The second show of this production (opening night was on Thursday) conducted by Christophe ALTSTAEDT and directed by Edward DICK, both making their Opera North debuts. It was lovely, and the Music has been buzzing around my head all day today - as has the staging, for different reasons. Updated to a modern setting, the "children" making great play with video cameras - as kids do. This created some magical stage effects - the entrance into the forest was breath-taking: the kids were playing, and then suddenly, it was real, and dark, and spooky; and the Witch's house was also very cleverly done. And the backscreen video film in the Dream Pantomime was beautiful - the kids were dreaming of a holiday they'd taken at the seaside with their grandma some years before; and the landlady of the guest house they stayed in "turned into" the Dew Fairy at the beginning of the next scene (the Sandman had presented them with the enormous Teddy Bear that they won in the fairground to help them sleep just before the Pantomime sequence).
But there were also flaws in the presentation, too. The "rough estate" setting didn't exactly correspond to the (English translation) dialogue, nor what the kids did for play (and the "We don't have enough money for any food" didn't convince when the kids are filming the mother on their videocam). And, whilst it was clear that, in this production, the kids don't go out into the forest when their mother sends them out, but instead hide in their home out of their parents' view. OK - but then in Act Two, they are in the forest (I think - unless they have berry-growing bushes and pine trees in the house!) - and then the final scene was back in the house ... but with Christmas decorations that have appeared whilst the parents were searching for them - and with ten strange kids suddenly appearing in the house, to nobody's evident surprise (I mean - even the Dearlys in 101 Dalmations looked a little bit surprised at the end of the film). These anomolies, together with the brilliant moments have kept recurring to me all day.
The real flaw was the very poor quality of singing. Fflur Wynn (ON's superb Sophie in Rosenkavalier) was tremendous as Gretel, by far the most beautiful singing of the night; Katie Bray was good as Hansel, if not in the same league; Stephen Gadd struggled as the Father - played as a weak, drunkard, the voice had none of the rich, resonant nobility of usual portrayals, and the very end of the opera in particular suffered from his reedy sounds as a result. I found Sarah Bullock's voice singularly unpleasant; acidic, wobbly and screechy (she played both the Mother and the Witch - a great pity; her acting skills were brilliant in both roles) and similar qualities I found in Rachel J Mosley's Sandman and Amy Freston's Dew Fairy. The kids' chorus was OK, but there were only ten of them, so much of what they sang got lost. (I have to say that a friend that I went with - who didn't know the work at all before last night, wasn't at all disturbed by the singing. "That's Opera, isn't it?"!)
So, once again, the star accolades to the Orchestra - impeccable balance, sonority, and intonation throughout, continually reminding me what a marvellous score this is; rich in tiny details of instrumentation which the soloists in the band played to perfection. Splendid conducting from Mr Altstaedt, too - the work can make a great impact if the conductor just keeps out of the way; but with the judicious timing and detailing that a good conductor like Altstaedt can coax from his willing players, its standing as a great opera is never for a second in doubt.
Excellent programme book, too - with a contribution by Andrew Mellor, who greets the birds and trees with greater self-control than he did on the Tapiola BaL. Almost a full house, too - with lots of children around, who behaved absolutely impeccably. I gathered that ON has been around various local Primary Schools, so the prospect of adults singing like that none-stop for two hours came as less of a shock to them than it seemed to to some of the parents. (One or two adults also looked as if they'd been overdoing the gingerbread, too - not least the chap with the VERY noisey bag of Malteesers contributing to the percussion section throughout the Overture
I really do think that kids ought to keep a firmer grip on the behaviour of their parents these days.)
But there were also flaws in the presentation, too. The "rough estate" setting didn't exactly correspond to the (English translation) dialogue, nor what the kids did for play (and the "We don't have enough money for any food" didn't convince when the kids are filming the mother on their videocam). And, whilst it was clear that, in this production, the kids don't go out into the forest when their mother sends them out, but instead hide in their home out of their parents' view. OK - but then in Act Two, they are in the forest (I think - unless they have berry-growing bushes and pine trees in the house!) - and then the final scene was back in the house ... but with Christmas decorations that have appeared whilst the parents were searching for them - and with ten strange kids suddenly appearing in the house, to nobody's evident surprise (I mean - even the Dearlys in 101 Dalmations looked a little bit surprised at the end of the film). These anomolies, together with the brilliant moments have kept recurring to me all day.
The real flaw was the very poor quality of singing. Fflur Wynn (ON's superb Sophie in Rosenkavalier) was tremendous as Gretel, by far the most beautiful singing of the night; Katie Bray was good as Hansel, if not in the same league; Stephen Gadd struggled as the Father - played as a weak, drunkard, the voice had none of the rich, resonant nobility of usual portrayals, and the very end of the opera in particular suffered from his reedy sounds as a result. I found Sarah Bullock's voice singularly unpleasant; acidic, wobbly and screechy (she played both the Mother and the Witch - a great pity; her acting skills were brilliant in both roles) and similar qualities I found in Rachel J Mosley's Sandman and Amy Freston's Dew Fairy. The kids' chorus was OK, but there were only ten of them, so much of what they sang got lost. (I have to say that a friend that I went with - who didn't know the work at all before last night, wasn't at all disturbed by the singing. "That's Opera, isn't it?"!)
So, once again, the star accolades to the Orchestra - impeccable balance, sonority, and intonation throughout, continually reminding me what a marvellous score this is; rich in tiny details of instrumentation which the soloists in the band played to perfection. Splendid conducting from Mr Altstaedt, too - the work can make a great impact if the conductor just keeps out of the way; but with the judicious timing and detailing that a good conductor like Altstaedt can coax from his willing players, its standing as a great opera is never for a second in doubt.
Excellent programme book, too - with a contribution by Andrew Mellor, who greets the birds and trees with greater self-control than he did on the Tapiola BaL. Almost a full house, too - with lots of children around, who behaved absolutely impeccably. I gathered that ON has been around various local Primary Schools, so the prospect of adults singing like that none-stop for two hours came as less of a shock to them than it seemed to to some of the parents. (One or two adults also looked as if they'd been overdoing the gingerbread, too - not least the chap with the VERY noisey bag of Malteesers contributing to the percussion section throughout the Overture
I really do think that kids ought to keep a firmer grip on the behaviour of their parents these days.)
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