Madcap theatre & magnificent music: Janacek's The Excursions of Mr. Brouček at Grange Park Opera

Janacek: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček  - Robin Horgan as Spotcek on the Moon - Grange Park Opera (Photo Marc Brenner)

Considering that it is mature-period Janacek, his opera Výlety páně Broučkovy (The Excursions of Mr. Brouček) is a remarkable rarity. And whilst the work is problematically challenging, this sort of selective view of a composer is typical of the way we can be rather reductive in our view of them, concentrating on a few favoured works. Recent performances in the UK include English National Opera in 1992 and Opera North in 2009, and in concert by Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2007.

That 1992 performance was directed by David Pountney, and Pountney was again at the helm for Grange Park Opera's enterprising staging of Janacek's The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (seen Saturday 18 June 2022). Conducted by George Jackson with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and with designs by Leslie Travers and Marie-Jeanne Lecca, choreography by Lynne Hockney, lighting by Tim Mitchell, the performance featured Peter Hoare as Brouček, plus Fflur Wyn, Mark Le Brocq, Andrew Shore, and Clive Bayley

Janacek's route to creating opera was neither direct nor straightforward. He wrote Jenufa between 1894 and 1903 (in fact his third opera), it premiered 1904 but Janacek revised it in 1908 and 1915, and the work became popularised in a version not the composer's, ironing out the perceived eccentricities. That he was trying for a different type of opera is seen by his next one, Osud (1903-1905, revised 1906-1907) which has a libretto by one of his students and by Janacek himself. The experimental nature of the libretto meant that the work was never produced in his life time. Next came The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, which Janacek worked on from 1908 to 1917. It's premiere in 1920 was not a great success, and for his next opera Janacek returned to something less experimental, Káťa Kabanová (1920-21), based on an Ostrovsky play. The Cunning Little Vixen (1921-1923) returned to the more experimental manner, short scenes moving into each other and less focus on the 'well-made-play' aspect of Jenufa and Káťa Kabanová, with their focus on their heroines. The Makropoulos Affair (1923-1925) is fascinating, but never quite achieves take-off until the final scene. With From the House of the Dead (1927-1928), Janacek managed to achieve his perfect synthesis, short, filmic scenes, plenty of character but no single overall focus, a miraculous portrait of a community.

Janacek: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček  - Peter Hoare, Fflur Wyn - Grange Park Opera (Photo Marc Brenner)

Strong meat: Grange Park Opera stages Ponchielli's rarity, La Gioconda in a performance that full embraces the work's drama

Ponchielli: La gioconda - Act One - Grange Park Opera 2022 (Photo Marc Brenner)

Ponchielli: La gioconda; Amanda Echalaz, Joseph Calleja, Elisabetta Fiorillo, David Stout, Marco Spotti, director: Stephen Medcalf, the Gascoigne Orchestra, conductor: Stephen Barlow; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed 16 June 2022, (★★★★)

A rare chance to hear Ponchielli's best-known opera in a large-scale and dramatic staging featuring a strong array of voices 

There were plenty of opera composers in Italy in the 19th century, but few wrote operas that have managed to stay in the repertoire and it is Verdi who dominated then and certainly dominates now. Between Donizetti's Caterina Cornaro (premiered in Naples in 1844) and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (premiered in Rome in 1890), few new operas by composers other than Verdi have managed to remain in the repertoire. One of these is Ponchielli's La gioconda (premiered 1876, revised 1880), though its hold on the repertoire is fragile. Opera North staged it (with Rosalind Plowright in the title role in 1993, and revived with Clare Rutter in 2000), the Royal Opera gave it in concert in 2004, and Opera Holland Park staged it in 2008. Our most recent encounter with the opera was in Brussels in 2019 [see my review]. Grange Park Opera planned to stage the work in 2020, and now finally this has come to pass.

We caught Grange Park Opera's performance of Ponchielli's La gioconda on Thursday 16 June 2022. Directed by Stephen Medcalf, it featured Amanda Echalaz as Gioconda, Joseph Calleja as Enzo Grimaldi, Elisabetta Fiorillo as La Cieca, David Stout as Barnaba, Marco Spotti as Alvise Badoero and Ruxandra Donose as Laura. Stephen Barlow conducted the Gascoigne Orchestra. Designs were by Francis O'Connor, movement by Sarah Fahie and lighting by Tim Mitchell.

Ponchielli: La gioconda - Amanda Echalaz - Grange Park Opera 2022 (Photo Marc Brenner)

It is tricky to understand La gioconda without comprehending the vogue for French Grand Opera that spread in Italy from the 1860s.

A chance to revisit this Summer's production of Verdi's Falstaff at Grange Park Opera

Verdi: Falstaff - Grange Park Opera 2021 (Photo Marc Brenner)

Grange Park Opera is currently keeping people entertained with a daily sequence of amusements, 12 Days of Christmas, and today's is quite an event. The chance to revisit the festival's Summer 2021 production of Verdi's Falstaff. The film of the stage production is available to view free on the Grange Park Opera website.

The production, by Stephen Medcalf, was first shown in the 17th century Farnese theatre in Parma in 2011. The production's 2021 outing in Surrey, featured Bryn Terfel in the title role, with Natalya Romaniw, Janis Kelly, Sara Fulgoni, David Stout, Chloe Morgan and Luis Gomes, conducted by Gianluca Marciano.

