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In this week'sopera reviewsonThe Arts Desk, one of our most prized dramatic sopranos discusses her career, Edinburgh hosts agrand operaas part of its International Festival, and opera loses one of its great voices.
First up, Alexandra Coghlan met Susan Bullock, this year's chosen soloist for the Last Night of the Proms, who at 53 is finally and deservedly laying claim to the title of Britain's finest dramatic soprano. With an extraordinary and unconventional career behind her, she had plenty to discuss in The Arts Desk's Q&A, from starting out as a pianist to her ascension via several happy accidents to the chorus at Glyndebourne, eventually graduating to the English National Opera, and finally, many years later, Covent Garden, to play the dramatic roles ofgrand opera- particularly those from the German repertoire - that have come to define her, including Elektra, Brunnhilde and Isolde.
Meanwhile The Arts Desk sent David Nice to the Edinburgh Festival Theatre to hear Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera take on Richard Strauss's most ambitious opera,'Die Frau ohne Schatten'. After a few disappointing outings recently, Nice was pleased to find Gergiev and the Mariinsky back on form for this daunting epic fairy tale by Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, staged as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. The mythical plot is less complex than it may seem - a fertility metaphor involving an Empress without a shadow who visits a dyer on earth in order to steal one from his wife - but the five principal roles are as challenging as anything in Wagner. The cast, however, were equal to the task, producing enough sparks to make up for the odd crack in the production. Mlada Kholudei was a gripping presence on stage as the Empress, with a voice that could be tailor-made for Strauss's long lines. As the Emperor, however, Viktor Lutsiuk's voice is beginning to age, though he was still up to the job. Jonathan Kent's direction and Denni Sayer's obscure choreography were both weak when it came to movement but Paul Brown's contrasting sets - all purples, reds and clouds for the spirit world and an industrial garage for down here on earth - were imaginative and a great surprise. Strauss himself lost faith in this opera, with its contrived happy ending, thanks to the horrors of the First World War, but though there were certainly flaws to this production (an unsatisfying finale for one) there was genius here too.
Opera Up Close's'Don Giovanni'directed by Robin Norton-Hale at the Soho Theatre was an eye-opening experience for ASH Smyth. In his opera review, Smyth notes that the production is far from being a straight new staging of Mozart's opera, with Norton-Hale completely overhauling the music and Da Ponte's libretto, setting the grim story of rape and murder in the present day. Norton-Hale turns Don Giovanni himself into an immoral City trader called Johnny Sterling and dispenses with much of Mozart's music - rendering what remains in electronic form. And yet it worked, for the most part. Some of the singing and the acting could have been more robust - though there was still plenty of promising talent on show - but the production is clever and inventive and the spirit of Mozart's original - if little else - is certainly captured.
And finally, David Nice pays tribute to Swiss-born Sicilian tenorSalvatore Licitra, who died this week following a road accident. A rare breed, Licitra was what Nice calls a true Italian tenor, a superb stylist who could hit those high Cs and also act, often heartbreakingly so, with his voice.
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