Guy's Blog

I was lucky enough to obtain some tickets for us to see Trooping the Colour on Saturday 13th June so we decided to travel down to London on the Friday evening and take in a show. Believe it or not, neither Mrs E nor I had ever seen Phantom of the Opera (despite my having sung various songs from it over the last year or two) so we finally got to see why the show is such an enduring success. It really is excellent light entertainment and for anyone thinking of going to see it, I would say go along, you won’t be disappointed! It is one of the West End’s longest running shows having been first staged in 1986. Whether you like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music or not, it is undeniably popular and Phantom has given us a fair number of really memorable tunes (e.g. Music of the Night, All I Ask of You, Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, etc.). The advantage of having a production run in one theatre for such a long time is that you can modify the theatre to the production’s needs in a way that is impossible for theatres where the shows change regularly. Consequently, the staging and “special effects” in Phantom are pretty special. (We were sitting under the chandelier when it ‘fell’ from the ceiling!). The sight of the candelabra rising from the floor in the Phantom’s underground hideaway was equally impressive. The result was a veritable visual and musical feast, though not perhaps one that entirely satisfies the appetite for a rich emotional experience.

Trooping the Colour is, unquestionably, one of the capital’s most outstanding spectacles. I suspect that, having grown-up seeing highlights of it on the television every year (and having attended it a number of times before), it is easy to become rather blasé about the whole thing. The images of Trooping the Colour are truly iconic but rarely capture the awe-inspiring scale of the event (or the smell of the horses!). Regardless of whether you like military parades, it would be hard not to be hugely impressed by the extraordinary display of scarlet tunics, marching bands and immaculately turned-out horses. With the sun glinting off the brightly polished cuirasses and helmets of the Household Cavalry, it is easy to see why so many tourists flock to see the event and why it has become synonymous with “military precision”. If only every military activity could be so well-rehearsed and accurate. Being inside Horse Guards Parade to witness Trooping the Colour is a real privilege and one that no amount of television coverage can rival. We were sitting within a stone’s throw of Uncle Gordon, but no, we didn’t (throw a stone)! A really good military parade with marching and mounted bands must surely number among the things we British still to do really well, even if we do have a relatively small Army of fewer than 110,000 regulars!

Anyway, we didn’t have time to hang around for long after the parade as I had to get back to Wiltshire to sing in an evening concert with the Wessex Male Choir. The Choir opened this year’s Cricklade Festival in the lovely old St Sampson’s Church which boasts an impressive four turret-spired belltower, the third longest bell-ropes in England (apparently) and a church cat! The nave in St Sampson’s is rather narrow so the Choir had to squeeze in. This produces some unfamiliar dynamics within the choir (for example, I found myself standing next to a second tenor and a baritone – something that normally only happens at the bar), but hopefully it didn’t affect the overall sound. This was the Choir’s first opportunity to perform musical director Rob Elliott’s arrangement of the Celine Dion hit All by Myself, and for me to sing a little solo all by myself. As ever, I felt I could have done better, but for a first outing, it was probably okay. It was the first opportunity too for me to sing in Franz Beibl’s gorgeous seven-part setting of Ave Maria with Presto (the Choir’s smaller a capella group). In a church with such a lovely acoustic, the sound just seemed to float and, from where I was standing, the effect was wonderful. I hope the audience heard it the same way! We were delighted to have the senior choir from the Janice Thompson Performance Trust sharing the programme with us. Janice and her team do a wonderful job bringing on young singers and their enthusiasm is clearly infectious. The choir performed beautifully and put real feeling and life into their singing. As is traditional, after the concert, the Wessex choristers repaired to the nearest hostelry for liquid refreshment and to further indulge in our passion for singing. These “afterglows” are great fun but it is noticeable how the quality of singing diminishes in direct relation to the number of pints consumed. A particularly raucous but highly-spirited rendition of Nessun Dorma seemed to go down well although it was not perhaps as Puccini intended! The strong camaraderie and banter within the Choir is an essential part of the Wessex and singing with the choir is always good fun.

In addition to the usual round of rehearsals and concerts, I also went along to a committee meeting for the Swindon Recital Series. The hugely talented Paul Turner (the Series Artistic Director) works incredibly hard to promote the series which brings world-class performers to Swindon. I can’t help thinking that Swindonians seldom appreciate the quality of what is on offer, which is a real shame - and it irritates me when people say that Swindon is a cultural desert but then don’t bother turning out to support these events and to hear fabulous live chamber music! Having seen a list of the artistes that Paul has engaged for 2009/2010, I’m really looking forward to the start of the season in September. The SRS website is due for an overhaul this summer (on my “to do list”), but we should have the details of the season on the website fairly soon – so if you’re near Swindon, you will have no excuse not to come along!

