From play to opera: Marlowe's Edward II and Benjamin & Crimp's Lessons in Love & Violence

Marlowe: Edward II - Tom Stuart & Beru Tessema in rehearsal - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Photo Marc Brenner)

What is the difference between an opera and a play (apart from the obvious). This thought came to me as we caught Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, the second performance of the run at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe, on 8 February 2019, having seen George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's opera inspired by the play, Lessons in Love and Violence, at the Royal Opera House in 2018 [see my review].

At the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Friday, Nick Bagnall's production featured Tom Stuart as King Edward II, Beru Tessema as Piers Gaveston and Katie West as Queen Isabella, part of a ten-person ensemble, with music by Bill Barclay.

Crimp's libretto for Benjamin's opera takes the essentials of its plot from Marlowe's play, but with any sense of historical detail removed. Both works have a moral lesson at their heart, that Edward II concentrates on his love for Gaveston at the expense of ruling his country is the fundamental issue, it is Edward's character which is important rather than the specifics of his same-sex relationship.

There are major differences between the opera and the play of course, but I found myself (somewhat unsuccessfully, I must admit) trying a thought experiment, imagine Marlowe's play performed in Katie Mitchell's modish modern production as used in the opera, and Benjamin's opera performed in the traditional  Jacobean style of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence - Stéphane Degout & Gyula Orendt
Royal Opera (© 2018 ROH. Photograph by Stephen Cummiskey)

Intriguing?

Hansel and Gretel (a nightmare in eight scenes)

Hansel & Gretel: a nightmare in eight scenes - Goldfield Productions
(Photo Still Moving Media courtesy Cheltenham Music Festival)

Hansel & Gretel; Goldfield Productions; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on 12 October 2018 Star rating: 3.0 (★★★)
Dark and quirky: multimedia interpretation of Hansel & Gretel

On Friday 12 October 2018, Milton Court Concert Hall, in Silk Street, was the venue for Goldfield Productions’ multimedia Hansel and Gretel [see Robert's interview with Kate Romano, Goldfield Productions' artistic director]. It was a mixture of poetry, chamber music, puppetry and shadow play. Inspired by the striking visual creations of artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Simon Armitage’s poetic libretto, given voice by the captivating Adey Grummet, was woven in to Matthew Kaner’s evocative chamber music. Hansel and Gretel were brought to life by the table-top puppeteers Diana Ford and Lizzie Wort whilst the characters of the mother, father and the cathartid witch were created using shadow puppetry.

Described as dark and quirky, that’s just how it should be.

New production of Shakespeare's Othello at the Globe Theatre

Shakespeare: Othello; Mark Rylance, Andre Holland, Jessica Warbeck, Sheila Atim, Stephan Donnelly, Aaron Pierre, dir: Claire van Kampen; Shakespeare's Globe
Reviewed by Jill Barlow on 1 August 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
"Rylance used to run the Globe and he still owns the SPACE
(Sarah Crompton-'What's On Stage ?' Aug 1st 2018 )

Shakespeare: Othello - Mark Rylance
(Photo: Simon Annand)

Our guest reviewer, Jill Barlow, sees the new production of Shakespeare's Othello at Shakespeare's Globe, directed by Claire van Kampen (who also wrote the music), designed by Jonathan Fensom. Mark Rylance stars as the treacherous Iago, with Andre Holland as Othello and Jessica Warbeck as Desdemona.

I first had the privilege to meet Rylance (Globe’s Artistic Director) face to face in August 2000 when interviewing his wife Claire van Kampen, Director of Theatre Music, behind the scenes at the Globe myself as Theatre music critic. When I asked him what was the role of music in the plays his considered reply was :- ‘The music is replacing lights and sets’.

This classical austerity of approach lasted through to circa 2012 with his much acclaimed Twelfth Night and Richard III, but with his subsequent sideways move into the illustrious tv drama ‘Wolf Hall’etc.

In his absence, things became more relaxed in Globe productions, I understand. However with Othello this season he has happily returned to ‘treading the boards' with his talented wife, Claire van Kampen as Globe director (and composer) and so have I returned as well to help celebrate the occasion and what seems a return to former classical austerity of approach on stage here.

However as Claire explains in the programme notes:-‘normally as composer I’d be making all sorts of suggestions to the director (now herself !) devising all sorts of interesting music cues, but with this production we’re barely having music other than that which Shakespeare has called for in the play; when Cassio gets drunk, the ‘Willow song’. We don’t have inter scenic music because the scenes are going to move extremely quickly –‘Righto say I, so over to husband Mark Rylance and his antics non-stop as Iago, much more fun'.

They say ‘everyone loves a villain’, but didn’t Shakespeare write overtones of treachery and skulduggery in Iago, not Chaplinesque jumping about clad in red beret and ill-fitting cloth trousers too short, which is what we got? The audience gleefully lapped it all up, with roars of laughter as Rylance threw asides galore to the groundlings at his elbow on all sides of the stage where indeed he ‘owns the space’.

