Another good piece of happenstance…….Covid pinging or the increased number of cases overall is now beginning to make quite a big impact. There were three trains cancelled going down to London from my rail station ‘because of a shortage of drivers’; I was originally going down to London for a trustees meeting, two operas and a new play about Bach with Simon Russell Beale, as well as seeing ‘As You Like It’ at the Globe Theatre. First of all the trustees meeting reverted to Zoom, because the hosts didn’t want us to meet face to face on their property; then the Bach play was cancelled because someone in the cast had Covid – I then quickly booked for something else at the Wigmore Hall to replace it; then, on the train down to London (in addition to having 5 minutes notice to book for the opening of ticketing for the Birmingham Opera Company’s’ Das Rheingold’ ) I had an email from the Wigmore Hall saying that that concert was cancelled. Scrabbling around on my phone, I discovered that there were a few tickets left for the opening night of L’Amico Fritz by Mascagni at the Holland Park Opera, including ONE single ticket. I snapped it up!
And I was very happy with my purchase. Apart from Puccini’s operas – which I love, so I can’t be accused of being snobbish – a lot of the minor verismo composers don’t really turn me on. I have never actually been (I’m pretty sure) to a performance of Cav and Pag…….So my expectations weren’t high for this performance . But I have to say I really enjoyed it……
The story is slight – originally the setting is Alsace Lorraine, where a large proportion of France’s Jewish population lived in the 19th century. Fritz is a local businessman whose good friend is the local Rabbi. Fritz is disinclined to marry, and thinks love’s all a load of nonsense; the Rabbi is determined to prove him wrong. Suzel, a Jewish girl whose father is a friend of Fritz’s, brings some flowers to Fritz when he’s having a birthday dinner with his friends – including David, the Rabbi, and they fall in love, but spend the best part of an hour and a half deciding whether they are going to make their feelings clear to each other. It’s a preternaturally silly opera plot, but actually lovely to watch and listen to. This is because:
- The music is appealing, and characterful. A number of the arias and musical interludes have some tinge of Eastern European Jewish themes. There are a couple of big number – the Cherry Duet is Act 2 is lovely
- In this case, all the singers were credible in their role, good actors and sung well. Suzel was Katie Bird and she projected a vulnerability which was touching, and sung her big numbers sensitively but also with power where needed. Fritz was a genuine Italian tenor, Matteo Lippi, who did all that was required of him and was absolutely idiomatic. The Rabbi had probably the best voice of the evening, a beautiful bass baritone sound from Paul Carey Jones, who is clearly someone to watch (he is to be Wotan in the projected Longborough Ring, and he is also a very good actor, totally confident and at home on stage). All the supporting roles were well done
- The production didn’t get in the way. It was vaguely 1940’s-1950’ish, and was without gimmicks. It simply told the story clearly, making use of the peculiar Holland Park environment where the singers can be both in front of and behind the orchestra. There was no scenery, except for the backdrop of the side of Holland Park House itself, a few cafe tables and chairs, and a number of ladders to represent cherry trees and cherry – picking
The orchestra was Covid-and financially restricted, and the strings sounded a bit strangulated for this sumptuous music. Beatrice Venezi seemed to have everything under control as conductor
All in all I really enjoyed this. To my left I realised after a while I was sitting next to the Guardian classical music critic, Tim Ashley. It will be interesting to see what he writes about the performance in due course – he was busy scribbling notes in his programme……An extraordinary footnote (see photo below) is that all the chairs ion the Holland Park auditorium have been donated by other opera companies from current or past sets – I could have been sitting in a Rosenkavalier or Traviata chair!
John's musical journey 