The week started with a series of murders and a coronation, and ended with the coronation of a fool. Puzzled? Let me explain. Last Saturday was the final performance of White Horse Opera’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth.
Composed in 1846 with a libretto by Piave & Maffei, it is based on Shakespeare's dark tale of greed and regicide. Now, it’s hard for me to be impartial about a WHO production because I am associated with the company myself and have many good friends there, but by any standard this production was nothing short of brilliant. With the winning combination of Arne Kovac as musical director and Graham Billing as stage director, this dramatic but often overlooked opera showed the company at its very best with some wonderful choruses and spine-tinglingly good finales in which the 22-strong professional orchestra produced a fabulous sound. This potent brew, combined with some superb principal voices, raised the performance to an altogether new height. This was community opera at its best.
Chief among the principals was the awesome Cara McHardy as Lady Macbeth. People tell me she’s a lovely lady in real life, but on stage she was as scary as hell, ruthlessly dominating her poor husband (played by Edward Harper) and later, convincingly crazed as she tried to wash away the imagined blood from her hands. Her acting and singing were both first-class in this, arguably one of opera’s toughest soprano roles. Without question, she owned the part completely, her powerful and superbly controlled voice easily punching through above orchestra and chorus at full tilt when necessary. Edward Harper has a fine voice and gave a good account of himself as the weak and foolish Macbeth. The main tenor role, Macduff is really quite small but nevertheless critical and Anando Mukerjee (playing the role) both looked and sounded impressive. (He was indisputably an excellent choice for the part even though an amateur singer by the name of Guy Edwards had also rather optimistically auditioned for it!).
James Davis brought a dignified and magisterial presence to the role of Banquo and appeared to relish his role as Macbeth’s ghostly tormentor. His bloodied and bandaged head was most effective (though somewhat inexplicable as he was not bludgeoned or stabbed in the head!). Dajana Kovac as Lady Macbeth’s Lady-in-Waiting made an impressive and well-judged contribution to the ensembles and I hope we will hear more of her in the future. Jon Paget singing at the top of his range gave a good performance as Malcolm and looked suitably macho and heroic alongside Mukerjee’s Macduff.
The younger members of the company also acquitted themselves very well in minor roles - especially as the apparitions presented to Macbeth by the witches. Rosa Higgs and Rachel Crofts, both of whom have remarkable stage presence and confidence despite their tender years, have really good, young voices to match, delivering their musical lines with astonishing accuracy and clarity. Director, Graham Billing, made fleeting appearances as Duncan, the King of Scotland who is murdered at the start of the opera. Tim O’Brien, Robin Lane, Barbara Gompels and Bryony Cox took the other minor roles and WHO Patron, Geraldine Alymer-Kelly made a dramatic cameo appearance as Hecate.
Which brings me onto the set and costume design. The Corn Exchange (Devizes) is not the easiest of stage areas to work, having extremely limited backstage access and the stage itself being rather shallow – so Andrew Taylor’s set, being highly functional, artistic and visually pleasing, was a triumph of ingenuity that testifies to Andrew’s creative genius. With a large company, there is always the challenge of funding costumes (a not inconsiderable expense) and whether it was for this reason or another, the witches’ chorus (divided into three), were costumed in a rather anachronistic mixture of clothes which, while achieving the aim of successfully delineating the different elements of the coven, for me at least, didn’t sit as comfortably with the rest of the costume design as it might have done.
For me, this Macbeth provided some truly memorable highlights – for example the Act 2 Finale (the banquet scene) where the horrors start to unfold for the guilt-ridden Macbeth, and the Patri Opressa (“Death and Ashes”) chorus at the opening of Act 4. But Verdi saved the best until last with the opera’s intensely dramatic finale. The chorus (and of course, stage director, Graham Billing) deserve a special mention for their animated and effective stage presence throughout. This was a magnificent success for White Horse Opera. Well done indeed!
