| A finely calculated, musically beautiful production. |
Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- Falstaff , Wales Millennium Centre , March 5, 2008 |
“Conducting Falstaff is a joy, but also a great challenge, because this is music that doesn’t play itself. It requires care and attention, and an understanding of breathing in every bar”. Carlo RizziThe conductor responds magnificently to this challenge. Under his baton the orchestra cannot but play with great virtuosity and Rizzi also makes the music so perfectly available to the singers, no more so than in the second scene in Act 1 where the four principal female roles all sing together but each with their own different words. This is an aesthetic and sensitive production with director Peter Stein well in control of every nuance, as he says: it’s all in the music. Bryn Terfel’s large-bellied knight is also very purely and touchingly sung, with a full appreciation of Verdi’s genius. That’s not to say there isn’t a twinkle in his eye and a touch of debauchery to his personality. A finely drawn character, he performs the role with an enormous charm, totally captivating the capacity audience. From the opening we meet a fascinating group of well defined characters all as beautifully acted as they are sung. Recovering from a heavy night of drinking, in his garret, high in the roof of the Garter Inn, Falstaff is rebuked by the self righteous Dr Caius who has been robbed by Falstaff’s sidekicks Pistol and Bardolph. As Caius, Antony Mee sings with fine assuredness but he cleverly makes that character not nearly so confident. Standing beneath the deep sloping roof of the garret in his dull black Moidele Bickel designed Tudor costume in complete contrast to the rumbustious voice and colourful garb of Neil Jenkins’ Bardolph, equalled in vigour and humour by Julian Close’s Pistol, alongside Falstaff in his dirty underwear and silken dressing gown we are in an animated Tudor painting that sets the note for much of what follows within the rustic simplicity of Lucio Fanti’s set. Mention must also be made of the very effective part played by school boy, Isaac Marks as Falstaff’s page. The ‘Merry Wives’ along with Alice Ford’s daughter Nannetta are all a sheer delight to both the ear and eye. The diminutive Claire Ormshaw not only entrances her lover Fenton, sung with a yearning lyrical tenor by Rhys Meirion, but also every single member of the audience. Leading schemer Alice Ford is sung by Janice Watson with a strong and clear soprano equally matched by the warm baritone of Christopher Purves as her husband. Imelda Drumm is the more coquettish Meg Page and shares the fun with the cheekily voiced Mistress Quickly of Anne-Marie Owens. The production really comes alive in the second scene of the final act in the enchanted woods beneath Herne’s great oak. The Queen of the Fairies is accompanied by a delicate band of candle-holding followers and spirited elves. We see masked friars and evil spirits all around. Falstaff is ‘attacked’ by the woodland spirits who wheel his rotund corpus several times across the great width of the stage, and dance on his belly. Our romantic young couple are happily united and a god-like Sir John rises into the air above the crowd as the final curtain falls. This is a finely calculated, musically beautiful production. Stein and Terfel have given us a philosophical and sensitive Falstaff: with a bit more blood in his veins, a bigger twinkle in his eye and a real lust for life, with a little more braggadocio all round we would have had the hairs on the back of our necks tingling and gained even more delight from this excellent performance: it’s all in the music. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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