Anthony Bolton's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko

Anthony Bolton's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko debuted at Grange Park Opera in July 2021. Delayed by a year, thanks to the pandemic, the new piece is an operatic treatment of the real-life story of the killing of the Russian exile living in London. With a libretto by Kit Hesketh Harvey, the opera is a musical treatment of a highly dramatic re-life episode, and a welcome mark of confidence from Grange Park Opera in the idea of new, large-scale opera.

The production, directed by Stephen Medcalf and conducted by Stephen Barlow, featured Adrian Dwyer, Rebecca Bottone, Stephan Loges, and James Laing.

For those that missed the live performances, a film of the production is now available on the Grange Park Opera website.

Grange Park Opera gives us a rare chance to see Rimsky Korskov's first opera, Ivan the Terrible in a striking production by David Pountney

Rimsky Korsakov: Ivan the Terrible - Grange Park Opera (Photo Marc Brenner)

Rimsky Korsakov: Ivan the Terrible (The Maid of Pskov); Clive Bayley, Evelina Dobracheva, Carl Tanner, David Shipley, dir: David Pountney, cond: Mikhail Tatarnikov; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 19 June 2021 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Grange Park makes a strong case for Rimsky Korsakov's first opera in what may well be its UK premiere, with Clive Bayley on superb form as the autocratic Tsar

Rimsky Korsakov wrote 15 operas yet few have attained any sort of currency outside of Russia. As part of The Spaced Season 2021, Grange Park Opera presented Rimsky Korsakov's Ivan the Terrible and the production's opening night on 19 June 2021 may well have been the work's UK premiere. The production was directed by David Pountney and conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov, with Evelina Dobracheva as Olga, Carl Tanner as Tucha, David Shipley as Prince Tokmakov, Adrian Thompson as Matuta, Liubov Sokolova as Olga's nurse, and Clive Bayley as Ivan the Terrible. Designs were by Francis O'Connor and lighting by Malcolm Rippeth.

Rimsky Korsakov wrote the opera which he knew as Псковитя́нка (The Maid of Pskov) in the period 1868-1872, a time when he was sharing an apartment (and a piano) with Mussorgsky who was writing Boris Godunov at the same time (on the same piano). It was Rimsky Korsakov's first opera and he must have retained a fondness for it as he revised it in 1876/77 and created a final version in 1891/92. But the work's history is rather more complex than this. It is based on a four-act play by Lev Mei with the first act of the play set 15 years before the action and featuring largely different characters, explaining the circumstances of the heroine Olga's birth. For his first version, Rimsky Korsakov omitted Mei's first act and placed the information in narration, for the second version he created a prologue set 15 years earlier, this was not a success so for the final version he removed the prologue again. Throughout this period the opera was known by its title of The Maid of Pskov but when Serge Diaghilev presented it in Paris in 1909 as part of his Russian season there, the big draw was the bass Feodor Chaliapin as Ivan, so the opera was renamed for this character and became, in the West, Ivan the Terrible.

Rimsky Korsakov: Ivan the Terrible - Clive Bayley, Evelina Dobracheva - Grange Park Opera (Photo Marc Brenner)

At David Pountney's suggestion, Grange Park Opera performed Rimsky Korsakov's final version of the opera but preceded it by the prologue from the second version. The prologue tells how Vera Sheloga (Evelina Dobracheva), wife of the Boyar Ivan Sheloga (John Ieuan Jones) had an affair with a mysterious stranger (Tsar Ivan) whilst her husband was away and gave birth to her daughter Olga. When her husband returns he suspects and Vera's sister, Nadezhda (Amy Sedgwick) claims the baby is her own and her prospective husband, Prince Tokmakov (David Shipley) accepts it. Only Tokmakov and the nurse Vlasyevna (Liubov Sokolova) feature in the main opera.

This is set 15 years later, Olga (Evelina Dobracheva, who thus played both mother and daughter) is living with her foster father Prince Tokmakov (David Shipley) who is governor of the free city of Pskov. The Tsar has just devastated the sister city of Novgorod (another free city) and there are worries about the Tsar coming. As the opera develops it places three stories alongside each other. Olga's love for Tucha (Carl Tanner) who is a troublemaker, even though she is betrothed to Matuta (Adrian Thompson), her gradual knowledge of the circumstances of her birth and her mysterious father, and the Tsar (Clive Bayley) who finally appears in Pskov and threatens the city. The work ends with a scene where the Tsar and Olga recognise each other as father and daughter, he spares the city but Tucha's attack with his rebels leads to the death of Olga.

It is a strange piece, and the dramaturgy is perhaps not what Verdi or Wagner would have created.

50 minutes of delight: Ravel's L'heure espagnole from Grange Park Opera

Ravel L'heure espagnole; Catherine Backhouse, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Ashley Riches, Ross Ramgobin, Stephen Medcalf; Grange Park Opera

Ravel L'heure espagnole; Catherine Backhouse, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Ashley Riches, Ross Ramgobin, Stephen Medcalf; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 21 March 2021
Ravel's comédie musicale transposed from 18th century Spain to a Kensington antique clock dealer

Having given us a film of Britten's Owen Wingrave last year [see my review], Grange Park Opera has gone back into the studio for a filmed performance of Ravel's 1911 comedy, L'heure espagnole filmed in a real antique clock dealers in London's Kensington Church Street with Catherine Backhouse as Concepción, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Torquemada, Elgan Llŷr Thomas as Gonzalve, Ashley Riches as Don Iñigo and Ross Ramgobin as Ramiro, directed by Stephen Medcalf, with music from Chris Hopkins, Ognune Lively and Tom Marshall

