------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 23:12:36 +0000 From: "H.E.Elsom" Subject: La Gran Scena in London In case anybody in London hasn't worked out what it is, La Gran Scena (at the Bloomsbury Theatre, Malet Street, Thursday and Friday this week, Tuesday to Sunday next week) is a very affectionate take on opera queenery. It's the life story of traumatic soprano Vera Galupe Borszkh (Ira Siff), with appearances by her industrial strength mezzo Texan pal Philene Wannelle (Philip Koch), lyric soprano understudy Kavatina Turner (Kyle Church Cheseborough, gorgeous voice and sixties kit, a ringer for the young Jessye Norman) -- all played and sung by chaps. Plus a theatrical baritone doubling as the last castrato (Keith Jurosko) and a spherical tenor (Patrick Jones). I enjoyed the performance on Wednesday. I was expecting something much camper and ruder (you could take your mother to this even if you don't let her see parterre box). But the diva jokes were gentle, verging on limp, if you'll pardon the expression -- maybe the cast were still jet lagged -- and the real point of the show was the performance of scenes from Puccini et al. Although they played up the absurd side of conventional performance, the singers sang these beatifully. Mme Galupe Borszkh was recovering from a throat infection, but sounded better than some other Toscas I've heard, and the pre-recorded opening off Vissi d'arte sounded superb. This really isn't my sort of opera, but La Gran Scena brought out exactly what people love about it, without trying to pretend that it's good for you or important. It men singing it that makes the difference as such -- it's the fact that it's been completely reinvented from a devotee's point of view. Mme Galupe Borszkh's account of how she walked out of a production of Rigoletto set in a housing project on Mars was also worth hearing. Highly recommended. The only bad thing on Wednesday was a problem with the miking (performers bombing in and out of amplification) , which hopefully they'll sort out.