Sublime Illusions - Noh Reimagined, a weekend of Noh performance & workshops at Kings Place

Noh Reimagined - Kings Place - mu:arts

Noh Reimagined; Kings Place
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on 29-30 June 2018
Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A weekend of performance & workshops exploring Noh theatre, focussing on the Mugen Noh play "Izutsu (The Well Curb)"

Izutsu Yoshimasa Kanze (Photo Shinji Aoki)

As part of their world music programme, Kings Place hosted a weekend of Noh theatre, No Reimagined, 29-30 June 2018 with concerts, talks, neuroscience and workshops. As a Noh novice I threw myself in to the experience. It became apparent that the audience was wide ranging, from those connecting with their cultural heritage (identifiable from their tabi socks in the workshop and kimonos at the concerts) to the curious but uninformed.

Like any classical art form, Noh is steeped in incomprehensibility for the uninformed. Imagine, if you have only listened to pop music, going to a foreign language opera for the first time without reading the synopsis and without surtitles. Only, at this opera there is no acting as you know it, instead there is a very minimal ballet going on, where the hand gestures have significance, but you do not know what they are. The main actor wears a mask and gorgeous oversized costume, which prevents ordinary body language from seeping through. On top of this add 650 years of refinement and stylisation to the music and you are there.

However, what this weekend did so well, with its gently enthusiastic explanations and the recurring common thread of the Mugen Noh play "Izutsu (The Well Curb)", was to bring the audience together - regardless of experience. Carrying everyone along to the splendid finale on Saturday night.

The weekend opened with a welcome from the Managing Director of Kings Place, Robert Reed who introduced the collaborators in the project curated by Akiko Yanagisawa (mu:arts). This was followed by a brief history of Noh by Professors Semir Zeki and Atsushi Iriki, and their interest in Noh from the perspective of neuroscience.

They explained that Noh theatre was developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami in the 14th century, and that most of the 240 plays still performed have been preserved in their entirety. Noh encompasses ideas, such as beauty being half perceived, but totally felt; an altered perception of time; events happening out of sequence; the audience becoming the music; and ambiguity allowing for multiple/ individual interpretation. Overall this means that the audience is required to do some work and be engaged with the play rather than passively observing. The two professors touched on how a specific part of the brain is involved in understanding abstract ideas and how this is essential in Noh for perceiving yūgen, the invisible beauty that is felt not seen.

Consequently Noh is not simple to learn - children begin at the age of three and may become professionals by the age of thirty. It was also explained that new Noh tend to take on the form and spirit of classical Noh rather than be faithful reproductions.

David Hare's The Moderate Soprano at the Duke of York's Theatre

David Hare: The Moderate Soprano - Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Nancy Carroll, Roger Allam, Paul Jesson, Anthony Calf - Duke of Yorks Theatre (Photo Johan-Perrson)

Paul Jesson - (Photo Johan-Perrson)

David Hare The Moderate Soprano; Roger Allam, Nancy Carroll, Anthony Calf, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Paul Jesson, Jade Williams, dir: Jeremy Herrin
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on 12 April 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
"I want to make the world a better place" – John Christie

Born in St. Leonards-on-Sea, David Hare returns to East Sussex to focus his theatrical chops on that most English of institutions the Glyndebourne Festival, with his play The Moderate Soprano which opened at the Duke of York's Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin, on 12 April 2018. Nancy Carroll plays the eponymous soprano with Roger Allam as the romantic late starter John Christie. Anthony Calf, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd and Paul Jesson are the three political exiles Ebert, Bing and "waving the baguette" Busch. Whilst Jade Williams holds the fort as the uncomplaining Jane Smith.

On the face of it, Glyndebourne should be easy pickings for David Hare a connoisseur of the minute dissections of our public institutions. There’s a public inclination to hate people who go to the opera and Glyndebourne with its rich patrons, manicured lawns and champagne fuels the suspicion that anyway opera is really just a side-show for dilettante toffs. Why should we care? Hare has an answer.

The Nutcracker and I, by Alexandra Dariescu

Alexandra Dariescu - The Nutcracker and I (Photo Mark Allen)

Tchaikovsky, Alexandra Dariescu The Nutcracker and I; Alexandra Dariescu, Amy Drew, Nick Hillel, Adam Smith, Jenna Lee; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 19 2017 Star rating: 4.5
Piano recital, animation and live dance innovatively combined into a magical evening

Alexandra Dariescu - The Nutcracker and I (Photo Mark Allen)

A little girl walks onto the stage, and starts to play the piano, snow begins to fall and the little girl transforms into a woman, playing the prelude to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. As the music progresses the story starts to play out, the little girl, the nutcracker, a nasty cousin, the prince. And all the while, it is the piano which is the source of the magic, as the kingdom of the sweets and its denizens emerge from it, as the music continues.