L'heure espagnole is a tricky work to get right, quite how saucy should it be, and there are all the logistics of male cast members getting in and out of clocks to deal with. The work was premiered at the Opera Comique, so should probably be thought of as saucy rather than bawdy, with the sexual innuendo quite suggestive and knowing rather than explicit. Stephen Medcalf opted for realism, and filming in a clock shop how could he not; with some neat slight-of-camera when it came to the men getting into the clocks and Ramiro's shouldering of them, the results had an engagingly stylised realism too them, emphasising the sheer craziness of it all!. There was some beautifully observed detail, Torquemada was working at a table full of fascinating clock innards and more, whilst the clock maker's eating habits (depicted in the instrumental prologue) were a thing of wonder.

Back to its origins: Grange Park Opera returns Britten's television opera, Owen Wingrave, to its film roots in this darkly comic modern version

Britten: Owen Wingrave - Ross Ramgobin, Kitty Whately, James Way, Janis Kelly, Madeleine Pierard, Susan Bullock, Richard Berkeley Steele, William Dazeley - Grange Park Opera (video screen grab)

Britten Owen Wingrave; Ross Ramgobin, Richard Berkeley Steele, William Dazeley, Janis Kelly, James Way, Susan Bullock, Madeleine Pierard, Kitty Whately, dir:Stephen Medcalf, cond; James Henshaw; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 9 December 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Grange Park Opera returns Britten's penultimate opera to the television medium for which it was written, in a striking, blackly comic modern version.

Benjamin Britten's penultimate opera, Owen Wingrave is a strange and tricksy piece. Written for television in 1971, Britten intended it both for that medium and the stage. But following a small flurry of performances in the early 1970s, the work lay fallow until Glyndebourne's performance in the late 1990s (first on tour, with William Dazeley as Owen, and then on the main stage where the title role was taken by Gerald Finley). This production demonstrated that Britten's 'lame duck' opera could work, and productions multiplied in the 21st century, partly thanks to a reduced orchestration from David Matthews. Recent London productions have included two [British Youth Opera, see my review, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, see my review] where the young men in the opera were played by singers of the correct age which is a nice idea, but Britten's quite substantial orchestration can require a mature baritone to carry the role.

The opera, however, remains awkward. The characters are generally unlikeable, whilst Owen can too often seem a prig. And then there is the ghost story aspect; Britten simply shies away from that. We never see what happens in the room, and the power of the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw is entirely absent (both operas are based on stories by Henry James). Dramaturgically, I have always felt that the opera would work better if librettist Myfanwy Piper had replaced the ghost episode with a more down to earth dare-devil stunt.

There have been television production since that 1971 production, there was one in Germany in 2005 again with Gerald Finley [available from Amazon]. But it remains a brave decision for Grange Park Opera, faced with no live opera in 2020, to create a new televised version of Britten's Owen Wingrave. Stephen Medcalf directs [see my 2018 interview with Stephen Medcalf], with Ross Ramgobin as Owen, Susan Bullock as Miss Wingrave, Richard Berkeley Steele as Sir Philip Wingrave, William Dazeley as Mr Coyle, Janis Kelly as Mrs Coyle, James Way as Letchmere, Madeleine Pierard as Mrs Julian, and Kitty Whately as Kate with Richard Berkeley Steele singing the ballad singer/narrator. The conductor was James Henshaw, with accompaniment from Chris Hopkins (piano) and Craig Apps (percussion), plus trumpet for Act Two.

Britten: Owen Wingrave - Ross Ramgobin - Grange Park Opera

Medcalf sets the work in the near present day (press coverage in advance of the premiere of the film refers to it as being set just after the Afghanistan war in 2001). It is largely shot in black and white (there were touches of colour such as the blood-red wine glasses in the terrible dinner scene which concludes Act One). He makes it very much a film, there is a lot of intercutting of close-ups. The women's ensemble which precedes Owen's entry into the house is done with each at her own window, creating a real sense of three intertwining monologues. Other ensembles are similar, and Medcalf successfully banishes any real sense of the stage. 

Creating new opera under lockdown: I chat to composer Alex Woolf about A Feast in the Time of Plague, his new opera with Sir David Pountney to be premiered by Grange Park Opera

Alex Woolf (Photo © ORA Singers)

As for many of us, the last few months have been an interesting time for composer Alex Woolf. Rehearsals for his first opera, Pandora's Box, were suspended in March just two days before the dress rehearsal, and by June he was hard at work on a new opera, A Feast in the Time of Plague, to a libretto by Sir David Pountney written specifically during lockdown, which is to be premiered by Grange Park Opera.

Having lost its original 2020 season and created an on-line Found Season, Grange Park Opera and artistic director Wasfi Kani have continued to create art out of lockdown. In September the company will premiere A Feast in the Time of Plague under socially distanced conditions at Grange Park Opera's Surrey base. I chatted to composer Alex Woolf, via Zoom, about creating an opera under lockdown.

The new opera, which is around 90 minutes long, has been created in what Alex describes as a frighteningly short time. Pountney started writing the libretto during lockdown, being at something of a loose end. He wrote the libretto on spec, inspired by Alexander Pushkin's short play A Feast in the Time of Plague, and then sent it to Wasfi Kani who decided to produce the opera and set about first finding a composer, and approached Alex, and then set about finding a cast. Alex received the libretto at the beginning of June, and admits that he rather relished the challenge of creating the piece so quickly. He had an initial phone call with Wasfi Kani, saw the libretto and then started writing the opera within days.

