La Cage aux Folles

On Monday we went to see La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre. Terry Johnson's production originated at the Menier Chocolate Factory, but most critics seemed to think that it had benefited from being moved to the bigger theatre, not that the Playhouse is huge.

I had never seen the musical live, but was familiar with the previous West End production where it was produced at the Palladium in 1986. This was a highly glamorous creation and I had always felt that this style was unsuitable for the musical, which could benefit from a slightly grittier edge.

The Menier production, being essentially small scale, has followed this line. The nightclub is a rather dowdy place and the dancers, though technically superb, definitely carry with them a whiff of drag troupes like Bloolips.

The night we went, everyone was ill, so that both Georges and Albin were played by covers and Robert Maskell, playing Albin, was announced as being ill. In fact Maskell was superb and the only sign of illness was that his voice sounded a little tired by the end.

Maskell's Albin was, of necessity, camp but not grotesquely so and Maskell generated an enormous amount of sympathy for the character. His delivery of I am what I am at the close of Act 1 was definitely no torch song and profoundly moving. Albin was presented as a drag entertainer like the old style drag artists such as the Trollettes. Maskell's Albin was javascript:void(0)certainly no Danny La Rue, but a more believable rather rumpled figure.

The musical has the profound virtue of putting two middle aged men at the centre of the show, and this production did not try to over glamorise them. Instead their relationship was rendered believable, touching and ultimately very moving.

The chorus, some 8 strong, were wonderful. All men, they danced, sang and managed to look funny, sexy and threatening.

We went to the show expecting a bit of frilly Christmas entertainment but found the show was much more than this. Highly recommended.

Christmas Music

We spent Christmas in Canterbury and managed to attend a couple of services at the Cathedral. The cathedral choir does amazing work at this period, in the 25 hours from 3pm on Dec 24th to 4pm on Christmas day they sang a carol service, evensong, matins, sung eucharist and finally evensong again. An amazing tally.

For Christmas eve Evensong they did the Lloyd Responses (second set), the Nunc Dimittis from Wood in B flat and Praetorius's Omnis mundus jucundetur. The Magnificat was sung plainchant, preceded and followed by the Antiphon O Virgo virginum, the previous 10 days having been devoted to all the great O anthems. Wood in B flat was unfamiliar to me but proved to be sung in Latin and richly romantic.

On Christmas day we were treated to a crisp performance of Poulenc's Hodie Christus natus est, a wonderful account of RVW's Te Deum and Walton's Jubilate. This latter was striking and also unknown to me. The anthem was Britten's Sycamore Tree. All were given in strong performances which made due allowance for the cathedral's acoustic and formed a moving start to Christmas day.

We did not wait for Sung Eucharist (and hence missed the Archbishop's sermon). The setting for the service was Mozart's Spaurmesse.

La Chapelle du Roi at St. Johns Smith Square

On Saturday Chapelle du Roi, conductor Alistair Dixon, gave their programme The Marriage of England and Spain as part of the St. Johns Smith Square Christmas Festival. The centre-piece of the programme was the pair of motets by Philippe de Monte and William Byrd. De Monte set 4 verses from Psalm 137 (By the Rivers of Babylon) and sent the motet to Byrd. It was de Monte's way of commiserating with the suppression of Catholics in England. Byrd responded with his motet Quomodo cantabimus which set other verses from the same psalm. A wonderfully powerful pairing.

On the English side we also got Sheppard's lovely respond, Reges Tharsis and Tallis's Beati immaculati. On the Spanish side there was Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium, Guerrero's Alma Redemptoris and O Domine Jesu. The concert finished with Victoria's lovely 8-part Alam redemptoris mater.

The choir numbered only 8 singers, but managed to make a lovely rich sound, especially in the Spanish pieces.

But of course, there was one other item in the programme. My own Puer natus est nobis, the motet for the 3rd Mass on Christmas Day from Tempus per Annum. The work's style fitted in well with the programme (which also included medieval carols), and showed that the motets from the collection work beautifully when sung by singers used to polyphony and plainchant. Dixon's speeds in my motet were not what I had quite envisaged, but he managed to find something hauntingly beautiful in the piece.

