Don Giovanni - Garsington Opera at Wormsley

FULL REVIEW with photos in Opera Today . Garsington Opera at Wormsley is stunningly beautiful. Just being there is an experience, which is why the social aspect is so rewarding. But regular patrons can do bland, corporate affairs any time. They come to Wormsley because they care about opera. This new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni has a lot to offer to those who pay attention.

The Wormsley Pavilion is a wonder of translucent glass and  gleaming metal.  It inspires the set design by Leslie Travers.  Simple, clean-cut lines, stylish elegance. If Don Giovanni were alive today, he'd live in  designer surroundings like this.  He fits life into compartments, which the "boxes" in this set reflect. But as we know, things go awry. Under this surface glamour lurks something very nasty. Don Giovanni (Grant Doyle)  and Donna Anna (Natasha Jouhl) act out bondage games. Naturally, she doesn't want her father to know. She cuts Don Giovanni from his handcuffs, and he stabs the Commendatore (Christophoros Stamboglis).  It's not a conventional reading but valid. Don Giovanni gets his kicks from seduction, not rape in the modern sense, and those around him are complicit. Besides, Donna Anna's feelings are conflicted. Her Don Ottavio (Jesús León) is rather alluring  and comes over as a real match for her. When they masquerade, she wears dominatrix, he dresses as muzzled dog, which expresses much about their relationship.

Because Garsington Opera uses relatively young singers, the production is energetic. Boyle's Don Giovanni is quick on his feet (as is the character). Joshua Bloom's Leporello  radiates physical presence. Interesting voice, with good colour and range - definitely a future Don Giovanni. When Bloom sings the catalogue aria, he snaps out statistics rapid fire. He prints off a speadsheet, and reams of paper fill the stage. Donna Elvira (Sophie Bevan) is dumbstruck.

While Natasha Jouhl's Donna Anna is svelte and sung with richly controilled poise, Bevan's Donna Elvira  is more earthy, even endearing. This brings out the social commentary in the opera. Donna Anna's posher, but far more trapped by her position in soctey. She has too much to lose. Donna Elvira on the other hand, seems to be able to roam freely in pursuit of Don Giovanni and declare her feelings openly. Zerlina (Mary Bevan) is "a bit of rough"  Her wedding dress is more showgirl than country virgin, because she she has aspirations. Think footballers' wives weddings. She wants more than the underclass which Masetto (Callum Thorpe) represents, but she puts up with his violence because she has no option. Or perhaps, like a dirtier version of Donna Anna, because something in her draws her to the dark side Don Giovanni offers. Massetto and the villagers sing and move well. You can sense that this lot could riot and wreck Don Giovanni's spotless cocoon of a penthouse, if they had a chance.

But retribution comes when the Stone Guest comes to dinner. A corpse resembling the Commendatore is wheeled in on a hospital table. This looks much more like a marble statue than some depictions, and close to text. The inscription is written on a tag. While Don Giovanni and Leporello examine the corpse, a voice booms out from high above the stage, as Stamboglis sings. They can't see him, but we can. Wonderfully surreal. We don't need to see Don Giovanni literally dragged down to hell. He drops dead and falls into the same wheelchair with which the Commendatore's body was removed at the start of the opera.  Perfect symmetry. More controversially, Donna Anna caresses Don Giovanni's corpse. Her emotions are complex. This implies more than a simple happy ending. The Edition used in this production is Barenreiter-Kassel, edited by Wolfgang Plath and Wolfgang Rehm.
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A full review with cast list soon in Opera Today. 

Four L'Olimpiades!

Vivaldi's 1734 opera L'Olimpiade seems to be multipying everywhere. Last week, there was a  concert performance at St John's Smith Square. Starting this weekend, there'll be a fully staged, high profile production at Garsington Opera at Wormlsey, and soon there'll be another staging at the Buxton Festival.  The photo shows a staging  at Schloss Greinberg during the Donaufestwochen in 2008  Very minimalist.

The opera isn't about the Olympics so much as about cheating!  The hero  uses a fake ID to win, but the prize is his friend's girlfriend. Dishonesty, deception, suicide, attempted murder. Sure beats drug scams. The original play, by Torquato Tasso, was so popular that it inspired over 60 composers - including Beethoven - to write operas and shorter pieces about it.
 
Prepare by listening to The Venice Baroque Orchestra, whose L'Olimpiade pastiche took place last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Review HERE on Opera Today. But listen for yourself, as it's online on BBC Radio 3 for 7 days HERE. This version uses extracts from 16 different composers and works surprisngly well, because the pieces are so well chosen. Indeed, the difference is styles adds piquancy You can hear why pastiches like these were so popular once, they have charm. Vivacious singing, and delightful playing, conducted by Andrea Marcon.

