WNO From the House of the Dead

[makropulos]

Two weeks ago I was in Cardiff for the first night (actually matinée) of the WNO "From the House of the Dead" - a revival of Pountney's tremendous production and the first performance of the Tyrrell/Mackerras edition in its definitive form - extremely well conducted by Tomáš Hanus and sung with tremendous character. It was great to see and hear it, but our seats were rather a long way back (penultimate row of the stalls), well under the overhang, and the aural impact was somewhat diminished as a result. Tonight I saw it again in Southampton, sitting in the second row of the stalls. It was absolutely stunning –a glorious performance. The orchestra has this music firmly in its bones now, and the impact of the chorus and orchestra at the visceral climaxes was stupendous. Great solo singing by the numerous principals, and - as usual - the WNO chorus was outstanding. Hanus conducted with overwhelming authority and real flexibility too, relishing every moment of the extraordinary orchestration.

There are more performances in Llandudno, Birmingham, Bristol and Oxford (I think - check the WNO website for details) - and I can only urge anyone interested to try and get to one of them.

What a marvellous evening.

[french frank]

That's good to hear, makropulos. I have my ticket for next month!

[Conchis]

Sung in English but I don't find Janacek as hard to stomach 'translated' than most other composers, so may give it a go....

[Darkbloom]

Sung in English but I don't find Janacek as hard to stomach 'translated' than most other composers, so may give it a go....

Diction being what it is these days, it might as well be in Czech, you probably won't be able to hear many of the words.

[makropulos]

Diction being what it is these days, it might as well be in Czech, you probably won't be able to hear many of the words.

Diction pretty good from this cast, but you get surtitles anyway - so not a problem.

[Irrelohe]

I was also at the Southampton performance and basically echo makropulos' comments. But does anyone know why the opera was given in translation rather than in the original? WNO are giving their current productions of Khovanshchina and Onegin in Russian, so is another Slavic language really that difficult? And Covent Garden are doing the Janacek in Czech later this season.

[makropulos]

I was also at the Southampton performance and basically echo makropulos' comments. But does anyone know why the opera was given in translation rather than in the original? WNO are giving their current productions of Khovanshchina and Onegin in Russian, so is another Slavic language really that difficult? And Covent Garden are doing the Janacek in Czech later this season.

Very good point. Pountney's House of the Dead production has always been done in English, and WNO has a long tradition of Janacek in English. Come to think of it, I don't remember any Janacek in Czech from WNO. It'll be good to hear it in Czech from ROH, though the production is going to have to be remarkable to match what is, I think, one of Pountney's most impressive Janacek productions - to say nothing of Hanus's conducting.

[Conchis]

I was also at the Southampton performance and basically echo makropulos' comments. But does anyone know why the opera was given in translation rather than in the original? WNO are giving their current productions of Khovanshchina and Onegin in Russian, so is another Slavic language really that difficult? And Covent Garden are doing the Janacek in Czech later this season.

Even Covent Garden has been known to waive the rule about 'original language only' when it comes to Janacek (Rattle's Cunning Little Vixen in 1983) and he is always peformed in English in the provinces. I have no idea why, especially when - as you note - Khovanschina and Onegin are being sung in Russian.