CARMEN Welsh National Opera, Wales Millennium Stadium (Performance 2.10.2014)
Music: Georges Bizet
Libretto: Henri Melham and Ludovic Haley
Based on the story by Prosper Marilee
Directors: Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leaser
Revival Director: Caroline Chaney
Review: Barbara Michaels
Rating: [4.00]
Passion and death are dominant in the story of Carmen – the Spanish gypsy girl and her soldier lover, Corporal Don José, in a torrid relationship that is doomed from the start. This production – a second revival – by the world class WNO, pays homage to both in a blood-red fore drop (as opposed to a backdrop) that is raised and lowered between scenes. However, be not deceived – this is in stark contrast to the minimalist and monotone backdrops throughout. Although doubtless designed in order not to detract from the complexities of this justly famed opera, the sets in this instance fail to enhance it.
In the central role of Carmen, American mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chavey, who has performed the role internationally, gives us a sluttish Carmen, sitting centre stage in Acts I and II with a skirt hitched up provocatively above legs wide apart. In a season entitled overall ‘Liberty or Death’ Carmen’s switch between unthinking abandonment to lust, and the realisation that she is doomed to death whatever road she takes, fits neatly into that slot. Chavez’s singing of the habanera ‘Lamour et un osseous rebelled’, sung in Act I as Carmen enters cannot be faulted, and this high standard is maintained throughout Act III, although her declaration of independence as she chooses death rather than trading her freedom for love in the grand finale to Act IV is not entirely believable. As her besotted and desperate lover Don José, Gwyn Hughes Jones has a pleasing tenor heard to advantage in Acts I and II, gaining strength in Act III when he is pitted against the bullfighter Escamillo, his rival for Carmen’s favours, sung at this performance by Kosmas Smoriginas who cuts a glamorous figure in bullfighting garb but whose performance is somewhat lacking in the necessary charisma.
What is outstanding in this production is the singing of Jessica Muirhead, as Micaëla – the girl from back home whose love for Don José goes unreciprocated. While her role as an episodic messenger is secondary to that of Carmen, her pure soprano, soaring poignantly, in both her solo arias and duets with Don José, gained a deserved and prolonged ovation both during and at the end of the performance.
Singing and dancing the roles of Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mércedès respectively, Samantha Hay and Emma Carrington give performances which encapsulate the spirit and mores of the piece and its times, while the chorus of the WN0 maintains its high standard throughout, both in its male singers as Don José’s fellow soldiers, and the female singers as Carmen’s co-workers in the cigarette factory, and together in the scene at the tavern run by Lillas Pastia, sung full throttle by Howard Kirk. Worthy of mention too is Huw Llywelyn’s Remendado.
Much to commend here, and an enjoyable performance, but, while in the original as visualised by Bizet the curtain comes down on Don José throwing himself onto the body of his beloved Carmen, who he has killed after her final declaration that she prefers death to giving up her freedom, in this production revival director Caroline Chaney has him walk off stage. Sorry, Caroline, but it doesn’t work.
Carmen is now on tour. For venues, dates and casting see  WNO website www.wno.org.uk

Nabucco Welsh National Opera at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto Temistocle Solera
Director: Rudolf Frey
Reviewer: Barbara Michaels
Rating: [4.00]
Showcasing the charismatic chorus of the WNO, this seldom performed yet musically familiar opera is presented in a 1950s setting in this new production. Almost ten years since WNO’s last performance (staged at the New Theatre) of the epic Verdi opera best known for its splendid ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ (‘Va, pensiero’) director Rudolf Frey and choreographer Beate Vollack have created a production which embraces not only operatic tradition but the mores of modern times. The result is a soaring production that has audiences jumping to their feet and calling out “Bravo!”
The Biblical context of the conflict between the Hebrews and the Egyptians is the background of the story and generates a web of warlike violence and political intrigue. Nabucco (sung by David Kempster) is the King of the Babylonians whose daughter Felena (sung by Justina Gringyte), is held hostage by the Hebrews, under the jurisdiction of their High priest Zaccaria, sung by Kevin Short. Not only does Short bring a powerful and compelling bass-baritone to the role, but shows that he is also an actor of considerable merit. After defeating the Hebrews, Nabucco is convinced that he is God, and becomes insane. Baritone David Kempster – well known to WNO audiences – once again does not disappoint, bringing pathos to the role as Nabucco descends into madness. His projection is of a quasi King Lear – the richness and decadence of Babylon replacing the blasted heath of Shakespeare’s play.
The dominant female role of Abigaille, Nabucco’s other daughter and rival of Felena in succession to the throne, is a key factor and soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, making her return after singing Tosca with the WNO last autumn, rises to the challenge superbly. A combination of lyricism and dramatic energy projects her relish for the role as well as her expertise and holds the audience spellbound.
Set designer Ben Baur deserves an accolade for opting for such devices as the singular usage of gold lamé drapes to represent the dross of the Babylonian scene and a symbolic wall (the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, capital of Israel?) that of the Hebrews. Less fortunate, perhaps, is the inclusion of Fifties dance steps and hand-jiving. Costume designers Silke Willrett and Marc Weeger are to be commended, in particular for distinguishing touches such as the yarmulkes (skull caps) – traditional synagogue wear for men of the Jewish faith – worn by the Hebrews.
Highly commended is the dynamic conducting of the diminutive Xian Zhang whose debut with WNO this is. Zhang wields her baton with expertise over Verdi’s diverse score for this production of one of Verdi’s earliest yet most successful operas; an opera which, in the best of operatic tradition, culminates in an intense and gripping finale..
Runs at the Wales Millennium Centre until Saturday, June 15^th , then touring.