Vivaldi L'Olimpiade - Garsington Opera at Wormsley

Vivaldi's L'Olimpiade iis a rarity, but this year, like buses, three come along at once. Garsington Opera at Wormlsey's production is probably most interesting as the director is David Freeman. Garsington Opera has always specialized in baroque treasures, and Freeman has directed all three Vivialdi operas there so far. The conductor will be baroque veteran Laurence Cummings. This will be the one to go to! It starts Sunday, and a few seats are still available.

"We did L’Incoronazione de Dario, from Vivaldi’s early period, La Verità in cimento (see review) last year, and now L’Olimpiade, from much later. This is probably the finest - we’ve saved best for last”. Though not, hopefully really the last as there are at least 20 more Vivaldi operas around.

"In L’Olimpiade, Freeman says there is some “absolutely beautiful music and it’s genuinely touching too. It’s not just pretty tunes. The music cuts pretty deep, even if the plot’s a concoction”. L’ Olimpiade is based on a text by Metastasio which was also used in other operas. Audiences would have had printed texts available, though not sheet music which was expensive to copy, so the plots would not have been wholly unfamiliar. “So there wasn’t the same close relationship between text and music that you get in Mozart or even in Monteverdi". Contemporary audiences might have enjoyed these operas much in the way that popular modern shows string together good tunes around a storyline."

“Another thing about Vivaldi”, says Freeman, “is that we tend to think of baroque as Handel. They were almost direct contemporaries, Vivaldi (1678-1741), Handel (1685-1759). But Handel was a German composer writing in Italian for an English audience, so naturally he didn’t go in for very complicated plots but for rather sublime situations. Vivaldi is different. He’s a Venetian writing for Italians, even in the Venetian dialect, for Venetian audiences, who could understand . So he was able to do a lot more, with text, with comic wit, a lot more madness. So there are more arias, even if they’re shorter, and lots more recitative. So in comparison with Handel who can seem quite noble, Vivaldi might seem more scrappy, but that’s what makes Vivaldi lively”.

David Freeman is an extremely experienced director. Please read this interview in Opera Today, in which he talks about Vivaldi and how he makes drama come alive.

Photo shows David Freeman directing Rosa Bove in rehearsals fo Garsington Opera's Vivaldi L'Olimpiade. 

Offenbach at the Beach - Garsington Opera

Garsington Opera scores a first AND trumps Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach (next month's sensation at the Barbican).  Garsington Opera is doing Offenbach's La Périchole at home in Wormsley Park  this season, and also screening it live in Skegness at 745pm on 1st July, part of the Skegness arts festival. Quite a venture as this will be aimed at an audience completely new to opera. There will be pre-show music and street theatre performance before the screening, and a fireworks display afterwards. Families are encouraged to come along and do the country house opera experience with picnics on the beach.

Deckchairs provided for early arrivals! Fish and chips and ice cream cones instead of salmon and champagne! Swimsuits (or winter gear, if the weather's bad), but you could always turn up in tux and gown. Stilettos on the shingle!

 It's a good idea to choose this opera instead of Don Giovanni and Vivaldi's rare L'Olympiade, because La Périchole isn't something non-opera audiences will have preconceptions about. Besides, in this production by Jeremy Sams, it will be "a hugely fun and bubbly comedy which will be performed in English, is set in the 1940s in Cuba, follows the highs and lows of the heroine Périchole, an impoverished Peruvian street singer." 
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Job vacancy, exceptional qualifications needed

After seven years at the helm at Garsington Opera, Anthony Whitworth-Jones will be retiring at the end of October. Iain Mackinnon, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said:  “(he had) the foresight and energy to run the opera and take (it) forward.... Anthony’s conception of what the Garsington Opera festival could become came to fruition with the move to its new home at Wormsley".  Mackinnonn is retiring at the same time, when Bernard Taylor will take over. But no replacement as yet for Whitworth-Jones who will be a very hard act to follow indeed.  He was the top man at Glyndebourne, which he joined in 1981. Before that he ran the London Sinfonietta. Expertise like that doesn't come easy.

Three opera this year : Vivaldi L'Olympiade, Mozart Don Giovanni and Offenbach La Perichole. More details HERE on the Garsington Opera site. 