All the ingredients of a good opera: Anthony Bolton's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko

Alexander Litvinenko in 2002

When composer Anthony Bolton read Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, the book by Alex Goldfarb and Alexander Litvinenko's widow Marina about the extraordinary poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Bolton immediately thought that it had all the ingredients of a good opera: power, politics, betrayal, love, jeopardy. Bolton managed to get Wasfi Kani of Grange Park Opera and director Stephen Medcalf on board, and through them librettist Kit Hesketh-Harvey. The results are to be seen at Grange Park Opera, Surrey in July this year when Stephen Medcalf's production of Anthony Bolton and Kit Hesketh-Harvey's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko debuts (16 & 18 July 2020) with Stephen Barlow conducting a cast including Adrian Dwyer, Rebecca Bottone, Andrew Slater, Olivia Ray, Andrew Watts and Edmund Danon.

It is a full-scale opera, two acts with seven solo roles, chorus and full orchestra. Hesketh-Harvey, perhaps best known for his cabaret career but also his translations and opera libretti, has written a libretto (some of it evidently in rhyme) based on Goldfarb and Livtinenko's book, and Bolton's opera uses the traditional layout of scenes and arias. On Monday, we were given a sneak preview of the opera when Bolton talked about it and Olivia Ray, Lorena Paz and Xaver Hetherington sang scenes from the opera, accompanied by Erika Gundesen.

It was a chance to have a first listen to Bolton's music, tonal but complex, often highly romantic; the piece also uses references to Russian music ranging from a Red Army marching song and a Russian football anthem, to music from Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Composer Anthony Bolton has had an interesting career, whilst reading Engineering at Cambridge he studied composition with Nicholas Maw and later with Colin Matthews and Julian Anderson. But the majority of Bolton's working life has been devoted to finance, as a major investment fund manager. His music includes the anthem, Children of Earth, written for the Save the Children Anniversary at St Paul's Cathedral, A Garland of Carols (for upper voices and harp) premiered at St Paul's in 2006, and the orchestral suite The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He describes his new opera as 'by far the biggest thing he's done'.

Also, at the event on Monday was Litvinenko's widow Marina who, when the opera premieres in July, will have the strange experience of seeing herself portrayed on stage. But Marina has already had this experience, as Lucy Prebble's play A Very Expensive Poison which debuted at the Old Vic last year, similarly dramatised the events.

Marina welcomes any such exposure as she feels that the play and the opera help to bring the events into the public eye and give a kind of justice. Marina has been fighting for justice since the events of 2006, only getting a public enquiry after 10 years and still the probable perpetrators of the poisoning have not been extradited from Russia.

Quite what the Russian authorities (evidently complicit in Litvinenko's music) will make of the opera is anyone's guess, but you feel that opera cannot help but have resonance in Russia. Certainly the work brings a strange contemporary twist to the genre of 'CNN Opera', opera created out of contemporary new events, which originated with John Adams' Nixon in China.

Tickets for Anthony Bolton and Kit Hesketh-Harvey's The Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko go on sale on 3 March 2020 at the Grange Park Opera website.

An artist should be careful not to put themselves in a box: I chat to tenor Leonardo Capalbo about the challenges of singing the title role in Verdi's Don Carlos

Verdi: Don Carlos - Leonardo Capalbo, Raehann Bryce Davis - Opera Vlaanderen (Photo Annemie Augustijns)

We have heard Italian-American tenor Leonardo Capalbo twice in the title role of Verdi's Don Carlo(s), first this Summer with Grange Park Opera, and then more recently in Ghent with Opera Vlaanderen. Whilst we were in Ghent, I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with Leonardo to talk about his career, his voice, and the role of Don Carlos in particular.

Performing Verdi's Don Carlo (in Italian, in the four-act version) was Leonardo's debut in the role [see my review], and he followed this by performing the opera with Opera Vlaanderen in French in the five-act version [see my review]. Was the change in versions and language was a challenge I wondered? He responded that he feels that everything is a challenge but he loves Verdi's music and finds Verdi's characters the ones he bonds with. And it felt good to do the work in its original French.

You can tell Verdi was thinking about the music of Don Carlos with a French text

Leonardo loves singing in French, and so relished performing in this version and doing the 'Fontainebleau act' (which Verdi cut from the four-act version) not only added some beautiful music to the opera but added to the arc of the narrative. Seeing Don Carlos and Elisabeth uncomplicatedly in love, before her betrothal is announced to Don Carlos' father rather than to Don Carlos himself, helps to show why Don Carlos has a deep connection with Elisabeth later in the opera, and it makes his sacrifice at the end all the more poignant.

Singing in French vocally feels different to Italian. Because of the mixed vowels you have to understand a lot about your instrument to be able to sing French well and release your voice. For Leonardo, a major obstacle to singers in French is the failure to emit the voice in a pleasing fashion. He tries to sing French idiomatically whilst aiming to use the most opulent voice that fits the emotion and style of the music, and he points out that in fact some Francophone singers do not sing French well.

In Italian such things are more straightforward, but Leonardo thinks you can tell that Verdi was thinking about the music of Don Carlos with a French text, the way the musical phrases follow the scansion of the French. He always finds the opera magical, but in French it is more powerful.