Under Milk Wood Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
An opera
Words: Dylan Thomas
Music: John Metcalf
Co-production by Taliesin Arts Centre, le Chien qui chante (Quebec) and Companion Star (New York), in association with Welsh National Opera.
Reviewer; Barbara Michaels
Ratings: [4.00]
Re-imagined and set to music by Wales’ leading opera composer John Metcalf, the words and imagery of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood are given a new slant in this presentation by Taliesin Arts Centre, staged as part of the Dylan Thomas 100 festival. Given Metcalf’s sensitive handling of the poet’s ‘Play for Voices,’ and a talented thirteen-strong company of singers and multi-instrumentalists, it can hardly fail. Together with director and producer Keith Turnbull, Metcalf has succeeded in translating Thomas’s mythical village of Llareggub with its gloriously eccentric residents into the format of opera. Not grand opera, to be sure, but rather the melding together of the different genres of poetry and music, requiring in addition considerable acting skills – quite a tall order.
Not surprisingly, in the centenary year, there are many productions of the famous poem, originally written for radio back in 1954, going the rounds. This one is unique, being the only operatic presentation ever – a world premiere, no less. With visuals used as backdrops and a realistic sound track producing the sound of waves crashing onto the beach, it succeeds to a remarkable degree.   For those – and at a guess this applies to many of the audience – familiar with the text, it adds a valuable dimension to the whole.
However, there is a caveat. The overture, in the form of a musical introduction before the performance gets going, is overlong when balanced against the overall length of the piece. Also, the music is at times overloud, drowning out the voices and thus inevitably causing some members of the audience to, as it were, lose the plot – not to mention Thomas’s wonderful language, of which every word is to be treasured.
Fortunately, this rights itself and, as the singers settle into their parts – parts plural, for each one takes on the mantle of different persona – one begins to realise what a treat, and a rare one at that, this is. Centre stage, bass/baritone Michael Douglas Jones gives a sympathetic portrayal of the narrator blind old Captain Cat, ably backed by baritone Richard Morris who shines as Mr Waldo as well as in a number of other roles. Soprano Elizabeth Donovan is a wistful tart-with-a-heart Polly Garter who tugs at our heartstrings, while Helen-Jane Howard shows considerable acting ability along with a melodic soprano voice as Goassamer Beynon and other parts. Nice comedic touch from Gweneth-Ann Jeffers in the role of Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, Mrs Organ-Morgan etc.
Considerable musical ability from harpist Deian Rowlands and some excellent viola playing by Parmela Attariwala.
All in all, a remarkable take on the best known work of the iconic Welsh poet.

 

Bearded adolescents in plaid shirts, sopranos disguised in mascot-esque cat costumes and a pre-recorded, omnipresent, convincingly American Stephen Fry are what to expect of the Welsh National Youth Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan, currently at the Wales Millennium Centre. The sprightly, young cast of what seemed like eighty-odd certainly injected some youthful joie de vivre into this operetta – if I can call it that – yet the dated humour and disjointed plot left the audience slightly bemused.
 
