Opera in the Royal Albert Hall

[edashtav]

So good he wrote it twice.

Verissimo!

[Dave2002]

It can work. Offhand, a couple of memorable Prom opera experiences over the years come to mind:

Haitink/Glyndebourne Don Giovanni 1977 - I remember a lot of semi-staged-style acting, even some props, especially Richard Van Allan as Leporello.

I have seen several semi-staged operas at the RAH, and one which I remember was the Marriage of Figaro - I think it was Glyndebourne with Simon Rattle. It was good, though I recall that we sat so far back that it was difficult to get really involved with the action. The stage just looked too small. I think I have also been to other productions where I/we were much closer, so more involving.

OTOH, I always enjoy Mozart's work - for the music.

[Maclintick]

Yes and no. I've seen plenty of stage productions which so diminish the work as a whole that dramatic involvement becomes virtually impossible. And there are times when a sensible semi-staging can bring the drama to life without undue intervention/'concept' from an insensitive director. On the other hand, there's no substitute for an intelligent stage production.

As you say, Makropoulos, the ideal is the intelligent stage production, but I've seen many wonderful concert & semi-stagings more than a match for the gratuitous directorial conceits foisted on us in the regietheater-dominated major opera houses, e.g. Glyndebourne productions transferred to the RAH, Billy Budd in 2013 being a distinguished example. When Mark Padmore as Captain Vere shuffled off the stage there was a full minute's stunned silence as the capacity audience of over 5000 -- many of whom had paid £5 or so for the opportunity, as opposed to the bejewelled £250-ers in Sussex -- reacted to what they'd seen, as well as heard. Minimalism in terms of props & staging can be maximally effective.

Last Fri's Proms "Fidelio" was excellent, vocally & instrumentally, but someone should have insisted that white tie & tails were ridiculously inappropriate for this particular opera -- or singspiel -- one relevant to the human condition in any age.

[makropulos]

: ...Billy Budd in 2013 being a distinguished example. When Mark Padmore as Captain Vere shuffled off the stage there was a full minute's stunned silence as the capacity audience of over 5000 -- many of of whom had paid £5 or so for the opportunity, as opposed to the bejewelled £250-ers in Sussex -- reacted to what they'd seen, as well as heard. Minimalism in terms of props & staging can be maximally effective.

Yes! Regarding Billy Budd, I was very sorry to miss that - and even more so after reading your wonderful memories of it. The Proms Makropulos Affair last year made a pretty good job of effective minimalism in terms of staging. It's an opera I've seen many times in the theatre and not many productions respect Janacek's request for the stage to be flooded with sickly green light during Marty's final scene, but this one did, and the theatrical impact was powerful.

[Prommer]

Can we agree (any of us) that we would prefer a concert or rudimentary semi-staged version, to a poor staged version, especially one with a bizarre konzept?

My position is that a poor fully staged version is a REAL downer (cannot but be) on a favourite piece.

One can more easily 'put up with' a concert performance or even semi staged, if the musical values are there, and some involving personenregie.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that a fully staged performance in an opera house (a good one, like Bayreuth) is obviously optimal. We wait, and wait...

Closet was Herheim's Parsifal. OR Jones's Meistersinger at ENO.

[David-G]

Some time in the early 2000s William Christie and Les Arts Florissants performed "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria" at the Barbican. In Paris this had been a staged production, but there was no money to bring the staging to London, so what we got was a "semi-staged" performance where the instruments were on the stage, and the singers - all dressed in black - acted the piece in and around the instruments. The sheer drama of this performance was extraordinary. I have seen "Il Ritorno" staged a number of times since, some of them very fine, but none which had me on the edge of my seat as did this semi-staged performance.

[Maclintick]

As usual, the presenter's mindless chatter gave due warning of the shortcomings that would certainly follow.

Errm, HS, there were cameras present last Fri, but I don't think this "Fidelio" has been televised as yet, & from my seat in "O" stalls I espied the figure of Donald McLeod in the Radio 3 box, no doubt inflicting on listeners the same brand of "mindless chatter" with which he patronises them in "Composer of the Week"....

[Hornspieler]

Errm, HS, there were cameras present last Fri, but I don't think this "Fidelio" has been televised as yet, & from my seat in "O" stalls I espied the figure of Donald McLeod in the Radio 3 box, no doubt inflicting on listeners the same brand of "mindless chatter" with which he patronises them in "Composer of the Week"....

Well, I was not watching the Televison. I was listening to the entire concert Live on BBC Radio 3.
(Channel 903 on my Cable television)
'

So there is no picture to distract, but the sound comes through loud and clear on my Bose amplifier and the TV screen does print the information on what is being performed and also the announcements and the elapsed time of the broadcast.

Another big advantage is that I can pause the programme at any time and then resume listening from where I left it (to answer the phone, or perhaps the call of nature}.
The broadcast is saved on my TV Box, just like any other channel and I can listen to it today, tomorrow, or in six months time - in fact until I choose to erase it.