Musical Director Arne Kovac must be a glutton for punishment because the very next day (with Verdi’s final chorus surely still ringing in his ears) he was one of the audition panel for Bristol Opera’s 2010 production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. Though my high tessitura is still a work in progress, it was an opportunity too good to miss and I auditioned for the principal tenor role of Nadir, and was delighted to be offered the role! Arne and Bristol Opera Stage Director, Charlotte Monk, hurried away after the auditions to collect yet another prestigious award for Bristol Opera’s last major production, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
By a curious coincidence, I had already decided to go and see Bristol Opera in action in their autumn production – a performance of Gustav Holst’s little-known one-act opera entitled A Perfect Fool. How Arne finds the time, I will never know, but he was also the Musical Director for this unusual (and, I would imagine, quite demanding production), which took place in Henleaze, Bristol on Saturday 24th October. Holst’s opera, which parodies the works of Wagner, Verdi and others, was the main fare for the second half of the evening, but in an inspired piece of programming, during the first half of the evening, the company sang examples of the works being parodied and those which clearly influenced Holst’s work. This, together with Arne’s exuberantly enthusiastic narrative, provided a richly entertaining and educational evening of music encompassing a number of styles and periods. It also provided a great opportunity to showcase some of Bristol Opera’s abundant talent – and I do mean “abundant”. I was greatly impressed by number and quality of soloists. Bristol Opera clearly has more talented singers in its ranks than many comparable companies! Holst is not everyone’s “cup of tea” and predictably enough, Mrs Edwards preferred the earlier works – including songs from John Gay’s A Beggar’s Opera and from Verdi’s La Traviata and (surprisingly) the chorus from the Hall of the Minnesingers in Wartburg from Wagner’s Tannhäuser). But not to be outdone, Holst provided some splendidly enjoyable music too!
The opera was semi-staged with singers using scores. Given the time available for preparation and the complexity of the music, this was a wise decision. This hybrid approach worked well and was infinitely preferable to a purely concert-style presentation.
The plot takes as its core theme a prophecy which is worked out in an unexpected way during the opera. The Perfect Fool of the title, a narcoleptic simpleton, was played by none other than Graham Billing (fresh from directing Macbeth for White Horse Opera!). His fine sense of comic timing and bewildered expressions were priceless and whilst I wonder how he finds the time to do so much, at least he would not have had to spend too long learning his lines!
The opening scene sees a Wizard (sung with great panache by Timothy Allan) invoking the spirits of Earth, Water and Fire to assist him in concocting a potion that will make him irresistible to a Princess (beautifully sung by Louise Merrifield). The music for this opening section is often played as a standalone suite of ballet music – and it is easy to see the attraction of doing so as it captures Holst at his dramatic best, with the lower brass and percussion providing much excitement. At times, the 25-strong orchestra created a sound that belied its size, doing credit both to the Holst and even the excerpted pieces of Wagner written for much larger orchestras!
The Wizard’s potion is stolen by the Fool’s Mother (Susan Weaver) and replaced with water, so that when the Wizard brings his suit to the Princess, she is not attracted to him and he leaves the scene an object of mockery, his pride injured, and swearing revenge. A number of other suitors try their luck without success starting with the Troubador (Guy Withers) and a Traveller (Steve Harris) before finally, the Fool (who has been forced to drink the potion by his mother) on waking from slumber looks at the Princess causing her to fall in love with him. Meanwhile a supernatural fire sent by the vengeful Wizard has taken hold in the land and is rapidly encroaching, destroying all in its path. The power of the potion means that when the Fool finally sees the Wizard and stares at him, the Wizard dies and the fire recedes, making the Fool an instant hero. In the closing scene, despite declaring that he, uniquely, does not love the Princess, the Fool is crowned as once again he falls into a deep slumber and the prophecy is fulfilled.
Holst’s music for the opera (he also produced the libretto) is fascinating, often juxtaposing different motifs or themes to produce some incredible sound textures – perhaps a little bit like mixing a potion? Of course, it doesn’t always produce “easy listening” but without exception all of those singing solo roles did a splendid job and having seen for myself the very high standard set by Bristol Opera, I am extremely excited (and a little nervous!) at the prospect of working with them. Now where did I put my Pearl Fishers score….?
