughter. In fact it is the Duke who learning what his courtiers have done rescues her and then declares his interest without disclosing his position. The courtiers make fun of Rigoletto for having made fun of then and when he explains about the loss of his daughter instead of owning up they beat him up but he manages to finds his distressed daughter who tells him to send everyone else away. Rigoletto convinced the Duke is behind the kidnapping talks of revenge but the girl pleads for the young man with whom she has become infatuated. As with Miranda in the Tempest both women have been kept away from young men and fall for the first male to show an interest.

In the third Act the Duke visits the Inn run by the assassin and his sister and he sings the famous aria La donna é mobile -women re fickle. He is heard by Gilda and her father who are passing by and she then witnesses him attempting to seduce the willing sister. The Duke has previously expressed genuine interest and loving concern for Gilda and a willingness to mend his ways at the commencement of the second Act but the availability of the woman is too much for him and he reverts to his natural ways.

Rigoletto bargains with the Assassin to kill the Duke who because of a storm  spends the night at the Inn.  Rigoletto persuades his daughter to leave the city, disguised wearing the clothes of a man. The sister has genuine affection for the Duke and on learning that her brother has been paid to kill him pleads with him not to do so but kill the first person available. Gilda overhears the plot and despite knowing the behaviour of the Duke sets out to save him by dressed as a man calling on the Inn.

Rigoletto returns to the Inn at midnight to remove the killed man in a sack to be dumped in the river. He has to see the body for his revenge to be complete and only then sees the body of his beloved daughter. He remembers the curse and collapses. Given that I was unaware of the story the ending is something of a shock although the emotions aroused are very different from those in the opening scene.

The opera is a tour de force for Dimitri Platinias as Rigoletto who made his name when playing the role with the Greek National Opera and this is his Convent Garden debut. I thought his performance outstanding. The Duke is played by the Italian Vittorio Griglo who once appeared in a version of West Side Story with James Goldofini before turning to Opera He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in  Faust as the lead. Gilda is played by Ekaterina Siurina having previously performed the role in a production at the Metropolitan.

Rigoletto

It is also time to write of my experience of watching a live relay at the Bolden Cineworld of Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto from the Royal Opera House, London, and the 497th performance on Tuesday 12 April 2012 at 7.15. I was unfamiliar with the story or the production in the packed theatre although I overheard a conversation warning that it was raunchy.

In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.

The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with  loose women who  are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.

The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church.  The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court.  Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.
From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood.  Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto.  Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in  the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.

In the one scene second Act Rigoletto returns to the Palace believing it is the Duke who the most likely to have taken his daughter. In fact it is the Duke who learning what his courtiers have done rescues her and then declares his interest without disclosing his position. The courtiers make fun of Rigoletto for having made fun of then and when he explains about the loss of his daughter instead of owning up they beat him up but he manages to finds his distressed daughter who tells him to send everyone else away. Rigoletto convinced the Duke is behind the kidnapping talks of revenge but the girl pleads for the young man with whom she has become infatuated. As with Miranda in the Tempest both women have been kept away from young men and fall for the first male to show an interest.

In the third Act the Duke visits the Inn run by the assassin and his sister and he sings the famous aria La donna é mobile -women re fickle. He is heard by Gilda and her father who are passing by and she then witnesses him attempting to seduce the willing sister. The Duke has previously expressed genuine interest and loving concern for Gilda and a willingness to mend his ways at the commencement of the second Act but the availability of the woman is too much for him and he reverts to his natural ways.

Rigoletto bargains with the Assassin to kill the Duke who because of a storm  spends the night at the Inn.  Rigoletto persuades his daughter to leave the city, disguised wearing the clothes of a man. The sister has genuine affection for the Duke and on learning that her brother has been paid to kill him pleads with him not to do so but kill the first person available. Gilda overhears the plot and despite knowing the behaviour of the Duke sets out to save him by dressed as a man calling on the Inn.

Rigoletto returns to the Inn at midnight to remove the killed man in a sack to be dumped in the river. He has to see the body for his revenge to be complete and only then sees the body of his beloved daughter. He remembers the curse and collapses. Given that I was unaware of the story the ending is something of a shock although the emotions aroused are very different from those in the opening scene.

The opera is a tour de force for Dimitri Platinias as Rigoletto who made his name when playing the role with the Greek National Opera and this is his Convent Garden debut. I thought his performance outstanding. The Duke is played by the Italian Vittorio Griglo who once appeared in a version of West Side Story with James Goldofini before turning to Opera He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in  Faust as the lead. Gilda is played by Ekaterina Siurina having previously performed the role in a production at the Metropolitan.

Madam Butterfly in 3D and Miss Saigon soundtrack

The highlight of my 73rd birthday weekend was a 3D performance of Madame Butterfly with the Canadian Chinese Zhang Liping as Madam Butterfly and the experience was then followed by listening to the soundtrack of the stage musical Miss Saigon which is based on the Madam Butterfly story and where I have seen the stage show four times such was my enthusiasm for it.

It was a glorious sunny and warm day as I set off to go through the Tyne tunnel and indeed not a day for the inside of anywhere. I set off down the hill and was astonished to find that Ocean Road, the main thoroughfare between the town centre, passing the row of over a bed and breakfast hotels on one side and a similar number and more of restaurants on the other was blocked off.

On Monday morning because of a forecast of another good weather day I walked down and alongside the park before turning into ocean Road from the park end I discovered the cause of the blocking. The former public house and over recent year’s nightclub bar has almost been demolished. The closure of the building was no surprise as a number of other similar establishments have also been closed with one presently being turned into offices although even this work appears to have come to a halt. The demolition of the building is a surprise.

As I rounded the corner on my way to the Health centre for a blood test I was not surprised to see the John Wright centre boarded up. It was one of the first multi use centres for those with disabilities and in my time a chapel and a bar lounge had been added although its use was reduced with the creation of a modern work centre for those with a learning disability and the of visual disability creating their own centre. Given that in my time a purpose built centre embracing people with disabilities and the able bodied had been created in Jarrow and then in the late 1980’s a state of the art centre for multi disability use and for the elders was purpose built in Hebburn the financial justification for the three centres disappeared long ago if it ever existed. That they did reflect the finest aspect of a people based local democracy.

The exploration of what was going on meant I arrived later than intended at the Health centre and found 12 others before me although by the time the second block of ten people were called into the waiting area for the tests the 29th individual had been reached. However even with only two chairs the process was speedy and I was out within half an hour of arriving with time to head for a bacon roll and coffee at the Wetherspoons’ and an excellent coffee it was and then some shopping at the supermarket.

On Sunday I used my new Tyne Tunnel electronic payment disk for the first time. This is a solid plastic disk which fits to the windscreen with a sucker and which registers at the any of the barriers as having paid £1.24 instead of the cash charge of £1.40. One adds amounts in minimum of £15 which provides 6 return journeys about my average need for a year giving and overall saving of only £2 but more significant if not having to find the small change and a faster passage especially now that queuing has been eliminated with the opening of both tunnels. The tag costs £11.40 to provide and is made in China, where else?

I have re-examined my previous reporting on Madam Butterfly where I first saw a relay also on a birthday three years ago. That was a live relay from the Metropolitan New York and then I watched again on Internet connected TV. The 3D version is a filmed event specially constructed to give the impression of a performance before a live audience but where the need for close ups and on stage movement makes filming with the special cameras impossible with an audience although the audience reaction is added at the end.

There is only a limited build up this time and at one level nothing of the audience excitement before the raising of the curtain. Similarly there were no intervals with only a brief pause between the three acts so the performance lasts two hours instead of the usual two and three quarters although traditionally the opera is performed with only one interval. However this had the impact of increasing the emotional tension and sense of dooms despite everyone being familiar with the story as few in the well filled cinema theatre were under fifty. For some reason there was no lighting which made locating seats a problem as a consequence.

The two productions are significantly different with the Minghella production creating a vivid visual presentation which included the use of puppets and dancers as well as a fair size chorus of wedding guests of relatives and Geisha girl friends. His widow attended the New York Metropolitan Performance.

All the action in the Covent Garden production takes place within the confines of the minimalist rented home with the no furniture apart from mats for sitting or sleeping, storage facility under the stage and the occasional use of a small table.

One could argue that this is the one Opera where 3D has nothing to offer although I thought the impact of the additional dimension is that that one has a greater sense of the dramatic and of being on stage rather than as a member of an audience. This is also true for the 3D Carmen production but where the action enables great camera and visual creativity.