Review of Hansel and Gretel

If it's Christmas it must be Hansel and Gretel, except that David Pountney's ENO production seems to have fallen out of use and Covent Garden, amazingly, have not performed the work since before the war. That has now changed and they have a new production directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. It has been double cast but we saw the first cast on Thursday (18th December).

Set Designer Christian Fenouillat has provided a neat single set. Basically a sloping sided box, so that the rear of the stage is a square raised above floor level. For act 1 the front space is taken by Hansel (Angelika Kirchschlager) and Gretel's (Diana Damrau) bedroom; we never see the kitchen where this act of the opera usually takes place. Then for act 2 this disappears and we learn that the box is covered with images of the wood. The rear 'wall' is in fact used to display a variety of effects, initially an non-threatening image of the wood which gradually changes to a threatening one. Then the Sandman (Pumeza Matshikiza) appears, using the raised level of the rear opening to make her body appear smaller than it is. Finally, the angels appear from the same opening, creating a fantasy fireside along with Mother (Elizabeth Connell) and Father (Thomas Allen).

Act 3 opens with the Dew Fairy (Anita Watson) appearing from the rear along with her cleaning trolley and she proceeds to clean up after the shenanigans at the end of Act 2. When the Witch's hut appears it is a small scale, edible cake in the shape of the hut. We glimpse the witch (Anja Silja) who, when not seen by the children, has exposed (false) breasts like a fertility image.

When Silja does appear she is the embodiment of a frightening old woman, albeit a slightly glamorous one. When the children try to flee the rear of the stage changes and their exit is cut of with a huge deep freeze containing the suspended bodies of dead children. Then the forest turns into the witch's kitchen, where she cooks the bodies of young children into gingerbread. The result is freaky rather than scary but the transformation is eminently theatrical.

Damrau and Kirschlager formed a wonderful team as the two kids and their hi-jinks seemed to make more sense in the context of them lazing in their bedroom. Connell and Allen also managed to develop a credible relationship in what is quite a short time. Once in the wood, Damrau and Kirschlager continued to entrance and develop distinctly separate personalities.

As the witch, Silja was scary without ever being hackneyed and her scream and laugh were wonderful. She is still a wonderful singing actor, but her voice now how so much vibrato that you are uncertain what note she is singing. This did matter, but given the strength of her characterisation, this mattered less than it might have.

The children from Tiffin were a little disappointing, but it seemed that Colin Davis did not allow them very much leeway both in terms of the volume of the orchestra and the amount of stage business they had been given.

Davis and the orchestra gave a lovingly rich account of the score. This is very much an orchestrally driven account of the piece. Davis's speeds were on the moderate side but it never felt slow, simply a gently rich interpretation.

The production had a number of quirky points and was most enjoyable. It does not say as much as Pountney did, but Leiser and Caurier have certainly provided a very revivable account of the opera.

Gleanings from this month's Opera Magazine

In the interview with Jonas Kaufman he is described as one of the world's leading lyric tenors, which seems strange for a man who has Florestan and Aeneas (Les Troyens) in his repertoire. It is interesting that Hugh Canning suggests that Wunderlich is a sing whose career Kaufman's resembles, so certainly a space to watch. And he's doing Don Carlos at Covent Garden next year; if only it was in French life would be complete!

A survey of lesser known tenors makes the interesting point that in the era of the 78, most singers with a certain degree of celebrity could be asked to make a few records. But nowadays this becomes increasingly unlikely and there are all sorts of people who have fallen through the cracks.

In Montpelier they have been digging up hidden gems again. First off Pizzetti's Fedra. Pizzetti is definitely a name rare on the London operatic stage; surely we ought to get a fresh look at his operatic version of Murder in the Cathedral?

The second Montpelier opera was La Esmeralda by Louise Bertin. Until Montpelier revived it the opera had last been performed in 1836, but Liszt had prepared the vocal score and Berlioz took the rehearsals. Sounds like another one for the lists of possibles.

Still in the neglected opera corner, over in Karlsruhe they have been trying out Alfanos' Cyrano de Bergerac.

In Dublin, Balfe's Falstaff has received a rare outing (and there is going to be a recording). If we can get decent new editions of the operas, let us hope that this is a promise of more Balfe operas to come. Perhaps singing them in Italian might get over the slight neo-G&S aura which hangs over his work.

And in Macerata they've presented Marco Tutino's opera The Servant based on the Robin Maugham short story (and Joseph Losey film). Sounds the sort of thing it would be interesting to present in the UK.

Drottningholm revived FLorian Gassman's 1769 opera buffa Opera Seria, which turns out to have a libretto by Calzabigi, librettist of Gluck's Reform operas.

And in Martina Franca they heard Mercadante's final opera, Pelagio. Mercadante's music has been heard at Wexford, but even they do not appear to have managed to conjure the composer out of Verdi's shadow, and performances of his operas are still rare.

In Munich they've just presented Robert Carsen's new production of Ariadne auf Naxos, not a rareity I grant you, but it was performed in the small(ish) but perfectly formed PrinzRegenten Theater, which has an auditorium shaped like Bayreuth's. Still in Munich, Agnes Baltsa appeared as Klytemnestra in Elektra. Baltsa is a singer who seemed something of a fixture at Covent Garden for a period before disappearing with remarkable rapidity.

Weimar's Ring has reached it's conclusion, but seems to provide no element of final redemption, which seems to negate Wagner's point. But trying to judge an opera performance based on what someone has written is always tricky, even though I end up doing it rather a lot. Over in Lisbon, Susan Bullock has been doing her duty as Brunnhilde in Graham Vick's Siegfried. We, of course, have to wait a few years yet to hear her in the role.

In the UK age is catching up on me and I marvel that ENO's Jonathan Miller Barber of Seville is currently 21 year's old and WNO's Giles Havergal Barber is 22 years old. In the former John Tessier sounds as if he was terrific, but its too much to hope that he got his final aria (the one Rossini re-used in La Cenerentola).

Opera North's Tosca starred Takesha Meshe Kizart who, it turns out, is the great-niece of Blues legend Muddy Waters.

Finally, in We hear that... It seems that Richard Bonynge is conducting Roberto Devereux at Holland Park next year. Rosemary Joshua is doing Despina at Covent Garden in 2011, I'd like to say that I wish it was something more exciting, but that would let me down by showing how low Cosi comes in my reckoning.

Recent book review

My review of Thomas E. Muir's Roman Catholic Church Music in England, 1791 - 1914: A Handmaid of the Liturgy is here, on MusicWeb International.

Essential reading for anyone with interest in music in the RC Church in England ...

Gaudete!

If you are not doing anything this evening and are in London, then my motet Gaudete is being performed at Evensong at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, W1, the choir of All Saints being conducted by Paul Brough

Recent CD Review

My review of Red Byrd's Elizabethan Christmas Album is here, on MusicWeb International.
Shows its age but a charming Christmas present ...

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Lully's Armide on Naxos is here.
A creditable and approachable Armide ...
And my review of Puccini's Il Tabarro with Tito Gobbi is here. Both reviews on MusicWeb International.
For dramatic truth this can hardly be bettered ...

Review of "Parisina d'Este"

My review of Opera Rara's performance of Donizetti's Parisina d'Este is here, on Music and Vision.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Thomas Linley's The Song of Moses on Hyperion Helios, is here.
Music which deserves to be better known ...

And my review of Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day from I Barocchisti is here. Both reviews are on Music and Vision.
Crisp and lively but does not quite live up to opening promise ...

Review of Sancta Civitas

My review of the Bach choir's recent London concert, performing RVW's Sancta Civitas and Howells's Sir Patrick Spens is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Rusalka

My review of ETO's final performance of Rusalka at the Cambridge Arts Theatre is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Riders to the Sea

The short run of performances of Riders to the Sea at the London Coliseum were intended to be conducted by Richard Hickox. In the event they were performed as a memorial, conducted by Edward Gardner.

ENO and director Fiona Shaw, chose to perform opera alone with a short prologue, rather than trying to fit its austere perfection into a triple bill - something few opera companies have done successfully. ENO obviously miscalculated the demand for the opera as the run had to be extended by adding a further performance later on Friday evening. So that after we had attended the 7.15pm performance on Friday 28th November, the performers would have to do everything again at 9.30pm.

