Showcase Review 2008

Opera Magazine - August 2008

The National Opera Studio introduced a new format for the show at which the 12 singers who have completed its one-year master course are put through their paces. Instead of the traditional short scenes, they performed the second acts from Don Giovanni, The Rake's Progress and The Cunning Little Vixen. The Mozart was sung in Italian; the Stravinsky and Janacek provided the singers with much-needed practice in communicating with an audience in their own language.

Daniel Slater directed, using an all-purpose set designed by Leslie Travers; he introduced Giovanni in topper and tails and Leporello in peaked cap, stopping off at a bar before embarking on a new conquest. Their opening exchanges fixed the mood of menace that pervaded this performance of the Vienna version of the score, Dawid Kimberg's mobile baritone characterising his taunting, elusive Giovanni, and Ronald Nairne lending his darker bass tones to a lugubrious, resentful Leporello. Benefiting from the rarely-heard scene in which Zerlina ties up and torments Leporello, Katja Webb added substance to the character defined in her caressing 'Vedrai, carino'. Elvira, too, was more firmly haracterised when after Elizabeth Donovan's deeply-felt 'Ah, taci, ingiusto core' she addressed a raging 'Mi tradi' at the gagged Leporello while threatening him with a knife - the weapon with which she finally dispatched Giovanni. There was also an attempt to beef up Ottavio in the urgency with which Robert Anthony Gardiner courted Anna. She remained the enigma, beautifully sung by Katherine Broderick, her ample soprano scaled to the music's demands, and the coloratura of 'Non mi dir' finely controlled.

In the central act of Stravinsky's opera, titled into the contemporary world with Baba's appearance on TV and a magic machine that produced 'dough' not in the form of bread but as banknotes, Nick Shadow's creeping influence over Tom Rakewell was bitingly expressed in the sardonic humour of George von Bergen's performance, while Christopher Turner skilfully depicted the Rake's diminishing grip on reality, though his words could have been more clearly articulated. Anne Trulove, the country bumpkin clutching her A-Z, was sung with expressive clarity by Laura Mitchell, with Patricia Orr as the petulant, sophisticated Baba.

Simon Mills's lighting transformed the stage into the world of Vixen Sharp-Ears, and Janacek's resourceful heroine was appealingly sung by Eliana Pretorian, with Orr as her suitor Fox. Von Bergen captured the Forester's frustration, with Gardiner as the Schoolmaster, Nairne as the Priest, and Broderick as the Owl leading the animals' chorus in the wedding celebrations. David Parry was the supportive conductor, but he allowed the Royal Ballet Sinfonia to cover the Vixen's words in her scene with the Fox.

Margaret Davies