"The Operatic Event Of The Year" Sunday Times
"The highlight of the British Operatic Year" Sunday Telegraph
"Sorry, but I don't quite get it" Barnaby Wilde
If, like me, you're not quite into this sort of thing then my tip is to skip the first two bits and sneak in after the second interval. At that point you get hit by the full force of the huge chorus who are very loud and scary and you also get to see them hacking an effigy of the unfortunate Mr Grimes to bits. When you get the hang of it, go and see it again and maybe go in after the first interval and when you're REALLY into it, join in from the beginning. When I say "join in" I don't mean it literally. This wouldn't be particularly welcomed and would be difficult anyway because there aren't really any tunes.
Please note that the trouble with my "get into Peter Grimes backwards, scene by scene" approach is that you'd have to be pretty well off. This opera stuff is a bit pricey - but you do get a lot of people on stage for your money and when they really give it some welly the volume is all the way up to number 11.
Sunday, 10 February 2008
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From Anna Lloyd: I completely agree about Peter Grimes. Very worthy and dull. I can't see the point of an opera without a few good tunes so, given the price of opera tickets, I tend to specialise in 18th and 19th Century Italian opera, especially Verdi and Puccini. I have a great collection of pirated opera videos featuring my opera hero, Placido Domingo in most of the Verdi repertoire. It's fascinating to see Verdi developing from his early 'stand and deliver' styles of arias with everyone dead at the end to his later much more subtle plots and characterisations and always, beautiful expressive music. He writes great storm music too - in Rigoletto and Otello and everyone should go to see Rigoletto if only for the wondrous quartet Bella figlia dell'amore. This is a complex interplay of 4 singers, soprano, mezzo, tenor and baritone singing 4 different melodies which advance the plot, reveal character and they all finish together on the same note. Bliss. Listen to it a hundred times, you'll never see the joins and you'll never tire of it.
I'd like to give an unsolicited endorsement here to Opera North. We're very fortunate in Nottingham to be on their touring circuit. Save up and go to see them at the Theatre Royal. Just go. I guarantee that you'll be hooked. I've seen countless productions and they always find something fresh and innovative in the hoary old classics. Rigoletto is an excellent first choice for you opera virgins. I once took some work friends in their early 20s to see it and it completely blew their minds. We still go to the opera together at least twice a year. Don't waste your money on the obscure Eastern European opera companies that visit the Royal Concert Hall. The few productions I've seen have been lumpen and leaden. Nothing like the elan and verve that Opera North produce effortlessly. The acoustics in there are superb for orchestral music but for some reason opera always seems curiously flat and dull.
I'm sometimes asked why I love opera so much. I can't really explain. Why do we have our enthusiasms? For some it's a football team, or motorbikes or fly fishing. There's the beautiful music of course, the wonderful artists. These world class singers sound just like they do on their records. Watch an opera audience coming out from a performance though. They're buzzing with excitement. They've had an emotional workout. What else could let you experience, safely and vicariously, those elemental passions of Love, Passion, Jealousy, Adultery, Treachery, Death?
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