Shaw and her designers Dorothy Cross and Tom Pye used designs evoking the Aran Isles on the West Coast of Ireland. For the prologue Susan Gritton gave a powerful and moving performance in Finnish, Sibelius's Luonnotar, a setting of part of the Kalevala about the birth of the world. Luonnotar is a spirit of the air who drifts through the waves and Gritton had as her back drop evocative vidoes from Dorothy Cross. At the end of the piece we had a short atmospheric interlude from John Woolrich whilst 6 men helped the heavily pregnant Luonnotar out of her boat. These men then helped set up Maurya's house. In fact there was no house, just an austere rocky setting with the house invisible but assumed to be there, indicated by key props like a kettle and a chair.

The men occupied the house until the women, Nora (Claire Booth) and Cathleen (Kate Valentine) erupted into it. We began to understand that these were the ghost of Maurya's already dead sons and husband. The ghost of the recently dead Michael haunted the stage, watching much of the action.

RVW set the text of Synge's play almost complete and eschewed any sort of aria, instead providing the singers with an expressive arioso which reflected the speech rhythms of Synge's Irish inflected English. Shaw got the sort of naturalistic acting from the singers which made sense of this, for most of the opera. Booth and Valentine were strong in the important roles of the daughters. And Leigh Melrose made as much as he could of the short role of Bartley, the sole surviving son whose death triggers the final catharsis.

Patricia Bardon was almost unrecognisable as Maurya, the old woman who is mother to the family. Bardon was severe, but not overly grim and fierce as Maurya which made her more sympathetic than some interpreters.

Though Shaw paced the whole opera well, I felt that from Maurya's 'I seen the fearfullest vision', when she relates seeing the ghosts of her two most recently dead sons, the acting style could have become less naturalistic. The setting did so, as the ghosts of the dead husband and sons came on along with their now lost boats. But Bardon, Valentine and Booth were firmly entrenched in a naturalistic acting style. And I wanted something a little more transcendent, reflecting RVW's ending. I had the feeling that though Shaw was responsive to RVW's music, for her ending she was staging the words more than the music. RVW's music with the great scena at the end for Maurya, 'They're all gone now' helps transcend the bleakness of the action into something wonderful.

Luckily, Patricia Bardon's performance was everything that we could hope for. Here account of the ending was beautifully musical and profoundly moving.

I do hope that this production does not disappear, it proved to be a strong account of RVW's operatic masterpiece and deserves to be seen more.

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Joyce di Donato's Handel recital is here.
An absorbing and brilliant recital ...

And my review of Kathleen Ferrier singing Bach and Handel is here. Both reviews on Music and Vision.
Profoundly moving performances, strong musicality and emotional truth ...

There's something about Mary

The Armonico Consort are a talented vocal ensemble, based in Warwick, whose range extends from 16th century polyphony to staged performances of Rossini's Barber of Seville. They made a rare London appearance on Tuesday (25th November) as part of the Choral at Cadogan series at the Cadogan Hall.

Entitled There's Something About Mary, the concert concentrated on polyphony written during the short reign of Mary Tudor, when elaborate Latinate music enjoyed a brief renaissance in England. The centre piece of the programme was Tallis's wonderful Missa Puer Natus est Nobis, with the choir performing all 3 surviving movements (Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei) interspersed with contemporary organ music by Tallis, John Bull, Antonio de Caezon and Francisco Correa de Arauxo, and polyphony from Guerrero, Lobo and Sheppard.

Tallis's mass was written for 7 part choir (AATTBaBB) but was performed transposed up by a 16 voiced ensemble which included 6 sopranos, 3 altos, 3 tenors and 4 basses. I am entirely unclear quite how the parts were allocated but the general effect seemed to be a little weak on the inner parts. The choir made a fine rich sound, but it was most definitely soprano and bass led.

Cadogan Hall is a tricky place in which to sing polyphony and the group seem to take a little time to get used to it. The acoustic is rather dry for choral music and lacks the sort of resonance which adds lustre to this music. At first, the start of each movement was a little tentative but in the end they sang with a rich sound.

In fact the piece that worked the best was Guerroro's lovely Ave virgo sanctissima - a 5 part piece with 2 soprano parts. The resulting textures were rich and luscious, with better internal balance than in the Tallis. This is not a group where individual voices are massaged into uniformity, the singers all displayed lovely voices which blended whilst retaining their individuality.

The organ interludes were performed by Charles Matthews on a little chamber organ whose tones were delightful, but sounded a trifle quiet in the Caodgan Hall.

Though they performed Lobo's Versa est in luctum, they performed Vittoria's Versa from the Requiem in memory of Richard Hickox. The closing work from the printed programme was John Sheppard's Libera nos with its astonishing dissonances, you never wanted it to end.

ETO Handel celebration

English Touring Opera have announced the dates for their ambitious Handel Celebration in Autumn 2009, part of the celebration's for the company's 30th birthday. They are reviving their productions of Tolomeo, Alcina, Ariodante and Teseo, and adding a new production of Flavio. The tour opens on 15th October 2009 at the Britten Theatre and then moves on to Exeter, Malvern, Buxton and Cambridge. It will come as a great relief to all ETO's Handel opera lovers that the London season is at the Britten Theatre rather than the Hackney Empire. Though the Britten Theatre is smaller, it has the advantage of better transport infrastructure; getting home to south London from Hackney after a 3 hour Handel opera is no fun at all, lovely though the Hackney Empire is as a theatre.

Their spring 2009 tour includes Mozart's Magic Flute and Janacek's Katya Kabanova, plus concert performances of Bellini's Norma.

Richard Hickox (1948 - 2008)

I first saw Richard Hickox conduct in Manchester in the mid 1970's (probably 1974). He was the conductor in the Royal Northern College of Music's production of Aida. I don't recall that any of the production's singers went on to be famous but it was conducted by Hickox who would have been in his late 20's. Looking back on it, it was an incredible achievement for a young conductor. [Having done a little research it turns out that John Rawnsley was, I think, the Amonasro in that production]

He came back into my purview in the 1980's when I came to live in London. Initially I sang with the London Philharmonic Choir and Hickox was known because he conducted the LSO Chorus. He used to conduct large scale choral works with them on Sunday evenings at LSO concerts. My main feelings about his conducting was that he was more than competent but rather uninteresting; the most interesting thing was his repertoire.

Hickox remained on the radar and cropped up periodically. He did one or two very good things at the Spitalfields Festival, especially the 1985 Handel Alcina with Arleen Auger (which was subsequently recorded). Out of this, there were attempts to form an opera company. They subsequently did Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea, again with Auger and Della Jones, but this was not so successful. I also remember an interesting take on Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Hickox's recordings usually came to my attention because of their interesting repertoire, though I must confess that I don't have that many on my shelves. In areas of interest such as RVW, I tended to prefer other conductors. But somewhere along the way he grew into a conductor of stature, giving performances of interest. I am not quite sure when this happened. The Barbican performance of RVW's Pilgrim's Progress was very notable (it was subsequently recorded) but I felt that the performance this summer at Sadler's Wells had far greater stature, no matter what you thought about the relative merits of Gerald Finley and Roderick Williams as Pilgrim. But where I was most impressed was with the sequence of RVW symphonies that Hickox did with the Philharmonia. These were all revelations and I now deeply regret that we could not make the first in the series which included the Sea Symphony.

Some conductors only really develop into interesting personalities in old age; Mackerras is a prime example. I began to feel that this was what was happening to Hickox and that he had the most interesting 20 years of his career ahead of him. I never had any really idea of his age, except to know that he must have been around 5 years older than me (in fact 8). He never seemed to age and even in his 40's looked like the same little boy of 20 years earlier. Unfortunately we'll never know what sort of conductor he would have developed into, but at least we have his astounding catalogue of recordings to listen to.

Review of Bellini's 'I Capuletti e i Montecchi'

Orpha Phelan's production of Bellini's I Capuletti e i Montecchi for Opera North[Nottingham Theatre Royal, 22nd November] opened with a drop, curtain apparently of metal, inscribed with a huge target and pockmarked with bullet holes. During the overture, the chorus, in contemporary costume, assembled slowly and passed through a secret door in the drop curtain.