Pianist Alexandra Dariescu's The Nutcracker and I, by Alexandra Dariescu takes a number of slightly unlikely ingredients and melds them into a magic whole. There is Dariescu's own pianism, playing a sequence of piano music from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in arrangements by Stepan Esipov, Tchaikovsky himself, Mikhail Pletnev, and Percy Grainger, plus three new arrangements specially commissioned from Gavin Sutherland. There is animation from Nick Hillel (director), Adam Smith (art director and animation director) and Yeast Culture, which magically creates the story, and there is the live ballerina (we saw Amy Drew), with choreography by Jenna Lee, who represents the little girl transformed during her dream of the kingdom of sweets.

Premiered at the Milton Court Concert Hall on Tuesday 19 December 2017 as part of Guildhall School of Music and Drama's alumni recitals, the event is product of Dariescu's participation in the school's innovative creative entrepreneurship programme. Dariescu has developed the idea and produced the show, as well as playing the piano, collaborating with director Nick Hillel, Yeast Culture, Jenna Lee and with the live dancer.

The Extraordinary Cabaret of Dorian Gray

The Extraordinary Cabaret of Dorian Gray; Ruby in the Dust Theatre; The Pleasance
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on Oct 27 2017 Star rating: 2.5
Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray as part of HeadFirst Productions A Festival of Love, Sex & Death

Ruby in the Dust Theatre brought Oscar Wilde’s philosophical tale to the Pleasance this Friday (27 October 2017). The cast, lead by Adonis Jenieco as the eponymous aesthete Dorian Gray, who confuses Art with Life, gave us a “steampunk” inspired iteration of the protagonist’s tragic decline into decadence, in a show entitled The Extraordinary Cabaret of Dorian Gray.

The problem with using an epithet in the title is that my expectations were unrealistically raised. Turns out it was a rather prosaic retelling of the book’s narrative. There were tranches of Wildean dialogue that drove the show’s narrative, a peppering of catchy tunes and campy dance routines, but it’s reductive nature did precious little to illuminate the complex themes and Aestheticism of the book.

Playing on a near empty stage there was nothing to illustrate Wilde’s “essay on decorative art”. If you’re looking for the rhythms and textures of the prose that provide the sensations of Wilde’s transcendent aesthetic vision you’d be out of luck too; and gone is the danger - the sexual paranoia, the keenly felt pleasure of leading a double life that leads to anarchy and self-destruction.

So what are we left with? A charming and enthusiastic ensemble cast telling the Gothic story of one man’s Faustian pact. Art for Arts sake is one thing but this does nothing to dignify the art of beauty.

Reviewed by Anthony Evans

The Extraordinary Cabaret of Dorian Gray
Friday 27 October 2017
Ruby in the Dust Theatre
A Festival of Sex, Love and Death
Head First Productions at the Pleasance
Adonis Jenieco, Anu Ogunmefun, Toby Osmond, Joe Cushley, Jo Ashe, Penelope Simons, Lesley Ann Acheson
Director/Writer : Linnie Reedman
Composer : Joe Evans

Double vision: two views of Sondheim's Follies at the National Theatre

Dawn Hope, Imelda, Staunton, Emily Goodenough rehearse Follies, National Theatre (photo Johan Persson)

Stephen Sondheim's iconic music Follies has come to rest at the National Theatre in a production, directed by Dominic Cooke, with Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, Philip Quast and Peter Forbes. 

Geraldine Fitzgerald as Solange &
Sarah Marie Maxwell as young Solange
(Photo Johan Persson)

The new production is strikingly different to the work's first West End outing, directed by Mike Ockrent in 1987. Having two critics see the show within a week of each other seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so here we have both my and Anthony's reactions to the production. Mine from 8 September (third night of the run) and Anthony's from one of the previews (2 September). This enables us to reflect on the way the production might have changed in the run up to opening night, but also to allow for our differing attitudes to the work itself. 

Follies is one of those works which is very much embedded in my consciousness, it was a seminal work for us in the 1980s even before the iconic Carnegie Hall performances (the recording is still well worth searching out) and songs from the show found their way into performances by many of the cabaret groups with whom I worked. It is a work about which I find it difficult to take a properly critical stance, review in danger of turning into reminiscence (how Dame Josephine Barstow as Heidi compared to Licia Albanese or Adele Leigh, for instance). So what follows is first Anthony's review (he gives it four stars) and then my own thoughts (I give it five stars).

Robert

Bruce Graham, Peter Forbes, Billy Boyle, Josephine Barstow, Di Botcher, Norma Atallah rehearsing Follies, National Theatre (Photo Johan Persson)

With the first tranche of tickets largely sold out, you can hear the tills ringing at the National Theatre for this hotly anticipated revival of  Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Tickets being as rare as hens’ teeth, I managed to bag a couple for a preview.