Verdi: Don Carlo - Leonardo Capalbo, Brett Polegato - Grange Park Opera 2019 (Photo Robert Workman)

This is down to technique, he keeps his voice flexible

Musically satisfying: Hansel & Gretel at Grange Park Opera

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (Act 2) - Soraya Mafi, Caitlin Hulcup - Grange Park Opera 2019
(Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel; Soraya Mafi, Caitlin Hulcup, Susan Bullock, William Dazeley, dir: Stephen Medcalf, orchestra of English National Opera, cond: George Jackson; Grange Park Opera Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 27 June 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A musically literate and satisfying performance illuminates a picture-book production

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (Act 3) - Susan Bullock as the Witch
Grange Park Opera 2019 - (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

When Engelbert Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, wrote the libretto to Hansel and Gretel the idea of a poor family living in a hut near the woods, on the bread-line, would have had an element of realism to it despite the sentimental layers which Wette adds to the tale. But from our contemporary perspective it is difficult to make such a setting seem anything but picturesque, so opera directors have mined the psychological elements underlying the story. Two iconic 20th century productions, that of David Pountney for English National Opera [see Duncan Hadfield's 1998 review in the Independent] and by Richard Jones for Welsh National Opera [see Stephen Walsh's 1999 review in the Independent] set the piece in urban 1950s with the wood and the witch representing a psychological nightmare based on reality.

Stephen Medcalf's production of Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel was shared between the Royal Northern College of Music (where it debuted last year, see review in The Arts Desk) and Grange Park Opera, where we saw the second performance on Thursday 27 June 2019. Caitlin Hulcup was Hansel and Soraya Mafi was Gretel with Susan Bullock as Mother and the Witch, William Dazeley as Father, Lizzie Holmes as the Dew Fairy and Eleanor Sanderson-Nash as the Sandman. George Jackson conducted the orchestra of English National Opera.

Medcalf and his designer Yannis Thavoris set the piece in the 1890s with the family as urban poor, whilst the 'forest' is simply the outside city (Thavoris provided a striking forest of street lights) and foraging for the children consists of scrounging and stealing Oliver Twist-style. The witch's house was in fact a magic sweet shop, but its interior was a magically larger version of the children's home. All this would seem to provide some interesting psychological layers to explore, particularly as the production had Susan Bullock doubling as the Mother and the Witch.

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (Act 1) - Susan Bullock, William Dazeley - Grange Park Opera 2019
(Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

In fact the urban forest entirely lacked a sense of danger and, populated during the Witches ride by a cast of Dickensian-type characters, seemed simply picturesque with the children remarkably in charge of their own destiny. Whilst the third act's setting in a version of the children's home had interesting resonances, none of this was explored as Susan Bullock's Witch was a magnificently comic creation which had little link, physical or metaphorical, to her performance in Act One as Mother.

The intention, as with the Royal Opera's disappointing recent new production of the opera [see my review] seemed to be to provide an evening of unthreatening entertainment, and within these constraints Medcalf's production was surprisingly imaginative, and coupled to one of the finest musical performances of the opera that I have heard in a long time.

The musical delights started with the first notes of the overture as the horn melody rose out of the pit, rich in texture and beautifully shaped.

Verdi's Don Carlo returns to Grange Park Opera in Jo Davies & Leslie Travers stylish & imaginative production

Verdi: Don Carlo Act 1 - Leonardo Capalbo, Brett Polegato - Grange Park Opera 2019 (Photo Robert Workman)

Verdi Don Carlo; Leonardo Capalbo, Brett Polegato, Marina Costa-Jackson, Ruxandra Donose, Clive Bayley, dir: Jo Davies, ENO Orchestra, cond: Gianluca Marciano; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 6 June 2019 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A miracle of compression, one of the most satisfying productions of Verdi's grand opera around

Grange Park Opera opened its 2019 season with a revival of Jo Davies fine production of Verdi's Don Carlo, one of the last (and finest) productions in the company's old home in Hampshire. [see my review]. The production featured two original cast members returning to their roles, Clive Bayley's Filippo and Ruxandra Donose's Eboli, with Leonardo Capalbo as Don Carlo, Marina Costa-Jackson as Elisabetta, Brett Polegato as Rodrigo, Branislav Jatic as the Grand Inquisitor, David Shipley as the Monk / Charles V and Jessica Leary as Tebaldo. Gianluca Marciano conducted the orchestra of English National Opera.

Central to the production are Leslie Travers stylish and imaginative sets which provide a series of striking backdrops for the intimate scenes yet facilitate creating a remarkable amount of grandeur on a relatively small stage. The production remains one of the most satisfying recent incarnations of Verdi's grand opera that we have seen and the only regrets are that length prevents the five-act version from being performed, and that it is not done in the original French (Leonardo Capalbo will be singing the title role in French with Opera Vlaanderen in the Autumn).

Verdi: Don Carlo Act 2 'Auto de fe scene' - Clive Bayley, Leonardo Capalbo
Grange Park Opera 2019 (Photo Robert Workman)

Without the Fontainebleau Act, we never see Don Carlo and Elisabetta in their moment of untroubled bliss and the four act version of the opera has inevitably to start in media res.

Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera - Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo - Grange Park Opera (Photo Robert Workman)

Verdi Un ballo in maschera; Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo, Roland Wood, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Tereza Gevorgyan, dir: Stephen Medcalf, orchestra of English National Opera, cond: Gianluca Marciano; Grange Park Opera Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 27 June 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Verdi's complex opera in its American setting with some strong individual performances

Elisabetta Fiorillo - Grange Park Opera (Photo Robert Workman)

With it's complex political background, Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera provides the director with a variety of choices. Antonio Somma's libretto, based on the assassination of King Gustavo III of Sweden, was just too much for the King of Naples' censors, particularly in the light of assassination attempts on Napoleon III, so the opera was ultimately premiered in a version set in colonial-era Boston, well away from any Western European monarchy. It has become common in recent times for productions to revert to the original Swedish setting.

For his new production of Un ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera, Stephen Medcalf opted for the American setting, with Jamie Vartan's sets and costumes firmly placing it in the mid-19th century (seen 27 June 2018). Vincenzo Costanzo was Riccardo, now a very presidential figure, with Claire Rutter as Amelia, Roland Wood as Renato, Elisabetta Fiorillo as Ulrica, Tereza Gevorgyan as Oscar, Matthew Buswell as Sam and Matthew Stiff as Tom. Gianluca Marciano conducted the orchestra of English National Opera.

Historical accuracy in Un ballo in maschera is an impossible thing as Verdi and Somma played so fast and loose with history. The real King Gustavo III certainly did not have an affair with his best friends wife, in fact he was probably homosexual, had trouble consummating his marriage and may well have not been the father of the royal princes. Also, the real fortune teller, Madame Arvidson (Ulrica), used coffee grounds for the purpose rather than communing with Satan.

A remarkable ensemble: Janacek's Jenufa at Grange Park Opera's new home

Janacek: Jenufa - Grange Park Opera - Natalya Romaniw, Susan Bullock (Photo Richard Lewisohn)

Janacek Jenufa; Natalya Romaniw, Susan Bullock, Nicky Spence, Peter Hoare, dir: Katie Mitchell / Robin Tebbutt, cond: William Lacey; Grange Park Opera at West Horsley
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 23 2017
Star rating: 5.0
A quartet of strong performance illuminates a superb ensemble performance

Peter Hoare, Natalya Romaniw (Photo Robert Workman)

Everyone has been talking about the new opera house which Grange Park Opera has built in the grounds of West Horsley Place in Surrey. It is indeed a remarkable achievement, a functioning (if not quite complete) theatre built from scratch in a year, and even in its present state the acoustics are very fine indeed. But when we went along for our first visit on Friday 23 June 2017, the performance of Janacek's Jenufa was also very fine indeed, and had us really talking about the music too.

Robin Tebbutt revived Katie Mitchell's 1998 Welsh National Opera production of Jenufa, with designs based on Vicki Mortimer's originals. William Lacey conducted, with the BBC Concert Orchestra in the pit and a very strong and balanced cast; Natalya Romaniw as Jenufa, Susan Bullock as the Kostelnicka, Nicky Spence as Steva, Peter Hoare as Laca, plus Harry Thatcher as Starek, Jihoon Kim as the Mayor, Hanna-Liisa Kirchin as the Mayor's wife, Heather Ireson as Karolka, Alexandra Lowe and Eleanor Garside as mill workers and Jessica Robinson as Tetka. Original lighting by Nigel Edwards revived by Paul Keogan, original choreography by Struan Leslie revived by Lucy Cullingford.

Heather Ireson, Jihoon Kim, Nicky Spence, Natatalya Romaniw,
Amy Lyddon, Peter Hoare, Harry Thatcher, Anne Marie Owens
Susan Bullock, Hanna-Liisa Kirchin (photo Richard Lewisohn)

Mortimer and Mitchell set the piece in the 1930s, a world of stripped back rather grey interiors with little colour and no folk-influence. The production is nearly 20 years old, and I have never seen it before but it was striking how many of Mitchell's ideas seem to have permeated more recent productions. Here naturalism and realism took a back seat to a concentration on the characters, with Mitchell and Tebbutt very much creating the family from hell, as each member seems flawed in some way. Grandmother, Anne Marie Owens, is over-indulgent to her favourite grandson, Steva, Nicky Spence, (there was a lovely moment in Act Three when the baby was discovered and Anne Marie Owens look across worriedly to Nicky Spence who furiously shook his head, denying responsibility for the death); Steva is a loutish drunk, getting by on a thread of charm; failed love for Jenufa has made Laca, Peter Hoare, turn vicious; Jenufa herself, Natalya Romaniw is so blinded by her love for Steva that she cannot see sense; the Kostelnicka, Susan Bullock, is so concerned to do right that she forgets to be human and comes across as angry and accusatory.

There has been a tendency in recent years to cast Jenufa with a sort of lyric soprano voice which has difficulty imposing itself on Janacek's rich orchestration. Here, Natalya Romaniw combined a vibrancy of tone with the right lyricism to ensure that Jenufa was a real character in her own right, yet with a voice which soared over the orchestra. She was able to combine the right amount of power and intensity with a poignant lyricism so that the big moments were vibrant, but for the quieter sections in Acts Two and Three she really pulled the heart strings. We have heard Romaniw in a sequence of complex heroines in the last few years and this was another one, she had the gift of making Jenufa interesting and intense even later sections of the opera where she is overlaid with lassitude and depression. Romaniw made Jenufa the centre of attention, without being attention seeking and the final scene with Peter Hoare's Laca was radiantly transformative and transcendent in just the right way.

