Monday 6 March 2023

An enjoyable romp: Rossini's 1825 coronation opera Il viaggio a Reims from English Touring Opera

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - end of Act II - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims; English Touring Opera, directed Valentina Ceschi, conducted Jonathan Peter Kenny; Hackney Empire

Rossini's 1825 coronation opera proves rather more than an occasional piece and a largely young cast have a great time and bring the work to life

Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro (The Journey to Reims, or The Hotel of the Golden Fleur-de-lis) was his last opera in the Italian language. Written for Paris in 1825, it was an occasional work, commissioned to celebrate the coronation of King Charles X at Reims. With a cast of 14 major roles, Rossini never intended it to have a life beyond performances in 1825 and he reused much of the music for his final comedy, Le comte Ory.

That English Touring Opera is performing the work at the time we are planning the coronation of King Charles seems to be something delightfully serendipitous. But Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was the third of ETO's main stage productions for the Spring tour. It opened on Saturday 4 March 2023 at Hackney Empire in a production directed by Valentina Ceschi, with Lucy Hall, Luci Briginshaw, Susanna Hurrell, Esme Bronwen-Smith, Julian Henao Gonzalez, Richard Dowling, Edward Hawkins, Grant Doyle, Jean-Kristof Bouton, Jerome Knox, Timothy Dawkins, Matthew McKinney, Llio Evans, Hollie-anne Bangham, Edward Jowle, Brenton Spiteri, Peter Edge and Eleanor Sanderson Nash. Designs were by Adam Wiltshire, with Cordelia Chisholm's gold box frame from Giulio Cesare, lighting was by Ric Mountjoy. Jonathan Peter Kenny conducted the Old Street Band.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Julian Henao Gonzalez (Conte di Libenskof), Esme Bronwen-Smith (Marchesa Melibea) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Julian Henao Gonzalez (Conte di Libenskof), Esme Bronwen-Smith (Marchesa Melibea) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
It is a substantial piece in three acts, and with so many characters, there is a lot of plot. The opera opens at a spa hotel in France, with the assembled guests preparing to travel to Reims for the coronation. The first two acts deal with the antics of the guests and the hotel staff, culminating at the end of Act Two with the news that there are no horses to be had, they cannot go to Reims but the subsequent celebrations in Paris will be equally grand. Rossini responds to this with the work's most astonishing moment, the grand concerted ensemble for 14 voices!

The third act, opens with a substantial duet, worthy of Rossini's grandest, most serious operas, as two characters reconcile. But then the rest of the act is devoted to jollification with a series of national songs from each character, ending with an ensemble to Charles X. Having given us two acts of pell-mell activity, the drama effectively grinds to a halt here. ETO gave the first two acts without a break, some 90 to 100 minutes of music. Then Act Three came after the interval as something of a disappointment. Frankly, I thought a very substantial cut in Act Three would not have come amiss.

The production made very effective use of the pre-existing gold frame from the Giulio Cesare set to create a grand hotel circa 1825, with appropriate (and very colourful costumes). A naturalistic drop curtain was put to good use with the moment that characters took a balloon ride. In Act Three, the costumes moved away from naturalism, taking on board the exaggerations found in contemporary cartoons.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Lucy Hall (Madame Cortese) with behind Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio), Edward Jowle (Antonio), Hollie-Anne Bangham (Maddalena) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Lucy Hall (Madame Cortese) with behind Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio), Edward Jowle (Antonio), Hollie-anne Bangham (Maddalena) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
We were introduced to the staff first, Hollie-anne Bangham's feisty housekeeper Maddalena, and Lucy Hall's delightfully lively Madame Cortese, the proprietor of the hotel, along with Edward Jowle's ubiquitous servant Antonio and Don Prudenzio (Jerome Knox) the hotel's engaging quack doctor who mixes himself up in the various affairs of the clients.