Di Botcher as Hattie, Follies, National Theatre (Photo Johan Persson)

Inspired by a gathering of the Ziegfeld Follies, here the Weismann Follies come together for a reunion at their soon to be razed Broadway theatre “for a final chance to glamorise the old days”. They sentimentally recreate the performances of the past as the ghosts of their former selves steal around the stage.


Sondheim’s affectionate homage to American Musical Theatre pastiches the composers of the 20s and 30s. But Follies isn’t just a collection of camp old songs. Like much of Sondheim’s work it’s an unsentimental journey; his precise lyrics and keen observations tell a bitters-weet story not just of the Follies but of the foibles and follies of us all. Past and present collide: youth and age, optimism and cynicism and the characters are forced to confront their tarnished dreams – raging against time. The hulking ruin of a set established the emotional tone of the evening. The lighting gave an impression of dust hanging in the air. “Way up there” a ghostly shadow of lost glamour was revealed and the audience hushed. Sally Durant Plummer (Imelda Staunton), a former Weismann girl shiny faced and brittle as glass is the first guest to arrive, her ebullient husband, Buddy (Peter Forbes), is a salesman. Phyllis Rogers Stone (Janie Dee), an elegant sophisticate, she too a showgirl in the Follies arrives with her husband Ben (Philip Quast), a philanthropist and politician – a snake in a suit.

Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, Follies, National Theatre (Photo Johan Persson)

Sally’s deterioration in the hands of Imelda Staunton is a painful thing to witness. She still carries a torch for the self obsessed Ben and from the outset her agitated excitement is a portent of a much deeper malaise. This is a master class in self delusion. Phyllis is as funny as hell, sharp and tough as old boots. It’s a protective carapace that cracks in spectacular style in the searing “Could I Leave You”. Ben has no interest but himself. The charming Buddy is still desperately in love with his wife but how that love is sustained isn’t that clear.

Delightful fantasy: All the Angels - Handel & the first Messiah

David Horovitch & ensemble - Nick Drake: All the Angels
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, photo Marc Brenner

Nick Drake All the Angels; David Horovitch, Kelly Price, Sean Campion, dir: Jonathan Munby, cond: Michael Haslam
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 16 2016
Star rating: 4.0
The creation of Handel's Messiah is the centrepiece for this delightful music-led drama

Nick Drake's play All the angels takes a number of curious facts about the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Dublin in 1741, and weaves them into a delightful fantasy which mixes drama with the music of Messiah in a striking way. We caught the performance on Friday 16 December 2017 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre, directed by Jonathan Munby and designed by Mike Britton, with David Horovitch as Handel, Kelly Price as Susannah Cibber plus Sean Campion, Lucy Peacock, Saskia Strallen, Lawrence Smith, and Paul Kemble.

The play incorporates Messiah, with the singers being provided by Lucy Peacock, Saskia Strallen, Lawrence Smith, and Paul Kemble plus four singers from a pool of eight supplied by alumni of Genesis Sixteen (Tom Castle, Nancy Cole, Camilla Harris, Rebekah Jones, Angus McPhee, Ben Vonberg-Clark, Daisy Walford, Jamie Wright), with instrumentalists Jorge Jimenez and Naomi Burrell (violins), Joanna Levine (cello), Adrian Woodward (trumpet), and Mchael Haslam (harpsichord and musical director).

The play takes a group of known facts, that Handel down on his luck with opera in London travelled to Dublin to give a season there; that he got stranded in Chester and tried out passages from Messiah with a choir there, getting annoyed with a bass who could not read the part correctly; also in Chester he met the young Charles Burney; once in Dublin he cast the actress Susannah Cibber in the mezzo-soprano solos even though she was an actress and was away from London because of a sexual scandal involving her husband and her lover (the nastiness was mainly on the part of her husband); the porter at the music hall in Fishamble Street where Handel's music was performed was known as Crazy Crow and he was also a resurrectionist (stealing dead bodies for dissection).

Music at the centre: Schaffer's Amadeus at the National Theatre

Lucian Msamati and Southbank Sinfonia - Peter Schaffer's Amadeus - National Theatre - photo Marc Brenner

Peter Schaffer Amadeus; Lucian Msamati, Adam Gillen, Karla Crome, Fleur de Bray, Robyn Allegra Parton, Wendy Dawn Thompson, Eamonn Mullhall, Peter Willcock, Matthew Hargreaves, Southbank Sinfonia; National Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 30 2016
Star rating: 4.0
A revival which places Mozart's music at the core of the production with impressive use of live performance

Angus Macbean and Southbank Sinfonia - photo Marc Brenner

Peter Schaffer's iconic play Amadeus has returned to the National Theatre in a spectacular new production directed by Michael Longhurst, with Lucian Msamati as Salieri, Adam Gillen as Mozart, Karla Crome as Constanze Weber, Tom Edden as Joseph II, plus Alexandra Mathie, Hugh Sachs and Geoffrey Beevers. Part of the production's ethos was the extensive use of live music performed by sopranos Fleur de Bray and Robyn Allegra Parton, mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson, tenor Eamonn Mulhall, and bass baritones Peter Willcock and Matthew Hargreaves, with the Southbank Sinfonia. We caught the performance in the Olivier Theatre on Wednesday 30 November 2016.