Vivaldi put to the test, Garsington Opera

" Vivaldi's La Verità in cimento (Truth put to the test) and Garsington Opera have a hit on their hands if the first two performances are anything to go by." writes Sue Loder who is a passionate baroque specialist. "The characters are a dysfunctional royal family whose ruling Sultan is a well-meaning tyrant who makes that one big decision but then lives to regret it as his extended family start to tear each other’s throats out ". Read her comparison in Opera Today between Handel operas and Vivaldi, which explains why Vivaldi can't be judged on Handel terms.  Some seats available for upcoming performances. Vivaldi won't reach mass market but those who appreciate a real baroque romp might like it as much as she did.  

Garsington Opera starts today at Wormsley

A new era for Garsington Opera as it moves to its new home at Wormsley Park. Garsington Opera has been visionary from the start, and the tradition continues. Part of the buzz this year is the new pavilion. It was designed to solve problems. How to build a space that enhances performance even though it's open air. How to give patrons amenities of a very high standard in a temporary structure? This isn't Glastonbury, they don't do mud. Wrecks Louboutins.

Here is what I've written about the Garsington Opera pavilion, and here is what Jonathan Glancey's written. He's an architect, I'm a patron, we're both excited. Why is it that visual arts and architecture writing is usually so much better written than music? Tickets are still available for Rossini Il Turco in Italia and for the rarity, Vivaldi La verita in cimento. The popular Mozart Magic Flute always appeals, though from what I've heard thuis time not quite as much as usual. All the more reason to stick to the others !  I heard the last Vivaldi opera, L'Incoronazione di Dario at Garsington Opera  last year's delightful, vibrant Rossini Armida. Also a wonderful Britten Midsummers Nights Dream last year that's quite different from the one at ENO. Click on links. Lots more, not all on this site.  Here's a link to the Garsington Opera site.

Garsington Opera 2011 - innovative pavilion, great programme

Garsington Opera starts its first season at Wormsley Park, in even more spectacular settings.  Pictured is the new pavilion, strikingly innovative, with superlative acoustics, which could set new standards for open air theatre.  Garsington Opera's specialist repertoire is geared towards baroque and chamber opera, so naturalistic, unamplified sound dynamics are essential.

The pavilion is conceived as an elegant lightweight structure, say the architects Snell Associates, "elevated above the ground giving the appearance of ‘floating’ above the landscape". It was inspired by traditional Japanese theatres, linking performance space, function and the aesthetics of nature and gardens. Kabuki theatres, for example, use hanamichi or flower paths, extended platforms and bridges which connect the stage to the audience. The Garsington Opera  pavilion contains covered verandahs and terraces, which provide bars and spaces to linger and enjoy the landscape. In an English summer festival, the weather can be unpredictable, so if it rains, visitors won't get wet. More leg room, too ! 

Evan Green, for Sound Space Design, (Bob Essert), who created the new Garsington Opera acoustic, says "Outdoor, temporary and fabric are words not normally associated with outstanding acoustic....to enhance the feeling of being enveloped by sound, surfaces which provide reflections from the side have been created by twisting the form of the auditorium side wall panels to create so-called ‘acoustic sails’. Furthermore, the roof has been specifically shaped to provide reflections to all parts of the audience as well as back to the stage and into the orchestra pit. These reflections back to the stage are particularly important to enable the singers to experience the room and develop a strong sound. The shaping of the acoustic sails and roof together help the orchestra sound to reach the audience and provide an excellent balance of singer and orchestral sounds". Suspended above the main fabric roof, a mesh covering will drastically reduce the sound of rain.

Mozart's The Magic Flute opens the 2011 Garsington Opera season. Because it's the first opera in what promises to be a grand new era, it should be stunning. Martin André conducts and Olivia Fuchs directs, They collaborated on the acclaimed 2008 Garsington Opera  The Rake's Progress. The cast includes Sophie Bevan, Robert Murray,William Berger and many others.

David Parry, Rossini expert, who has helped make Garsington Opera's reputation in the genre, conducts Il turco in Italia. Martin Duncan directs. He did the wonderful Rossini Armida in 2010. Read about it  HERE. This is a director who understands music. He and Parry are an excellent combination. Mark Stone sings, with Ana Durlovski, Quirijn de Lang, and Geoffrey Dalton.

In the true Garsington Opera tradition, a true rarity, Vivaldi's La verità in cimento, "The truth put to the test".Vivaldi wrote about 100 operas, not all of which are preserved complete. In 2008, Garsington Opera  presented his L’incoronazione di Dario. Laurence Cummings conducts this time too, and David Freeman directs. Paul Nilon, Jean Rigby, Diana Montague and others ensure the singing will be good. The Garsington Opera 2012 season will include, appropriately, Vivaldi's L'Olympiade.

Public booking for this year's Garsington Opera Festival opens on 18th April. Tickets are still available, so please visit the website.The season runs from 2nd June to 5th July.