Britten and Auden collaborated on Paul Bunyan when they relocated to America in the 1940s due to their mutual pacifistic views. Inspired by the consumer capitalism that swamped America during this time, they went on to write this satirical, sardonic take on the American Dream using the eponymous folkloric character – a giant lumberjack called Paul Bunyan.  Auden (of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame) targets plenty of minorities in his charmingly witty libretto – namely, the Swedish, whom he depicts as dithering idiots with names like Andy Anderson and Hel Helson. It’s odd that he didn’t compose their lines as simply, ‘hurdy-gurdy-purdy’. Come to think of it, this mirrors another nonchalantly racist comment in another of Britten’s operas: Billy Budd. In Billy Budd, one of the ship’s staff proclaims that he doesn’t like the French ‘with their hoppity-skippity ways’. So… That was a bit naughty, wasn’t it, Benjamin?
 
What Paul Bunyan lacks in plot and sense is made up for with the exceptional talent of the company. Elgan Llyr Thomas makes an impeccable Jonny Inkslinger; the independent wannabe novelist who arrives at Paul Bunyan’s logging camp in search of food. Ross Scanlon and Vanessa Bowers are clear rising talents vocally and the quintet of mentally-deficient Swedes is suitably amusing. The entire ensemble’s enthusiasm is worthy of admiration and Only Boys Aloud’s soaring voices pack some oomph into a previously oomph-less operetta.
 
Director Martin Constantine has tried his utmost to update the relevance of Paul Bunyan with the addition of a young boy watching the entire show on television in his bedroom. He is essentially being sold the American Dream through advertising and this political undertone the operetta now holds is especially profound today. A notable moment in the production is when Paul announces he is to leave and the entire company enters in what looks like army uniforms, making a thought-provoking statement on the effects of mass consumerism on our minds.
 
Structurally, it’s messy. Sudden arguments are littered hither and thither and a romantic interest is established without even so much as a solo aria proclaiming it. This is more the fault of Auden and Britten than anything else. When the operetta first opened, it was subjected to a tourbillion of vitriolic reviews. The music isn’t at all moving nor is it memorable which, I admit, isn’t peculiar for Britten (ooh, what am I like?!). However, if one were to look at it as a piece of intermittently humorous light entertainment with a modest political message at its heart, Paul Bunyan is worth seeing for the promising talent of our up-and-coming opera stars.
 
Paul Bunyan will be at the Wales Millenium Centre on 23rd and 24th August. 

A complex, challenging piece for an opera novice…
Despite attending the pre-performance talk, expertly given by the Nick John trainee, Sophie Rashbrook, in which she emphasised the unusual usage of electronic sounds and the uniqueness of this 90 minute opera, I still took my seat expecting to hear fine, fluid melodies and to feel moved by the storyline or, at least, the plight of the characters.
Jonathan Harvey’s composition of electronic effects within jarring phrases did, initially, disappoint me. This style of composition seems to lend itself to performances that are decidedly different and apparently “contemporary”. Clever though it undoubtedly is, the aggressive, adverse nature of the music in the early section of Wagner Dream did nothing but put me on edge, and I found myself focussing more on that than on the voices and the action on stage, which were in turn excellent and interesting.
There are two stories being told in Wagner Dream – that of Wagner’s last moments in life, and a Buddhist parable that he apparently intended to turn into an opera: a story about a young, female ‘untouchable’, Pakati (Claire Booth) who falls in love with a Buddhist monk, Ananda (Robin Tritschler).
The themes of desire explored in the parable are touched upon in Wagner’s reality: the love of his strong, devoted wife Cosima is not enough for him, and the young Carrie Pringle, whom he is obviously having an affair with, arrives on stage at the same time as the goddess Vajrayogini.
These two stories are set apart in style, with the reality played out in stark dark colours, the action spoken in hard German. In contrast the parable, which exists in Wagner’s ‘limbo’, is infused with bold, warm colours and told through song, and the gentle language Pali.
The contrast between the reality and limbo is also made with the music; Wagner’s world is dark, harsh and staccato, whilst Pakati’s story is accompanied with warmer, melodic sounds, which I found much easier to digest.
Though I can’t say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it was certainly thought provoking and an interesting experience. The cast and creative team must be commended, particularly Conductor Nicholas Collon and his orchestra, for whom the music and inclusion of such diverse electrification of sounds must have been a challenge.
If you’d like to see Wagner Dream and you don’t have tickets for tonight’s performance at WMC, you can catch it in Birmingham’s Hippodrome on 12th June.