Subject: Falstaff, Hackney Empire 15Nov97 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" A choice of two Falstaffs in English on one evening -- I went to the one that won't be on again next week. Falstaff Glyn Paul Fenton Lloyd Newton/Hurdis Grandison Ford Andrew Mayor Dr Cajus Ronald Samm Bardolph Andy Morton Pistol Aris Nadirian Alice Ford Simon Sauphanor Nannetta Maureen Braithwaite Meg Page Alison Crookendale Dame Quickly Iwona Januszajtis Stage director Christopher Cowell Music director David Roblou Pegasus Opera Company Pegasus Opera Company describes itself as "London's new exciting multi-racial opera company" and aims both to provide a positively multi-racial and international environment and to keep together the cast of outstanding black singers who were involved in the Glyndebourne and Covent Garden Porgy and Bess productions. I'd call this production pretty good, maybe very good, but not particularly exciting. But it was at the Hackney Empire, a red-and-green jewelbox of a music hall which is doing a lot for off-West-End opera. And a lot of the audience didn't seem to have been to an opera before, but liked this one. Of course, it's very difficult not to like Falstaff. Like Cosi, it's musically damn near perfect, and deals with the important things like self-respect, gender stereotypes and assumptions and sex. This production was definitely on a human scale, with Falstaff and his mates as drunken and sentimental ex-soldiers and everybody a bit uptight except Alice and Quickly. The period was vaguely 1910-1920, either side of the Atlantic. The soldiers has British army uniforms and the fairies wore WW1 model gasmasks, but Alice, Meg and Nannetta were elegant in jazz age frocks. Quickly was rather up-market in a suffragette-style suit and fox fur. The set looked like a disused railway station, I think probably aiming for post-war (any war) tattiness. There was a dreary cloudy sky back projection. But it all worked wonderfully, covered with autumn leaves, for Falstaff's partial lapse into melancholy at the start of act III. The performances were all sparkier than the set. Glyn Paul was on the disgusting end of the scale as Falstaff, and a bit undersung but he had laryngitis. Bartolph and Pistol were very funny, as was Iwona Januszajtis as Quickly. And Andrew Mayor and Simon Sauphanor were delightful as Ford and Alice, him uptight, her cool and in control. Even though there's nothing in the action to show you their relationship before the end, they were two halves of an old married couple you could instantly recognise. Marjorie Braithwaite sang beautifully as Nannetta. The other outstandingly attractive singing came from Hurdis Grandison, who sang Fenton from the side of the stage covering for Lloyd Newton, who was also suffering from laryngitis. Grandison is exceptionally good-looking, and quite a bit younger than Newton, and much better casting as Fenton... I've realised I've mentioned everybody except Meg and Cajus -- they were pretty good as well. I'm not sure if this production was cut a bit, but Meg seemed to have even less than usual to do. In fact, she seemed to be there mainly for the duplicate letter scene. I'd like to see the very elegant Alison Crookendale in a larger role. Cajus was a straight old geezer, and maybe could have done with a bit of comic work. The rather minimal orchestral, one instrument to each part (maximum), played splendidly under David Roblou. It'll be interesting to see how this compares with the ENO/Opera North production. It was actually a low-end conventional production, with good singers who don't normally quite make it into premium casts, rather than a fringe or experimental production. I'm not sure that it will bring in a new audience, though I don't know how anyone can resist Verdi's music. And the best case is probably that it will send people to the ENO production, or to buy a recording. I suppose that's a start. And Pegasus has only just really started up. If they keep up this standard and develop a company, it will mean serious role for more singers and maybe more radical productions. Talking of the ENO, the performance of Falstaff that I didn't see ended with an appeal to the audience to campaign against any move into Covent Garden under the slogan "Three into two won't go". Emotionally, I'm one of the dead bodies over which the ENO leaves the Coliseum, but even when I try to be completely hard-nosed, I can't see any advantage in them going to Covent Garden. The ENO is an integral part of the social and artistic life of London, and what it needs is a suitable space in London, not less space in a very traditional (even if spanking new) theatre. Bilocating between the Coliseum and its old home in Sadler's Wells would make much more sense, using Sadler's Wells for smaller productions and freeing up the Coliseum for ballet at times. Also talking of government confusion, the Press Association carried a story a couple of weeks ago that the deputy prime minister John Prescott had ruled against the development of Spitalfields Market as a new London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE). Obviously, nobody pays any attention to John Prescott, because Tower Hamlets council is about to decide whether to give planning permission for LIFFE. Spitalfields Market is currently a flea-market and community space, with sports and other recreational facilities. But it's also home to Spitalfields Market Opera, a chamber opera house built in the past year with lottery money. I now understand why SMO has no backstage or orchestra pit -- nobody knows how long it's going to be there. I'm feeling particularly cynical today, so I wonder whether somebody believes that the Millenium Dome is the ony community/arts project that matters.