Terry Gilliam & ENO's 'Benvenuto Cellini'

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

After telling you I was going to the opening night, it was remiss not to post a link to my review: http://bachtrack.com/review-cellini-...-eno-june-2014 - a fabulously entertaining evening.

Since it is being recorded 'live' on the 17th for cinema viewing, hopefully there will eventually be a DVD. In the mean time I will try and stay alert for any decent low price ticket offers. I found it pretty dramatic when Colin Davis conducted it, a concert performance in English, at the Proms in 1972.

Try the TKTS booth at Leicester Square, Bryn. Friends picked up Stalls seats for just £30 yesterday.

[french frank]

After telling you I was going to the opening night, it was remiss not to post a link to my review: http://bachtrack.com/review-cellini-...-eno-june-2014 - a fabulously entertaining evening.

Gosh, IGI - you enjoyed it, didn't you? :-)Lovely, enthusiastic review. Makes one glimpse what Regietheater can be about (but often isn't).

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Gosh, IGI - you enjoyed it, didn't you? :-)Lovely, enthusiastic review. Makes one glimpse what Regietheater can be about (but often isn't).

It's great entertainment - and 'entertainment' can often been seen as a dirty word in opera circles - and among the very best things I've seen ENO put on. I'd urge readers to go, or at least to catch the cinema screening later this month. Michael Spyres is an incredible talent - as those who saw him in La donna del lago at the ROH last year will testify - and Corinne Winters is a delightful, committed performer. Teresa doesn't give her the same opportunities as Violetta, of course, but she shows her versatility here very well.

[aeolium]

I saw the cinema broadcast yesterday evening and fully agree with the praise which others have lavished on this production. I admit the flaws in the opera which zola has mentioned, but the music is so thrilling, full of such diverse character with comedy, grotesquerie, carnival, great choral set pieces and wonderful orchestral colour that it demands a production of comparable imagination and it has it in Gilliam's creation. For me the two set pieces at the end of each act stood out, the carnival scene with the attempted elopement of Teresa and Cellini ending with the death of Pompeo, and the casting of the statue. Michael Spyres was superb both in character and in his singing, and Corinne Winters and Willard White were also impressive. I think Berlioz most came into his own in this work in the crowd scenes and in those passages in which there was interplay between multiple characters; to me, he's less successful as a composer of arias. Berlioz wrote about his score fourteen years later when compiling his memoirs: "I cannot help recognizing that it contains a variety of ideas, an energy and exuberance and a brilliance of colour such as I may perhaps never find again, and which deserved a better fate." Edward Gardner, the ENO orchestra and the cast did it great justice, making this a performance to remember.

Some ENO bigwig was recently critical about bringing ENO to a wider audience via the cinema broadcasts, but I cannot think of a better answer to such criticism than the broadcast of this production, which enabled those far from the metropolis to enjoy great music and, as IGI rightly calls it, "a fabulously entertaining evening".

[Bryn]

Oh isn't the online blurb put out by the BBC so well proofed?!

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b045xc52

"Benvenuto Cellini broadcast in Opera on 3 on Monday 29th June at 6.45pm"

That's rather a long time to wait. Just over a year, indeed.

[David-G]

Oh dear!

[bluestateprommer]

If anyone wants another chance to catch the Terry Gilliam take on Benvenuto Cellini in person, you can do so in May 2015, if you're willing to cross the Channel to Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, for the staging by De Nationale Opera (formerly De Nederlandse Opera), one of the 3 companies co-producing this extravaganza:

http://operaballet.nl/nl/opera/2014-2015/voorstelling/benvenuto-cellini

For amusement and comparison, just one cast member will remain from ENO over to DNO, Nicky Spence as Francesco. Otherwise:

"Team, Cast en Koor

Muzikale leiding : Sir Mark Elder
Regie: Terry Gilliam
Coregie en choreografie: Leah Hausman
Decor: Rae Smith
Kostuums: Katrina Lindsay
Licht: Paule Constable
Video: Finn Ross

Koor: Koor van De Nationale Opera

Benvenuto Celllini: John Osborn
Giacomo Balducci: Maurizio Muraro
Fieramosca: Laurent Naouri
Le Pape Clement VII: Orlin Anastassov
Francesco: Nicky Spence
Pompeo: André Morsch
Le Cabaretier: Marcel Beekman
Teresa: Patricia Petibon
Ascanio: Michèle Losier

Orkest: Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest"

Having given the ENO production a listen on iPlayer, at the risk of several bad and totally unintentional puns, it sounds as though everyone at ENO is having a blast with this production, evidently once everyone got over opening night jitters and the pre-opening night craziness that Terry Gilliam covered in his Guardian diary (and I'm sure we don't know the half of it). I heartily reiterate the praise for Corinne Winters as Teresa and Michael Spyres especially as Cellini, the latter particularly given how demanding vocally the part is at times. Nice to know that Opera Team USA is well represented in the lead roles ;) . Unfortunately, the slight underpowering early on for Balducci (I think) at moments wasn't completely corrected in the broadcast, but fortunately that didn't last too long. The chorus sounded as though they were having fun as well, and the orchestra were definitely on fire for Edward Gardner, with relaxation when needed. It's almost a sad parallel for this opera, in advance, of the recent Arts Council news (and I certainly do not claim to understand all the funding subtleties, machinations and cuts there), where you can almost imagine everyone at ENO saying "well, if we're going to go down, at least we can go down fighting". It was heartwarming to hear the huge applause from the Coliseum crowd just before the start of Act II for the orchestra, and also at the end.

I saw the Metropolitan Opera Benvenuto Cellini about 10 years ago, and it was OTT in its way, including the totally unnecessary inclusion of an actor dressed and coiffed as Hector Berlioz, walking the stage, and even being suspended on a high wire at the very end. Gilliam's production sounds very much in that spirit, but fortunately without at least that superfluity. Obviously all the visual jokes and spectacle are completely lost on iPlayer, but from the general reaction, it does sound like an artistic success overall for ENO. Would have been nice had it sold out, or something like 90+% of the seats. (Maybe perhaps that might be why Gardner is leaving, i.e. he might have seen the writing on the wall regarding funding.)

While there's still time (a few more days at the time of this edit), I definitely recommend giving ENO's Benvenuto Cellini a listen from iPlayer.