From Opera North's current "Little Greats" season of pairs of shorter (mostly one-act) operas; both works on this programme were conducted by Martin André.
Janacek's Osud is an odd-bod; I'd always thought it was an early work of the composer's, coming before Jenufa, but the programme made clear that it was, in fact written after - though before that work had been staged. Musically it is splendid - and the orchestration is astonishing; I last saw the work at the Colosseum when Opera South presented it (along with Weill's Kleine Mahagonny) in the early '80s, and I was surprised at how much of the Music I'd remembered from that time. I thought that last night's performance was a little lacking in the fire that I love from Janacek performances - and I think that this was because of the not-quite-strong-enough voices of the principal singers (John Graham-Hall and Giselle Adam) which led the conductor to rein-in the fantastic ON Orchestra from letting the Music rip. (Personally, I'd've [preferred it if the orchestra had been let free and let the singers look to themselves.
But it's a daft plot - all the more frustrating for being two inches away from an excellent one - and it defeated director Annabel Arden and set designer Charles Edwards (and emphasized how the ON chorus needs an injection of a dozen or so younger singers if they want to play the roles of students). I f ever an opera cried out for Concert Performance, this is it.
So - a smidgen disappointing for me, but useful at the very least for making me realize both that there is a great deal of great Music in this work and that I want to need to pay it a lot more attention.
The production of L'Enfant et les Sortileges was a completely different kettle and cat - pretty damn near perfect, I thought. The same Director and Designer, but here relishing the challenges and opportunities that Collette's and Ravel's texts offered them right from the very start. Superb singing and acting (John Graham-Hall sounding much more confident as Tea-Pot - a hilariously [I]vulgar/I] performance - /Arithmetic/Tree Frog than I would have thought possible from the timid offering he presented in Osud) throughout - Wallis Giunta's Child sounded a little "mature", but her acting and performance was superb - as, indeed, was everyone's.
Superb, too, of course was the playing of that wonderful orchestra, bringing out the colours of Ravel's impeccable orchestration, blending perfectly with the stage imagery (it's the other way round of course). It was suggested to me that the orchestral sound lacked some of the lushness the score demands - and was a little too "Poulencian" in it's linear approach - I see the point, but disagree with it: the lines of Ravel's writing in his post-War works I feel need this careful texturing - and where the score calls for it, the ON orchestra sounded as rich, warm, and lush (to me) as it needed to be.
A great night out - for all the imperfections I felt at Osud - and enhanced by meeting and eating with friends old and new before and during the evening. Interesting demographics - Osud was very well attended (one of the largest audiences I've seen in the Grand theatre - and larger than that for the Jenufa a couple of years ago!); that for L'Enfant slightly smaller (as far as I could see), but with new people attending who hadn't been for the Janacek - including the very large chap who plonked himself into the seat immediately in front of mine and nearly broke my shins. (This happens not infrequently at the Grand!) Still - as there were a few seats empty for the Ravel further along my row, I was able move to a better viewpoint, and as soon as the opera started, shin pain was forgotten!
Janacek's Osud is an odd-bod; I'd always thought it was an early work of the composer's, coming before Jenufa, but the programme made clear that it was, in fact written after - though before that work had been staged. Musically it is splendid - and the orchestration is astonishing; I last saw the work at the Colosseum when Opera South presented it (along with Weill's Kleine Mahagonny) in the early '80s, and I was surprised at how much of the Music I'd remembered from that time. I thought that last night's performance was a little lacking in the fire that I love from Janacek performances - and I think that this was because of the not-quite-strong-enough voices of the principal singers (John Graham-Hall and Giselle Adam) which led the conductor to rein-in the fantastic ON Orchestra from letting the Music rip. (Personally, I'd've [preferred it if the orchestra had been let free and let the singers look to themselves.
But it's a daft plot - all the more frustrating for being two inches away from an excellent one - and it defeated director Annabel Arden and set designer Charles Edwards (and emphasized how the ON chorus needs an injection of a dozen or so younger singers if they want to play the roles of students). I f ever an opera cried out for Concert Performance, this is it.
So - a smidgen disappointing for me, but useful at the very least for making me realize both that there is a great deal of great Music in this work and that I want to need to pay it a lot more attention.
The production of L'Enfant et les Sortileges was a completely different kettle and cat - pretty damn near perfect, I thought. The same Director and Designer, but here relishing the challenges and opportunities that Collette's and Ravel's texts offered them right from the very start. Superb singing and acting (John Graham-Hall sounding much more confident as Tea-Pot - a hilariously [I]vulgar/I] performance - /Arithmetic/Tree Frog than I would have thought possible from the timid offering he presented in Osud) throughout - Wallis Giunta's Child sounded a little "mature", but her acting and performance was superb - as, indeed, was everyone's.
Superb, too, of course was the playing of that wonderful orchestra, bringing out the colours of Ravel's impeccable orchestration, blending perfectly with the stage imagery (it's the other way round of course). It was suggested to me that the orchestral sound lacked some of the lushness the score demands - and was a little too "Poulencian" in it's linear approach - I see the point, but disagree with it: the lines of Ravel's writing in his post-War works I feel need this careful texturing - and where the score calls for it, the ON orchestra sounded as rich, warm, and lush (to me) as it needed to be.
A great night out - for all the imperfections I felt at Osud - and enhanced by meeting and eating with friends old and new before and during the evening. Interesting demographics - Osud was very well attended (one of the largest audiences I've seen in the Grand theatre - and larger than that for the Jenufa a couple of years ago!); that for L'Enfant slightly smaller (as far as I could see), but with new people attending who hadn't been for the Janacek - including the very large chap who plonked himself into the seat immediately in front of mine and nearly broke my shins. (This happens not infrequently at the Grand!) Still - as there were a few seats empty for the Ravel further along my row, I was able move to a better viewpoint, and as soon as the opera started, shin pain was forgotten!
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