tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post1671763780819834398..comments2024-03-05T10:14:38.181+00:00Comments on CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST: ENO Britten Midsummer Night's DreamDoundou Tchilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07469682216179706743noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-76358308758945209202011-06-18T18:19:46.026+01:002011-06-18T18:19:46.026+01:00I too have seen several productions of this opera ...I too have seen several productions of this opera and without a shadow of doubt, this was by far the worst. One big problem is that anyone who as been lucky enough to have seen Peter Hall's celebrated and, almost perfect Glyndebourne production is almost certainly going to find any other reading of the opera comes a poor second. This is surely one of the most beguiling and enchanting scores Britten produced, even if there is a darkness brooding below the surface. But in ENO's production there was no charm, the Freudian sub-plots were laboured and distracting and for me the dreariness of the set somehow seeped into the orchestra which failed to find the appropriate delicacy or direction. Incidental music, probably scored for busy scene shifting in the Jubilee Hall, felt awkward as the cast stood like statues or moved zombie-like to their next 'post' on the bleak stage. And as for the players, there was some mirth, muted last night as we lurched from dark introspection to a rather depressing and unnecessary crudity, but how they must have longed for a magical forest to frame their buffoonery. Oh well, not much worse than the Flute at Garsington this year.Pedrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06769531467991643278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-82732388278808396162011-05-26T01:01:34.135+01:002011-05-26T01:01:34.135+01:00I have seen many productions of this opera over th...I have seen many productions of this opera over the years and this is by far the most outstanding. Even as a product myself of the English Grammar School system in the 1960s, it took me the whole of the first act to connect to and be convinced that it was possible to stage it this way, but eventually it fell into place and I found it to be one of those rare operatic experiences where ever more unfolds throughout the evening. I always have the gravest of reservations whenever we have the silent figure lurking on the stage from the outset, but the moment when this actor burst into song completely redeemed all that had gone before. It is however possible that my critical faculties have been distorted from having recently witnessed one of the worst opera productions I have ever encountered on Saturday in Berlin - Samson and Delilah at the Deutscher Oper.martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12370540968115320986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-26494099959585527482011-05-23T20:37:20.034+01:002011-05-23T20:37:20.034+01:00Touché ! the trouble when things are too obscured ...Touché ! the trouble when things are too obscured they start getting confused. Thank goodness that grammar school taught us what the plot was.Doundou Tchilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07469682216179706743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-416983732847060845.post-70963048168126883462011-05-23T19:51:13.631+01:002011-05-23T19:51:13.631+01:00Have to agree, and would add that an enigmatic fig...Have to agree, and would add that an enigmatic figure, not mentioned in this review, a miserable middle aged suit, stalked the stage in total silence for the first two hours. Identified by one reviewer as Benjamin B himself, the rest knew he was an adult Puck, returned in a dream to see his younger self at school. This was because they had read the programme. I hadn't and had no idea who he was. I thought it reasonable to assume he was a distraught school inspector, and the whole a polemic for the return of the Grammar School. Shakespeare would surely have agreed.Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16066026069473612011noreply@blogger.com