Finally, White Horse Opera has given the first two performances of this year’s touring production, Otto Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor (in a new English translation by the very humorous and multi-talented Graham Billing). I’m singing the role of Fenton (young, romantic, penniless, handsome lover). I object to this constant typecasting and am most upset that I am not valued for my intellect and Zimmer frame instead! The first performance was in a lovely English Country garden on a clear, if slightly chilly, summer’s evening. I was glad to be dressed as Oberon for the final act, resplendent in a very heavy cloak which could easily have doubled as a tent if the weather had turned nasty. As it was, I was grateful for the warmth because I had been strutting around almost bare-chested for most of Acts 1 & 2 in a costume that was a cross between Mr Darcy and Elvis Presley. The resident peacock clearly didn’t like the competition and at one point a vocal turf-war developed between the peacock and one of our sopranos. (It also crowed mockingly as I sang Fenton’s aria, “Hark! The Lark is on the Wing!”) As premieres go, it could have been better but at least no-one pelted us with eggs so I guess it wasn’t too bad! In fairness, the acoustic (outdoors) was challenging and at times it was quite hard to hear each other and/or the accompanist (who was almost hiding in the shrubbery). There were one or two first-night glitches with entries and ensemble togetherness, and the peacock hit several bum notes, but overall, everything seemed to work reasonably well. Our second performance (on Saturday 20th June) in the wonderfully resonant old church at Bishop’s Cannings, was very much easier from the performer’s point of view and musically was rather better than the Friday night performance. The organizers at both venues were wonderfully hospitable and far too polite to mention any passages that needed a little more “polish” – by the time we get to January 2010, it should be really, really good!

For once, I felt that the hype surrounding a new production was well deserved: David Alden’s Peter Grimes (for English National Opera) was a superlative production in so many ways and lived up to my expectations for this, the most iconic of all Britten's operas. Paul Steinberg’s austere set provided the perfect canvas for this bleak tale of xenophobia and hypocrisy although the sloping stage was not without its challenges. For example, on one occasion it looked as though Ellen was accidentally going to propel young John into the orchestra pit as she sent him hurtling down the slope! No wonder the double-bass section looked worried. The panoramic seascape, the backdrop for much of the action, was a work of art in itself, perfectly capturing a sense of the gathering storm, and the sloping stage added to the feeling of a community out of balance, sliding inexorably towards paranoia. In the penultimate scene, Grimes’ cottage precariously clinging to the cliff-edge, provides a very obvious metaphor for the way in which Grimes himself is clinging to his sanity. The tall buildings, which for most of the opera framed the action, provided a claustrophobic atmosphere from which the only and ultimate escape was the cruel sea that lay beyond.

Of course Britten’s Peter Grimes (set to Montagu Slater’s libretto and based on George Crabbe’s poem The Borough) is a depressing and dark tale of human failing, but the music alternately sparkles like the shimmering sea, or lashes you like a force ten gale! Superb though the libretto is, it is the music that really tells the story and the orchestra (under Edward Gardner) was on fine form, deservedly gaining a huge ovation at the end of the performance. I kept recalling verses from John Masefield’s Sea Fever as I was listening to the Sea Interludes (the musical passages that describe the sea’s changing state and are in some sense, entr'actes). It was a relief to enjoy the Interludes without any distractions on stage – altogether a much more liberating experience for the imagination than being presented with a director’s interpretation. Good decision Mr Alden! The large chorus of villagers inundated The Borough like a malevolent and unpredictable sea, one moment calm and pious and in the next, brooding, and intimidating. Their sheer numbers and anonymity seemed to generate disturbing undercurrents as they ebbed and flowed around Steinberg’s unsettling set.

I was expecting to see Stuart Skelton in the title role and was slightly disappointed to discover that on the night of this performance (30 May) the role was being sung by John Daszak. My disappointment was short-lived however as Daszak made an excellent Grimes, singing with great passion and integrity, particularly in the difficult a capella passages. Despite the character’s obvious flaws, it was hard not to feel considerable sympathy for Grimes who at times seemed imbued with an almost child-like quality. Although the libretto encourages sympathy, it was Daszak’s performance and Alden’s direction that delivered it.

Having missed Amanda Roocroft on a number of occasions recently due to illness (hers, not mine!) I was delighted that she was in dazzling form as the widow Ellen Orford, and if I needed a reminder about why I am such a fan of her luscious voice, then this was it. Frankly, her performance alone justified the ticket price. (The same cannot be said of the extortionately priced refreshments at The Coliseum!)

Gerald Finley’s Captain Balstrode was masterfully convincing and sung with such precision and clarity that even in this magnificent company, his diction stood out. Rebecca de Pont Davies as Auntie sang and played the part well enough but I felt she was a poor casting choice for the role which I feel demands a more mature and rather more earthy performer. Auntie’s “nieces” were portrayed in a rather quirky detached way that didn’t seem altogether coherent – on the one hand they were the worldly-wise “main attractions” at The Boar Inn and then curiously “innocent” school girls. Perhaps Alden was making the point that nothing is what it seems in The Borough? If the ambiguity here was somewhat unhelpful, it was welcome elsewhere: Alden neatly preserved a degree of ambiguity concerning Grimes and the audience is left judge Grimes for itself in much the same way that the people of The Borough do. And after all, Britten’s masterpiece is all about judgement and the closed minds that set Grimes against humanity.