The Fairy Queen

Based in part on Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" this is an entertainment by Henry Purcell with a text thought to be by Elkanah Settle. Despite the outlandishness of the action in this production, the music and text seem, as far as I can tell, to be presented in a straightforward manner even if often played for laughs.

The costumes are sometimes of the period but in many scenes they are modern or mixed. The sets can best be described as miscellaneous.

Tytania, Yvonne Kenny, is the title role despite any other thoughts to the contrary. As mentioned in the other reviews, there is much drag and much "camp" in this version. Not only are the two couples here, under other names, but a same-sex male couple has been thrown in as well.

The singing is generally good as is the dancing but Richard Van Allan as the curmudgeonly Theseus-Hyman is well past his prime vocally. Oberon, both a singer and a dancer or at least an acrobat, is Thomas Randle but Simon Rice as Puck and Arthur Pita as the Indian Boy are non-vocal dancers.

Serviceable, but I wish Barrie Gavin the director and his staff had bothered to make the story, such as it is, clearer.

The Fairy Queen, being the bizarre affair that it is, can only really be loosely based on the Shakespeare, so what we're presented with here is a trippy drug infused campfest which would make for glorious ENO viewing, but doesn't quite relate onto the screen very well. Whats left is a celebration of hilarity, but unfortunately the extremity of love-loss, isn't quite reached, despite Kenny's beautifully sung 'lament'. Saying this, its short and too the point, and a treasure from the baroque English operatic rep. a good staging, but flawed.

There was a concert performance of The Fairy Queen at this year's Proms and a member of the cast commented that it is almost impossible to stage and even if you could get over the technical problems it would be prohibitively expensive. It may be true that the original production, in 1692 almost bankrupted Purcell's theatre company but this production from 1995 by English National Opera shows that all you need is a moderate amount of money and a lot of imagination.

The Fairy Queen is a semi-opera, a peculiarly 17th century English form. Purcell used a much cut version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and added to it a series of songs and masques. While it would be pointless to try to recreate Purcell's piece in this form, the stage director David Pountney uses the songs and dances to create a recognisable version of Shakespeare's play that is part opera and part ballet. Outstanding amongst the singers is Yvonne Kenney as Titania, and amongst the dancers Simon Rice as Puck, although it was not clear why he wore a bra throughout. But this really is an ensemble piece that makes for a deliciously entertaining and not too demanding evening's viewing.

The Fairy Queen is not Purcell's masterpiece, but it is charming, fun and delightful with beautiful music. This performance however doesn't do it justice and doesn't live up to the quality of the work. The music of course is great, and is performed with energy and nuanced and conducted with brisk authority. The dancing is done with finesse, intimacy and a sense of fun, campy occasionally it is but it is performed so well it doesn't matter. The singing is wonderful. Yvonne Kenny has a voice of beautiful bright lyricism, while Janis Kelly also sings splendidly. Michael Chance's counter-tenor voice has always been sharply pointed and unique, and complete with intelligent phrasing his performance here is no exception and he acts movingly and with ease and command too. Simon Rice is outstanding in the dancing role of Puck, while Thomas Randle's Oberon is athletic and commanding and Jonathan Best ensures that his duet with Chance is humorous in a priceless sort of way. As much as I love Richard Van Allan, his Claggart in Billy Budd has few equals, he is past his best sadly, his voice is not as powerful as it was and it is not always well-supported. What was really disappointing was the visuals and the staging. The costumes are a mix of traditional and modern, and it was a mix that doesn't go very best. It often looked ugly as well. The sets also were bare and colourless, while the staging is weird, too campy and often too busy as well. The Fairy Queen has a theme of love-loss, and it was not emphasised enough here, and when it was it got lost amidst the silly social agenda the production has. All in all, not terrible but really left wanting. 5/10 Bethany Cox