| Musically faithful and reverential |
At Mid Wales Opera |
| Mid Wales Opera- Tales of Hoffman , Riverfront, Newport , November 10, 2008 |
The Tales of Hoffman was German French dissident composer Offenbach's opus. It ensured him a posthumous reputation for musical seriousness, that with his penchant for Operetta he never quite enjoyed in his own lifetime. As it oscillates between Romance and almost a wry self awareness the plot is held together by a score of rare accomplishment.Writing just after opera's hey-day it is a tribute to Offenbach's skill and vision that Tales Of Hoffman is in the canon of the greats. Mid Wales Opera do the great work justice. Nearly all the cast have a chance to shine, with the text ensuring cameo opportunities. There is a stand-out performance from Carolyn Dobbin- playing the Muse and Nicklaus. Her concentrated performance allows for the magic of her talent to sparkle through- her clarity and diction are remarkable . This is not to belittle the rest of the cast. Far from it. The leads both deliver- Rebecca Ryan's death of Olympia was perhaps the highlight of the night. James Edwards handles the shifts in his character from dignified intellectual, to swaggering drunk, with particular aplomb. Wyn Pencarreg's satanic characters were suitably menacing- an effect highlighted by his dark bass voice. With Katherine Jenkins riding high in the popular music charts, Welsh opera is certainly on a high, and in every sense these performers demonstrate that this popularity is backed up on merit. Aesthetically what this production lacks in glamour it makes up for with invention. The designer and director have produced a set of contemporary proportions, and while this may seem like something unusual to some opera goers it is far from unpleasant. Despite the obvious and in many ways inescapable melodrama there is a knowing intelligence to this Offenbach work. The giant hand scrawled poems that serve as scenery, and video-cam simultaneously capturing and broadcasting fragments of proceedings, lend an air of credible intellectualism. This is opera that is musically faithful and reverential, but in other respects is beginning to quietly question itself. |
Reviewed by: Chris Paul |
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