London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conductor; Amanda Majeski Katya; Simon O’Neill Boris; Katarina Dalayman Kabanicha; Andrew Staples Tichon; Ladislav Elgr Kudrjas; Magdalena Kožená Varvara; Pavlo Hunka, Dikoj; Claire Barnett-Jones, Glasha & Feklusha; Lukáš Zeman, Kuligin; London Symphony Chorus
I’ve not seen many productions of this work. I got to know it through multiple visits to the production on at ENO in the 70s, conducted by Mackerras. It wasn’t then until 2018 or 19 that I saw it again in an Opera North production. Going to that performance I found the work a little difficult to ‘believe’ in – the action seemed too quick and the work too short to make the characters entirely credible. This by contrast, a concert performance, seemed much more satisfying. With no pauses, the action seemed unrelenting and fateful – it was entirely believable.
It helped of course to have first class actors in two of the main roles. Katarina Dalayman, who I have heard previously as Brunnhilde and Kundry in memorable performances with the Halle/Elder 10 -15 years ago, is now focusing on mezzo roles and wonderfully portrayed the Kabanicha as both stern, inflexible, mocking but also at times vulnerable. She was in wonderful voice……Amanda Majeski, a US singer, not a name I’ve come across before, was a remarkable Katya. I was near the stage in the stalls and could see, in terms of her movements, her facial expressions and her general demeanour, how fully she was invested in the role. But more than that, her voice was beautiful – floating top notes, a purity of sound, the colouring she gave her voice, all was deeply moving and involving. She has sung the Mozart Countess Almaviva at the Met, and is debuting in Salome soon – clearly someone to look out for.
The other person on stage who was impressive was Magdalena Kozena, from Janacek’s Brno, of course, who offered us some beautiful singing in the garden scene, and was always a vivacious and engaging presence on stage. Simon O’Neill as Boris was in strong voice but had his head in the score more than the three ladies and was a less sympathetic presence – but then I suppose it was a concert performance and Boris must be a rather stolid role to sing….All the smaller roles were well sung, many of them by Czech singers. I thought Andrew Staples in particular was very good in portraying the ineffectiveness of Tichon in dealing with his wife and his mother
The LSO and Rattle sounded glorious. To my ears, though I could be wrong, there were some slight hesitancies and some lack of coordination at a few points – I am sure there were only a few rehearsals for a piece which must be unknown to a large part of the orchestra – but this counted for very little when put against the urgency and passion these forces gave to the music. The concert performance made clearer the tautness of the score – eg the way the 4 repeated notes on the timpani become the sleigh bell melody, which is both joyful and menacing, and perhaps also is the basis for the folk song Varvara and her lover sing in the garden.
Someone incidentally should take credit for the movements on stage – it’s a large cast and they can’t all be on stage all the time – the business of people sitting on the side-lines, exits and entrances were very well handled, particularly given all the music stands and mikes strewn across the front of the stage. It is interesting how much we rely on surtitles now. In the anticipation of them I had scarcely bothered to read the programme, and when, for the first 5 mins, the surtitles weren’t functioning properly, I was quite thrown off balance, wondering who these people were….
Goodness, only 11 days into January, and I already have a candidate for one of my 2023 top ten! It’s being shown on Marquee TV on 2 February. As I am a subscriber, I must look out for it…
John's musical journey 