View: Next message | Previous message Next in topic | Previous in topic Next by same author | Previous by same author Previous page (March 1999, week 1) | Back to main OPERA-L page Join or leave OPERA-L Reply | Post a new message Search Options: Ê Chronologically | Most recent first Proportional font | Non-proportional font ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 02:23:32 +0000 Reply-To: "H.E.Elsom" Sender: Discussion of opera and related issues From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: Cherevichki, Guildhall, 4Mar99 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Solokha Louise Poole The devil Stephan Loges Chub Paul Reeves Panas Howard Kirk Oksana Tarita Botsman Vakula Nicholas Ransley Mayor Peter Grant Schoolmaster Lorenzo Carola Spirit of the lake Christian Immler Cossack Lars Nilsson Gentleman in waiting Tim Ward Master of ceremonies Hans Voschezang His Highness Benjamin Bevan Conductor Clive Timms Director Stephan Medcalf Set and lighting Charles Edwards Costumes Mark Bouman and Charles Edwards Choreographer Maxine Braham Translation Arthur Jacobs Guildhall School of Music and Drama chorus and orchestra, dancers from the London Contemporary Dance School I have to take back the rude things I've said about Tchaikovsky. He produced the final version of Cherevichki in 1890, within a couple of years of Falstaff and Hansel and Gretel. Loosely describable as a magical-realist neo-baroque Russian folkloric operetta, it has hastily concealed suitors, a worldly wise older woman who runs rings round everyone, a younger woman who wants to marry someone her father doesn't like, a broomstick ride, a Christmas setting and an obsession with food. I think it is also about as good as either of those operas. Cherevickhi has a splendidly funny and observant libretto (based on Gogol's Christmas Eve),great musical characterization, clever dance set pieces, a couple of show stopping arias, a hilarious quartet sung by the four (yes, four) lovers hidden in sacks, and a lovers' row that is as realistic and musically clever as the one in Xerxes. The plot is slightly irrelevant, but here goes. In a village in the Ukraine, the witch Solokha wants a man, and is quite happy when the devil pops up. He's actually come to punish her son Vakula the smith, who has painted a funny picture of him and made all the imps laugh at him. Vakula is in love with the self-absorbed Oksana, so the devil summons up a snow storm to keep Chub, Oksana's father, at home on Christmas Eve. Chub goes out but comes home again caked with snow, and Vakula kicks him out of his own house. The devil and Solokha go for a night ride. When they get back, the mayor turns up, and she hides the devil in a sack. The schoolmaster then turns up, so she hides the mayor in a sack. Then Chub turns up. Then Vakula comes home, so Chub goes into the same sack as the schoolmaster. Vakula carries the sacks off believing that they contain coal and meets Oksana and her friends, who are singing carols. Oksana really loves Vakula but won't let on, and promises to marry him only if he will bring her the Tsaritsa's slippers. The devil comes to get Vakula as he thinks about jumping into the frozen lake. But the devil is pretty dim. Vakula overpowers him (by stabbing him in the tail) and gets him to take them to St Petersburg to get the slippers. They do this by tagging on to a party of Cossacks who are invited to celebrations at the palace. They return at dawn on Christmas day, Oksana agrees to marry Vakula and Chub marries Solokha. Guildhall productions are usually pretty good, but I agree with Rodney Milnes, who suggested in his review of this one that if it were done by a regular company it would be snapped up around the world. The sets were minimalist-Caligari flats, slightly weird houses, in browns, yellows and greys, with a white cracked ice pattern around the lake and St Petersburg represented by silhouettes against a red background. There were some ingenious low-tech effects: Solokha and the devil left the house on the their ride via the chimney, by means of the house folding down in front of them; and the sacks were also flats, with each lover jumping behind one and disappearing though a hidden exit. The real triumph, though, was in the staging and the performances. The dances are roughly similar to those in Onegin, rural cavorting by the carol singers and a polonaise at court, plus a cossack routine. There is also a ballet for the snowstorm, and one by the shivering lake spirits which perhaps recalls the frozen people in Purcell's King Arthur. Musically these are all consciously done as set-pieces, with a lot of humour that recalled, surprisingly, Rameau. (As a final joke, the cossacks have to go off and watch a comedy with music called The blacksmith wins his bride, which could be the final act of Cherevichki, or the whole opera.) Maxine Braham's choreography was always entertaining. She got highly proficient and very funny performances not only from the dancers, as hooligan winds in the snowstorm and lake spirits, but also from the chorus, who danced as court ladies and cossacks. The singers were almost without exception excellent. Louise Poole has a good dramatic mezzo voice and a tough, humourous, intelligent style. I could see Larissa Diadhkova as Solokha. Tarita Botsman was theatrically spot on as Oksana, somewhere between an operetta heroine and a Broadway musical bimbo. She made a pretty good job of the very demanding music. Similarly, Nicholas Ransley as Vakula was dim but sweet and sincere. He had a few dodgy moments vocally, but has a very attractive medium weight tenor voce, and would probably do nicely as Lensky. There were fine comic turns, and generally good singing, in all the smaller roles, with Lorenzo Carola very amusing as the guilt-ridden schoolmaster who wants a good spanking. The devil may not have had the best tunes in this case, as everybody had good ones, often based on Ukrainian folksongs. But Stephan Loges' performance as the devil was a tour de force of lechery and cowardice, with impeccable timing, a great comic sense -- you could believe he knew what it was like to be stabbed in the tail -- and clear diction, even though his native language isn't English. His singing was agile and colourful. He doesn't have a particularly big baritone voice, but he does wonderful things with it already. I think he's headed for those smaller but important roles, simply because his theatrical skills are too good to waste, though he might well also be a Lieder singer. There are performances on 6 and 9 March. The performance on 8 March is sponsored by RTZ, who have taken up all the tickets for that one. The other two are almost sold out as well. See it if you can. Regards, Helen H.E. Elsom he@helsom.demon.co.uk http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main OPERA-L page ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Powered by LISTSERV(R)] Back to the [CataList - online list search] LISTSERV home page at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU.