| Confused and obscure |
Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- Khovanshchina , Wales Millennium Centre , February 19, 2007 |
In this cathedral, dedicated among other things to the housing of the high arts, this Internationally acclaimed opera company brings together an ensemble of very fine singers who are also equally good actors in this compelling work of strong drama, though the tendency to the melodramatic does creep in. This may well be the result of David Pountney’s unsubtle hand once again, as was the case with his Flying Dutchman where he, as here, succeeds in obscuring the narrative instead of making it clear so we can sit back and revel in the sweeping Musorgsky/Shostakovitch orchestration. The overture conducted by Lothar Koenigs, a man clearly at one with the Slavic colouring of the music, was again sheer aural delight with the lush opening bars lulling us until the ominous rolling of the timpani tell us there is a story of trouble on the horizon.And what a story with Ivan Khovansky and his son Andrei, reactionary hard-liners, striving to impose a strong nationalistic, conservative state, opposed by fundamentalists concerned to see spiritual purity, with the pro-Europeans standing in the sidelines. I expected to see smart men in suits and present day summit conferences set against a sharp modern architectural setting. We got from designer Johan Engels an exciting enough piece of stage sculpture that gave the cast plenty of steps to clamber up and down but did little to clarify the action. Over the last thirty years Pountney has made major contributions to the world of opera. His Janacek work I have found totally compelling and captivating. It seems to me he has become so absorbed in the artistry and the alchemy of fusing music, word and setting together as a work of art of his own inner creative brain that he has lost the skill of story telling. Although sung in English, this opera was far more difficult to follow than those in a foreign language! The appeal for surtitles for English operas has, thankfully not gone unnoticed by the company. Peter Sidhom’s firm baritone sets things off but we are all too soon back in the land of the risible as Adrian Thompson’s clear but portly tenor is hoisted up and dangled before us like an elderly, confused Peter Pan. I can see where the director is trying to go with this but, like his Dutchman moving screens, this is simply a distraction or maybe I don’t have the skills of concentration that Mr Pountney expects his audience to have. Basically the prince tries to get his own way but is beaten and brutally murdered in his Victorian bath tub, complete with working shower, in which he is ironically helped to refresh himself by his murderer. But not before he has enjoyed a glorious sexual adventure with a superb and deliciously sensuous dancer who ends the dalliance naked on top of the world, literally. Suzanne Murphy’s Susanna has so little to do and is so understated, that she might just as well not be there. In contrast Rosalind Plowright does give us a very strong, true and excellently sung Marfa but even this is insufficient to rescue the night. Neither was the masterly chorus singing which did bring some excitement to this confused and obscure piece of operatic genius. There were many fine operatic moments and moments of sublime artistic achievement but they failed to add up to the finished work of art we have come to expect from our very own Welsh National Opera company. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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