Recently in Performances

ETO Autumn 2020 Season Announcement: Lyric Solitude

English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.

Love, always: Chanticleer, Live from London … via San Francisco

This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).

Dreams and delusions from Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper at Wigmore Hall

Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.

Treasures of the English Renaissance: Stile Antico, Live from London

Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.

A wonderful Wigmore Hall debut by Elizabeth Llewellyn

Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.

The Sixteen: Music for Reflection, live from Kings Place

For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.

Iestyn Davies and Elizabeth Kenny explore Dowland's directness and darkness at Hatfield House

'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’

Paradise Lost: Tête-à-Tête 2020

‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’

Joyce DiDonato: Met Stars Live in Concert

There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.

‘Where All Roses Go’: Apollo5, Live from London

‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields 're-connect'

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.

Lucy Crowe and Allan Clayton join Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO at St Luke's

The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.

Choral Dances: VOCES8, Live from London

With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.

Royal Opera House Gala Concert

Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.

Fading: The Gesualdo Six at Live from London

"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."

Met Stars Live in Concert: Lise Davidsen at the Oscarshall Palace in Oslo

The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes.

Precipice: The Grange Festival

Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance.

Monteverdi: The Ache of Love - Live from London

There’s a “slide of harmony” and “all the bones leave your body at that moment and you collapse to the floor, it’s so extraordinary.”

Music for a While: Rowan Pierce and Christopher Glynn at Ryedale Online

“Music for a while, shall all your cares beguile.”

A Musical Reunion at Garsington Opera

The hum of bees rising from myriad scented blooms; gentle strains of birdsong; the cheerful chatter of picnickers beside a still lake; decorous thwacks of leather on willow; song and music floating through the warm evening air.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Performances

Vittorio Grigolo as Nemorino and Lucy Crowe as Adina [Photo by Mark Douet © ROH]
21 Nov 2014

L’elisir d’amore, Royal Opera

This third revival of Laurent Pelly’s production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore needed a bit of a pep up to get moving but once it had been given a shot of ‘medicinal’ tincture things spiced up nicely.

L’elisir d’amore, Royal Opera

A review by Claire Seymour

Above: Vittorio Grigolo as Nemorino and Lucy Crowe as Adina [Photo by Mark Douet © ROH]

 

Pelly’s production has much to commend it: capriciousness, irony, tenderness and realism. On this occasion, it was the appearance of Bryn Terfel in his first essay at the role of the fraudulent doctor, Dulcamara, that accounted for the heightened air of expectancy; an anticipation that was further whipped up by the placard-strewn front-drop advertising Dulcamara’s fabled elixirs: ‘Costipazione’, ‘Impotenza’, ‘smettere di fumare’ — you name it, Dulcamara’s tonics truly offer a universal cure.

Terfel’s Dulcamara was less sleazy smooth-operator and more grimy grease-ball. He certainly didn’t intend to waste any time flattering and charming the yokels, and there was no attempt to feign affability or hide his deception, from the villagers or us. So what if the publicity posters on the van are peeling and the fireworks fizzle out? Aided by a couple of brutes, who drive the tatty truck and pick the peasants’ pocket, this Dulcamara is a brisk operator. In ‘Udite, udite, o rustici’ Terfel seemed almost impatient to swindle the peasants, grab the money and make a swift getaway; no matter if Nemorino, desperate for a second dose of the magic draught, was hazardously hanging on to the bull bars.

In Act 1 Terfel’s delivery was precise and vocally powerfully — adding to the quack’s aggressive gruffness — but somewhat, and surprisingly, dramatically low-key. And, despite having swapped his grubby lab-overalls for soiled red velvet, in honour of the pre-nuptial celebrations, ‘Io son ricco e tu sei bella’ was similarly under-played, with none of the hamminess that we might have expected from Terfel. The ‘wandering hands’, however, that drew an irritated ‘Silenzio!’ from groom-to-be Belcore, were a hint of the mischief to come. For in his Act 2 duet with Adina, ‘Quanto amore ed io spietata’, seemingly astonished by the miraculous transformation of Nemorino’s fortunes in love and luck which his elixir has effected, Dulcamara determined to down a large swig himself. The result was a delightfully light-footed leap, a twang of the braces, a wiggle of the bum and a wicked twinkle in the eye; beckoned off-stage by a teasing Adina, Dulcamara at last showed his charisma and appeal. Returning for the final chorus laden with crates of ‘curative’ Bordeaux, Dulcamara was full of boasts that he could boost not just the villagers’ amorous fortunes but their purses too: they had but to swallow his syrup and romance and riches were theirs! Clutching the cash, Terfel was the epitome of charming chicanery, not quite able to believe his own luck or his ‘powers’!