The production did not just use live music, but the musicians of the Southbank Sinfonia were an integral part of the production. Opening on a bare stage, the musicians assembled and in front of them Lucian Msamati's elderly Salieri in a wheel-chair addressed the audience, but interacted with the musicians too. For much of the play they were on stage, contributing and interacting, sometimes playing Mozart's music and sometimes other work (the extra music was by musical director Simon Slater), and sometimes just making noises.

Aiden Gillen  & ensemble - photo Marc Brenner

The settings were assembled before our eyes, with fragments of columns, drapes etc, and the musicians and supers pushing things on and moving things about. This was a production which celebrated the very theatricality of Mozart's art.

The singers were all characters in the play, so that Fleur de Bray was Salieri's mistress Katharine Cavallieri, for whom Konstanze in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail was written (so we heard her in an extract of the opera). Wendy Dawn Thompson was Salieri's (largely silent) wife, and the remaining singers (Matthew Hargreaves, Peter Willcock, Eamonn Mulhall and Robyn Allegra Parton) all played smaller roles, but they came to the fore in the extracts from Mozart's operas having to turn their hand to Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Figaro, the Commendatore, the Queen of the Night and many more. Perhaps the oddest operatic sequence was the nightmare version of The Magic Flute which re-wrote everything and was, presumably, meant to be disturbing.

Musical values - Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre with Rory Kinnear & Haydn Gwynne

Brecht, Weill - The Threepenny Opera - National Theatre - photo Richard Hubert Smith

Brecht (adapted Simon Stephens), Weill The Threepenny Opera; Rory Kinnear, Nick Holder, Haydn Gwynne, Peter de Jersey, Rosalie Craig, Sharon Small, dir: Rufus Norris, cond: David Shrubsole; National theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 9 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Funny and filthy with high musical values, but lacking a sense of real anger and bite

For all the fame of the songs, Brecht and Weill's Die Dreigroschen Oper is a tricky work to bring off and the piece gets relatively few outings on the London stage. Rufus Norris' new production The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre's Olivier Theatre (seen 9 June 2016), designed by Vicki Mortimer, used a new adaptation by Simon Stephens with Rory Kinnear as Macheath, Rosalie Craig as Polly, Nick Holder as Peachum, Haydn Gwynne as Mrs Peachum, Peter de Jersey as Tiger Brown, Sharon Small as Jenny and Debbie Kurup as Lucy. David Shrubsole was the musical director, with James Holmes the executive music consultant.

Musical values were very high, the musical ensemble of eight musicians (Andy Findon, Christian Forshaw, Sarah Campbell, Richard Hart, Sarah Freestone, Martin Briggs, Ian Watson) were directed from the piano/harmonium by David Shrubsole and were full involved in the action, with Weill's score being given full weight on the drama. And the actors could all sing, this wasn't the sort of production where everyone did the speaking/singing style which was popular at one point. It is worth bearing in mind that our view of Die Dreigroschen Oper is based on the post-war revivals undertaken under Lotte Lenya's auspices rather than the work's pre-war outings. There is a wide gulf between the two, and if you listen to the recordings of Lenya singing excerpts from it made in the 1930's the style isn't the throaty chanteuse we are used to but a high, light soubrette. Weill's music reflects this, the keys of some of the numbers are quite high and if done properly then it requires performers who can really sing.

Brecht, Weill - The Threepenny Opera - National Theatre - photo Richard Hubert Smith

The biggest surprise was to discover that Rory Kinnear has a useful singing voice, a pleasantly light baritone. It isn't a Broadway belt sort of voice, but that is not what was needed here, and his style seemed just right for Macheath's music. More to the point, Kinnear had the knack of being expressive when singing (something which isn't true of all actors), so that Macheath's songs really did become an extension of Kinnear's dramatic persona. Kinnear wasn't the most malevolent of Macheath's, instead he was quietly efficient and ruthless and whilst this approach was not immediately colourful, it built to a strong and poignant conclusion. Kinnear's account of Macheath's long, final solo was terrific music drama. He was also sexually ambiguous, with the relationship between Peter de Jersey's Tiger Brown being clearly sexual (the two get into a clinch at one point).

He was surrounded by a group of strong characters, all of whom were as expressive in song as in speech, thus making this performance a joy to listen to. For the first time in a long time, I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the score without being on the edge of my seat.