Romaniw's strength meant that Susan Bullock's vivid and strongly etched Kostelnicka did not simply dominate the proceedings (as has happened in a number of performances recently), and instead this was a very strongly balanced performance. All the cast strongly etched but pulling together as an ensemble.

A remarkable swansong - Tristan und Isolde

The Grange

Wagner Tristan und Isolde; Rachel Nicholls, Bryan Register, Sara Fulgoni, Stephen Gadd, Mats Almgren, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 16 2016
Star rating: 4.0
A remarkably concentrated and intense of Wagner's music drama

Grange Park Opera closed its 2016 season with a pair of concert performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The performances were memorable for non-musical reasons. Cast changes meant the last minute announcement of Rachel Nicholls as Isolde (replacing Anje Kampe) and Mats Almgren as King Mark (replacing Clive Bayley). And the performance on 16 July 2016 represented the last time that Wasfi Kani's company performed at Northington Grange; after 18 years the company is moving to a new theatre at West Horsley Place in Surrey whilst opera at the Grange at Northington continues with a new company, the Grange Festival headed by Michael Chance.

Martyn Brabbins conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Bryan Register as Tristan, Rachel Nicholls as Isolde, Sara Fulgoni as Brangäne, Mats Almgren as King Mark and Stephen Gadd as Kurwenal. Tristan und Isolde is a suitably valedictory work for such an occasion, and the performance was as remarkable as the circumstance. Billed as a concert performance, the opera was performed in an adaptation of the set from Grange Park Opera's recent production of Verdi's Don Carlo, with the orchestra in the pit (and not on-stage as often happens in concert performances). Both Rachel Nicholls and Bryan Register were off the book, giving a fully dramatic account of their roles and this was echoed by the other principals. Though Mats Almgren, Sara Fulgoni and Stephen Gadd used scores, none was score-bound and their performances were as dramatic and reactive as those of the two principals.

The results were more akin to a stripped back stage production, and given the thrilling immediacy of experiencing the opera in the relatively small confines of the theatre at Northington Grange, the result were gripping. This was due in the main thanks to strongly dramatic and involving performances from the two principals, but also from Martyn Brabbins and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Brabbins' account of the famous prelude was notable for having a sense of dynamism, a feeling that the music was actually going somewhere rather than being a series of luscious chords placed in space.

Grandeur and intimacy - Verdi's Don Carlo at Grange Park Opera

Auto da fe scene - Verdi: Don Carlo - Grange Park Opera - photo Robert Workman

Verdi Don Carlo; Stefano Secco, Virginia Tola, David Stout, Clive Bayley, Ruxandra Donose, Alastair Miles, dir: Jo Davies, cond: Gianluca Marciano, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 25 2016
Star rating: 4.0
A miracle of compression, Verdi's grand opera at Grange Park

Verdi's Don Carlo is a challenge for any opera company, but mounting his grand opera (even in his revised four-act version) in a small opera house like Grange Park Opera was always going to be tricky. In the event the production, directed by Jo Davies, sets designed by Leslie Travers, was a triumph of compression. Don Carlo was Italian tenor Stefano Secco, with Operalia winner Virginia Tola as Elisabetta. Clive Bayley was Philippo, David Stout was Rodrigo, Alastair Miles was the Grand Inquisitor, and Ruxandra Donose was Princess Eboli. Costumes were by Gabrielle Dalton, movement by Lynne Hockney and lighting by Anna Watson, Gianluca Marciano conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The opera was performed in the four-act revised version which Verdi produced in 1884. The original 1867 five-act version, premiered in Paris, proved too long for Italian opera houses and Verdi took advantage of the revision to produce a tauter version. Sadly at Grange Park it was sung in the contemporary Italian translation rather than the original French.

Ruxandra Donose, Clive Bayley - Verdi: Don Carlo - Grange Park Opera - photo Robert Workman

Key to the production were Leslie Travers striking and elegant sets, based around a pair of massive yet movable walls which provided a suggestion of the ecclesiastical architecture and a sense of stripped back massiveness, whilst being imaginatively multi-use; decorative slots doubled as candle holders, and the upper level embrasures formed balconies for the chorus in the auto-da-fe scene. At the centre was a moveable glazed element which came and went, sometimes with candles in it (for the opening and closing scenes), sometimes trees and sometimes replaced by a grill. The set had all the substance needed to bring the opera off, with all the functional requirements, yet managed to be simple and elegant. Within this, Jo Davies took a similarly stripped back and straightforward approach to the drama, so that the stage was never fussily cluttered. Even the auto-da-fe scene had a clarity to it, though Davies was marshalling multiple groups of singers (courtiers, priests and Flemish deputies) plus soloists. My only real complaint was the rather unnecessary changes to the opera's closing scene.

Perhaps a key to Jo Davies approach was that she did not have a particular axe to grind, instead told the complex story with directness and intense sympathy for the leading characters. The costumes were loosely period, with the women in black gowns which were essentially 19th century but with 16th century detailing, and similarly the men wore trousers but carried swords. The colour palate was very restricted, simply blacks and browns with the odd flash of white standing out (the women's collars, Philippo's shirt in his solo scene in Act Three).