When the overture finished and the drop curtain rose we were in a space. The opera's setting remained stylishly unspecific, almost abstract. For Act 1 the playing area was a triangle of parquet flooring, surrounded by dark. For the first scene a chandelier was added.

It was apparent that this was to be a contemporary version of the opera. Capellio (Nikolay Didenko) was some sort of gang leader, perhaps Mafia, perhaps Irish. Didenko had the physique for the role but I felt that Opera North could have found a more subtle singer closer to home. His supporters, both male and female, were all be-suited thuggish types. Lorenzo (Henry Waddington) was the decent doctor, ministering to Capellio's clan.

Edgaras Montvidas as Tebaldo stood out in his leather overcoat; he stood out also because he is tall and slim, relatively rare for a tenor. Montvidas, a Lithuanian, was a Young Artist at Covent Garden and is now at Frankfurt Opera. He is a Pollione rather than Nemorino and should easily encompass the Duke in Rigoletto. As Tebaldo he was, perhaps, a little more vigorous than was desirable, nudging the role closer to Verdi than was perhaps desirable. But he looked so good, sounded good and shaped the role so well that it hardly seemed to matter.

Sarah Connolly's Romeo, when he arrived, was dressed in a white linen suit. Women are tricky to dress in men's suits and, frankly, designer Leslie Travers attempt for Connolly wasn't flattering. As in her recent Octavian for ENO, Connolly looked a little too mature but sounded fabulous. She captured something of Romeo's impetuousness and youthful ardour.

For Giulietta's first scene a matching triangular glass and metal structure descended, to create a very striking stage image. Reflected in the glass could be seen vague images of Capellio's guards, guarding Giulietta. Marie Arnet's Giulietta was discovered lying on the floor. I gradually warmed to Arnet's Giulietta, but initially her voice seemed a little uncertain. In the upper register it's vibrato gave it a quavery feeling, rendering the voice fragile and uncertain. To a certain extend this could have been to give the character naivety and uncertainty. But fioriture in music of this period needs to be sung with a firmness of voice that Arnet seemed to lack. This was a shame as she beautifully conveyed Giuletta's fragility and her toughness. She was especially good in the scene where Giulietta refuses to flee with Romeo because of her family honour.

Just before Giulietta was due to be married to Tebaldo, Phelan turned the chorus into Giulietta's dream/nightmare - a Giulietta double was manhandled by her father's men and by Tebaldo. In some ways this was an apposite touch, but unfortunately Phelan's drama seemed to find more violence in the piece than was portrayed in Bellini's music. But for much of Act 1, the violence jarred with the music; the people described in Bellini's music are not as rough and uncouth as those that Phelan and her cast created. This was a shame, because much of the staging was thoughtful and effective. For the quartet, Phelan had the chorus act in tableaux, the soloists moving to interact with them as in a dream, then returning to their places at the front of the stage.

But in Act 2 something happened to Bellini's music and to Phelan's production. For much of Act 1 Bellini had raided earlier operas with the result that the piece is fluent but not always striking or moving. Act 2 he wrote from scratch in his new flexible style. Phelan's production similarly transformed itself. The act opened in the aftermath between the two sides. Travers's barely representational set from Act 1 had been transformed into a stunning abstract frozen explosion. Violence behind her, Phelan's production flowed effortlessly and beautifully. Her staging of the final scene was simple and moving, supporting strong performances from the principals.

Marie Arnet's Giulietta will never be my favourite; one or two fluffed notes indicated that she might not have been on the best form. But her Giulietta was touching and moving, fragile and tough. Her singing was nicely phrased and, whilst I found her vocal quality a little too fluttery, she displayed a good feel for Bellini's touching music.

She was ably complemented by Sarah Connolly's stunning Romeo. Connolly combined Romeo's youthful posturing and impetuousness with a seriousness of purpose (both dramatic and musical) with a lovely feeling for Bellini's musical line. The feeling for line which she brings to Handel, helped transform her shaping of Bellini's romantic arioso into something special. How about a Chandos Opera in English recording of this opera.

