To the Barbican yesterday to see Les Arts Florissants perform Dido and Aeneas in the Barbican Hall. The performance was based on a staged version, but we saw a reduced but no less impressive version with no sets and a simplified lighting plot.
I was lucky enough to attend the rehearsal before hand, where it was fascinating watching Christie and his performers fitting the performance to the new space. All were impressive both in rehearsal and in performance. It is always amazing to watch the transformation that comes over a cast between rehearsal and performance, the magic of live theatre. For musical director who seems to keep to a minimum what he does in a performance, Christie proved to be highly articulate and keenly aware of all the details which he required, from orchestral articulation through to lighting and the pronunciation of awkward English vowels.
My full review of the performance will appear in the next few days.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
London Mozart Players (Photo Kevin Day) For the first time since 13 March 2020, the players of London Mozart Players (LMP) will be performin... -
Edmund Aldhouse recording Chris Warner's Wonders of the Cosmos at the organ of Ely Cathedral I first came across Edmund Aldhouse playi... -
Adrian Bradbury and Oliver Davies recording (Photo Richard Hughes) I first came across the name of the cellist Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901) in... -
Verdi: Otello - Keel Watson (Iago) and Ronald Samm (Othello) Birmingham Opera Company, 2009 On Monday, thanks to BBC iPlayer we were able t... -
Virtual rendering of Takis designs for Guildhall School of Music's opera double bill We started the week with Shakespeare's A Midsum... -
Siegfried Wagner Siegfried Wagner was Richard Wagner's only son and heir. He never managed to escape the influence of his dominating mo... -
Joby Burgess with a wind wand (Photo Nick White) Percussionist Joby Burgess has quite a diverse portfolio, his CV includes work with a wide... -
Many people have been intending to use lockdown to do all those things that we have always intended to do but never have. Judging by activit... -
Tchaikovksy: Eugene Onegin - Asmik Grigorian, Günter Papendell - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo: Holger Jacobs) Our listening to opera on-lin... -
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera - Rosalind Plowright Opera Holland Park 2019 (Photo Ali Wright) We started the week in fine style with Sir Sim...
Hello! I work at the Barbican and was lucky enough to see this fantastic performance! I did not want it to end. Glad you also enjoyed it - I look forward to reading the rest of your review (once it is up - I'll add a link to it in our discussions section of our Barbican Classical Music facebook group if that is ok?)
ReplyDeleteMy full review is up on the Music and Vision web site here:-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2009/10/dido.htm