What's not to like?

HS

[MrGongGong]

What's not to like?

The lack of helicopters

[Conchis]

The most recent 'high concept' production I saw was Grange Park Opera's Die Walkure last month. I enjoyed it, with reservations, because the concept had clearly been thought through and the director's thinking was clear. At the other extreme was the appalling ROH Rusalka of a few years back, which - for no good reason -was set in a brothel: the production worked totally against Dvorak's intentions and the music.

More recently, I've seen a very good Tosca at the Llangollen Eisteddfod, which lost nothing by its 'semi-staging'.

Nowadays, I check the track record of the director before submitting to a production in the opera house. Certain names, I've learned, should be avoided.

As to Fidelio: I've never felt it works as drama. The characters are abstractions rather than believable people, though much of the music is very fine.

That Ted Heath clip is a classic and always has me cheering for Ted Downes - who is clearly deeply unimpressed to be meeting E.H. The programme was broadcast a week before Heath unexpectedly became Prime Minister.

[Once Was 4]

The most recent 'high concept' production I saw was Grange Park Opera's Die Walkure last month. I enjoyed it, with reservations, because the concept had clearly been thought through and the director's thinking was clear. At the other extreme was the appalling ROH Rusalka of a few years back, which - for no good reason -was set in a brothel: the production worked totally against Dvorak's intentions and the music.

More recently, I've seen a very good Tosca at the Llangollen Eisteddfod, which lost nothing by its 'semi-staging'.

Nowadays, I check the track record of the director before submitting to a production in the opera house. Certain names, I've learned, should be avoided.

As to Fidelio: I've never felt it works as drama. The characters are abstractions rather than believable people, though much of the music is very fine.

That Ted Heath clip is a classic and always has been cheering for Ted Downes - who is clearly deeply unimpressed to be meeting E.H. The programme was broadcast a week before Heath unexpectedly became Prime Minister.

'Sir' Edward Downes was a conductor of course (and held in deserved high respect). A man of the left? Sir? Well of course he was a conductor and they always say one thing and do another.

[Conchis]

'Sir' Edward Downes was a conductor of course (and held in deserved high respect). A man of the left? Sir? Well of course he was a conductor and they always say one thing and do another.

Someone of my acquaintance who accepted an honour, despite his leftish politics, explained that it was 'more trouble to turn one down than it was to accept it'. He found having the title 'very amusing' - not because it impressed him but because it impressed 'all the idiots' who automatically thought a title turned someone into 'a higher form of life.'

[Giacomo]

Can we agree (any of us) that we would prefer a concert or rudimentary semi-staged version, to a poor staged version, especially one with a bizarre konzept?

I agree.

My position is that a poor fully staged version is a REAL downer (cannot but be) on a favourite piece.

I agree, I'm hoping that one day I might be able to listen to Guillaume Tell again. I've not spun it up since ...

However, there is no doubt in my mind that a fully staged performance in an opera house (a good one, like Bayreuth) is obviously optimal. We wait, and wait...

I agree. The majority of works I only listen to but not only is a fully staged musical experience very different but the things I've seen staged remain different, such is the impression that when I hear them again I "see" the stage production as I listen.

I'm going to the Khovanshchina Prom so I hope the acoustics at the RAH work. As I've seen it staged I will be "seeing" the version I saw staged.

[LHC]

I've seen several concert performances that were thrilling musical and dramatic experiences (for example, Simon Rattle and the OAE performing Idomeneo at the QEH, Colin Davis and the LSO's series of opera performances at the Barbican: Troyens, Otello, Samson et Dalila etc, Barenboim's ring cycle at the Proms).

I've also seen several staged performances of operas that were anything but thrilling or dramatic. Sometimes this was because the 'Konzept' didn't work, or seemed to have little connection with the opera. More often though, it was because the musical and dramatic direction was poor or non-existent, and the whole thing just seemed lacklustre, something that can afflict traditional as well as modern productions.

Of course, a great staged performance will always be best, but that isn't to say that a staged performance will necessarily be better than a concert performance. It's the quality of the performance that really matters, not the circumstances of the venue.

[gurnemanz]

A further point, of course, is that concert performances also offer the chance of experiencing operas live which for various reasons are not so easily encountered in fully staged versions. For me Parsifal has been a case in point. I became somewhat obsessed with the work at an early stage via Knappertsbusch on LPs. (By coincidence it even contains a character named after me!). I was lucky to catch the Boulez Prom in 1972, which I mentioned above and then the Kegel concert performance with Rene Kollo in Leipzig in 1975 (now available cheaply on Brilliant Classics) - a spell-binding evening.

After those two I didn't get a chance to see it live again till ENO in 2011 (in non-preferred English) and then more recently at ROH. Luckily nowadays you can also catch performances in good quality sound and vision on TV/DVD or at the cinema, where we watched the 2013 live Met show with Jonas Kaufmann and I was pretty impressed by Bayreuth last year which I managed to watch on German TV.