Report: Glasthule Opera

The Glasthule Opera shows in Dún Laoghaire’s Pavilion Theatre last week were as good as you could expect them to be, given the fact that the venue is far from ideal, the lack of funding, and consequent limits on rehearsal time.  Marketed as a professional season and reviewed as such (you can see Michael Dervan’s reviews from the Irish Times here and here), this was really more a pair of DIT Conservatory of Music graduate shows, strangely complementing OTC’s current employment of RIAM undergraduates in Acis and Galatea.  Like the late Bernadette Greevy’s Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival, Glasthule is the brainchild of DIT’s Anne Marie O’Sullivan, and as it was with Greevy and her festival, Glasthule’s existence owes a great deal to O’Sullivan’s own personal investment, as well as the great loyalty of her current and past pupils.  Sensibly, though, O’Sullivan and Glasthule Opera have avoided the pitfalls of attempting full productions, instead keeping it local and small-scale.  While this approach caused problems for La bohème (Puccini) – the production relying a bit too much on the work’s popularity -  it suited the one-act double bill of The Wandering Scholar (Holst) and Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams) very well.

Puccini likes to make you take risks as a performer, as he knew it makes for a more exciting performance if everyone is just a little bit on edge… the sparring between Rodolfo and Marcello (on all levels – narrative, theatrical, musical…) is a good example, not to mention the seemingly random cascades of entries from different principals, choruses etc in the street scenes of Act II.  You need verve, imagination and unflappability to manage all that, qualities you couldn’t expect from Glasthule’s creative team, so the overall effect was more rehearsal than performance, with everything unevenly cut down to fit into a small space.  There is no pit in the Pavilion for starters, so the (small) orchestra had to be squeezed into stage left.  Corners were inevitably cut elsewhere as well.  If I’m being tough it’s only because the piece itself demands it.  For all its drawbacks, though, it was a more enjoyable Bohème than some I’ve seen, and there were some really good moments, which were well-applauded.

For the Holst and Vaughan Williams, on the other hand, this mismatch of scale was less of an issue, and they also benefited from stronger casts.  Seeing Doreen Curran’s Mauyra in particular was a rare privilege, and it’s made me want to write more about Riders, which I’ll do in a separate post.  It was preceded in good classical fashion by a satyr-play of sorts, with Holst’s wonderfully farcical Wandering Scholar, with John Molloy as the predatory priest (how topical is that?) after his slice of Sarah Power’s Alison.  The piece made me want to re-read Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale, and I couldn’t help wondering how it went down with the headmistress at St Paul’s Girls’ School, where Holst held down his day job as a music teacher!

Opera Theatre Company: Acis & Galatea (Handel)

Acis, Galatea & Polyphemus - image courtesy of Opera Theatre Company

Acis and Galatea, a masque by George Frideric Handel [1718], libretto by John Gay and others

Touring production by Opera Theatre Company, given at Sean Hollywood Arts Centre, Newry, Co. Down, on 20 June 2009

Cast: Nicola Mulligan (Galatea), Dean Power (Acis), Gavan Ring (Polyphemus), Aoife O’Connell & Christina Whyte (Nymphs) & Ciaran Kelly (Swain)

Accompanied and lead by Andrew Synnott (piano).  Production designed by David Craig and directed by Annilese Miskimmon.

Opera Theatre Company continued its year-long tribute to Handel with Acis & Galatea, in a touring production that wended its way through Northern Ireland in June (after its sold-out opening in Dublin in April) and which will also form part of OTC’s programme for Blackstairs Opera in Kilkenny Castle and Russborough House later in the summer.  This pastoral masque began life as a summer entertainment for Handel’s patron, before its popularity spawned newer and bigger adaptations (by Handel himself in 1732, and later Mozart), but this production clearly aimed more to recapture the homespun simplicity of the first, country-house version that Handel had originally put on at his patron’s home back in the summer of 1718.

There was much to enjoy here, from the straightforward set design (four giant polystyrene mountains for the performers to scamper around) to the infectious enjoyment of the singers themselves.  This was a very young cast, and indeed with all but one (Christina Whyte) still studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, this could have been classed as a student production.  Clearly this follows on from director Annalise Miskimmon’s work with RIAM students earlier this year when she directed their production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, and it’s funny to reflect on how relationships between the professional companies and conservatories here seem to ebb and flow – just a few years ago all the talk was of Opera Ireland’s collaboration with the DIT Conservatory, and now it seems the pendulum has swung the opposite way completely.  Rather than pushing young voices onto mainstream repertoire, however (as the DIT Opera Studio tended to do), here the balance between voices and material was appropriate.  There was very occasionally some roughness of both tone and ensemble, but nothing significant.  The star of the evening was most definitely the Galatea of soprano Nicola Mulligan, who combined an easy stage presence with a warmth and clarity of tone, drawing the audience to her in a way you don’t often get with such a young singer.  Dean Power as Acis was an enthusiastic and energetic performer, while Gavan Ring’s Polyphemus showed real promise, and I’d say we’ll be hearing more from all three.

What was also gratifying was simply the opportunity to see an imaginatively staged pastoral.  The influence of pastoral dramas (especially Tasso’s Aminta, Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido and D’Urfé’s Astrée) were central to the early development of opera – and romantic stories generally – but they’ve tended to be ignored or misunderstood for the past century or so.  I’m not predicting a comeback any time soon, but who knows?