The fashionable Contessa di Folleville (Luci Briginshaw) is travelling with her beau, Chevalier Belfiore (Richard Dowling), a part-time painter. She is devastated that her luggage has been lost, but her maid, Modestina (Lio Evans) saves the day when she finds a sole survivor of the loss. Briginshaw made the most of her delightful large-scale aria, a lovely send-up by Rossini and his librettist of the opera seria form, a grand aria about a trivial subject.

The Marchesa Melibea (Esme Bronwen-Smith) is travelling with Conte di Libenskopf (Julian Henao Gonzales), but Don Alvaro (Jean-Kristof Bouton), the Conte's rival, is with them too and this causes musical ructions, which culminate in the grand duet of reconciliation between Melibea and the Conte in Act Three. Henao Gonzales had a tricky task, his was the high tenor part written for a tenor who specialised in the high tenor roles Rossini wrote in his opera serias for Naples. Henao Gonzales' performance grew throughout the opera and he was on gleaming form for his final duet with Bronwen-Smith who matched him for musicality and drama in this wonderful duet.

Corinnna (Susanna Hurrell) was the mysterious poet, first heard off-stage at the end of Act One, Hurrell in glorious voice with harp accompaniment. Corinna is accompanied by a Greek lady, Delia (Eleanor Sanderson-Nash), though Sanderson-Nash only had a small, but well-delivered contribution.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Richard Dowling (Chevalier Belfiore), Susanna Hurrell (Corinna) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Richard Dowling (Chevalier Belfiore), Susanna Hurrell (Corinna) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)
Edward Hawkins' Lord Sidney was a love-sick, reticent Englishman, something Hawkins' played to a tee. In love with Corinna, he moped about and never did anything about it. But, In Act Two, Chevalier Belfiore (Richard Dowling) popped up, his wandering eye having alighted on Corinna and Dowling and Hurrell had a delightful duet which rather sent up conventional operatic conventions.

Barone di Trombonok (Grant Doyle) and Don Profondo (Timothy Dawkins) were very much observers and wry commentators. Doyle brought great character to a role that was all about being a busybody, whilst Dawkins was delightful as the vague antique collector, complete with a dazzling patter song about everyone's luggage! Matthew McKinney was Don Luigino, who seemed to be there to make up numbers rather than have a definite plot function, but McKinney gave firm musical support. Fleshing out the cast were two further servants, Brenton Spiteri's Zefirino and Peter Edge's Gelsomino, both played with admirable aplomb and a twinkle in the eye.

Not every moment was perfectly sung Rossini, this is challenging music written for a group of the best singers of the day. But the cast brilliantly brought the drama to life, and Ceschi's production beautifully indicated who was whom and who was important to whom. And then in the big moments, each soloist pulled out the stops admirably, and the large-scale arias and duets where Rossini was sending up opera seria conventions told even more because the singing was totally serious.

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Hollie-Anne Bangham (Maddalena), Llio Evans (Modestina), Grant Doyle (Barone di Tombonok), Edward Jowle (Antonio), Luci Briginshaw (Contessa di Folleville), Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio), Matthew McKinney (Don Luigino)  - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Hollie-anne Bangham (Maddalena), Llio Evans (Modestina), Grant Doyle (Barone di Trombonok), Edward Jowle (Antonio), Luci Briginshaw (Contessa di Folleville), Jerome Knox (Don Prudenzio), Matthew McKinney (Don Luigino) - English Touring Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

In the pit, Jonathan Peter Kenny and the Old Street Band gave us an enjoyable romp, full of imaginative colours and Kenny certainly kept the music moving. The recitatives are secco, in the Italian style, and here instead of a keyboard, cellist Gavin Kibble and double-bass player Carina Cosgrave gave us a fine double act providing the accompaniment, something that was common in Italy at the time where smaller opera houses could not be guaranteed to have a keyboard. The result was an engaging change in the musical texture and one that other companies would do well to emulate.

For all the technical difficulties of the music, the cast gave us a most enjoyable romp, throwing themselves into the piece and clearly having great fun, even in the last act with Wiltshire's fantastical costumes inspired by contemporary cartoons.









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