Yi-Chen Lin, Conductor; Julia Burbach, Director; Herbert Murauer, Set Designer; Sussie Juhlin-Wallén, Costume Designer; Malcolm Rippeth, Lighting Designer. Deepa Johnny, Angelina; Simon Bailey, Don Magnifico; David Ireland, Alidoro; Grace Durham, Tisbe; Aaron Godfrey-Mayes, Don Ramiro; Charles Rice, Dandini; Isabelle Peters, Clorinda
It’s over 50 years since I last saw Cenerentola, and then it was also at the Coliseum but with a very different ENO – still a full company, training young singers, building up stars, running a 9 or 10 month season with operas night after night 6 days a week. The company approach is long gone everywhere in the UK and it is remarkable that the ENO still has the resources, in its emaciated state, to put on such a good-looking show with chorus, dancers and stylish sets. But……
When i think about this work in comparison to The Barber of Seville, you can’t help feeling that the latter has the right farcical dimensions in the original play that suits Rossini’s music perfectly. The Barber fizzes along from scene to scene – it is an absolute masterpiece of its kind. Cenerentola is not a farce and the work, by comparison to the Barber, seems rather laboured at times. There are no inherent laughs to be had in the plot itself, other than the behaviour of the Ugly Sisters, and so it is very much up to the director – and the translator – to do what they can with the work to keep the audience engaged. The director threw everything she could at it to keep it lively – the excellent -looking set, basically on two levels of a house – see first photo below – was 21st century contemporary in feel (as were the costumes) and had revolving outer stages on the ground floor at either side which could conjure up a lounge, a library, a kitchen, a living room, while in the centre there was a lift to the upper level and several other doors; there were doors too on the upper level. So plenty of room for movement and surprises…….Just in case we were getting bored with the basic stage concept, the last scene featured a long staircase down which Cinderella walked. Alidoro was in charge of a group of mice/children running around, in his fairy god-mother role, though what exactly they were up to was unclear. There were dancers at various points – again, with unclear intent, The ballroom scene at Ramiro’s palace featured a chorus dressed in 18th century and other eras’ costumes, a fancy -dress ball I suppose, themed in red and black, and looking uncommonly fine, but again to what point? – the sisters and Cinderella were just dressed in very fetching/bizarre ball gowns. There was a chorus of be-suited reporters in the final scene, flashing their cameras, while throughout there seemed to be a Mrs Alidoro, again to no great effect. The translator produced a script in contemporary English which wasn’t altogether cringe-worthy and did get some laughs. Nevertheless, despite all the manic activity, the performance felt slow moving at times, and the production a little too desperate to engage. I think this is a problem with the work, not the production – the second half in particular drags. I’ve never seen other productions than the ENO one 50 years ago, which I have completely forgotten, so I have no real sense of whether other directors have found more laughs and wit in the work,
The main reason for rating this an enjoyable evening was Rossini’s music, the orchestral playing and the quality of the singing and acting, the believability of the characters on stage. This was a first rate cast. Deepa Johnny, a new name to me, was very good indeed as Angelina/Cinderella. She has a wonderfully creamy contralto voice, combined with some really excellent command of coloratura singing, very good diction and an effective stage presence – her plea for clemency towards the sisters and Don Magnifico was very moving. Simon Bailey, a stalwart of German opera houses for many years and now performing some of the heavy bass-baritone Wagner roles in places like Frankfurt and Cologne, was an excellent Don Magnifico, not a traditional portly comic figure but angst-ridden, a drunk, and very tetchy. His voice easily managed the cavernous Coliseum (some of the other voices were slightly small for the space and it was unfortunate that the director didn’t let them come further downstage in their movements). Charles Rice as Dandini was another experienced artist and gave a confident performance, with an unstrained and easily flowing voice, managing the coloratura well. Aaron Godfrey-Mayes is another name entirely new to me, at the beginning of an international career and he was excellent as Ramiro, with a command of coloratura which sounded to me the equal of the American tenor I had heard singing the Barber on a Met screening earlier in the year – he seemed to move very easily on stage. All the principals were well-directed and their interplay seemed natural and clear. The two sisters and Alidoro were very good too, the former not hamming it up too much. The orchestral playing, though hard driven, was enjoyable and had plenty of excellent woodwind playing, and, from where I was sitting, was never over-dominant. And Rossini’s music is just great fun to listen to.
But at the end of the day, it seemed odd that I didn’t laugh once during the performance, and nor really did the audience, apart from at a few bits of the translation. Odd – and perhaps, as I say, it is the work itself, though various splenetic media critics seemed to blame the director – I thought that was unfair
John's musical journey 