Opera Ireland: Season programmes for 2009-10

Finally, and without any fanfare (or at least none that reached me), Opera Ireland has listed its upcoming productions on the website, which may be the closest we get to an announcement till the ads come out.  Clearly they are having to be as frugal as the rest of the opera world, and if that means shelving the catered press launches, then who can blame them?

Anyway the lineup is:

Macbeth (Verdi) 14 / 16 / 18 / 20 / 22 November 2009

Das Rheingold (Wagner) 19 / 21 November 2009 (Concert Performances)

Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) 27 February & 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 March 2010

I Capuletti e I Montecchi (Bellini) 4 / 6 March 2010 (Concert Performances)

All performances in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

As they did in 2003 – the last time we had arts funding cuts in Ireland – OI are resorting to concert performances, though thankfully not across the board.  We last heard Macbeth in Dublin in 1997 (memorable for the Irish debut of bass Stanislav Shvets) so hardly a hasty return, while the other works are new to the company, which is good news.  The Gounod Roméo et Juliette (not seen in Dublin since 1945!) in particular is a welcome choice, given OI’s apparent aversion to French opera, aside from the inevitable Carmen and Faust.  Casts and artistic teams are still to be announced.

Glasthule Opera – June 23-27

It’s good to be able to confirm that the Glasthule Opera season I mentioned in the last post is going ahead as planned on June 23-27, and I gather rehearsals have begun.  Taking place in the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, the season alternates between three performances of La Bohème [Puccini] on June 23, 25 & 27 and a double-bill of Riders to the Sea [Vaughan Williams] and The Wandering Scholar [Holst] on June 24 & 26.  Matching Riders to the Sea (c. 40 minutes) with something to fill out an average-length evening programme seems to be part of the challenge of producing this piece nowadays.  Last year’s memorable ENO production picked up on the sea imagery and used Jan Sibelius’ solo cantata Luonnatar as an atmospheric prelude of sorts, while here the connection is more literary and localised, with both Riders and The Wandering Scholar being adaptations of texts by Irish writers (J.M Synge and Helen Waddell respectively).  Indeed, it’s strange there aren’t more Synge-related performances happening this year, since it’s the centenary of his death – maybe producers think we’re Synged out after the DruidSynge cycle of 2004-06, and the Abbey’s new version of Playboy, or else it’s just the recession?  Whatever – Riders to the Sea as an opera combines the talents of two greatly underrated artists in both Synge and Vaughan Williams, so it’s always good to have the piece revived profesionally, rather than its usual fate as fodder for student productions.  I’m also looking forward to the Holst, simply because I don’t know it (!), and it will be nice to see an intimate staging of Bohème, performed by some of the best of Irelend’s emerging singers.

Opera in the summertime….

Kilkenny Castle

It seems perverse to be thinking of summer just as we’re tentatively daring to enjoy this chilly spring, but plans for the Irish summer festivals are already appearing… and showing inevitable signs of recession fever.  While the enjoyable late winter offerings from OTC and OI had already been budgeted for, and so were safe from the moneymen, now we begin to see signs of the cutbacks already well-reported from opera companies overseas (especially in Italy and the US).  And the result is that we’re seeing a mix of some fairly shrewd moves, along with a bit of retrenchment – so nothing to worry about just yet, perhaps (apart from Cork’s Opera 2005, which had all its funding cut this year).  Opera Ireland is keeping tight-lipped and not announcing anything, so its autumn season remains a mystery, while Wexford Festival Opera has recently announced a reduction in its upcoming season.

In the more delicately-poised world of country-house opera, survival by adaptation seems to be the order of the day.  The Arts Council always likes it when production companies make ’strategic partnerships’, and in the southeast Blackstairs Opera, after its coup last year in linking with Opera Fringe, is this year teaming up with Opera Theatre Company and the Office of Public Works (along with support from Fáilte Ireland and Kilkenny 400) to present a double-bill of OTC’s touring productions of Handel’s Acis & Galatea and Mozart’s early hit Bastien und Bastienne, in Kilkenny Castle on July 3 & 4.  Blackstairs Opera are even promising a second summer offering at Russborough House in early September, but details are still to be announced, apart from the dates (Sept 4-6).

In previous years, Blackstairs would share the touring productions of the UK-based Opera à la Carte with Loughcrew House in Co. Meath, but with the move to Irish-based production companies they are going their separate ways.  This year sees Loughcrew teaming up with Opera Ireland to create a new company, Loughcrew Opera.  Managed by the ex-Celtic Tenor Niall Morris, they are offering more standard fare in the shape of Puccini’s La Bohème on May 30 & 31, with a cast that includes Irish singers Michelle Sheridan, Claudia Boyle and Simon Morgan.  As part of a new departure for opera funding, they are saying that “a percentage of box office income from this production will be donated to the Opera Ireland Foundation, securing the future of Opera in Ireland through access, education and development initiatives.”

Back in Co. Dublin, Glasthule Opera is yet to announce its upcoming season, but from what I can gather it will be taking place at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire during the last week of June, with Puccini’s La Bohème alternating with an intriguing double bill of Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea and Gustav Holst’s rarely-produced work The Wandering Scholar.  Nothing of this has been confirmed as yet, though, so best to wait before bombarding the Pavilion with enquiries.