The Rinse Cycle - Unexpected Opera

[ardcarp]

http://www.unexpectedopera.co.uk/events/the-rinse-cycle/

Some of the cast were live on In Tune today. The show 'gets through' The Ring with 'some of the best tunes' plus a spoken comedic element in 2 hours. Rather hairy for the pianist, I think........

[Nick Armstrong]

http://www.unexpectedopera.co.uk/eve...e-rinse-cycle/

Some of the cast were live on In Tune today. The show 'gets through' The Ring with 'some of the best tunes' plus a spoken comedic element in 2 hours. Rather hairy for the pianist, I think........

I was listening but pulled the earphones from my ears after the enthusiastic American woman said that the "comedic element" consisted of blending the Ring cycle with "Allo Allo"... followed by a different and younger woman speaking at the shrill and annoying end of the Welsh accent spectrum.

Sounded like a nightmare to me.

[ardcarp]

Maybe not your cup of tea or mine, but if it draws Joe Public in to hear a bit of something they wouldn't otherwise hear, why not? (God, I'm a patronising git.....)

[Old Grumpy]

Maybe not your cup of tea or mine, but if it draws Joe Public in to hear a bit of something they wouldn't otherwise hear, why not?

Must admit my reaction to the In Tune piece was similar to Caliban's #2 above - and I don't particularly like opera!

(God, I'm a patronising git.....)

Welcome to the Radio 3 listeners' club (TFIC)

OG

[Nick Armstrong]

why not?

Perhaps because if it's total and utter ****, it shouldn't be used to delude the unwary....

However, I say "if" very clearly - it may well just be my aversion to "Allo Allo" and a certain kind of Welsh accent that's in play here!!

My nightmare could indeed be others' dream introduction to real Wagner. I somehow doubt it, but it could be...

[french frank]

Not having even the faintest inkling of what it was, what it sounded like &c (and not really being drawn to listen), it sort of sounds a bit like what I think of as a bit like the exploitation of classical music/opera: a new idea to attract a bigger audience - which is what I felt about 'Classical Star' and 'Maestro' on television: a group of BBC execs getting together to look for a fresh angle on the reality show. Hey! how about … classical music? Stunned silence …

But I wouldn't press the idea - just a thort

[ardcarp]

I have a dark secret. By the age of 10, I was a closet Wagner fan; solely because among my parents' stack of shellac records were the Overtures to Die Meistersinger and Tannhauser. (IIRC you had to turn one of them over halfway.) I pretty much wore them out and myself too, flailing arms around 'conducting'. Needless to say I knew nothing about The Wagner Thing, not even later when I spent my pocket money on a vinyl Prelude to Tristan...B-side, the Leibestod.

I guess the Rinse Cycle will fall short by not having a Wagner-sized orchestra in the pit. As it's reminiscence time, the first Wagner Opera I saw live was Die Meistersinger, or should I say The Mastersingers as it was done at Sadlers Wells in English. The night I attended, Hans Sachs (the English one) was indisposed and they had flown in a genuine Hans Sachs who sang his part in German. Strangely, it made no difference whatever to grasping the plot!

I seem to have strayed from the point which is, does it matter how you come to Wagner? And if you end up liking neither the man, the music nor the myth, does that matter if you had an amusing night out?

[Bert Coules]

Well, I saw this the other night and very enjoyable it was too. It's about a small group of people who work at a patisserie (Patisserie Valkyrie, which is in itself quite clever if you're a cake-loving Londoner) deciding, for reasons unknown, to entertain their patrons by giving an illustrated guide to the Ring. The title comes from a slight misunderstanding on the part of their set designer, who starts the evening very proud that he's been able to obtain three industrial-size washing machines, rapidly becomes somewhat disillusioned, and then rallies as his machines prove to be invaluable, supplying as they do everything from the swirling waters of the Rhine to the magic fire, with Fafner's mouth and Siegfried's forge in between.

The private lives and relationships of the patisserie performers rather cleverly parallel those of the characters they play, and fictional fact and mythical fiction collide and interact to lovely - and sometimes very funny - effect. The 'Allo 'Allo connection is so minimal as to have passed me by completely until I heard the R3 feature.

A cast of five play the performers who in turn play most of the leading roles in the cycle. The MD plays the piano and helps out on a couple of occasions when an extra (non-singing) male role has to be filled. The musical extracts (in Andrew Porter's English and some of them quite long) are interspersed with byplay, commentary and questions ("But when do we get to the Hobbits?") from the stereotypically dim (but nice) posh member of the cast who also happens to be the only tenor.

There are two complete casts who alternate. In the cast I saw, standards were high and in some cases very high, with standout performances from Simon Thorpe (Ronnie/Wotan/Hunding/Hagen/etc, including a non-singing Mime) and Mari Wyn Williams (Hilda/Brünnhilde/various others). Thorpe has sung Telramund and Kothner (and Scarpia and Escamillo) with Welsh National Opera.

All in all a splendid evening. It plays at the Charing Cross Theatre until 12th March and I recommend it highly for Wagnerians who aren't too serious about things (are there any of that breed here, though?) and who don't mind joining in the encore: a highly spirited massed singalong of the Ride of the Valkyries.

Bert

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, I saw this the other night and very enjoyable it was too.

Interesting review, Bert!

Where did the 'Allo 'Allo stuff fit in, which was featured heavily in the In Tune trail for this last month?

Patisserie Valkyrie, which is in itself quite clever

Not bad....

[Bert Coules]

What 'Allo 'Allo references there were completely passed me by. I was really surprised when they were emphasised so much on the In Tune feature (which I only discovered after I'd seen the show).

Bert

[Flosshilde]

They were on the Radio 4 morning news (I can never remember the title) last week I think. It sounded amusing & entertaining. One of the cast said the idea came when she saw a (New Yorker?) cartoon of a man in a laundromat, saying (something like) 'This is taking ages, I should never have put it on the Ring Cycle', which made me laugh, as did the Patisserie Valkyrie. (Does anyone else share my dismay at the levels Pat Val has sunk to, after it being such a staple of my life in London in the 1980s?)

[Bert Coules]

I have fond student-days memories of what I always thought was the only Patisserie Valerie, the one in Old Compton Street. It was small, cramped and dingy but that just added to the atmosphere and the enjoyment. Now they've become a corporate-style chain and a little of the magic has gone - but the cakes are still good...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Does anyone else share my dismay at the levels Pat Val has sunk to, after it being such a staple of my life in London in the 1980s?)

Yes - a friend of mine often says the quality has gone down since the emergence of the "chains" Bert refers to. (I've never been in one, so I couldn't comment.)

[teamsaint]

Yes - a friend of mine often says the quality has gone down since the emergence of the "chains" Bert refers to. (I've never been in one, so I couldn't comment.)

Never been in one before about six months ago, but they serve your coffee at your table.


Which is nice.


My Expense account () doesn't stretch to cakes though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Never been in one before about six months ago, but they serve your coffee at your table.


Which is nice.

Yes - he says that there's Waiter-ing Staff.