The delight of having both - A Midsummer Nights Dream

Lucy Thatcher and David North - A Midsummer Night's Dream  - © 2016 Celia Bartlett Photography

Mendelssohn/Shakespeare A Midsummer Nights Dream; David North, Lucy Thatcher, Nigel Richards, Joe Sleight, Mark Hawkins, Ben Wiggins, Bebe Sanders, Frances McNamee, Rob Hughes, David Edwards, Michael Vivian, Outcry Ensemble, James Henshaw; Temple Music at Middle Temple Hal
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 3 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Mendelssohn's incidental music in a lively new production of Shakespeare's play in Middle Temple Hall

Joe Sleight, Sam Townsend and one of the fairies
 © 2016 Celia Bartlett Photography

Middle Temple Hall's connection to Shakespeare dates back to the playwright's lifetime when we know that As You Like It was performed there, so that the hall is the only surviving venue we have where Shakespeare's plays were performed in his lifetime. Temple Music now puts on a highly regarded concert series in the hall, so in celebration of the Shakespeare 400 anniversary, they presented a performance of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's incidental music, we caught the second performance on 3 May 2016.

The production director was David Edwards, with Michael Vivian directing the play. James Henshaw conducted the Outcry Ensemble, designs were by Colin Mayes with lighting by Mike Lambert. David North was Theseus & Oberon, Lucy Thatcher was Hippolyta & Titania, Joe Sleight was Puck, Nigel Richards was Egeus & Snout, Mark Hawkins was Lysander, Ben Wiggins was Demetrius, Bebe Sanders was Hermia, Frances McNamee was Helena, Rob Hughes was Bottom, Bobby Hirston was Quince, Sam Townsend was Flute, Michael Luxton was Starveling and Scarlett Neville was Snug. Aidan Oliver was the chorus master of the women's chorus, with Jessica Cale and Lucy Goddard singing the solos.

Mendelssohn's music was written to accompany a performance of Shakespeare's play in Potsdam in 1843, utilising the overture which the young Mendelssohn had written in 1826 The music is best known from Mendelssohn's suite and the larger movements, Scherzo, Nocturne, Wedding March are all intended as intermezzos. Additionally there are the two settings of the fairy songs (Ye spotted snakes from Act Two and the final Through the house give glimmering light) plus much incidental music, either linking passages or melodramas, which hardly makes sense out of context. Interestingly, Mendelssohn confines these musical elements to the fairies and the mechanicals (the melodramas are there to enhance the magical moments from Puck and Oberon), the young lovers are played without any musical elements. In this Mendelssohn's technique was remarkably akin to that of Purcell in his semi-operas, where it was only the minor characters or the non-humans who sang.

At Middle Temple Hall, both play and music were cut, the play substantially so and the music slightly, to bring the playing time in at around two hours 20 minutes. But there was the essence of both to give the right idea, and the cutting of the play was probably true to the original Berlin performances as Henry Irving's famous London performances of Shakespeare were always heavily cut.

Fiddler on the Roof at Grange Park Opera.

Bryn Terfel and ensemble, Fiddler on the Roof, Grange Park Opera - photo credit Robert Workman

Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein Fiddler on the Roof; Bryn Terfel, Janet Fullerlove, Charlotte Harwood, Katie Hall, Molly Lynch, Rebecca Wheatley, Anthony Flaum, Jordan Simon Pollard, dir: Anthony McDonald, cond: David Charles Abell, BBC Concert Orchestra; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 21 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Star turn and brilliant ensemble, in this revival of the 1964 classic musical

Bryn Terfel, photo credit Robert Workman

The advantage of seeing a musical like Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein's Fiddler on the Roof at Grange Park Opera, is that they perform without amplification, and using full, original orchestrations. On 21 June 2015 we caught up with the production, which has the additional attraction of starring Bryn Terfel in the main role of Tevye. Directed and designed by Anthony McDonald, with costumes by Gabrielle Dalton, choreography by Lucy Burge, the cast included Janet Fullerlove as Golde, Charlotte Harwood as Tzeitel, Katie Hall as Hodel, Molly Lynch as Chava, Rebecca Wheatley as Yente, Anthony Flaum as Motel, Jordan Simon Pollard as Perchik, Cameron Blakely as Lazar Wolf and Craig Fletcher as Fyedka. David Charles Abell conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra.

I have to confess that I had never seen Fiddler on the Roof before, and had only seen bits of the 1971 film with Topol. But, as with many great musicals, the songs have taken on an independent life of their own and I knew many of them already, but it always improves a song to hear it in the correct context.

The musical is based on stories by Sholem Aleichem, and his creation of Tevye the Milkman who lives with his wife and five daughters in a shtetl in Russia in the early 20th century had already generated a large number of stage adaptations before the 1964 musical. It is a slightly curious choice for a musical, in that there is only one major solo role, Tevye. His wife Golde gets only a couple of duets, and the rest of the cast (his daughters and their suitors) each have a moment, but the twin thrust of the musical remains Tevye and the whole ensemble of the villagers. Like a number of musicals from the 1950's and 1960's, there is no big finish; instead the work ends with the Jewish villagers being forced to leave the stetl as a result of the 1905 pogroms and seek a new life elsewhere.