Review of "Boris Godunov"

When I first saw Boris Godunov in the original version (at Munich's Staatsoper in the '90s) it seemed like abbreviated highlights of the full opera. But then I was used to the very full version done at ENO (with John Tomlinson as a memorable Boris) and at Covent Garden (in the Tarkovsky production, originally with Robert Lloyd).

Both of these, it should be remembered, used David Lloyd Jones's edition and performed everything Mussorgsky wrote including the St. Basil's Cathedral scene from version 1 which did not make it into version 2. In Mussorgsky's 2nd version, the Simpleton sings only in the final Kromy forest scene, whereas in the versions I am talking about he appears twice, both outside St. Basil's Cathedral and in the final scene.

Thus performed, the opera is a long rambling piece, where the chorus features as the protagonist. The original version is more concentrated and Boris emerges more as the lead character. Frankly this shorter version came as something of a relief on a busy weekday evening, when the longer, more leisurely version could have been a bit of a trial.

We saw the new ENO production on Wed. 19th November. Tim Albery's production, in a setting by Tobias Hoheisel, used a fixed set, a wooden barn-like structure with an uneven floor and great doors which could open to disclose events happening behind. The result was apposite for the rougher scenes but less so for those in Boris's apartments.

The feeling was that both set and version of the opera were chosen for reasons of economy; this seemed to be confirmed in scene 3 when the inn consisted of simply a mobile drinks cart and a couple of stools. No Matter. What was important was the performance.

The opening scene sounded as glorious as ever, though the decision to place some percussion in the balcony meant that those of us in the upper reaches of the theatre (we were in the front Upper Circle) got a rather distorted aural experience. The sounds of a struck metal plate dominated. Peter Rose's Boris sounded mellifluous and thoughtful with beautifully shaped melodic lines, meditative rather than deeply troubled.

Brindley Sherratt's Pimen was truly impressive, with Gregory Turay providing able support. Such was Turay's appeal that I rather regretted not having the Polish act so I could hear more of him. Sometimes Pimen comes over as a boring old fart (the Gurnemanz of Russian opera) but not here where Sherratt was vivid and enlivening.

By contrast the Inn Scene was a bit subdued. Yvonne Howard did her best as the hostess but Albery seemed to take the humour rather seriously and little of the rumbustiousness of other productions came through. I have vivid memories of Haakon Hagegaard proving himself a fine comedian at the Royal Opera House.

Boris's scene with his children is shorter in this version though Sophie Bevan and Anna Grevelius proved very apt as the children. But here the limitations of Rose's Boris came through as he only seemed mildly troubled rather than haunted. But I hoped things would improve.

John Graham Hall was an impressive Shuisky, well in control, firm of voice and deeply untrustworthy. Hall's voice was strong and robust, not quite suggesting the oiliness which Robert Tear brought vocally to the role.

By the time of the scene outside St. Basil's Cathedral, we were resigned to the fact that the setting would not make any attempt to evoke the cathedral. The chorus continued to impress and Robert Murray stood out as a very pitiful (in the best sense) Simpleton.

By the closing council chamber scene it was apparent that Rose's Boris was one of the most beautifully sung accounts of the role that I have ever heard. Each phrase was carefully shaped. The only person to come close was Robert Lloyd when he first sang the role, but Lloyd's performance changed over the years as his delivery got closer to Chaliapin's bark.

Because Rose's delivery was totally unlike Chaliapin's bark does not mean it was wrong. In most ways it was a joy to hear the role so gloriously sung. Unfortunately Rose seemed unable to imbue his voice with the troubles that Boris feels. Rose's Boris never seemed more than mildly perturbed and in the final scene, never seemed ill. Boris should feel as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, his eyes are haunted from the first moment we see him. But Rose did not achieve this. Perhaps he needs to sacrifice some of the perfection of his performance.

Rose's Boris was a magnificent achievement, but very much a work in progress. As a result the ENO chorus emerged as one of the principal protagonists of the opera. Which made it regrettable that we lacked the Kromy Forest scene.

It is ironic that the very virtues of this production (strong supporting roles,strong chorus) and the weakness of the central character made me long for the longer version of the opera.

Edward Gardner and the orchestra played the score with a fine sweep. I hope that ENO allow Albery, Rose and Gardner to revisit this work and strengthen it, turning a promising performance into a powerful.