Handel ‘Orlando’ at Lille, Paris & Dijon

David McVicar added to his repertoire of Handel operas this season with his production of Handel’s Orlando (1733), which has been co-produced by three French opera companies who are each showing it in quick succession: Opera de Lille last month, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris last week, and Opera de Dijon on 20, 23 & 25 November – so in theory you could still see it if you moved quickly… And certainly, if you were going to get obsessed with any Handel opera, Orlando would be the one, with its Ariosto-inspired story of the knight Orlando driven completely bonkers by his misplaced love for the ever-so-slightly narcissistic Queen Angelica (who prefers Medoro), while the shepherdess Dorinda looks on, making witty yet poignant asides.  In the course of his breakdown Orlando has a mad scene, which stands out as one of the more extraordinary moments in music drama from this period.  This is an opera that is slowly catching on, with an excellent production shown recently at the Royal Opera House in London, as well as ones by Zürich Opera (available on DVD) and Opera Theatre Company in Ireland.  After the symbolic/emblematic approach taken in London, and the World War I settings chosen by both Zurich and OTC (a curious coincidence), McVicar does the classic thing and sets it in Handel’s time, with Orlando looking like some disaffected redcoat.  It’s gets an interesting review from Opera Cake (a blogger well worth following), including pictures, and here’s a short preview video:

Opera Cake suggests that McVicar and his team are beginning to get a bit formulaic in their approach to material from this period – a fair complaint, but also curiously ironic given the usual attitude to baroque opera as being, well, formulaic.  That’s a myth that is slowly being undone, but the dramaturgical and box-office problem remains: how to connect an early opera with a modern audience? There’s only so much postmodern gloss one can take, after all….

David McVicar’s first production in Ireland

David McVicar

It was very exciting to be in the Grand Opera House in Belfast last Thursday night for Scottish Opera’s touring production of La traviata (Verdi).  Not only was it Scottish Opera’s first return to Northern Ireland since 1990, but on the back of it we also got to see a production by one of today’s leading UK opera directors, David McVicar, whose incisive stage work has excited a lot of interest (and people).  As far as I know, it was the first time that any of his productions have been staged in Ireland, so cause for celebration!

For a flavour of what the guy is like – and his approach to opera – read this interview with Jessica Duchen in the Independent.  His work with opera reaches aspects of the works that other productions rarely come anywhere near, and his detailed approach to staging, context and motivation show how opera can really benefit from a deeply theatrical imagination.

McVicar’s approach to Traviata (previewed in the London Times… and by the inimitable Opera Chic) was to blow the cobwebs from this piece and explore the human tensions and relationships that underpin the story.  So no fashion parade in the first act – instead we were thrust into the world of the Parisian demi-monde, the exclusive underworld salons of male entertainment.  Set in the 1890s, the design clearly drew on the work of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and (especially) Degas, with a subtle dose of surrealism supplied by having the words of Violetta’s tombstone inscribed across the floor of the stage.  Indeed, the sense of her own mortality – and the strange wisdom that comes with that – was always evident, as she clings onto her life in the first act simply out of a need to survive, before deciding to accept Alfredo’s love.  In so many productions, Alfredo is portrayed as an imbecile, so it was a pleasant change instead to realise that his tragedy is not so much his blindness as the fact that he realises – too late – that everyone, his father included, has been keeping knowledge away from him, and that he simply fails to understand the situation that he’s in.  It perhaps doesn’t make his character much better, but at least his motivation becomes clearer, and the end of Act 2 really became his nightmare all the more.  On the night I went the original Violetta, Carmen Giannattasio was sadly indisposed, with the role sung instead by Sarah Redgwick, who sang and acted the role beautifully.

As with any great production, it was great to be able to learn more about this work.