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Showcase Reviews 2006

The Times, June 5, 2006
Hilary Finch

How to get from Violetta’s Paris to the London of The Rake’s Progress in just half a minute? It’s a rather better service than Eurostar, and it’s provided by the National Opera Studio. Their annual showcase, in which a dozen or so young singers reveal what they’ve learnt in a year at the NOS’s finishing school, is always a small miracle of staging.

The deftness and wit with which Stephen Medcalf, directing, enabled one scene to elide into another in slow motion took the breath away. In her grief-stricken departure from Alfredo’s cruel father, Verdi’s Violetta descends the stairs of a trap, as though to her death. And out of its darkness rises Stravinsky’s Nick Shadow.

The skill of Medcalf’s stagings, most eloquently lit by Simon Corder, was never to upstage the young singers — or, indeed, the excellent Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Roy Laughlin. The letter scene from Handel’s Xerxes introduced two already highly visible young singers: the soprano Joanne Boag as Atalanta, and Anna Stéphany as Xerxes himself. Stéphany returned as an even more impressive Cenerentola, while Boag revealed her versatility as Adina from L’elisir d’amore and Musetta from La Bohème.

Adina’s Nemorino, with a strong, moving, and blissfully unclichéd furtiva lagrima, was the tenor Benjamin Segal, who had appeared in the guise of Rakewell in that superbly conceived graveyard scene with David Soar’s Nick Shadow. Soar is a bass-baritone of outstanding potential. I also enjoyed his Splendiano in a bold staging of a scene from Bizet’s Djamileh. Madeleine Shaw took the title role there; and her lively mezzo gave sensuous voice to Cosi’s Dorabella, opposite the Fiordiligi of Kate Valentine.
Mairéad Buicke’s feisty soprano impressed as both Mimì and Violetta, confronting the moral rectitude of Seung-Wook Seong’s Germont père. This hard-working Korean baritone returned for Marcello in La Bohème, together with the fine Polish bass-baritone Krzysztof Szumanski. No dearth of tenors, either, with Eamonn Mulhall and Paul O’Neill as lyrical counterparts to Segal. Let’s just hope that there’ll continue to be plenty of work for them all.

Opera August 2006
Hilary Finch

The National Opera Studio’s annual showcase, in which a dozen or so young singers on the cusp of their professional careers - plus all-important répétiteurs - reveal what they’ve learned in a year at one of Europe’s finest finishing schools, is always a small miracle of staging. And each year it seems to become more sophisticated. One fully-staged scene follows another, totally out of context, and with total engagement from all the performers concerned.

This time, in the welcoming acoustic of the Hackney Empire, the sheer deftness and wit with which one scene followed another took the breath away. Stephen Medcalf directed, using Libby Watson’s single, multi-purpose set of sections of high green fencing, a step or two, a climbing post, and a trapdoor. One scene elided into another in slow motion. Violetta, in her grief-stricken departure from Germont père, descended through the trap, as though to her death. And out of its darkness arose Stravinsky’s Nick Shadow, all ready to demand his dues from Tom Rakewell. Though perhaps climbing the ‘tree’ to retrieve a bowler hat, and then helping Cenerentola water her potato patch was just a teeny bit contrived?

The skill of Medcalf’s stagings, most eloquently lit by Simon Corder, was never to upstage the young singers - or, indeed, the excellent playing of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by the NOS’s head of music, Roy Laughlin. Rather it gave everyone the chance to test to the full the skills in movement and stagecraft for which the NOS training is renowned.

The letter scene from Handel’s Xerxes introduced two already highly visible young singers: the soprano Joanne Boag as Atalanta and mezzo Anna Stéphany as Xerxes himself. Handel’s florid writing was just the warm-up they needed; and Stéphany returned as an even more impressive, lustrous and characterful Cenerentola, while Boag revealed her versatility as Adina from L’elisir d’amore and Musetta in an extract from La Bohème.

Her Nemorino, with a strong, moving and blissfully unclichéd ‘Una furtive lagrima’, was the tenor Benjamin Segal, who had also appeared in the guise of Tom Rakewell in that superbly conceived graveyard scene with David Soar’s Nick Shadow. Soar is a bass-baritone of outstanding potential: I also enjoyed his Splendiano in a bold staging of a scene from Bizet’s Djamileh. Madeleine Shaw took the title role there; her burnished and lively mezzo gave sensuous presence to Così’s Dorabella, opposite the Fiordiligi of Kate Valentine (also Romilda and Anne Trulove).

Mairead Buicke’s feisty soprano impressed as both Mimì and Violetta, confronting the moral rectitude of Seung-Wook Seong’s Germont père with a resolve and dignity which made her inner vulnerability all the more moving - and it was all there in the voice. Seung-Wook, a hard working Korean baritone, returned for Marcello in La Bohème, together with the fine Polish bass-baritone Krzysztof Szumanski, and with David Soar as Colline contributing a memorable farewell to his overcoat.

Plenty of tenors around too, this year, with Eamonn Mulhall and Paul O’Neill fine lyrical counterparts to the excellent Segal. Let’s just hope there will continue to be work for them all.

Opera Now November/December 2006

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