Here's my review of The Turn of the Screw at Glyndebourne the other day. I think I once described the piece as dreary, weak and boring. Please scrub that. It's completely brilliant. Not as mad about this production as about David McVicar's for ENO, but it's striking, original and very clever. Chances are you've already seen the webcast via the Guardian site the other day. I had to treat that like the football results, when you're advised to 'look away now' if you don't want to know the outcome before you've watched the match ...
Toby Spence was singing Peter Quint. I once wrote a piece about him headed 'Toby Takes the Cake' - metaphorically speaking, of course. So on Tuesday I bumped into him on the train and this time he was taking a real cake. It was for Miles, who was turning 13 that day. A pleasing sequel.
Less pleasing was the return journey in which the train was diverted via Falmer and Brighton because of - yes, a football match. The London train from Lewes had to go off route to pick up the overcrowded footy fans, so we were late late late and arrived at to Clapham Junction aeons after my connection had departed. It was the Turn of the Screwed.
2 comments:
Sorry about your trip, but even if you have seen it live already, may I commend the Guardian stream. Beautifully done, you feel you are almost onstage with them, capturing the finest nuances of each performance in claustrophobic close up. I am partial to a hummable tune, so am not a Britten fan, but nonetheless my wife and I were so gripped by the production, that supper was completely forgotten. Not as immersive as being there, but pretty damn close.
PS I saw Rinaldo on Monday. The singing and even unusually the playing of the OAE were slightly ragged (by their own very high standards), but I just loved the production, even though the same directors Poppea from a few years back left me completely cold. So if you haven't already seen it, ignore the negative comments in some reviews. Recasting the whole plot as a schoolboy's fevered fantasy while daydreaming in a history lesson worked brilliantly for me, (though not everyone seemed to get it). It created a coherent world the opera could live and breathe in. It might not be the most respectful treatment but it's not a particularly profound piece, and it was very entertaining and inventive, which I think is probably true to Handel's original intentions.
Glad you enjoyed it, James! I won't be going to Rinaldo. I don't yet have the stomach to face an entire Handel opera. I sat through the DVD of Giulio Cesare from Glyndebourne, which everyone said was the hottest thing since sliced toast and which featured the best singing, the most amazing designs, the greatest in expertise, affection and production values, and Danni doing her Cleopatra thing...but the music still bored me to carpet-chewing distraction. Life is too short! Like I always say...chacun a son goo.
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