Page 11 - Leighton News April 2017
P. 11
Mid Wales Opera staged a spectacular
return with two new productions at the
Hafren Theatre. Mozart’s Magic Flute had
an abstract large honeycomb background
with changing colour lighting. The hero
Tamino is rescued from a pig shaped
monster wearing a gas mask by three ‘ladies’
wearing blue bird feathers and face makeup and
little red crosses. A WWI trenches reference? Who
knows or cares — it’s just pantomime with much
better music. The breakthrough in this production was
that the recitative had been dumped. This irritating sung
plot development between the big songs was replaced
with straightforward speech — it made things much easier to
understand and to fit in jokes for a modern audience. Tamino
falls in love with Pamina after only seeing a tiny picture of her.
With Papageno, a bird
catcher wearing
feather trousers who
gets all the best gags,
Tamino set off to
rescue her from the
HQ of the wicked cult
leader Sarastro who turns out to be the good guy after all. Of
the cast of 16 singers, the famous Queen of the Night aria
deserves special mention — a flawless performance of the
extreme yodelling bits right through to the high F — maybe the
best we’ve heard including recordings.
Handel’s Semele the next evening was based on a classical
myth. Written as an oratorio we were expecting something far
more sedate than the Mozart. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We were plunged into the modern world of
smartphones, tablets and computers. Far from being straight-
laced, the title role was performed with very little clothing at
all. Starting in a dreary council registry office, Semele refuses
an arranged marriage because she is in love with the god Jove
(Jupiter). The stage
changes to Jove’s quarters
in the heavens which looks
like a busy modern
architect’s office with
workers doing lots of stage
biz like plugging in shaped
neon sculptures — a ‘J’
followed by ‘&S’. As Semele sings ‘Endless Pleasure..’ with Jove,
back on earth the chorus blasts in while watching the lovers’
performance streamed to a laptop front of stage. Juno, Jove’s
jealous wife, is egged on by her tablet wielding PA/media
adviser to persuade Semele to become a fashion model. In the
photography studio Semele, totally up herself, sings “Myself I
Shall Adore”. She wants to be made immortal but Jove knows
his lightning blast is likely to kill her. Semele insists and she is
reduced to ashes. In the original myth Apollo uses her ashes to
generate the god Bacchus. Back in the earthly registry office, in
2017 Apollo looks suspiciously like an Amazon delivery driver.
The ashes have been converted to a set of new smartphones
and the delighted friends and relations take selfies of each
other singing the finale “Happy We Shall Be”.
Brilliant stage craft from start to finish.
These productions are on tour until May. DH
return with two new productions at the
Hafren Theatre. Mozart’s Magic Flute had
an abstract large honeycomb background
with changing colour lighting. The hero
Tamino is rescued from a pig shaped
monster wearing a gas mask by three ‘ladies’
wearing blue bird feathers and face makeup and
little red crosses. A WWI trenches reference? Who
knows or cares — it’s just pantomime with much
better music. The breakthrough in this production was
that the recitative had been dumped. This irritating sung
plot development between the big songs was replaced
with straightforward speech — it made things much easier to
understand and to fit in jokes for a modern audience. Tamino
falls in love with Pamina after only seeing a tiny picture of her.
With Papageno, a bird
catcher wearing
feather trousers who
gets all the best gags,
Tamino set off to
rescue her from the
HQ of the wicked cult
leader Sarastro who turns out to be the good guy after all. Of
the cast of 16 singers, the famous Queen of the Night aria
deserves special mention — a flawless performance of the
extreme yodelling bits right through to the high F — maybe the
best we’ve heard including recordings.
Handel’s Semele the next evening was based on a classical
myth. Written as an oratorio we were expecting something far
more sedate than the Mozart. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We were plunged into the modern world of
smartphones, tablets and computers. Far from being straight-
laced, the title role was performed with very little clothing at
all. Starting in a dreary council registry office, Semele refuses
an arranged marriage because she is in love with the god Jove
(Jupiter). The stage
changes to Jove’s quarters
in the heavens which looks
like a busy modern
architect’s office with
workers doing lots of stage
biz like plugging in shaped
neon sculptures — a ‘J’
followed by ‘&S’. As Semele sings ‘Endless Pleasure..’ with Jove,
back on earth the chorus blasts in while watching the lovers’
performance streamed to a laptop front of stage. Juno, Jove’s
jealous wife, is egged on by her tablet wielding PA/media
adviser to persuade Semele to become a fashion model. In the
photography studio Semele, totally up herself, sings “Myself I
Shall Adore”. She wants to be made immortal but Jove knows
his lightning blast is likely to kill her. Semele insists and she is
reduced to ashes. In the original myth Apollo uses her ashes to
generate the god Bacchus. Back in the earthly registry office, in
2017 Apollo looks suspiciously like an Amazon delivery driver.
The ashes have been converted to a set of new smartphones
and the delighted friends and relations take selfies of each
other singing the finale “Happy We Shall Be”.
Brilliant stage craft from start to finish.
These productions are on tour until May. DH