Middle period Verdi is increasingly difficult to cast, and Grange Park Opera fielded a cast which would have made many a big opera house proud. It wasn't perfect, but the principals all played to their individual strengths and made a great team. Central to this was the tireless tenor voice of Stefano Secco. I have to admit that I found his voice a little too edgy, he seemed to sing a half a notch too loud for the theatre, and occasional high note had a tightness to them. But he paced himself well and had plenty of stamina for the great final scene, and sang Verdi's music with an admirable fluency, supplying a superbly well filled line that would be the envy of many casting directors in this opera. He had a rather solid, middle-aged persona, lacking the dynamism necessary yet on the smaller stage at Grange Park this mattered less and when he came forward we could see and hear every detail.

David Stout, Stefano Secco - Verdi: Don Carlo - Grange Park Opera - photo Robert Workman

Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalila at Grange Park Opera

Carl Tanner & ensemble - Samson et Dalila - Grange Park Opera - photo credit Robert Workman

Saint-Saens Samson et Dalila; Carl Tanner, Sara Fulgoni, Michel de Souza, dir: Patrick Mason, cond: Gianluca Marciano, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 28 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Imaginative re-casting of Saint-Saens biblical epic

Sara Fulgoni
photo credit Robert Workman

Despite the popularity of some of its music, Saint-Saens' opera Samson et Dalila is not a regular visitor to the UK opera stage. Covent Garden's 1981 production (designed by Sidney Nolan) gets revived intermittently (it's last outing was in 2004), but the opera does not get out much elsewhere. Now that Saint-Saens reputation as an opera composer is slowly being reassessed (Buxton did his opera La princesse jaune, whilst his grand opera Les Barbares has recently had a critical welcome on disc), it is surely a chance to re-visit his opera/oratorio Samson et Dalila, a work which is far more than simply a lovely mezzo-soprano aria.

At Grange Park Opera, Patrick Mason's new production faced the work's difficulties head one by completely avoiding the biblical setting and translating it to the period of intense anti-semitism in the Vichy Republic in France. The translocation required a bit a suspension of disbelief but the main thrust of the plot was brilliantly handled with a superb theatrical coup at the end. And Francis O'Connor set the piece in some highly stylish designs.

Carl Tanner sang Samson, with Sara Fulgoni as Dalila (now something of a celebrity filmstar), Nicholas Folwell as Abimelech, Christophoros Stamboglis as the Old Hebrew (now the Rabbi), Michel de Souza as the High Priest of Dagon (now the head of the local SS), with Edmond Choo, Roberto Abate, Matthew Thistleton and Carter Jeffries. Patrick Mason directed, with designs by Francis O'Connor, choreography by Nikki Woollaston and lighting by Paul Keogan.

La Bohème at Grange Park Opera

Gianluca Terranova, Susana Gaspar, Kelebogile Besong, Quirijn de Lang, Nicholas Crawley, Brett Polegato - La Boheme - Grange Park Opera - photo credit Robert Workman

Puccini La Bohème; Susana Gaspar, Gianluca Terranova, Brett Polegato, Kelebogile Besong, Quirijn de Lang, Nicholas Crawley, dir: Stephen Medcalf, cond: Stephen Barlow, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 27 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Finely balanced and satisfying production of this perennial

Puccini's La Bohème is a beautifully crafted mechanism which does not need any tinkering with, and the great virtue of Stephen Medcalf's new production at Grange Park Opera paid the work the compliment of taking it seriously, playing it with a detailed sense of naturalism in the actin. The finely balance cast featured Susana Gaspar as Mimi, Gianluca Terranova as Rodolfo, Brett Polegato as Marcello, Kelebogile Besong as Musetta, Quirijn de Lang as Schaunard, Nicholas Crawley as Colline, Nicholas Folwell as Benoit and Alcindoro, Robert Abate as Parpignol. Designs were by Jamie Vartan, with movement by Lynne Hockney and lighting by Paul Keogan. Stephen Barlow conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Gianluca Terranova, Susana Gaspar
photo credit Robert Workman

Stephen Medcalf did have one pensée. The production explored the idea, present in Henri Murge's Scènes de la vie de bohème but not really reflected in Puccini's opera,  that la vie de bohème was a state of mind, the young men were not struggling students but had come to Paris to live the bohemian life.

So the production started with the four young men, Gianluca Terranova's Rodolfo, Brett Polegato's Marcello, Quirijn de Lang's Schaunard, and Nicholas Crawley's Colline, entering through two large doors at the back, removing their grand clothes and dressing in the bohemian style. At the end, after the death of Mimi (Susana Gaspar), the reverse happened. The drawback from this interesting approach was that some people found the ending rather harsh (I didn't; I found it rather moving), but the real big advantage was that the four male leads played their age. We had the undeniable advantage of mature singers like Gianluca Terranova and Brett Polegato as Rodolfo and Marcello, without the embarrassment of them trying to pretend to be young students.

The beauty of the productions by Stephen Medcalf that I have seen (such as Eugene Onegin and Capriccio at Grange Park Opera, and Gluck's Orfeo at Buxton) is the finely detailed interaction between the cast members. This was true of La Bohème where the romantic melodrama of the plot was underpinned by a lovely sense of the relationships between the principals. The production was full of moments which illuminated small details of the opera.

The setting, by Jamie Vartan, was essentially a fixed room, full of detritus from which the cast assembled the settings of each scene, with a selection of evocative objects (stove, musical instruments etc) hanging down from the flies. The only real miscalculation was at the end of Act One, when one of the walls moved to give Rodolfo and Mimi a dramatic exit, but this meant that Susana Gaspar and Gianluca Terranova's climactic duet was accompanied by the clunking of scenery moving.