The Seraglio

This is blog number 200! Celebrations all round!
I must be turning into a total philistine but I have to admit that I am no longer a fan of either Mozart on his operas.
I have not seen this opera before but I have no intention of ever seeing it again. I suspect it is intended to be light-hearted and humerous, but the kind of studied humour in this opera is just too wearing, and wearying for me. It is the usual operatic story - lovers forced apart by circumstance (in this case pirates and a hareem have intervened) and two hours are spent re-uniting the lovers. However, as it is Mozart there is not the tragedy that I love in Verdi or Puccini, no romantic music and soaring duets instead we get vocal gymnastics and downright showing off. In this case the notes and arias go higher and higher and to my ears the beauty of the song turns into shrieking or screeching.
In Amadeus the Emperor declares 'Too many notes, Mr Mozart' and oh how I agree with him!
My rating 4/10
This was the English Touring Opera production at the Hackney Empire.

Eugene Onegin

The English Touring Opera production at the Hackney Empire was a wonder to witness. As always the staging was slightly disconcerting - huge mirrors were employed - but to remarkable effect, especially in the ball scenes where it created the illusion of a mass of dancers instead of the dozen or so members of the cast.
Tchaikovsky's opera 'Eugene Onegin' requires great skills from the performers - exacting singing, enormously long arias, almost balletic dancing (frequently), dramtic acting, a score requiring the orchestra to play not as accompanists but as a symphony orchestra, and great stamina. Based on the classic Pushkin epic it is the tale of two sisters, one of whom is spoken for the other who falls for Eugene who fails to return the emotion. As is inevitable in opera there is death and passion, many fallings in and out of love, and a not entirely happy ending, for opera should not be anything other than tragic to my mind.
The letter scene ( six hours attemting to construct a love letter contracted into a ten minute aria) is a tour de force and needs a soprano of great skill - and here this was achieved with enormous finesse. As this is Tchaikovsky the dance scenes have beautiful melodies, and some of the musical passages are worthy of being a movement in a symphony.
I love this opera and will seek it out in future. My rating: 9/10

Lets skip spring

I bought some daffodils from Marks & Spencer today. It does brighten up my flat to see some spring flowers inside. However the temperature in London today was a balmy 17 degrees. For March this is exceptional - it seems as though we'll be skipping spring and going straight to summer. On the other hand we've had snow in April before now!

Welcome Visitors

Now that the blog counter is back working I'm pleased to welcome 1040 visitors to my profile. Hope you enjoy.

Porgy & Bess

I went to see this marvellous, vibrant production at the Savoy Theatre yesterday. It was a matinee performance and so it was full of coach parties, mainly women from the Home Counties.

This is a period piece. The Gershwins were trying to produce a twentieth century opera dealing with modern themes. George Gershwin always wanted to write classical music but this is really just a popular musical play. That isn't to devalue it though, 'Summertime', 'I got Plenty of Nothing', 'I Love You Porgy' 'It Ain't Necessarily So' are all time popular standards. This is the usual love story of tart with a heart who is reformed by the love of a good man, but led into temptation by the bad guys. In this production there isn't really anything operatic, it is good American Musical through and through. None of the cast are duds. The dancing is superb, and the audience were engaged from the start.

However, this is a production written by whites and performed by a black cast. I became a touch uneasy at times because the roles were so stereotyped, and I wonder how comfortable some of the cast were in portraying these parodies of black lives - the great dancers, the negro spirituals, the language of subjection. Would it be performed in America nowadays I wonder.