Glyndebourne on Tour Rusalka Credit Tristram Kenton |
Dvorak’s Rusalka
has been quite lucky recently with its UK outings, with strikingly different productions
being presented by Grange Park Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Covent
Garden and English Touring Opera. Now Glyndebourne on Tour have revived Melly
Still’s Glyndebourne Festival production for their autumn tour. I caught the
second performance of the tour, at Glyndebourne, the first night with the
alternative cast, Wioletta Chodowicz in the title role and Ladislav Elgr as the
Prince.
In an interview printed in the programme book, Still says
that her intention was to tell the story clearly without too many layers of
interpretation. She has made changes, in that she has softened what she sees as
the opera’s misogyny, so that Jezibaba (Anne Mason) is a more approachable
granny like figure, and the wood nymphs are more dangerous in that they attack
travellers.
For the lively opening scene Schelomianski, looking suitably
unappetising but hugely priapic, was delightfully tempted and teased by the
Wood Nymphs (Evgeniya Sotnikova, Michaela Kapustova, Alessandra Volpe plus
chorus).
Polish soprano Wioletta Chodowicz would seem to have an idea
voice for the role of Rusalka, a gleaming top with a reasonable degree of heft
to the voice, and the ability to sing Dvorak’s lines cleanly and evenly. During
act 1 she did not seem entirely settled down, with a tendency to approach notes
from below. Her Hymn to the Moon lacked the power and beauty which I think she
would be capable of bringing to it. Some of this may be due to the staging. Chodowicz
did not appear to be as comfortable as the others when being manipulated by the
dancers and her mermaid’s tail was ridiculously long, requiring a lot of
negotiation. Add to this, that for the first half of the Hymn to the Moon, she
was required to singing lying on her back. In fact, throughout the opera Still
seemed to be rather fond of having Rusalka and the Prince deliver key numbers
whilst prone, which is not always helpful in an opera house.
Anna Mason was more granny than scary witch as Jezibaba, but
she was given backup in the form of the male chorus all dressed like her and
looking profoundly alarming. The conjuration scene, complete with cauldron,
fake pole-cat, bat, snake etc, elicited titters from the audience and the
whole, both dramatically and musically, lacked the edge which I think it needs.
Mason sang well, but was just too soft grained and cosy. After all, everyone is
meant to be scared of her and giving her the transvestite chorus seemed to
weaken the character’s impact.
Czech tenor Ladislav Elgr is quite a find; tall, slim and
personable with a lovely lyric tenor voice. His voice has a fascinating dark
quality to it which suggests that it may develop interestingly. Frankly, at the
moment he lacks the heft for some of the biggest moments in the role of the
Prince. Dvorak’s orchestration can be quite elaborate and presupposes voices
which can rise over it cleanly and evenly. Sensibly Elgr did not push his voice
and managed his resources finely, giving us some powerful climactic moments at
the end of act 1.
By the end of act 1, I confess that I was wondering about
conductor Jakub Hrusa. He clearly loves the opera, but he seemed to take some
passages, particularly the less dramatic, more incidental ones, at a too
leisurely pace as if he was content to admire the gorgeous detail in Dvorak’s
score. And there was much to admire, but pacing in act 1 did not seem ideal.
Robert Poulton and Eliana Pretorian as the gamekeeper and
the kitchen girl (rather than boy) contributed a lively and entertaining
opening scene to act 2. Still’s production her was very busy and bustling, not
only with the staff preparing the palace, but with guests arriving for the
wedding. The whole of act 2 was imaginatively and absorbingly staged.
For the first half of act 2, Rusalka is without a voice and
the singer must find a way of conveying emotion. Chodowicz has not quite
managed this yet. She looked lovely and very appealing as the water nymph out
of her element, but she did not quite keep the focus of attention so that the
scenes seemed somewhat lacking. The chorus’s treatment of her was not as cruel
as in some productions.
Another of Still’s innovations was that Tatiana Pavlovskaya’s
Foreign Princess was not quite the icy super-bitch she usually is. Pavlovskaya
looked and sounded fabulous, poised and chic. Her scenes with Elgr developed
into something quite dramatic and the two clearly conveyed that there was still
a spark between them. Elgr brilliantly brought out the prince’s essentially
shallowness and his inability to resist temptation.
Schelomianski was enormously powerful when he appeared in
this act and his long scene with Chodowicz lifted the dramatic temperature
enormously. And by now Chodowicz had found her form
Act 3 returned to a slightly revised, perhaps creepier
version of the act 1 setting. The scene with Poulton and Pretrian was played more
seriously without the laughs that it can sometimes engender and it was her that
the wood nymphs showed their mettle as they taunted, tempted and finally
attacked the gamekeeper. Though the action went far beyond what was described
in the music.
Mason’s scene with Chodowicz was notable for the intensity
the two generated and the wonderful bleakness with which Mason described how
Rusalka could return to being a water nymph.
The final scene between Chodowicz and Elgr was profoundly moving.
Chodowicz sang with power, using her beautifully gleaming voice admirably, and
Elgr whilst not the most powerful of singers in the role, convinced by his
intelligence and musicality.
Chodowicz showed that she is potentially a Rusalka to be reckoned
with and I suspect that her interpretation, particularly in the first act, will
grow as the run progresses. Elgr is an interesting and arresting lyric tenor
with a fascinating voice which he uses with intelligence and musicality. His
prince was very finely sung indeed and I hope to hear him again soon.
Mason did everything asked of her as Jezibaba, but the
softening of the edges of the character left us with a rather unscary witch,
too comfortable of character and with the music lacking the edge which was
needed.
Schelomianski was impressive and convincing as Vodnik,
managing to be repulsive and scary, but bringing out his love and care for his
daughter, Rusalka. His scenes with Chodowicz imbued their relationship with a
moving power.
Sotnikova, Kapustova and Volpe were delightful and slightly scare
wood nymphs. The chorus entered into things with a will, whether as wood
nymphs, water nymphs, party guests or Jezibaba’s familiars.
Jakub Hrusa drew very fine playing from the Glyndebourne
Tour Orchestra, bringing out the details of Dvorak’s orchestration. Everything
was lovely, too lovely perhaps. By the end of the opera I was still in two
minds about Hrusa’s conducting, and felt that he lingered too much on loving
detail and that the drama could have benefited from some more dramatic thrust.
Most of the productions of the opera that I have seen have
included, to a greater or lesser extent, some psychological interpretation. But
Still gave the audience the chance to make their own connections. Where she
weakened the drama was, I think, in not realising that scary witches like
Jezibaba are archetypes which have a strong role to play in such stories; Still’s
softening of the edge of the character did the opera no favours. But this was
an entirely enchanting production which told the story without trying to impose
a point of view on the audience, and captured the fairy tale element in
stunning visual form.
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