But, despite his winning appeal this Dulcamara was not the ‘star’ of the show; those honours went to tenor Vittorio Grigolo whose Nemorino wore his warm heart on his stripy sleeve and sang with an ardency and allure that ultimately even Adina could not resist. From his opening tumble down set designer Chantal Thomas’s towering pyramid of hay bales, Grigolo buzzed with life and optimism. His voice was as agile as his boogieing, the phrases swooping and swooning with Italianate suavity. But, Grigolo can do tenderness as well as urgency, and he combined these sentiments with striking expressive beauty in a performance of ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ which brought the house down. Nemorino’s anguish was all the more moving for its juxtaposition with the preceding high jinks of ‘Quanto amore’, but Grigolo pushed on through the second verse, the faster-than-usual tempo ratcheting up the torment, before the wonderfully wilting sighs of the close struck every listener’s heart, including Lucy Crowe’s previously impervious Adina.

Crowe sang with characteristic lucidity, accuracy and sparkle at the top; but, she didn’t quite have the fullness of tone across the whole tessitura of the role or the variety of vocal colour to capture Adina’s changeability and multifariousness — at times, vocally, she seemed rather too ‘angelic’. Crowe did work hard dramatically: perched aloft on the haystack, preening her nails under a scarlet parasol, sunning herself behind outsize scarlet shades, Crowe was a pretty picture of Beckham-esque aloofness, seemingly indifferent to Nemorino’s doting. But, despite all the hip-wriggling and posturing, she showed us Adina’s self-awareness too. Festooned with premature confetti, she might smile for the wedding photographer, but elsewhere she was quick to elude Belcore’s clutches and embraces, her grimaces and hand-wringing revealing her distaste and disquiet.

Adina’s reservations were certainly understandable, for Levente Molnár’s swaggering, baton-swinging Belcore was the embodiment of misogynistic machismo. Slapping his thigh to summon his soon-to-be bride to his lap, Belcore then preceded to bounce his ‘prized possession’ up and down with un-rhythmic oafishness. The Romanian strutted and squared up, and used his powerful baritone most effectively, to suggest Belcore’s burly brutishness and masculine over-confidence. Australian soprano Kiandra Howarth, a Jette Parker Young Artist, was a bright and feisty Gianetta, showing strong stage presence in this minor role.

After a fairly lacklustre overture, conductor Daniele Rustioni drew some characterful playing from the ROH Orchestra — the woodwind solos were particularly jaunty. Towards the close the tempi were a touch impetuous, and at times he pulled ahead of his singers, but on the whole Rustioni ensured a good balance between stage and pit. The ROH Chorus were well-marshalled; if some of their gestures were rather stylised this only served to illustrate the villagers’ lack of imagination and credulity.

Pelly’s production is busy and bustling — the zippy dog is back and raises a chuckle as he races like quicksilver across the stage. But, it is the sorrowful stillness of Nemorino’s lament that truly hits the target. If the mid-November gloom is lowering your spirits and a pick-me-up is needed, then this show is the potion for you.

Claire Seymour


Cast and production information:

Adina, Lucy Crowe; Nemorino, Vittorio Grigolo; Dulcamara, Bryn Terfel ; Belcore, Levente Molnár; Giannetta,Kiandra Howarth; Director,Laurent Pelly; Revival director, Daniel Dooner; Conductor, Daniele Rustioni; Set designs, Chantal Thomas; Costume designs,Laurent Pelly; Associate costume designer, Donate Marchand; Lighting design, Joël Adam; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Royal Opera Chorus. Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, Tuesday 18th November 2014.

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):