The main dramatic and comic impulse of the piece is the struggle with tradition. Elkan Pressman, who was the production's consultant on Jewish traditions, suggests in his article in the programme book that Tevye's village, Anatevka, may be modelled on Sholem Aleichem's own village which was near Kiev; if so, then the style of Judaism practised was what we call Hasidic. Within this strictly regulated society, Tevye's three elder daughters struggle to bring in the modern world and each one takes a suitor further and further away from their father's wishes. The ending can be seen in this context, making the whole work a long arc as the secure boundaries (physical and mental) of the stetl and its faith are gradually dismantled.

Why does the Queen die?

Iain Burnside Why does the Queen die?; dir:Iain Burnside; Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 2 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Iain Burnside's imaginative interweaving of Schubert's life and songs

Iain Burnside's new play Why does the Queen die? was commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival and performed there by a cast from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in October 2014, and they have now brought the production home to the Studio Theatre at Milton Court (seen Saturday 2 May 2015) where it was performed by a young cast with Edward Liddall as Franz Schubert, Matthew Palmer as Josef von Spaun, Jonathan Hyde as Franz von Schober, Pierre Riley as Anselm Hüttenbrenner, Adam Sullivan as Johann Mayrhofer, Thomas Isherwood as Moritz von Schwind, Jessica Dandy as Gisela, Bianca Andrew as Lotte, Judy Brown as Silke, Ines Lorans as Karoline Esterhazy and Adrian Thompson as Johann Michael Vogl. Iain Burnside directed, with design by Aaron Marsden and Catherine Morton.

As Iain Burnside explains in a video on YouTube, the piece interleaves Schubert songs with vignettes from Schubert's life from 1815 to 1828. There is a lot that we don't know about Schubert and his life, and this was a remarkable dramatic portrait combining both life and songs. This was very much Schubert seen through the eyes of his friends (many of whom were writers and artists rather than musicians) with gossip about servant girls, nights at the Crown Inn, sausage parties and a dislike of the gloomy late songs. Much of Schubert's piano music (solo and duet) played by Pierre Riley, Edward Liddell and Ines Lorans underscored the scenes, and this along with the songs served to suggest Schubert's darker side. Some songs were woven into the narrative at Schubertiade type events, or when he distinguished older tenor Vogl (Adrian Thompson) came round. Some were slotted between the narrative, as comment, such as late on suggesting Mayrhofer's strong feelings for Schubert, or a lullaby sung to the dying Schubert by all the cast. The strange and powerful Der Zwerg was subjected to almost an analysis in a tour de force by Adrian Thompson as Vogl, and the song gave the whole play its title.

Dara - a visual epic

Vincent Ebrahim as Dara
credit Ellie Kurttz

Tanya Ronder/Shahid Nadeem Dara; Zubin Varla, Vincent Ebrahim, Sargon Yelda, dir: Nadia Fall; Royal National Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 28 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Visual spectacle, and religious strife; an Indian historical epic brought to life

On Saturday night (28 March 2015) we had one of our occasional forays into non-musical theatre to see Tanya Ronder's adaptation of Shahid Nadeem's play Dara at the Royal National Theatre, directed by Nadia Fall. I have to confess that our reasons for going were many and varied, an interest in the history of the period (the era when the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal), the continuing importance of the subject matter (struggle between two branches of Islam as embodied by Shah Jahan's sons Dara and Aurangzeb) and the stunning designs (by Katrina Lindsay) based on Mogul miniatures, not to mention the plethora of magnificent beards.

Sargaon Yelda as Aurangzeb
photo credit Ellie Kurttz

The whole look of the play was indeed stunning, not just Lindsay's superb costumes but that when the cast stood they looked like the originals. Both Sargon Yelda as Aurangzeb and Zubin Varla as Dara stood in poses which even seemed to emulate the posture of those depicted in miniatures.

The play is based on an original by Shahid Nadeem, premiered in Pakistan by the Ajoka Theatre. But whereas Ajoka Theatre's production evidently used narrative and lots of song and dance to tell the story, Tanya Ronder and director Nadia Fall had transformed it into a neo-Shakespearean epic embodied by the stunning trial scene at the end of the first part, when Dara is put on trial for apostasy by a Sharia court. I have to confess that I wanted more of this religious debate, but I am aware that not everyone has my appetite for religious debate.

Scott Karim as Faqir
credit Ellie Kurttz

The show was billed as lasting two hours 40 minutes (or two hours 50 minutes) but in fact it last two hours 30 minutes which made me wonder whether it had been trimmed. For me it was still too long, and Ronder's fascination with intercutting scenes past and present led to a rather patchwork of short scenes which took a long time (the first 45 minutes) to settle into a clear narrative.

