London
Times
Opera Shakespeare's Globe
August
27, 2003
Il
ritorno d'Ulisse
By
Robert Thicknesse
COMING home is not a simple business, as the last few books of The Odyssey illustrate. Translated into music by Monteverdi and Giacomo
Badoaro in 1640, it is a nuanced story, despite the sad excision of UlyssesÕ
dog - no doubt something to do with 17th-century stage technology but surely
ripe for restitution. Three hours of recitative is not everyoneÕs
jamboree bag, and this first-ever opera at the Globe - a brilliant choice of
venue - was an uncompromising experience that lost a slice of its less hardy
audience. Too bad for them. Tim CarrollÕs direction of his singers was a model
of understatement, full of glances and gestures and a palpable sense of living
through this freighted tale. Every phrase was considered, an expression of
emotion mediated through the brain. This production was the work of
Carroll, Michael Chance (music director) and the students of the Britten-Pears
Young Artists Programme, an Aldeburgh summer school for young singers, many
American, at the beginning of their careers. The Globe, with its thrust
stage and semaphored entrances, is a place where drama comes undiluted by the
fancier angles of 17th-century theatre, and Carroll concentrates on the
soliloquies and duets that make this play-in-music. A band of eight sat
in the musiciansÕ gallery and two sets of continuo either side of the stage;
miraculously, everything stayed together without the help of a conductor, for
which credit to Roger Hamilton and the admirable Paula Chateauneuf, a woman
youÕll find wherever thereÕs a theorbo. No conductor meant some tentative
ritornellos and comic ensembles, Monteverdian ear-candy whose joyous bounce
counteracts the rigours of the recit. But it also meant a singer-led show,
particularly from Diana MooreÕs Penelope, a mixture of intelligence with
musicianship and beauty of tone and perfect restraint that highlighted the
emotional depth of each moment. Daniel Hoadley was a respectable Ulysses,
Daniel Auchincloss a most expressive Eumaeus, Jay White a counter-tenor of
rare tone,
Scott Williamson a brilliant comic turn as Irus and Sophie Grimmer (Minerva) an
object lesson to those who think that period performance needs to be mannered
and undersung. Elizabeth Weisberg as Melantho delivered a beautifully
delicate Ama dunque, the precursor of all
HandelÕs triple-time arias, and the last moments, as Penelope and Ulysses are
finally reunited, brought the evening to a pinpoint of crystallised feeling. A
genuine spring-clean for the opera-goerÕs frazzled mind.
East Anglia Daily Times
Snape Proms, September 1, 2003
The Return of Ulysses, Snape Maltings Concert Hall
By Kathryn Dean
WHAT an enormous undertaking this was. Certainly, the performers in this Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme opera course are no beginners. Some already have several main-house credits under their belts. And a five-week rehearsal period is not bad going.
But to present one of MonteverdiÕs broadest canvases, in full and fully staged (in Roger ButlinÕs beautiful skateboard-park set) from the output of a training course is still a great success.
With parts for a 15-strong cast, everyone gets the chance to show off what they can do. Particularly strong were Diana Moore, whose inner calm and centered voice were ideally cast as the long-suffering Penelope waiting for Ulysses (Daniel Hoadley, who carried the part excellently).
Sophie Grimmer as Minerva retired with a sore throat in the second act, but you would never have known it from her agile performance in the first.
Jay White has one of the most lyrical, delicate counter tenor voices I have heard in a long while.
Music director Michael ChanceÕs decision to dispense with a conductor was rewarded with an intimacy between the singers and the double orchestra that felt more like a madrigal than an opera; a real feeling of ensemble that was only rarely compromised.
The major loss in the attempt to do all of this was in the reaction to MonteverdiÕs passionate music.
Too often, drama in the voice was sacrificed to a feeling of safety and the desire to get through the three-and-a-half hour show in one piece.
Now the singers have proved they can do this, it would be good to hear them living the parts a little more.
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