It is important not to forget that is the story of an innocent 15 year old Geisha trained Japanese girl Cio Cio San and a mature Naval Officer who these days would be accurately described a paedophile sex tourist and whose conduct is far more reprehensible that of the innocent GI in Miss Saigon when the new bar girl is bought for him by his best friend.

Butterfly was played Patricia Racette in the New York Production, a bulky opera singer but who nevertheless acted with the innocence of an adolescent, a waiting lover and a young mother prepared to sacrifice herself for her child. Zhang Liping is now in in her early forties having played the role to great acclaim in her early thirties and like Racette has the remarkable ability to act with the mannerisms of a young girl, but nevertheless is aware she is far from the child bride to which Pinkerton is drawn.

There was an important difference in the performances of Marcello Giordino as Pinkerton and that now of James Valenti. Giordino is also a bulky opera star which made the relationship in the Met production somehow more plausible if one forgets the difference in ages. Valenti is strikingly tall and very much the educated and sophisticated naval officer. My only problem was the lack of a connection between him and Butterfly You did get the impression that he felt passion for his bride although he is convincing about his guilt and remorse later.

In the opening of the Opera Captain Pinkerton makes it plain that he considers this to be a fake marriage, an experience before he settles down with a wife family in the USA. The girl is sold to him by an unscrupulous marriage broker who is not different from the Bar owner in Miss Saigon, finding virgin in the countryside who will become his premium Miss Saigon bride for the endless stream of lecherous GI’s. Moreover Pinkerton is warned by the Consul that the girl is taking the relationship seriously especially when she is denounced by an elder and who insists she is cut off from all her relations. This makes Pinkerton a dislikeable man from the outset. He is in a rush to complete the formalities and aghast when the relatives arrive and cannot get rid of them quick enough. Although 15 his bride has been trained as a Geisha with appropriate social graces and a personal maid and companion Susuki and while the performance of Helen Schneiderman is world class it cannot compare with that of Maria Zajick, the extraordinary Mezzo Soprano whose signature role are those in Aida but also of Susuki.

The first Act comprises the arrival of Pinkerton at the rented House on a hill overlooking the Nagasaki Harbour; I have always felt there is great irony here with the two rapes of the population of this once fair city. Pinkerton is brought by the marriage broker played by Robin Leggate and the US Consul to ensure the proprieties are maintained and who is troubled by the proposed marriage because he understands the different cultural perspectives.

Unlike the majority of the girls who understand the impact of being a Geisha on the rest of their lives, Suzuki comes from a wealthy family of standing who have fallen on hard time, and waiting in the wings is a young Japanese warrior of good birth wanting to marry her. In this production he is played as an older business man seeking a young attractive mistress no different from Pinkerton.

In Miss Saigon the girl is also from a village whose family fall on hard times with the death of her father. She was promised by to a young Communist warrior who wants her as a proper bride and not as a concubine. They are to take different paths in Opera and Musical.



The American Consul, the marriage broker and Pinkerton are all aware that the wedding ceremony is a façade to enable him to enjoy the experience of the young woman while he is in port, and that whatever he says or promises he has no intention of returning or establishing a permanent relationship. He admits his love em and leave them, a girl in every port, approach, the Consul who warns, from his knowledge of the girl that she is likely to put all her trust in him and take the marriage seriously. Pinkerton notes that the contract can be terminated by him at any time without notice or penalty. It is important to appreciate the cultural and language divide between the two, and the role of the Geisha in Japanese society at that time. This is the tragedy of the opera story.

The situation in Saigon is very different and apart from the exotic location there are have always been bars and bar girls as well as brothels catering for the soldier as there are now for the sex tourist. The soldier here is just as inexperienced of life as his paid bride for the night and for him this one night becomes just an important as he is to her. This is the difference between an experience based on infatuation rather than lust. Pinkerton says all the right words but we know from the outset he does not mean them.

A major in ingredient to the first act is that Madam Butterfly as she has become is that in order to adapt and fit into her husband’s life she has gone to the local mission to become a Christian thus alienating herself for her uncle, the Bonze (Buddhist Monk) who is also one of her uncles and from her other relatives. It is this aspect of the relationship with horrifies her family and alienates her from them not the likely temporary nature of the relationship. It is the way of things just as street children have become the way of things in Indian cities.

Suzuki quickly becomes her confident, mother figure and ally. Cio Cio San has had some education and on being told that she is as beautiful as a butterfly by Pinkerton she responds from knowledge that some men in the West collect Butterflies destroy Butterflies to which Pinkerton explains that they do pin them so as to stop them flying away.

Minghella divided the second act into two parts, which the usual way the Opera is presented in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. In the first part of the second act three years have passed and Butterfly has remained constant in love and expectation that what he said about returning was truthful and she spends time taking note of the arrivals in the port from her vantage point in the hillside. Suzuki is loyal but sceptical and tries to help her to be more realistic especially as their money begins to run out. The marriage broker brings the young warrior who wants to marry her despite the relationship she has had with the American. She sends them both away. In the Convent Garden production he brings the business man who makes it plain she is to be his concubine and she sends him away clinging to her belief in Pinkerton and that the USA and not Japan is her country.

It is in this middle part of story that the musical Miss Saigon significantly changes. The young man is besotted with the girl and with the help of his friend and with his savings goes to live with her effectively deserting marrying and with the intention that she will become his lifelong woman. It is only because of the impending fall of Saigon and the sudden departure of the Americans that their relationship ends. He has to take one of the last helicopters out of the city while she is among the hundreds left behind to their fate.

Before this the man with whom she was betrothed as a child arrives and is horrified to find out what has happened but his feelings for her remain and he warns both about their fate. The bar owner in Saigon is also on his way out to the closest place where he can continue to trade. Both young women are abandoned but for very different reasons and both wait. It is in Madam Butterfly that she sings one of the great and much loved Operatic Arias of all time One Fine day “Un Bel di”. There is a similar musical number in Miss Saigon although of very different quality but is nevertheless as haunting.

There is also the visit of Warrior in Miss Saigon. This is one of the colourful and subsequently moving moments in the stage show. He comes to take her full of the triumph of the Communist success in driving out the invaders from his country is then is horrified to find that she has a blue eyed son, her pride and her joy and her reason for surviving. He had come to take her and not the child. Her solution is to kill the man with the revolver given to her by her husband before he was forced to leave.

The same scene is played differently in Madam Butterfly with the Consul coming to say he has had a letter in which Pinkerton is explaining his intention not to return but she misinterprets every word which the Consul tries to explain to her and he cannot bear to tell her the truth. When she produces her son all he can do is to leave and report the position to Pinkerton. The child is blue eye and fair haired and adorable. He is destined to break many female hearts on stage, in film and in life in the future.

Pinkerton’s ship arrives and the two women prepare for his visit. Susuki who had her doubts and expresses concern over their rapidly diminishing funds and favoured the match with the businessman as a solution is caught up in the excitement and goes to collect flowers from thee garden to cover the inside of their home. She, Butterfly and child sit waiting expectant for hour upon hour and throughout the night. There is the famous humming chorus and her aria of belief and hope, with similar number in Miss Saigon

In the stage show the war has ended and the Bar owner has discovered the girl and her son and sees this as his ticket to the USA. It he is who alerts the friend of the husband who is visiting to help the children of G’I left behind with an important political song about their fate. It is he who in turn informs his married friend and who in turn admits the relationship to his wife of three years and to whom he has said nothing of his affair and local marriage. There is an important exchange between husband and wife in Miss Saigon that we would expect in the 20th century. It is the expectations of the bar owner which takes the musical into the number The American dream symbolised by a Cadillac is brought on stage.

Butterfly, exhausted goes to bed with her son and Pinkerton the Consul with Pinkerton’s wife waiting outside arrive early to talk to the maid and asking her to break the news to Butterfly and that he has come her son. Although devastated and heartbroken for her mistress Suzuki agrees. Pinkerton is consumed with guilt at what he has done and cannot cope with the reality of the situation and goes off leaving his wife and the Consul talking with Suzuki but before they can leave Butterfly arrives and immediately senses correctly what is going on. She agrees to hand over the child on condition that Pinkerton comes in person for him. As he approaches she commit suicide using the knife which her father used, “to die with honour.”

This is where the Opera when brilliantly sung and acted can devastate an audience no matter how many times they have seen the show and know the story. In its own way Miss Saigon also has a similar impact because the audience has been caught up with the beautiful music and glittering sets and there is horror and universal guilt at the death of the young woman sacrificing herself so that her child will be taken to the USA and have the kind of life she once dreamed for herself.

In many respects it was not the kind of experience for a celebration weekend and affected me as I emerged into the evening sunshine. It was spring but I saw the winter of my life.