Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande
City of London Sinfonia/Brad Cohen director
Olivia Fuchs Holland Park Theatre, Kensington, London 16 June 2010 On a perfect summer evening there was much to relish in this production, which had an unfortunate premiere in dreadful weather conditions - but even on a fine day you need to be prepared for it to get cold before the end. Leaving aside the sillinesses of the staging - wobbly platform, like one of those physio balance training apparatuses; perilously steep walkway for aged Arkel, etc, I would like to concentrate on a few positives. I had no problem with Yannis Thavoris' general abstraction of design, and a few scenes were staged to perfection, especially in Act 3. Having ridiculed Tosca's back-flip suicide at ENO, we admired Olivia Fuchs' way to make Mélisande's hair fall to just within Pelléas's reach. The following sequence between Golaud & Pelléas was riveting, but the spell was completely broken by the grotesque miscasting of an oversized Yniold (was Louis Watkins in two earler performances more convincing?). There must be many boy singers in London who could have filled the bill more suitably? Alan Opie's horrific descent into paranoia, wife beater and fratricidal maniac was duly gripping, but I was most moved of all by the wonderful Brian Bannantyne-Scott, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Prize 1981 (!), a great Arkel. Which leaves final comments about the scene shifters who intruded on the action as choreographed pillow-waving commentators during Debussy's orchestral interludes. [a corps de ballet of girls in nighties, who drive you to distraction and rage. Guardian] Those were intended to serve as visual pauses for contemplation between his chosen Maeterlinck scenes, set one note to a syllable in a "continuous, fluid cantilena, somewhere between chant and recitative". I doubt that an Opera Holland Park audience is incapable of listening to those interludes without distracting stage action? There are two good reasons why they should have been allowed to try; first, an opportunity to watch and admire the magnificent orchestra which sounded better being not hidden in an opera pit as usual. The score of Pelléas et Mélisande is one that never palls on repeated hearing [q.v. - - the magic of the opera exerted its incomparable power over me once again Telegraph] Overall, this was a thought-provoking evening at the opera, one we were glad not to have missed. Peter Grahame Woolf See the many reviews collected on The Opera Critic (free trial membership available):
production photos: Fritz Curzon
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