The performances were superb and both Zubin Varla as Dara and Sargon Yelda as Aurangzeb were strong and contrasting. In fact their stage time together was limited but the emotional charge between them was such that you wanted more. Vincent Ebrahim was similarly strong as Shah Jahan, with Nathalie Armin and Anneika Rose providing strong support as his daughters Roshanara and Jahanara (conveniently for the plot, one supporting each brother), and Chook Sibtain as Itbar the imperial eunuch who has the grisly duty of delivering Dara's severed head to his father.

It was a large cast, many playing multiple roles, with 22 cast members listed in the biographies in the programme book. Perhaps there were slightly too many roles, and some short scenes seemed a little redundant and not everyone had the power to take the stage if their scene was a bit weak dramatically. But overall this a very strong ensemble cast.

Trial scene - Vincent Ebrahim as Dara
& Prasanna Puwanarajah as Prosecutor Talib
and the company of Dara credit Ellie Kurttz

It was heartening to see virtually an entire cast of actors of Indian, Pakistani and similar heritage, and it is rather shaming that given the wealth of talent, such things do not happen more often. Given the Shakespearean historical epic nature of the play, it seemed a shame that the opportunity hadn't been taken to make this even more of a project, and perform a Shakespearean play with the same cast, running alongside Dara.

Though three live musicians (Nawazish Khan, Kaviraj Sing Dhadyalla, Vikaash Sankadecha) were involved in the production music did not play that much of a role, often acting as little more than a backdrop or as entractes between scenes. There was one spectacular moment at Faqir, the sufi master's house at the start of part two when music and dance seemed to form a central part of the production and I could have wished for more.

It wasn't just the casting which was significant, the audience too seemed to be from a rather different demographic than usual, and the theatre was full. So no matter how we critics chunter about details, there was much to celebrate in a fascinating and ultimately gripping evening.
Elsewhere on this blog:

• Eastern inspiration: Felicien David's Le Desert - CD review
• Is this a crossover disc? My encounter with tenor Matthew Long - interview
• A Musical Dedication: Homages from Christoph Denoth - CD review
• Palate cleanser: The Indian Queen from The Sixteen - CD review
• 18 century Viennese court style: Raffaella Milanesi - CD review
• Exploring Beethoven: Jonathan Biss - CD review
• New light on old forms: Iestyn Davies in lute songs old and new - CD review
• Celebrating magna carta: Temple Church Choir - CD review
• Bravura brilliance and expressive singing: Lucy Crowe, Tim Mead, David Bates and La Nuova Musica - concert review
• A passion for Gilbert and Sullivan: My encounter with John Savournin of Charles Court Opera - interview
• Sheer beauty of sound: The Holst Singers in Frank Martin - concert review
• Imaginative reconstruction: Music for the coronation of Charles II - CD review
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Method in the madness - Farinelli and the King

Melody Grove, Mark Rylance, Edward Peel
photo Marc Brenner

Claire van Kampen Farinelli and the King; Rylance, Grove, Crane, Davies, dir Dove; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 24 2015
Star rating: 4.5
Dazzlingly theatrical examination of the relationship between the castrato and the mad King of Spain

The film Farinelli, amongst its many other faults, had the major flaw that it completely ignored the most unusual and intriguing event in the singer Farinelli's life. At the age of 32 he turned his back on existing commitments and a dazzling career on the operatic stage, and he went to Spain where, the story goes, he cured King Felipe of madness by singing him the same group of arias every night. Whilst the reality was a little more nuanced than this story, the essentials are there. 

Iestyn Davies, Sam Crane
photo Marc Brenner

Claire van Kampen's new play Farinelli and the King, which we saw last night (24 February 2015) at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre explores the mystery by looking in detail at the relationship between the castrato Farinelli, Philippe (King Felipe) and his wife Isabella. Van Kampen's husband, Mark Rylance (former artistic director of the Globe Theatre) played Philippe, with Melody Grove as Isabella and Sam Crane as Farinelli, plus Huss Garbiya as Doctor Jose Cervi, Colin Hurley as Metastasio, Edward Peel as De La Cuadra. A feature of the play is the seriousness with which it treats the music (Van Kampen is also a composer) and the role of Farinelli was sung by the counter-tenor Iestyn Davies (it will be William Purefoy at some performances), with accompaniment from John Crockett (violin), Arngeir Hauksson (lute/recorder) and Jonathan Byers (cello), directed from the harpsichord by Robert Howarth. The production was directed by John Dove, designed by Jonathan Fensom.

The play opened with Philippe (Rylance) on his daybed trying to catch his goldfish with a fishing rod. A threat by the King's chief minister to have the monarch declared mad and removed from the throne forced Isabella (Grove) to follow the advice of the Muslim trained Doctor Cervi (Garbiyas) and go and fetch the castrato Farinelli (Crane). Farinelli's singing improves the King and he starts to function again, but there are still oddnesses and for the second act he has taken himself, Isabella and Farinelli to live in  wood so that they can 'hear the stars'.